Highland Park City Council
Highland Park City Council12050 Woodward Avenue Highland Park, MI 48203 (Directions)
City Council Chambers 2nd floor
Note: Council meetings begin at 7 p.m. but are preceeded by a workshop at 5:30 p.m. Assignments are only for the 7 p.m. council sessions, but occassionally the workshop may still be in progress when you arrive or join the Zoom.
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Reporting
Edited and summarized by the Detroit - MI Documenters Team
Highland Park City Council voted to approve next year's budget as prepared and without amendments proposed by Councilmember Khursheed Ash-Shafii. Council also passed a 90-day moratorium on enforcing the rental ordinance, so changes can be made and approved by the law department.
Meeting called to order at 7:01. All members present.
Mayor’s remarks: Highland Park received award for efforts on water infrastructure improvement. Mayor stresses difference between “delinquent” and “defaulted”
Citizen participation (comments about agenda items):
Man asks for items 5 and 6 to be approved: Juneteenth parade permit and proposed budget
Woman speaks on item 8: any investigation done about utilization and repairs of current mowers? Could use money for more pressing needs
Citizen participation (comments about agenda items):
Man speaks on item 6 (proposed budget): says he wasn’t able to access proposed budget online, concerned about transparency
Woman speaks on item 8 (mowers): people use mowers to joy ride, potentially while intoxicated
Item 5: parade permit for Juneteenth Community Outreach
Passed/approved unanimously
Item 5: parade permit for Juneteenth Community Outreach
Passed/approved unanimously
Item 6 (proposed budget)
Ash-Shafii wants to approve with own amendments. Thomas expresses skepticism about Ash-Shafii’s amendments, insinuates he’s unqualified.
Ash-Shafii is concerned that budget raises mayor’s salary too much.
Ash-Shafii says $1,600 unapproved removed from his CDAC.
Also raised concerns that court budget is too high for such a “little ass court”.
Thomas says Ash-Shafii is reading the proposed budget wrong and misunderstanding it.
Manica: asks when the deadline for approving the budget is (apparently answer is Friday after first Monday in May). She is also concerned that she doesn’t understand the budget.
Manica says budget can be amended throughout the year too.
Ash-Shafii says Manica is hypocritical for asking him to explain his proposed amendments when administration won’t explain the original budget to him.
Thomas says council will not lie (implying that Ash-Shafii is making false statements).
Martin: certain budget items (from Ash-Shafii’s amended proposal) need explaining. Says she agrees with some of it but not all.
Ash-Shafii questions why Budget line for Council for “contractual services for $15,000” is needed. He reads through other things he think should be cut including:
-Overtime pay for mayor
-Contractual services for fire department
Thomas shares screen to show public how many presentations, meetings, and workshops Council had about the budget since early April. Argues that Council had ample opportunities to question and amend budget.
Motion to approve budget with Ash-Shafii’s amendments is accepted.
Manica and Thomas said no, but motion passed.
Resolution to accept item 7 (Michigan Dept of Labor and Economic Opportunity grant for Firefighter Turnout Gear) is passed.
Resolution to allow DPW to purchase one heavy duty commercial zero turn lawnmower.
Ash-Shafii asks if drivers are trained. Robert Burgess from DPW says not all are trained.
DPW currently has four mowers in various states of disrepair. Burgess says city needs to invest in better equipment.
Resolution to allow DPW to purchase one heavy duty commercial zero turn lawnmower.
Thomas pulls up graph to show how much land DPW mows.
Motion carried.
Resolution accepting 2025 FDCVT grant approved.
Resolution to issue RFP for vehicle towing, storage, and clean up. Motion carried.
Citizen participation:
-Woman says city doesn’t have enough street lights and is disappointed about the public school situation in HP. Also says Council needs to approve more land parcel purchases.
Thomas replies Council is not the School Board, but agrees with her concerns about schooling in HP
Woman is extremely upset that budget was not provided to everyone. She targets a comment at Ash-Shafii but he says that he’s not her council person, which makes her very upset. A couple officers remove her from podium. Very tense moment.
