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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOUNCIL STUDY - 2009-11-09 CITY OF LIVONIA— CITY COUNCIL MINUTES OF STUDY MEETING HELD NOVEMBER 9, 2009 Meeting was called to order at 8:00 p.m. Present: Terry Godfroid-Marecki, John Pastor, Joe Laura, Brian Meakin, Tom Robinson, James McCann and Laura Toy. Absent: None. Elected and appointed officials present: Mayor Jack Kirksey; Karen Kapchonick, Superintendent of Parks & Recreation; Don Knapp, City Attorney; Todd Zilincik, City Engineer; Mark Taormina, City Planner; and Maureen Cosgrove, Assistant City Clerk. Laura announced that November 11, 2009 is Veterans Day. He said that this is a solemn event. He asked that everyone to think about it and reflect on it, and to thank God for the generations of people before us and the new generation - the greatest generation that is protecting our freedom. He spoke about the very unfortunate episode that happened within the last few days in Fort Hood, Texas, where an individual, or an act of terror, that took out thirteen (13) of our soldiers and a number of wounded. He asked for thoughts and prayers to go out to their families and he asked for a moment of silence. Council President Toy announced a Public Hearing to be held in the Auditorium of Livonia City Hall, 33000 Civic Center Drive, Livonia, MI for the following item: Monday, November 23, 2009 at 7:00 p.m. Petition 2009-08-02-12 submitted by Walgreen Company requesting waiver use approval to utilize an SDM license (sale of packaged beer and wine) in connection with a retail facility located on the northeast corner of Joy and Newburgh Roads (8850 Newburgh Road), in the Southwest 1/4 of Section 32. Council President Toy announced that the City has champions in their Football Division. She said the Livonia Falcons, for the first time in history, were able to secure the win on the City level and the County level and in the Super Bowl this weekend at Eastern. Both their Freshman, their Varsity and Junior Varsity Divisions placed first (1St). They will be invited here in the next few weeks and will be awarded certificates. She said these are very special young men and women, and they are real proud of them. President Toy announced new data on item #12. AUDIENCE COMMUNICATION: Mayor Jack Kirksey requested that item #7, a request from the Public Service Division, regarding the construction of a Salt Storage Building for the Department of Public Works from budgeted funds be deleted from tonight's agenda. 2 Council Vice President Godfroid-Marecki announced the Livonia Symphony is presenting a program called Celebrate America on Friday, November 20, 2009 at Laurel Manor. She said this is a very nice program. It is all American music and they also have a silent auction. All the auction items are products that were made in the U.S.A. Doors open at 6:00 p.m., dinner is at 7:00 p.m. and the concert starts at 8:00 p.m. Tickets are $70.00 per person. For further information call the music hotline at 734-421-1111. This is a great program. Council usually makes it a priority in their schedules to attend. NEW BUSINESS: 1. REQUEST TO APPROVE QUARTERLY BUDGET ADJUSTMENTS: Department of Finance, re: for the second and third quarters of the 2009 Fiscal Year Budget. Mike Slater, Finance Director, was present to request two (2) very small quarterly budget adjustments for the second and third quarter of the 2009 fiscal year. The first adjustment is to correct an emission from the adopted budget for the Parks employees that do work on the roads during the winter, and secondly an item to reflect a situation where a vendor had to forfeit a security deposit due to a late delivery of a fire engine. He asks Council to approve these adjustments. Pastor offered the approving resolution on the Consent Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT 2. REQUEST TO ACCEPT QUOTATION FOR WORKER'S COMPENSATION INSURANCE COVERAGE: Department of Finance, re: with Citizens Management, Inc. for the period December 1, 2009 to November 30, 2012. Mike Slater, Finance Director said that their current workers comp coverage expires November 30, 2009. He said they went out for quotations, with the help of Lawrence Drummy of Perry and Drummy. He recommends they authorize a contract with Citizens Management, Inc., 645 West Grand River, Howell, MI 48843, from December 1, 2009 through November 30, 2012. He provided Council with the bid tabulations submitted by different carriers. The current provider, Accident Fund Company, came in quite high. Because of their price, and because of the terms Citizen offered, they recommend that they be awarded the workers comp renewal coverage for the next three (3) years. McCann offered the approving resolution on the Consent Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT 3. REQUEST TO APPROVE SPECIALIZED SERVICES TRANSPORTATION OPERATING ASSISTANCE PROGRAM THIRD PARTY CONTRACT FOR THE PERIOD OCTOBER 1, 2009 THROUGH SEPTEMBER 30, 2010 BETWEEN THE CITY OF LIVONIA AND SMART: Department of Community Resources, re: 3 with grant funds to be used for the Livonia Community Transit Program to provide lift-equipped transportation to the senior and disabled residents of the City. Felicia Cross, Department of Community Resources, was present to request approval for the Specialized Services Transportation Contracts for the fiscal year 2010 which runs October 1, 2009 through September 30, 2010. The amount of the contract is $18,486.00. Godfroid-Marecki asked if this was federal money distributed by SMART. Cross answered that this is state money administered by SMART. Council President Toy asked if the ridership was pretty good on this. Felicia answered it was staying pretty strong at about 927-950 per week. She said it varied. They have not quite reached 1,000 lately. Godfroid-Marecki offered the approving resolution on the Consent Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT 4. REQUEST TO ACCEPT PROPOSAL: Department of Management Information Systems, re: to provide SmartNet maintenance for the City's network infrastructure, including wireless bridging to four housing facilities and wireless access at the Livonia Community Recreation Center from budgeted funds. (CR 425-06) Dan Putman, IT Director, was present to request approval for a one (1) year maintenance agreement for their Cisco networking equipment. This equipment provides the backbone of the overall computer equipment and their systems, with the exception of the Public Safety area. They have their own network at this point. They are asking for a one (1) year agreement on the basis that their three (3) year agreement will also terminate next year. At that time they plan on doing a consolidated agreement on the maintenance in order to lower the cost. This equipment was originally purchased in 2006 with a three (3) year maintenance agreement as part of the price. This was a substantial purchase. This package was sent out to nine (9) vendors for this service. Four (4) of the vendors responded. They were looking for service that is five (5) days per week, eight (8) hours per day and a four (4) hour response to work on the equipment in order to save costs. Traditionally, they have done 24 hour, but decided it really wasn't needed during the off hours. Out of the four (4) vendors their responses came back from $21,400.00 to $23,665.00. Two (2) of the vendors offered a high-bred approach, which the City encouraged in their request for proposals. They said they would give them an 8x5 next business day maintenance agreement, and they would support the four (4) hour response time with their own inventory of parts and supplies. References were checked with the vendors, and the one (1) 4 vendor that came in as the low bidder works across the street at Livonia Public Schools and has a very good record with them. If there is a problem with the equipment, they will also supply the City with a free network engineer to do the installation of the equipment. This is not part of the agreement normally, but is part of their high-bred solution. That lowered the cost down to $18,100.00. The other high-bred approach was similar, and came in at a price of $18,383.00. The City recommends going with the low bid which is a company called NETech Corporation, 26800 Meadowbrook Road, Suite 119, Novi, MI 48377, in the amount of$18,100.00. The City has funds available for this. Meakin offered the approving resolution on the low bid on the Consent Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING FOR LOW BID CONSENT OF NETECH 5. REQUEST FOR AUTHORIZATION TO PURCHASE EIGHT (8) REPLACEMENT PATROL VEHICLES UTILIZING THE STATE OF MICHIGAN, OAKLAND AND MACOMB COUNTIES BID CONSORTIUMS PRICING: Division of Police, re. the purchase of two (2) 2010 Chevrolet Tahoe's, five (5) 2010 Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptors and one (1) 2010 Dodge Charger from budgeted funds. Benjamin McDermott, Captain, Livonia