Present: Clarke, Lorenz, Salemi, Zubrzycki, Cassar Absent: None Also Present: City Manager Martin, Clerk Dryden and Attorney Schultz

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1 A Regular Meeting of the Sylvan Lake City Council was held on Wednesday, opening at 7:41 p.m. Mayor Lorenz presided over the Pledge of Allegiance. Present: Clarke, Lorenz, Salemi, Zubrzycki, Cassar Absent: None Also Present: City Manager Martin, Clerk Dryden and Attorney Schultz APPROVAL OF AGENDA Moved by Cassar, seconded Clarke, to approve the City Council Agenda for December 12, 2018, as submitted. APPROVAL OF CONSENT AGENDA Moved by Clarke, seconded Zubrzycki, to approve the following items on the consent agenda as submitted. A. November 14, 2018, CDBG Public Hearing and November 14, 2018 Organizational and Regular Meeting Minutes B. Disbursement Report, Payroll check # s , DD , EFT ; and A/P check # s , EFT , , ACH 1833, ; TOTALING: $411, C. Acceptance of Public Works, Police and City Attorney Reports for November 2018 COMMITTEE REPORTS There were no reports. BRIEF PUBLIC COMMENTS FOR ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA Mayor Lorenz opened the meeting to the public. 1

2 Bob Dzenko thanked everyone for his time on City Council. He reviewed his time living in Sylvan Lake, being on City Council and being the Mayor in 2003 and His biggest accomplishment while on council was changing the volunteered Fire Department to contract with West Bloomfield Fire Department. He stated he doesn t know if residents are aware of the fabric John and Dennise bring to the community. He thanked everyone. CITY MANAGER COMMENTS Martin welcomed everyone and hopes everybody had a nice Thanksgiving, and are getting into the Holiday spirit. He reported this past month Parks and Rec held their annual wine tasting event and was a big success with a record number of people and wine. City Hall is still keeping busy. We ve had three Zoning Board of Appeals applications and the zoning board acted on two of them tonight. The last one will be in January. ZP The project across the street is going well. The engineering plans are finaled and they just had their pre-construction meeting. They will be doing a lot of grading and hopefully some of the underground work before it gets too cold. ZP Planning Commission met last week and the owner of the vacant school property made a preliminary presentation of his plans for the property. They are proposing luxury apartments with some live/work space along Orchard Lake Road and other nice amenities. The concept was well received, but as of now it is a concept. There will be a lot of work in the coming months for our Attorney, Planner, Planning Commission and Martin, working on all the details and legal issues to make something like that work. They also showed a conceptual plan for the Detroit Edison property if they are able to acquire it. That will not be known for a while. Either way, we are confident that DTE will be moving in the next couple years and somebody will be able to purchase and develop it. Last month Martin failed to mention the results of the millage question after the election. He thanked the residents that passed the public safety millage by a very wide margin. We have always, and will continue to strive to keep Sylvan Lake the very unique, wonderful, vibrant place to live that it is, and offer things to our residents that very few city s do. Even those that are 50 times our size. He has said many times that when people first move-in they are truly in awe of what we have here. Then after they ve lived here a while, it becomes normal and we forget how special it is. He thanked everyone again. He thanked Dennise for ordering the holiday tree for the Community center. She set it up and decorated it all. He hopes those who celebrated Hanukkah had a wonder week, and wished everybody a Merry Christmas and Happy, safe New Year, and Happy Holidays. 2

3 CITY COUNCIL COMMENTS Salemi wished everyone happy holidays and 2019 a prosperous and great year. Cassar thanked Bob Dzenko for his service and stated it was great working with him. He thanked the Parks and Rec for putting on the Wine Tasting event. He wished everyone a Merry Christmas. Clarke agrees with Martin Sylvan Lake is a great community to live in. He thanked everyone who contributes their time and volunteers. He agreed the wine event was excellent and it gets better every year. The cookie exchange was fun as well and a great community family event. Clarke acknowledged the problems with the leaf collection. He thought it was smart of the Mayor to put on social media to encourage the call of action asking residents contact GFL with their street not being picked up. He did contact them online and believes it helped as his street got picked up. Zubrzycki wished everyone a happy holiday and harmonized Sylvan Lake is a great community to live in. He is on his third house. He thanked Bob Dzenko and acknowledged he learned a lot from him. Zubrzycki thanked the Parks and Rec also. Lorenz agreed with all that has been said by his fellow councilmembers. He thanked Bob Dzenko for his two phases on council and for his support to the city. He shared the holiday light judging is Saturday and Euchre Tournament is in January. ACTION ITEMS a. Appointments to Parks and Recreation Committee A Mayor Lorenz appointed Patrick Runk, Patty Harrop, Terry Etter, Danica Cousens, Jessica Clarke, Karen Berkfield and Debbie Booth to the Parks and Recreation Committee for Moved by Salemi, seconded Zubrzycki, to confirm the Mayor s appointments to the Parks and Recreation Committee for 2019 as stated. b. Appointment of Dock Committee Members A Mayor Lorenz appointed Patty Harrop, Brian Champa, Ed Robbins, Harry Kirsbaum, Pete Shelters, 3