Mayor speaking during citizen participation: says it violates charter to switch out the budget as Council did tonight. City council cannot bring own budget forth. They can only make recommendations to change it.
Ash-Shafii argues that he amended the budget and did not propose an entirely new one.
Citizen participation con’t:
-Woman urges people to care about where they live and help each other out. Wants more public trash cans to limit litter.
-treasurer of HP speaking: says she’s purposely being interrupted. Thomas asks for her to be removed.
Treasurer explains that she ran out of time to print more copies of the budget.
A comment not worth the huge argument that preceded it. What a mess of a meeting tonight.
Citizen: asks for salaries to be broken down and explained in the budget. Says he got notices of assessment from income tax department indicating that he owed city money, but city owed him money. Wants income tax dept to be straighten out.
Thomas threatens to remove people who speak over each other or go over time because Detroit City Council would never accept this kind of behavior.
Citizen: concerned about the culture of the Council, especially when it comes to foul language. Questions Thomas’s May 5 comment about city or water department being run by a “cartel”. Asks why citizens’ questions never seem to get answered.
Another citizen: says police are being used by Mayor to intimidate her because she speaks her mind and stands up for HP residents. Says as a former city employee she is being harassed by Mayor.
Next commenter: asks about treasurer’s role and why treasurer is involved in the budget process at all. Asks if amended budget (which treasurer worked on) was accepted. Thomas confirms that it was but says that may change during Council Affairs.
President of district 3 CDAC speaking: concerned about money being spent without approval or knowledge
Resident of Bishop Moor Apartments: says she left message to council person about street sign blocking sidewalk on southwest corner of Manchester and Second, concerned about exposed wires.
Policeman raises concerns that amended budget involves cuts that harm public safety. Also says Police are not being used to harass woman who spoke earlier. Says there was an outstanding warrant and they asked for her phone number so they could let her know about it without having to arrest her.
Online speaker: proposes road named or mural done to honor Donald Goines in HP.
Council Affairs: Thomas starts by saying council is in litigation now because of things said during Council Affairs. Warns people to keep their personal business out of this discussion and reminds people that he can cut off council affairs period.
Ash-Shafii:
Says Ordinance 150.080 forces residents to turn certain properties into rentals and pay rental fees. This issue was raised during citizen participation in last meeting.
Martin:
Requests motion to suspend the rules. Motion passes. Makes motion to rescind her “yes” vote on the amended budget. Motion passes. Makes motion to approve original budget as presented by mayor. Motion passed, budget approved.
Martin:
Motion to suspend the rules again. Motion carries. Makes motion to suspend rental ordinance until it is amended or 90 days has passed. Motion carries.
Martin:
Boys and Girls Club has rental space available for events like baby showers, birthdays, etc. Scholarship for summer camp application open.
Manica:
Says she wants to raise ethical concerns for the Council. She specifically calls out:
-using position for personal gain
-not disclosing conflicts of interest
-maintain civility and respectful conduct
Voices support for lot sales to add housing and money for the city.
Robinson:
Motion to suspend the rules. Motion carries. Motion to hold special meeting on May 27 at 7pm to amend the budget. Motion does not carry.
Robinson: says she suggested to Mayor that citizens get first dibs on buying land in the city, but was denied by mayor due to concerns about lawsuits. Says she just wanted to note that.
Thomas: rule proposed that would ban cellphones at the high school where he works. He’s against this but urges people to engage their children and limit screen time.
Adjourned at 9:24
This concludes my live coverage of the Highland Park City Council meeting. For more info check out the link below.
If you believe anything in this live coverage is inaccurate, please email us at documenters@outliermedia.org with “Correction Request” in the subject line.
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Agency Information
Highland Park City Council
Pursuant to the Highland Park Charter, Chapters 5 and 6, the City Council of Highland Park is comprised of 5 members; 2 at-large and one from each council district. The council exercises all of the legislative powers of the city, except as otherwise stated by law, and provides for the public’s peace and health, and for the safety of persons and property.
The council meets in regular session in the established Council Chamber on the 1st and 3rd Monday of each month.