Police Department, was present to request authorization to purchase eight (8) marked police vehicles. The vehicles will replace two (2) existing Chevrolet Tahoes, five (5) Crown Victorias, and one (1) Charger. The first proposed purchase would be of a Tahoe and would utilize current 2009 budgeted funds which are in the Capital Projects Fund currently. The remaining seven (7) vehicles would be purchased after December 1, 2009, utilizing 2010 budgeted funds. These are scheduled replacements. The vehicles that will be replaced will be sold at auction. These are high mileage vehicles. The Chevrolet Tahoes they are utilizing as Field Technician vehicles in the Technical Response Unit. The City is requesting a waiver of the sealed bid process, based on the Police Departments association with three bid/purchasing consortiums (the State of Michigan, Oakland and Macomb Counties). The expenditure from the 2009 budgeted funds will total $25,639.80. The expenditure from the 2010 budgeted funds will total $150,638.30. Godfroid-Marecki said that she appreciates the fact that they are looking into buying cares with minimal options to save money, but with the Charger she noticed that he didn't want the supplemental side airbags. She couldn't find the price to see if it was a price issue, but she thinks it would be a pretty good safety feature. McDermott answered it is. The reason they are deleting the side impact airbags is because they would have to re-outfit the cage configuration to accommodate side airbags which would be quite an expense. The airbags would actually interfere with the current structure that's being placed inside the current Charger. 5 They are replacing a current vehicle and utilizing the same equipment and transferring it to a new vehicle. Godfroid-Marecki offered the approving resolution on the Consent Agenda. McCann said that he was looking at the evidence unit the other day, and he was told it has about 80,000-85,000 miles on it, and it's a year and half old. He wants to know what the plan is for that vehicle. McDermott answered that that vehicle will probably remain in service being utilized probably by the reserve unit. This won't put a lot of miles on it, but it can remain in service for a long time. A high mileage vehicle will actually be filtered down to the auction. He said that every time they replace units, they take the worse ones out of the fleet, and those are the ones that actually go to auction. They do an analysis of the entire fleet. They don't add to the fleet at all. McCann said it looks like it's in pretty good shape. The officer told him it had a lot of zip left in it. He asked if that was similar to the tactical response unit. Is that the one the Supervisor on duty drives? McDermott answered, "Sometimes they will take that vehicle, but they have their own supervisor vehicles as well". McCann said there is the one other truck which is the weight enforcement truck, correct? Just the three (3) trucks on the road then? McDermott answered, "Correct". DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT 6. REQUEST FOR AUTHORIZATION TO PURCHASE UP TO 100 COLT LE6940 ADVANCED LAW ENFORCEMENT CARBINE RIFLES AND CASES; AND REQUEST FOR ADDITIONAL APPROPRIATION FROM THE 2010 UNEXPENDED FUND BALANCE OF THE STATE ADJUDICATED FORFEITURE FUND: Division of Police, re: with possible reimbursement through a voluntary rifle purchase program available through payroll deduction. Benjamin McDermott, Captain, Livonia Police Department, said that over the past several years the police department added a number of patrol rifles to its inventory of equipment. They are trying to stay with all of the progressive local and national enforcement trends. The addition of these rifles was well received by the officers. They received intensive training with these weapons. The patrol rifle is now an integral component of the annual training that each officer receives. The training includes specific exercises in active shooter contingencies, as incidents of this type are on the rise throughout the country. The department's current supply of rifles consists of old army surplus Vietnam era M-16's that have been converted to a semi-automatic capability and continuous fire options have 6 been taken off of those rifles. However, there are only so many of those rifles to go around. The officers are issued these weapons over and over again. When an officer comes in from one shift, it is issued to another officer, unlike their handgun where they are responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the weapon. This procedure has been less then ideal. To realize the advantage that you get from issuing rifles to an individual officer, the same way handguns are, with a cost savings at the same time, we have found that other municipalities in the region have introduced a voluntary rifle purchase program. The police department purchases the rifles for departmental use and issues them to individual officers. The officer must qualify with the weapon and is responsible for its care and maintenance just like with his handgun. The program allows the officer to repay the City for the cost of the equipment over time — a one (1) year period. Officers can volunteer to have the cost of the rifle deducted from their paycheck, less $1.00, in 26 equal installments over the course a year. The weapon remains the property of the police department, for departmental use, until the officer retires or leaves the department. Once he does leave the department, he may purchase that rifle for the remaining dollar that's outstanding. We wish to purchase these directly from the manufacturer — Colt Defense, 547 New Park Avenue, West Hartford, Ct. 06110. They are offering a price to the department. Each rifle will cost $1,100.00 and comes with two (2) magazines, a cleaning kit, and a sling. A case will be purchased for each of the weapons at a cost of $65.00 each from a separate manufacturer. To date, 81 officers have agreed to participate in this program. We are requesting permission to purchase up to 100 rifles and cases. Additional rifles will be made available to officers who wish to participate in this program in the future. Therefore we are requesting an additional appropriation from the 2010 unexpended fund balance of the State Adjudicated Forfeiture Fund, in the amount of$116,500.00. These funds will be budgeted to an expense from the forfeiture account, and then will be paid back for the majority of the funds into that adjudicated forfeiture fund by the officers. Robinson said that was a very detailed explanation, and Council appreciates that, but he wants to be clear. These are Adjudicated Forfeiture Funds that they are using for the initial cost of these weapons, is that correct? McDermott said, "That is correct. No general budget money is being used at all." Robinson said it sounds like the department is already going to receive reimbursement for about 80% of this purchase price and that may grow in the future. McDermott answered, "Correct". He said he would anticipate that it will. Robinson offered the approving resolution on the Consent Agenda. Godfroid-Marecki asked about the storage. She asked if they were equipped to handle the storage of these. 7 McDermott said some of the weapons would be stored in the armory, and the officers lockers will serve just as storage for the other weapons just as they would store their handgun in their locker. Godfroid-Marecki said if you get 100 officers this will pretty much be paid back in a couple of years. McDermott said that's what they anticipate. DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT 7. AWARD OF BID: Public Service Division, re: for the construction of a Salt Storage Building for Department of Public Works from budgeted funds. This item has been removed from the agenda. 8. AWARD OF BID: Public Service Division, re: to replace the boiler at the Police Station from funds budgeted for this purpose. Kevin Maillard, Director of Public Works, said that the Public Services Division is requesting approval to award the contract to Denny's Heating, Cooling & Refrigeration Services, Inc., 3166 Martin Road, Walled Lake, MI 48390, for the replacement of the police boiler. The boiler shut down again today. It was originally installed in 1986 and is on its last leg. There were bid invitations for 15 companies, and they received 6 total bids. The alternate bid, Denny's has agreed to reduce the temporary heating and cooling down to $4,000.00, which makes them the low bid at $122,500.00. These funds would be coming out of the approved 2008-2009 budget. Pastor asked if they asked the second bidder or really the potential low bidder the same question. Maillard said they were the clear cut low bidder as far as the boiler itself. Zoumbaris took care of this at the time. With them coming down to $4,000.00, it puts them below the base bid of all the rest of the companies, which the mechanical was $125,000.00 for the boiler itself. Pastor said yes, but you gave a company, if you put both of those options together — the $118,500.00 and the $22,500.00 — equaled $141,000.00 and the next lowest bidder, both of those alternates were $140,000.00, so why wouldn't we have gone to the second bidder. Maillard said because we only approach the bidder on the alternate in order to maintain the heat. The base price of the boiler itself remained the same at $118,500.00. 