4 Amy Greenwalt and Debbie Booth to the Dock Committee for Moved by Cassar, seconded Clarke, to confirm the Mayor s appointments to the Boat Dock Committee for 2019 as stated. c. Banking Institutions for 2019 F Martin explained City Council is required to approve the list of banking institutions that the city (Treasurer) will use for banking and investing during Flagstar Bank is still the city s primary bank. Moved by Salemi, seconded Clarke, to approve the list of banking institutions for 2019 as submitted. d. Proclamation -West Bloomfield Schools United We Walk R SC Martin explained this proclamation is in recognition of West Bloomfield School District United We Walk in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to be held January 20, 2019 at 2:30 p.m. The theme is MLK365 ON THE RUN What Are We Doing For Others? Organizational and/or community banners are welcomed in the walk down Orchard Lake Road and donations of canned food, toiletries and other personal items are encouraged to benefit Grace Center of Hope in support of the 2019 theme. Deb Macon, 25-year member of United We Walk and representative for the West Bloomfield School District, thanked Martin for providing the details and invited City Council and residents to attend. Macon recognized Councilmember Zubrzycki s daughter as a leader of this event every year. Mayor Lorenz thanked Macon for their efforts. Zubrzycki thanked Macon for recognizing his daughter. 4

5 Moved by Cassar, seconded Clarke, to adopt the Proclamation recognizing the West Bloomfield Schools United We Walk event as presented. Yes: Lorenz, Salemi, Zubrzycki, Cassar, Clarke PROCLAMATION ADOPTED e. Budget Amendment Allocation to Fund MERS B R Martin reviewed City Council has been discussing funding the accrued liability in our MERS pension fund. As of December 2017, we were around 69% and the minimum benchmark is 80%. In order for this money to be on the actuarial report for 2018 it has to be funded by December 31 st otherwise it won t show until the 2019 report comes out in Before City Council are budget amendments needed to make the payment prior to the year end. Zubrzycki added this is paying for obligations of pension benefits. The new law requires the city to fund the liability to at least 80%. He noted MERS interest rates are much better than what the city can get. He would still like to discuss, at a later date, 100% funding and the advantages of doing this. He understands Pleasant Ridge currently has gone this route. Lorenz explained this obligation is to the employees who will retire. It is the right thing to do so there isn t a burden on future residents to fund. The city has money in the General fund so there is no cost to the residents. This unfunded liability can affect the city s bond rating if it isn t funded. Currently the city has the highest rating it can get AA+. Moved by Cassar, seconded Zubrzycki, to approve the budget amendments as presented that will fund the Municipal Employee s Retirement System (MERS) to at least 80% of the unfunded liability as required. Yes: Salemi, Zubrzycki, Cassar, Clarke, Lorenz f. Adjourn to Closed Session - For The Purposes of Engaging in Collective Bargaining Discussions, at the request of the City Administration, as permitted Under Section 8C. Moved by Clarke, seconded Salemi, to adjourn to executive session for the purpose of collective bargaining discussions, at the request of the City Administration. Yes: Lorenz, Salemi, Zubrzycki, Cassar, Clarke 5

6 City of Sylvan Lake The meeting adjourned to closed session at 8:00 p.m. At 8:16 p.m. City Council reconvened the regular City Council meeting. CA Moved by Zubrzycki, seconded Cassar, to approve the changes discussed in closed session to the Police Union Contract for 12/12/18-6/30/21. NON-ACTION ITEMS a. Security for Ferndale Park, Restroom and Boat Launch b. Seawall Replacing Sections on Ferndale Mayor Lorenz reminded everyone to attend the Planning Commission meeting December 4 th to hear about the potential development at the Whitfield property. ADJOURNMENT Moved by Salemi, seconded Clarke, to adjourn the regular City Council Meeting. The meeting adjourned at 8:17 p.m. Dennise Dryden, City Clerk 6