8 Pastor said you do it for one guy, but not the other. Up at the state level we weren't able to do this. You could clarify, but you would have to do it for everyone. Maillard said the fact is his total bid ended up lower than the base bid. Pastor agreed and he is on board with that, but who's to say the next lowest bidder didn't say, "Well, I had some of the things covered in my alternate one, but in my main bid, because I thought we were going to get them both." You never gave them the option. Maybe they would have come down as well. That's where I have the problem. He doesn't have a problem with Denny's or with any of these companies; he has a problem with the procedures with the bids to make sure that everyone has a fair shot. Robinson asked the Law Department about the bid process that was followed and the contact following the openings of the bids and asked if there is an issue that we need to be aware of as we consider the adjusted bids. Don Knapp, City Attorney, said he is not familiar with exactly what happened. It sounds like this is simply a clarification and if that's the case then it should not be a problem. If it's a request to reduce a price then it becomes more problematic. Robinson asked Maillard if there is an opportunity to offer the same discussion to the other bidders to level the playing field — if that makes any sense. Maillard said as far as maintaining the heat, that's what Jim has done, it was to maintain the heat 24/7 while the operation was going on. It was not the base price. We could approach the other bidders, but even if they reduced the base price of the alternate, they would still be higher no matter what the situation would be. That was the only thing in which they were approached on was to maintain the heat. Robinson said we are being asked to approve a total package here, and not just a base boiler price, is that correct? Maillard answered a total package right, of$122,500.00, correct. McCann asked if the base bid, Denny's was the lowest bidder at $118,500.00. Then we asked for additional information regarding keeping the heat on to all the companies. Is that part of the original bid package? Maillard answered, "Yes". McCann said with regard to Denny's, was this clarification in regard to keeping the heat on. Is this what caused this all to change? 9 Maillard said that he believes so. He wasn't involved. He said he speaks ignorance on this. Jim Zoumbaris was handling all this at the time. He called them about their price in regard to maintaining the heat during the process of installing the new boilers. They issued a letter stating they would install one of the new boilers. We are putting in two boilers. One boiler is to basically maintain the heat at that point. McCann said at this point we are excepting the original bid for the boilers of $118,500.00, and because they don't have to come in and provide additional heat, their just going to switch one boiler at a time, at some additional cost to $4,000.00, which you can exceed by 5% anyways. He thinks that since we do have the low bidder, and winter is coming, he thinks that we need to go. McCann offered the approving resolution on the Consent Agenda. Pastor said that here is the problem he has. The bids were submitted, and opened, everyone sees everyone's numbers. Alternate one is the temporary heat for the project. Alternate 1 is $22,500.00, making him a total bid of $141,000.00. The clarification goes out and says well, if you have the heat on, I'm just trying to clarify Alternate 1, but he knows what the other guys number is now, .and that's where his problem is. He knows the other guys numbers now. If you can tell me that no one knew these numbers when you called to verify his position, but he knows that once these are submitted — they are opened to the public, and you couldn't have clarified it at that point. He knows we need this done, but he is trying to be sure this is a fair issue. He talked to Maillard about other issues today, but he missed this one. He is really struggling with this, because he knows the City needs this done and within the base bid. The problem is the low bidder knew what everyone else's base bid was, and knowing contractors out there, me being one of them, now you can do it so it is lower, you get the contract, and who knows about change orders and such. This is his problem. Council President Toy said that she has a letter in her packet from JFR Architects, and it seems like they did some work on this as well. She would like to know why there are so many eyes on this. She was concerned the City is paying these architects as well, or are they just doing this as a favor for the City. Maillard said they were the original Architect on the project as well. We pay them for the actual design. Any time there is a contract we ask for them. Godfroid-Marecki said that maybe Council can get more clarification before the voting meeting and hopefully everyone will be more comfortable with this. Maillard said he wasn't involved in the original $122,500.00. He will call Zoumbaris out in Irish Hills. McCann in response to Pastor's comment we can bifurcate any one of these projects except the lowest part of the bid. The lowest part of the bid was 10 $118,500.00. We can work within $6,000.00 or 5% of the administration to go forward. Even if we added the $6,000.00 its still below the next lowest base bid. No matter what - we are still taking the lowest bid, by just determining that we don't need temporary heat since we can keep one of the boilers going. He thinks we are certainly within our rights to go forward on this, and since he beat the other bid by close to $7,500.00, we certainly don't have an issue. Pastor said, not to debate it, but no, he didn't. His original bid was $22,500.00 for the heat, so it didn't make him low bidder. Not to argue with it. He doesn't have a problem having it go on consent. He will get with Maillard before hand instead of putting it on the Regular. He knows we need to do this. He just wants to be sure the next time. When you open a bid, yes, his main bid was lower, but when you add the alternate, it was $22,500.00. It wasn't $4,000.00. They only clarified it. And by him seeing everyone else's bid - that temporary heat is $22,500.00 originally. McCann said that we are only accepting the first part of the bid though. That's the difference. Pastor said plus the $4,000.00 with the heat. McCann said we can approve up to 5% to make it work. Robinson asked Maillard for clarification what we are asked to approve here tonight. Maillard answered $122,500.00. Robinson asked what the total amount of the original bid was from Kenny's. Maillard said it was $141,000.00 total. Same base bid, but they added $22,500.00 to maintain the heat. Robinson said and now that $22,500.00 has turned into $4,000.00. That's a big change. He said the integrity of the bidding process to him is to be protected and maintained. If he was a bidder, he would pad that bid too knowing that he can come back later on and massage it down 75% to obtain the bid. Why we contacted that bidder, or why they contacted us, is what we would like to find out before the next regular meeting. Maillard said that he would clarify that. He is sure he was contacted because he was the lowest bidder for the boiler itself. Council President Toy asked for this to be put on the Regular Agenda just because there is a lot of discussion here. Just in case. She knows the Police Department needs this, and she is not objecting to it, she just wants everyone to be comfortable. 11 Pastor offered the approving resolution on the Regular Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING REGULAR 9. REQUEST TO APPROVE AN ANIMAL SHELTERING AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE CITY OF LIVONIA AND THE MICHIGAN HUMANE SOCIETY, AS WELL AS NECESSARY ORDINANCE AMENDMENTS: Public Service Division, re: for the period December 1, 2009 through November 30, 2010, with boarding fees to increase to $24.00 per day (from $23.50 per day) and preparation and handling fees for rabies testing to increase to $200.00 (from $105.00). Kevin Maillard, Director of Public Works, said the department is requesting Council consideration on two issues pertaining to the shelter of animals, including an award of the contract to the Michigan Humane Society and an adjustment to the impound fees. The impound fees are returned to the City to defer the cost of the retrieval and transportation of the animals to the facility. Last year we spent $47,500.00 in boarding fees. Boarding fees will increase to $24.00, which will mean an increase to about $987.00 for the upcoming year. It's a one (1) year contract that will start on December 1, 2009 until November 30, 2010. We looked at other facilities. The closest one would be the City of Taylor, which is quite a distance away. This is the only game in town. Rabies testing will increase to $200.00, which isn't really that much of an increase. They only had one (1) case of rabies in the 12 month period. We had 202 dogs impounded, 95 were reclaimed last year. We had 511 cats, but we are actually making the cats and the dogs the same rate of impoundment and retrievement for the City. There is really no place to go for this service at this point. Council President Toy asked if the residents pay that to get them out. So these fees come back to us, so it's not a huge expenditure, right? She asked how the licensing is going. Maillard said that is correct. The licensing is going good. Meakin offered the approving resolution on the Consent Agenda. Godfroid-Marecki said that in the first paragraph it asks if a Humane Society veterinarian be used in the specimen process for the rabies testing. The charge would be $100.00. She asked who else would normally do this? Maillard didn't know of anyone else that would do this. DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT 10. AWARD OF CONTRACT: Engineering Division, re: for a consultant for upcoming Newburgh Road improvements, between Six Mile and Seven Mile Roads, with a construction date of September 2010. 12 Todd Zilinick, City Engineer, said in an effort to close the gap on Newburgh Road, they have been trying to go from both ends of the City to rehabilitate Newburgh Road. This is an effort to capture some of the Federal Aid Committee (FAC) money that was approved beginning on October 1, 2009 in the amount of $700,000.00. In addition, they received safety money in the amount of $68,000.00 from Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) to approve a southbound dedicated right turn lane for Newburgh Road at Seven Mile. In addition, they are trying to reconstruct a portion from Six to Seven Mile. From Laurel Park Drive North to 7 Mile is available for money to reconstruct. This involves an overlay and traffic signal upgrade at the intersection of Laurel Park Drive and Newburgh. The proposal called to secure the funding for the first portion of it, and if out of funds became available from Laurel Park Drive North to Six Mile that we could hopefully capture that or if Earmark was granted to us, we could hopefully use that money. At this time we had five (5) consultants submit bids to us that were Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) Local Agency Program (LAP) certified from $109,000.00 to $165,000.00. From those five consultants, we narrowed it down to two - Spalding DeDecker Associates, Inc. (SDA) and Northwest Consultants, Inc. (NCI). Both are very well qualified firms, both have the same geotechnical engineer, both have the same traffic engineer, however, in the proposal by NCI they offered a better price for the Segment 1, which is what is required for secure funding in the amount of $46,768.00 and Spalding DeDecker had $62,120.00 for their first segment, which obviously we know we can do and want to reconstruct by September 2010. The second portion involves more detailed information because we are trying to look at the geometrical improvements and total reconstruction of the concrete segment there. We have some residents in Golden Manor Subdivision that have concerns with trying to get out of the subdivision. They try to go north and do a U-turn, or go to the intersection and try to go all the way around coming back. In addition we have some people who pull out of Laurel Park Drive North that actually get stuck part way in there with their rear end sticking out into southbound traffic. In addition, if you look at the segment, you'll see that the south end part of the road is actually in worse condition than the northbound because the north part has better drainage, and the south part was piecemealed. We need to take a hard look at the south portion for a total reconstruct which is probably going to amount to $2 million dollars to do that right. After talking with Wayne County, they are going to have problems next year just trying to stagger the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) projects as it is. Trying to secure $2 million dollars worth of funding may be difficult for us to do. Most likely in 2011 we will have to find some other funding source to do this project. We recommend the project be awarded to Northwest Consultants for Segment 1, and allow for at least the survey to try and get a determination of the geometrics that are necessary, and look at any potential utility conflicts to help us move forward in the future as far as what the segment may need and try and secure funding. We are looking for the total not to exceed $67,144.00 to be awarded to NCI, and expend the funds from the Michigan Transportation Fund, Account No. 202-463- 818-125. 13 Laura said that since this was sent out as one bid he recommends approval for Spalding DeDecker. If it were sent out as two bids, and we are going to do this at two different times, that's something else. How the contractor broke it apart, he doesn't know, but they're the low bidder, and they deserve consideration for this particular bid. Godfroid-Marecki asked Zilinick if they do get the monies available for Segment 2, will this go out to bid again. Zilincik answered that the problem they are having is when they received funding for Lyndon Road, from Henry Ruff to Middlebelt, there were only 14 communities that received funding. The maximum amount received was just under % of a million dollars. Trying to obtain our funding which basically amounts to $2 million dollars, plus try to get the plans completed by March. To obtain the ARRA funding, they have to be obligated and completed by March 2010. Our goal was to package it as one with the hopes that we could possibly do it as one segment, just to get the project completed through MDOT for a July bid to start in September. Our goal was to try and do the entire segment if we could at once, but it will probably carry over to 2011, and we'll try to get the funding again. It's a roll of the dice to try and get the ARRA funding in the amount of $2 million dollars. Godfroid-Marecki asked Zilincik again, if you did get the funding, would you put the other part of Segment 2 out for bid? They are just looking at it as far as the Engineering perspective in Segment 2, correct? Zilincik answered that if we got clarification that we got ARRA funding in the amount of $2 million dollars, then we would want to go out and complete the plans in March. But after talking to Wayne County and the approval through MDOT with the furlough days, we believe that it will take a little longer to get approved and carry it over until fall. Godfroid-Marecki asked if we would put the work out for bid in Segment 2 again. Zilincik said, "Correct". We could approve Segment 1 at this time, and rebid out Segment 2 if Council likes. That's not a problem or issue. Godfroid-Marecki said she is confused. She asked if we do get the money, who will be doing the work of Segment 2 at this point? They recommend Northwest Consultant, because they are cheaper on Segment 1, and then go out and determine if there are any issues as we are trying to seek funding, making sure that things are up to par, as far as any drainage improvements or utility conflicts. Godfroid-Marecki asked Zilincik if that nightmare light would be changed. 14 Zilincik said that the lights at Newburgh are LED's which are brighter. Godfroid-Marecki asked about the timing of that light. She said one (1) of her kids were in an accident at that light. She said that light is confusing to people. Zilincik said they would need to upgrade that light so pedestrians could cross. And then coordinate for optimal timing for the peak flows. McCann asked Laura if his bid was to go with Orchard Hill. Laura said he went with the low bid of Spalding DeDecker Associates, Inc. (SDA). Meakin said the odds of us giving that large of a grant at this time is remote. He wants to know why they don't break it up so they have smaller portions of federal funding for that, rather than the full $2 million. Zilincik said that this project was out for bids prior to the potential retirements at Wayne County. The roads need to be reconstructed, and their goal is to do the best they can with the funds they have with the reconstruction. This is the direction he was given by the Director, and that's how they proceeded. He said he originally put the funding in for $3.9 million, but struck out. He tried to get CMAQ funding for the intersection of Newburgh Drive, but was shot down. It's going to be hard to find funding, but they are trying to do the right thing and make sure they have the right fix, for when funding does become available. Robinson asked Zilincik about the impact of the retirees in Wayne County and how that that's causing us a problem. Zilinick answered that there have been 3-4 people that have retired on the Federal Aid Committee, plus the Engineering Division that schedules some of these GI's (Green Inspection) or other meetings as far as approvals. Now that they have a reduced staff to approve these plans, it may take a little longer than anticipated. These are time sensitive. They have to have these plans out by March, which bids in July, for September construction. It's critical that they go out now to survey the area, so we can get the plans designed, and approved up to MDOT by February. Robinson asked if these retirements in Wayne County are causing a time bottleneck for us. Zilincik said it could potentially cause issues, because we have to get permits to work in the right of way, to get approvals and be in sync with the permits that will go out for bidding. It's critical that we have to seek those approvals at the same time and get them in there as part of MDOT's requirements. 15 Robinson asked if we are talking to the right people at MDOT so they know our pain and hope to not have it cost us money here in the City of Livonia. Zilincik said yes and that they are talking to them on a daily basis about certain issues that are critical. They try to make phone calls and try to coordinate with them to facilitate their concerns and not lose funding. Godfroid-Marecki offered a resolution to put this in the Infrastructure Committee. She realizes there is a time restraint on this. Robinson asked Zilincik if there is any impact to Council not making a decision and holding this in Committee. Zilincik said they would like a decision so they can get a consulting firm out there to start surveying the work before the snow flies, or it may be difficult to complete the survey in a timely fashion. They also need to meet the deadline in February for the Green Inspection that is due. Robinson wanted to clarify that Spalding DeDecker is clearly the lowest bidder here. He said the City has a relationship with them so they are fully aware of their ability to deliver a product and service. Zilincik said that Spalding DeDecker is the low bidder for the entire project at $109,060.00. If segments are done at the same time, they would give us a break and it would actually be $107,160.00. NCI's total cost for the entire project is $117,984.00; however NCI is cheaper on the first segment at $46,768.00, where Spalding DeDecker is at $62,120.00. It depends on City Council how they want to do this — one segment or two segments. However they want to proceed forward. For economy, we could do the 1St segment. Laura said every time a company puts forth resources and goes out and bids one of these projects; it costs a considerable amount of time and money just for a thought process. In terms of business ethics, however we passed out the bid, that's where we are. He doesn't buy this one segment, two segments. If we did this incorrectly he doesn't have a problem because we are all human beings, but to start to jerk around the business community, he doesn't think it's fair or ethical. We must maintain standards here and standards go beyond moral standards — standards of doing business. This is a capable firm that the City has done business with quite a bit in the past that is at a considerable reduction to the next highest bid. He is pretty sure their numbers would have come out differently if they knew this was in two segments, especially if they thought that part two was just a pipe dream and may never come. He thinks they would have bid differently. He does not feel that we should even be entertaining a large part of this discussion. This discourages him as a business person who does this daily. If we want to go beyond the low bidder, he is willing to entertain any of his colleague's comments as to why we should go to a different bidder. He really 16 believes that this discussion is closed, and he would ask that this to be put on the consent agenda and move forward. Kevin Maillard, Director of Public works, said in regard to Wayne County, they have lost just about everybody. They lost 5 people in permits, their entire field engineering division is gone, and they are down to 20 where they originally had 70. He wants to make a point that the Newburgh proposal was not a price bid proposal. The price was 15% of the total evaluation done by three (3) people. He is not sure how the final numbers came out, but he knows they looked at the understanding of the project, the team, the total scope and understanding and their past performance. They had approximately 6-7 categories the consultant's were rated on, and price was a factor. One of the better proposals was priced too high and he priced himself out of a job. We had some outstanding proposals submitted to us; NCI was the number one rated consultant. They took price into consideration, but the outline of how the consultants was going to be rated was outlined in the original RFP (request for proposal) sent to the consultants. They knew how we were going to rate their proposals. That was defined. It wasn't price bid. Another point is they went out for both of these projects — Segment 1 and Segment 2. There was talk about two months ago with Ken Kusel. He has been talking to the Wayne County Federal Aid Committee on a regular basis. There is going to be some more stimulus money coming into the region. How much he doesn't know. They are on the hit list to get more money. Whether they can get $2 million dollars is hard to say. Right now everything is very quiet. The funding in which they have for the Laurel Park North Project to Seven Mile is called STP Funding. That money must be obligated by August. That's not a March obligation. This came out of the Federal Aid Committee of which Wayne County called the City and said they have $700,000.00 they can't match — and asked if Livonia could use it. They were the only city that could. They are looking at two different funding mechanisms. As they look right now and he agrees with Councilman Laura regarding the bidding process. What might be the better process that they go through at this point — NCI was the lowest bidder that they actually have funding for. He realizes consultants and contractors take risks in regard to bidding different things. They have talked about balanced bids in the past. It might be the best thing they do at this point, if there is any doubt, we go out and re-bid it and we leave the first '/2 mile out of the section. We ignore Six Mile to Laurel Park. We just go with Laurel Park North to Seven Mile. We got the proposal's set up. Consultants already know how they bid. They bid as a total package at this point. Pastor asked if we were going to end up sooner or later doing the lower portion. Maillard answered, "Yes, I hope so". Pastor said in the Master Plan we are supposed to be continuing the road funding. If they do the consulting work now, they could still use that a year and a half or two years from now. So, it wouldn't hurt if we took this as a bid, but we did this as a whole. We didn't say we are going to bid out Phase 1 and we are going 17 to bid out Phase 2, we just said we are going to bid. We didn't break it up. As a contractor, depending on how you do it, they may have put more money on the front end or they may have put more money on the back end, depending on which guy did the bid. But his point is whether or not we will eventually do the whole road. If you give this to Northwest, who is low on the first portion, but the second portion he is higher. We are not going to be able to put it out for bid at that time, because he will have the advantage. That wouldn't be fair at all. If we are going to use it in the future, then he doesn't have a problem approving the low bid as submitted, if we believe we will be getting that funding. Maillard said we will eventually. I am not going to say we won't be able to use it. But when we rated the proposals, NCI was rated the best overall. Pastor said that every consultant is good, that's why he would go based on price. We have worked with all the other people, he wasn't sure about Northwest. He doesn't see how they could go with anything but price since they are all that good. Maillard said that he totally agrees with Laura when he mentions that the companies put a lot of time and effort into these proposals. They cost a lot of money to put them together. That is the reason that the proposal is part of the rating process. You see people who put a lot of effort and a lot of design into these proposals, an incredible amount of effort, and to bring out the scope and the concept of how these jobs are to be built. That's the reason why it's just not a price bid. All of these consultant's are qualified to do the job, but some of them do much better jobs. They can all do it, but you'll get a different performance out of everyone of these consultants's down the road. McCann said he knows there are some design defects in the road that they are concerned about. He wants to know if they will end up with a better product by doing both segments at the same time. Zinilcik answered that there is a possibility, but the thing he wanted to convey was the level of effort. In the first segment the amount of hours for the top three (3) consultant's was approximately 480 hours of effort. In the second part Spalding DeDecker estimated 404 hours, NCI had 796 and the third lowest bid was 828 hours and the fourth was 1096. Both consultants' are qualified, same geo technical, same traffic engineer, this all goes back to what they will provide in Segment 2, which is basically 300 hours. This goes back to the night meetings, traffic counts and that level of effort that you get. As Maillard stated, NCI was ranked #1 at 92 and Spalding DeDecker at 90. These were the top two (2) firms. If you did both segments at once obviously it will boil down to the south part will have some difficulties as far as drainage. There are those specific issues as well as utility issues because it was piecemealed together. It was a 2 lane road built back in 1969. There were add-ons to the segments and subdivisions that were added later on. Drainage can be in important integral part of the design as part of 18 this program and also meeting the needs of the residents in Golden Manor Subdivision. That's what it boils down to as far as the effort in Segment 2. McCann asked if he and Maillard believe it's in the best interest of the City to go forward with both segments at this time. Zilincik answered, "Correct". Godfroid-Marecki said Council did not have the ranking information. She only saw the numbers and the hours. She thinks it would make a difference for Council to see the ratings. Zilincik said the rating was based on 100 points. There were three (3) people rating them. NCI was the number one consultant. Spalding DeDecker was number two. Two (2) consultants' were very close. He wants Council to look at the analytical part as far as the hours involved with each segment. Laura said this Council is the governing body that makes the decisions and we are the judge and jury for not only the resident's, but also the business community that comes before us. We are their last hope. Saying that, we always have to be sure it's a level playing field and that we do things in the best intention and we always follow through — no matter what. He is really concerned at some of the dialogue. He remembers in times past Council has had before them people, and they have done the rating process. They were told that up front. He said it just doesn't seem right what we were proposing to do, or what we are trying to do. If we roll the dice again, and it doesn't work out, that's our problem. We need to be sensitive to the environment before us. A number of these companies are struggling and cutting back and spending a significant amount of money to do these bids. They are picking and choosing what they want to go after if they have the chance or not. They are not expending resources on items that they just can't get. They are probably very, very selective. People's jobs ride on the decisions that council make. He just wants to be fair. This was sent out at one bid process, it came in as a firm that they know, and the hours to him have nothing to do with it. We have professional people in Engineering and Public Works and in our department. All he wants to know if they did a satisfactory job. He doesn't care about the number of hours unless it's specified to him as a councilperson. He thinks they all learned something tonight. This discussion bothers him more than you can imagine. He thinks everyone needs to go back and think about what was said this evening and what they were trying to get their arms around. What should have been a very simple proposal - this should have been a 3 minute deal on the consent agenda and then on to the next item. Robinson asked Zilincik if there were any concerns because what he is hearing is that they are qualified and they are all familiar with their work over the years working with them at some level. This is not the first time they have been brought in front of us for accepting a bid. If they are the low bidder, is there a complaint or concern that Council is not aware of that they need to be considering? He tends 19 to agree with the integrity of the bid process. The last thing he wants to do is to have a reputation in the Community where people work hard to submit bids and then we open them and tweak and massage them. Perhaps we are picking and choosing more subjectively than objectively. He asked if there is a performance issue Council should be concerned with. Zilincik wanted to remind Council the same thing happened on Schoolcraft Road when they had over a dozen proposals received by various consultants and it varied from $11,000.00 all the way up to $40,000.00. It's the same thing. It goes back to qualifications. What he wants to bring to Council attention is the level of effort in these segments required as far as hours. If they don't have a certain level of effort, it may require either more of his time and/or more leg work on our part or potentially other issues that's not in our scope of services. He will have to come back to Council and ask for additional services. Look at the overall hours for each segment. They are both well qualified firms, it's just the level effort we will get for each segment. Segment 1 looks consistent, but the consultant's had a higher price for design for concrete segment. You would think it would be higher, because there is more effort as far as design process. If you have one at 400 hours, one at 796 hours and one at 826, somewhere around 700 hours would be appropriate hours to complete that segment as far as design. If they have to eat the cost that may result in a worse product, not meeting deadlines or more effort on our part, he is not sure. He just wants to bring light to Council. Based on the second part, there is a lower level of effort that may not result in the quality product we are looking for. Robinson asked if it is fair for him to conclude, when Council considers this over the next couple weeks, that the RFP that was created, written, and as bid on meet the needs of the residents. He said that Zilincik mentioned that he wants to meet the needs of the residents and he agrees completely. But what Council is being asked to do is approve expenditure. He doesn't want to approve an expenditure that doesn't meet the needs for the residents, but he would also expect that the need would have been built into the RFP. Zilincik said that is correct. It was involved in two night meetings, one of which the consultant took input from the residents, and also looked at two design alternatives for geometric improvements at that location to help get people off Vargo and Bennett without going up north and doing a U-turn or going to Laurel Park Drive North. When he came on board that was one of the considerations. We tried to get CMAQ funding to try and accommodate part of that in the traffic signal upgrade that didn't occur. Maillard was able to work with Wayne County with the Federal Aid Committee to get the $7,000.00. Robinson asked if that need is built in the RFP, and is that what they all bid on. Zilincik said again, it goes back to the hour effort. 20 DIRECTION: (1) REFER TO INFRASTRUCTURE REGULAR AND COMMUNITY TRANSIT COMMITTEE (2) APPROVING WITH SPALDING DEDECKER 11. REQUEST TO EXTEND AND AMEND CONTRACTS WITH ANDERSON, ECKSTEIN AND WESTRICK, INC. AND WITH ORCHARD, HILTZ AND MCCLIMENT, INC. FOR DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION ENGINEERING SERVICES FOR THE 2010 CONCRETE AND ASPHALT PAVING PROGRAMS, RESPECTIVELY; AND REQUEST FOR AUTHORIZATION OF EXPENDITURE. Engineering Division, re: same. (CR 506-07) Todd Zilincik, City Engineer, this is a result of the 2010 Road Repair Program, in which we have OHM (Orchard, Hiltz and McCliment) doing the Asphalt Repair Program, and AEW (Anderson Eckstein and Westrick, Inc.) doing the concrete portion. Zilincik showed Council a color coded map of the 2010 Road Repair Program and discussed it with Council. He asks Council to extend the contract with both consultants (OHM and AEW) and authorize the Clerk to execute the agreements for OHM in the amount of $629,219.00 and for AEW in the amount of $319,222.00 for the reconstruction, which involves a portion of water main (one on Terrence, replacing an over 50 year old 8 inch water main) from Middlebelt to Inkster. In addition in section 34 there are segments that are over 30 years old with numerous water main breaks. We would like to compete before the roads are done. We are trying to maximize City tax dollars. We would like to get in there in the spring and complete the water main projects and follow through with the road repair program. This will also require authorization to expend $729,955.00 from the Road, Sidewalk and Tree Fund and expenditure in the amount of $218,886.00 from the Unexpended Fund Balance from the Water and Sewer Board. He did get concurrence from the Water and Sewer Board back on November 2, 2009 to make sure they are aware of the impending water main improvements. They just want to make sure they are updated when the project gets bid and in addition follow through when construction begins. Their concerns were making sure we do soil borings and make sure if there was any dewatering that was necessary, that additional costs weren't involved. This also involves with the consultant's soil borings and some geotechnical investigation as part of the program. Again, they ask Council to extend the 2007 agreement for the last year of this contract. Meakin stated that Council was also approving the plan from the Citizens Advisory Committees recommendations of the road repairs. He said that is correct. They met with the Road Advisory Committee three (3) times. They did get their input and did some minor modifications. They did change one portion on St. Martins from a reconstruct to a rehab. They did get concurrence from the Advisory Committee meeting. 21 Mark Lock, Orchard Hiltz and McClaren, 34000 Plymouth Road, Livonia, was present to thank the City for their confidence in OHM. They look forward to another good year of road paving in the City. Meakin offered the approving resolution on the Consent Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT 12. AWARD OF CONTRACT: Engineering Division, re: for Consulting Engineering Services to develop a Water Distribution Master Plan. Todd Zilincik, City Engineer, asked to seek Council's approval to update the Master Plan, which hasn't been updated since 1998. In addition, he wants to seek board funding for a low interest loan at 2.5% and submit a draft plan to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. Before the City sold bonds to subsidize the water main improvements, here they are seeking a low interest loan to save money. They had six (6) consultants provide their qualifications. Based on their qualifications they nominated the top three (3). The selected consultants they Orchard Hiltz and McClement in the amount of $57,826.00 for the Water Main Master Plan update. Laura asked if Zilincik and Maillard can explain their thought process on this. Maillard said that this Master Plan is an incredibly important document for the City that will be involved in hundreds of millions of dollars of water main replacements over the next 20 years. The selection was primarily on a QBS (Qualified Base Selection) with a price element to it. They went through and short listed the three (3) and interviewed them. They had an individual from the Water Board on the team. There were five (5) of us. After the three (3) interviews, OHM was the choice. It was originally set up as a QBS because of the specialty to develop this document. They have a project manager who has been doing this for 20 years with the majority of the years with OHM. They have been very successful in getting the Drinking Water Revolving Fund (DWRF) funding. This is the reason for recommending OHM as far as providing the Master Water Main Plan. McCann wanted a little more detail about the Master Plan and what it all it will entail. Zilincik explained that there are approximately 12 components. To update the water model, identify the water replacement needs, try to get the water main demands over the next 20 years, do a rate analysis to help lower potential rates, investigate cost effectiveness, maybe look at the capital improvement over the next 20 years. We wanted to make sure the Water and Sewer Board were in concurrence with us, along with the finance and accounting office. In addition, he also went to the Water and Sewer Board to seek their approval using their funding to help and update the Master Water Plan. It's critical that we try to seek 22 the most recent information on the model and try to maximize our dollars for future replacements of the water main and make sure we have proper fire flow protection in case of fires. If we don't have a well operated water main infrastructure, people would have to have boil water alerts. We have to make sure we have adequate pressure through the five (5) zones. It's very critical. You need experts to take a look at that making sure we are doing the right thing and spending the right funding and working to maximize our dollars in these economic times. McCann said we spend upwards in the amount of $800,000.00 to a million dollars per year out of the Water and Sewer Board for water main repairs and updating. Zilincik said that over the last year and half we spent close to $2,000,000.00 upgrading a lot of the recent mains throughout the City. Prior to his arrival, they did a lot of the pre-chlorinated pipe bursting throughout the City, but it varied in size. McCann said when you spend a million dollars a year, or double that in certain years, and you are talking about a $57,000.00 investment, it's clear that you're concerned more about product than the $4,000.00 or$5,000.00. McCann offered the approving resolution on the Consent Agenda. Pastor offered the approving resolution for the lowest bidder on the Regular Agenda. Meakin said there has been a lot of discussion this evening and most of it pertained to being the lowest bidder. This doesn't have to be the lowest bidder. He said that if he were having brain surgery, he wouldn't go in and ask who the cheaper one was. He would want the best qualified one. In this case it was OHM. They were the highest rated company based on the Engineering Department. This is a long term project. OHM has been doing business with the City for over 34 years. The second factor is they are a Livonia based business. He concurs with McCann and his recommendation. Robinson said Meakin is correct. There has been a lot of discussion and he thinks many of the consultants here tonight are a known commodity in this Community. One of the problems he is running into is the tax payers watch bids coming in. Council is asked to approve bids and proposals, and what he thinks we need to do is to understand that Council is not here to micro-manage anything, but at the same time we are asked to approve expenditures. This is the primary thing we are doing this evening, and unless there is some way we can better quantify the cost of some of the intangible things that we are talking about here this evening. It's hard to look to the lowest bids and say their qualified, they meet the RFP, but we don't want to do that because there are other good reasons. If we are going to be asked to do more than approve a cost, that meets 23 an RFP, we are going to have to take a different look at how we quantify those things that we are calling needs of the residents. Councilman Meakin is right. If someday I need a brain surgeon, he will make sure all the brain surgeons he looks at can do the job and do it right. He won't allow any of them to work on his brain unless he knows for damn sure they are qualified to do so. We need to make sure we are having some fun down here, as well as some very serious things like approving the tax payer's money. This is very difficult to look at the lowest bids, but then there are reasons we shouldn't be taking lowest bids, but we need to quantify for the people watching here this evening. DIRECTION: (1) APPROVING AS RECOMMENDED REGULAR (2) APPROVING WITH LOW BIDDER 13. REQUEST FOR RELEASE OF LANDSCAPE/ENTRANCE MARKER BOND: Engineering Division, re: for the completion of public improvements at Churchill Manor Site Condominiums, located west of Newburgh Road, between Ann Arbor Trail and Joy Road, in the Southeast '/4 of Section 31. (CR 549-06) Todd Zilincik, City Engineer, said this is a housekeeping issue regarding Churchill Manor Site Condominiums in which $67,983.00 improvements were provided, of which $13,490.00 was to be in cash. They are requesting that the installation of the entrance markers and landscaping are complete and that they now certify that the developer get refunded his portion in the amount of $3,000.00 for the entry marker landscaping and $690.00 for the monuments and markers. Once approved, we can write a memo to the Clerk to release the bonds. Robinson offered the approving resolution on the Consent Agenda. Pastor asked if the rest of the money was being held until the rest of the issues are resolved. Zilincik answered, "Yes. We are working on those and trying to complete them". DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT 14. REQUEST TO EXTEND SITE PLAN APPROVAL: Planning Commission, re. in connection with Petition 2006-03-08-07 submitted by General Properties Company, L.L.C., on behalf of Sunset View Site Condominiums, which previously received site plan approval by the City Council on April 26, 2006, and a one-year extension on June 18, 2007, to construct a site condominium development on property located on the west side of Sunset Avenue, between Eight Mile Road and Fargo Avenue (30250 Morlock Street), in the Northwest '/4 of Section 2. (CR 289-07 and CR 186-06) Mark Taormina, City Planner, said that this is a request for a third extension on the site plan for Sunset View Condominiums. The Petitioner requested a two (2) 24 year extension, but the Planning Commission at its meeting of October 20, 2009 is recommending a one (1) year extension site plan. Laura asked why the Planning Commission only recommended one (1) year. Taormina said that it's been their customary practice to only allow one (1) year. There have been two (2) recent cases where we have provided two (2) year extensions. Laura asked for a two (2) year extension. His understanding is that it cost the petitioner a fee of $200.00 to come before Council. He is sure they would get this done if they could. The State of Michigan predict that next year may be worse than this year. He thinks that he started a precedence and they should give consideration to people that are hurting out there. Godfroid-Marecki asked Taormina if it was the same owner of the property. Taormina answered, "Yes". Godfroid-Marecki said that she agreed with Laura. Laura offered the approving resolution on the Consent Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING FOR 2 YEARS CONSENT 15. WAIVER PETITION: Planning Commission, re: Petition 2009-08-02-11 submitted by Walgreen Company requesting approval to utilize an SDM License (sale of packaged beer and wine) in connection with a retail facility located on the northeast corner of Plymouth Road and Middlebelt Road (29370 Plymouth Road), in the Southwest '/4 of Section 25. Mark Taormina, City Planner, said the next three (3) petitions are all very similar. They are requests by Walgreens Company to include SDM Licenses at their facilities. The first one (1) is their store located at the NE corner of Plymouth and Middlebelt Roads. This is a C-2 zoned property. This is a free standing building that was constructed in 2003. There are a couple of things that are critical aspects of these petitions that were reviewed by the Planning Commission involved compliance with a special requirements of the Zoning Ordinance for this type of waiver use. The first is that they not be located within 500 feet of an existing SDM licensed establishment, the second not to be within 400 feet of any church or school building. In this particular case it is not located within the distances indicated of those two (2) uses. The closest SDM licensed business is Wal-Mart, which is about 1200 feet away and the next closest after that is approximately '/2 mile away which is The Wine Barrel liquor store. The Planning Commission is recommending approval of the SDM License. Laura offered the denying resolution on the Regular Agenda. 25 Godfroid-Marecki offered the approving resolution on the Regular Agenda. Meakin offered the resolution referring to the Committee of the Whole for its report and recommendation. DIRECTION: (1) DENYING REGULAR (2) APPROVING (3) REFER TO COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 16. WAIVER PETITION: Planning Commission, re: Petition 2009-08-02-13 submitted by Walgreen Company requesting approval to utilize an SDM License (sale of packaged beer and wine) in connection with a retail facility located on the southeast corner of Six Mile Road and Farmington Road (33333 Six Mile Road), in the Northwest '/4 of Section 15. Mark Taormina, City Planner, said this is a request by Walgreens Company to include an SDM License at their facility located at the SE corner of Six Mile and Farmington Roads. It is a free standing Walgreens Store. It's about a 15,000 square foot building constructed in 2000. This proposed use does comply with all the special use requirements including that it not be located within 500 feet of an existing SDM Licensed establishment or 400 feet from any church or school. The next closest SDM licensed business is located approximately 1 mile away in the vicinity of Seven Mile and Farmington Road as well as 5 Mile and Farmington Roads. Marcus Ray Jones, Esq.,111 Lyon Street NW, Suite 900, Grand Rapids, MI 49503, representing Walgreens Company, was present to answer any questions. Laura said when these were brought to Council, the original approvals, one of the things that Walgreens said, and one of the reasons why we approved this, is because Walgreens came in and said you should approve us and give us consideration because we don't have beer, wine or liquor. This brought some consternation to the Community. Not Walgreens, but a drugstore and why not a different drugstore on any of these particular sites. His initial question is has Walgreens changed their corporate philosophy in the terms of asking for a license for beer and wine, oppose to liquor. He asked if there are other Walgreen stores that service beer and wine. Jones said there are a number of stores in Michigan that are selling beer and wine now. They went through the application process last year at some stores around the country. This is in response to our customers and to the economy. Mainly, what we are doing is selling a limited amount of beer and wine. Less than 2% of floor space will be devoted to the sale of beer and wine. There will be no single serves or malt liquors or things like that coming out of there. This is really more of a convenient store for shoppers that are already at Walgreens. This will 26 not be a liquor store. He showed a color coded map of where Walgreens is proposing to a store and sell from. Laura asked what percentage of profits do you estimate that to be. Jones said it's not going to be a lot. Because of the limited amount they are selling, they don't expect it to be a significant amount of their profits at all. Laura is asking for an informal request from the administration to pull all the approvals for the Walgreens. He is specifically looking for any dialogue that would talk about beer, wine and/or liquor verses approval. He is just looking for information what the resolution said without spending a whole lot of time. McCann said they need a separate resolution for each one. Knapp said if you are looking for the history of each store. Each of the petitions would have a separate resolution. Laura offered the denying resolution on the Regular Agenda. Robinson asked Taormina if the Walgreens at Six and Newburgh had an SDM License currently. Taormina said there are six (6) Walgreen's in the Community. There was a request for four (4) of them to have the SDM Licenses. The Planning Commission approved three (3), rejected one (1) and the other two (2) were not filed. There are no Walgreens in the Community that have the SDM License currently. Robinson said that the input from the administration will be very helpful in making his decision. Clearly if there was some agreement or understanding when the original approvals were made about future alcohol sales, we should stay consistent with that. Laura offered the denying resolution on the Regular Agenda. Godfroid-Marecki offered the approving resolution on the Regular Agenda. Meakin offered the resolution referring to the Committee of the Whole for its report and recommendation. DIRECTION: (1) DENYING REGULAR (2) APPROVING (3) REFER TO COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 17. WAIVER PETITION: Planning Commission, re: Petition 2009-08-02-14 submitted by Walgreen Company requesting approval to utilize an SDM License 27 (sale of packaged beer and wine) in connection with a retail facility located on the south side of Eight Mile Road, between Farmington Road and Shadyside Road (33239 Eight Mile Road), in the Northwest '/4 of Section 3. Mark Taormina, City Planner, said this is the third request by Walgreens Company to include an SDM License at their facility located on the south side of 8 Mile between Farmington Road and Shadyside on the SE corner of 8 Mile and Farmington Roads. This is part of the 8 Mile Place Shopping Complex. This is a free standing building. This Walgreens would also comply with the special waiver use requirements. The closest SDM Licensed business is the Kroger store which is about 1900 feet to the west on 8 Mile Road. Laura offered the denying resolution on the Regular Agenda. Godfroid-Marecki offered the approving resolution on the Regular Agenda. Meakin offered the resolution referring to the Committee of the Whole for its report and recommendation. DIRECTION: (1) DENYING REGULAR (2) APPROVING (3) REFER TO COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE AUDIENCE COMMUNICATION: None. As there were no further questions or comments, Council President Toy adjourned the Study Session at 9:56 p.m. on Monday, November 9, 2009. DATED: November 18, 2009 LINDA GRIMSBY, CITY CLERK