Highland Park City Council

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Had a brief tech hiccup on my end, but now I’m good to go.

Meeting commences with a moment of silence for a community member who recently suffered a fire–a “pillar of the community.”

Highland Park, MI, city council approves minutes and agenda.

Now Mayor Glenda McDonald addresses the Council. She’s a relatively new mayor and a lot of people seemed to be rooting for her when she ran.

HP’s citywide block club meeting is coming up. More info can be gotten at City Hall.

Highland Park State of the City Address is coming up at Healing Springs Baptist Church on Hamilton. I missed the date.

Mayor McDonald says Highland Park city departments are working hard.

If you see anyone from the City out there doing something that isn’t right, let her know.

Public Comment.

This is what they describe as an “in person and online” meeting, which I like.

Chat is closed on zoom but you can raise your hand during comment to speak.

No comments at this time.

Here’s a link to today’s Highland Park City Council meeting, by the way:

https://highlandparkmi.gov/getattachment/f892c8ed-9ee1-4d56-b44d-15ebe088b502/230320.aspx

Khursheed Ash-Shafii reads a portion of the proposed Animal Ordinance changes. This portion is about the ability of officials to enter a facility where an animal with rabies is suspected to be.

“When I hear this, I hear lawsuit. Entering people’s homes. I understand that you have probable cause.”

Councilman Ash-Shafii suggests requiring getting a warrant from the “very amenable judge.”

The Animal Control officer says they’ve always gotten a search warrant, but he doesn’t object to adding a clause

Councilman Ash-Shafii says he knows what it’s like to have City laws used against you.

They talk and come to an agreement. Animal control says “You can rest assured… that we’re not banging down people’s doors.” https://t.co/fV9AEzHriI

Having run a bunch of public hearings myself at an old job, I appreciate how carefully this councilman read all this material.

This is a niche comment but so many people never read their meeting packet.

Councilman Ash-Shafii says that you know where this is going to go, and raises how a $50 ticket for his son’s dog barking in his home ballooned into $175.

He does not want to pay that.

The Animal Control officer says they never go looking for complaints. Someone would have called it in, and typically people do that when they are trying to sleep.

An attorney for the City steps in and says they don’t always control the fees, the courts do (If I heard correctly)

Councilman Ash-Shafii recounts his experience getting a ticket for a barking dog.

He says that while they say they make multiple attempts to resolve the situation before ticketing, “In my situation that doesn’t happen.”

I may be incorrect about the identity of the man speaking for Animal Control. The Councilman is addressing him as Chief.

This is my first HP meeting and I’m eager to learn. I think this may be Interim Police Chief James McMahon https://t.co/3pr7e2Nmbz

Councilman Ash-Shafii raises a question on the Highland Park Animal Ordinance limiting people to three dogs. What about long term residents who already have more?

They don’t typically take them, but have the power to.

Council President Pro Tem Sharmaine Robinson asks, what about the dogs protecting marijuana grow houses?

Sometimes they’ve been bred to be aggressive, says the Chief. They would address them the same as any other dog.

They are allowing citizens to weigh in on this issue only, amending the administrative code about the Animal Ordinance.

A man approaches the podium but they have him sit down since he had another issue to discuss.

Motion to move the animal ordinance changes to the second reading.

Al-Shaffi votes no. Yes from all other councilpeople. It passes.

Next item: Resolution authorizing federal funding for road repairs. Specifically STP-U surface transportation dollars.

The city worker presenting it says eligible roads are portions of Rosa Parks, Oakman, Puritan, Hamilton, John R, and Manchester.

As a planner, different roads are managed by different levels of government and it’s very complex who fixes and regulates what.

Part of Oakland is going to be repaired soon. If I heard right, it’s the part south of the Davison.

They’re designing the north half (I wonder if bike lanes would be possible!)

Oakland is so bumpy when you cross into HP from Detroit. Glad it’s getting repaired.

The stretch of Manchester from Woodward to Oakland is what they’re going to submit for these repair funds.

They decide based on its eligibility for the funding, the condition of the road, and traffic counts (how many people use the road).

Highland Park roads are so bumpy y’all.

They’re so bumpy! Side streets west of Hamilton are like a country road.

Really glad that a few are getting repairs. So many more need it.

There’s a rating system for road condition, with 1 being “terrible.”

The roads targeted for replacement were 1s and 2s.

“If you were 1 in ‘18, you’re negative now” he says.

The project is about $900,000 and federal money would cost $741k (if I heard right), so the City’s match would be the balance of that.

Councilman Ash-Shafii expresses concern that Manchester and Oakland would be right back in the same condition in ten years. They have a lot of truck traffic.

Why not get these industrial users to help pay for it?

I use Oakland a fair amount and can vouch, it’s truck land over there

Response: “The roads should be designed to handle truck traffic.” When roads fail, they fail at the bottom.

Were trucks running on local side streets, they’d go after them.

I would really love to hear a complete streets / bikes and pedestrians plan included in these Highland Park rebuilds.

I have no idea if HP requires that. Oakland is highway-ish in Highland Park but it doesn’t have to stay that way.

The Detroit section is popular for bikes.

Councilwoman Martin asks if this will be a connector route and mentions the QLINE possibly coming through HP someday. I didn’t fully follow her question

Motion from Councilwoman Martin to authorize federal funding for road repair via Wayne County, second Councilwoman Manica.

Motion passes unanimously.

Next agenda item is from the Finance Department, reviewing the financial statement.

Councilwoman Martin asks a question I can’t hear–she tends to turn towards people and away from the mic when she addresses someone. It’s just an expense report, they say

I had forgotten that Highland Park’s City Administrator is Cathy Square who used to work in Hamtramck.

Councilpeople Ash-Shafii, Martin, and one other Councilwoman vote no.

They will not receive the finance report.

I believe that the third no was Robinson, but that moved fast.

Public works: A DPW worker says they’re trying to buy a tree cutter. There’s trees that are too big for the City to handle. He cites specific streets with large trees on them. “My staff can’t handle it.”

Martin: “We don’t have the equipment, the manpower?”

DPW: “Yes. We don’t have the equipment, the manpower, or the expertise.” It’s a liability for the City, he says.

If someone else does it, that’s off the City. “I don’t have the staff or the equipment.”

Clarification, this is seeking approval to seek tree trimming services for the City of Highland Park, MI, because they do not have the capacity to do more than small tree issues

Councilwoman Martin asks if they’d remove the tree from the roots since sometimes tree roots get into the pipes. He can’t say for sure. Sounds like some pretty large trees have fallen.

Martin has had tree issues before!

HP has some large tall trees in parts of town, which is not necessarily the case everywhere across Detroit.

Councilman Ash-Shafii says that when they’re working on other sides of town, don’t forget District 3. “Don’t neglect the other sides of town.” It has been a tendency of the City, he says.

The DPW representative says “I will be fair in every area. I promise.”

Martin asks about the process. “They can call me or they can email me,” says the DPW worker. Then it goes onto the list.

“This is for an emergency tree cutter at this time” that they’re seeking a tree trimmer for.

Apologies for missing names on this one, but in some cases I don’t think they give them!

Multiple times they’ve referenced how they all know each other in Highland Park and how these meetings can get informal.

Seeking a professional tree trimmer for HP passes unanimously.

The Chief – I think the (interim?) police chief, same man speaking earlier – returns.

Resolution for the City of Highland Park to purchase a K-9 vehicle for Highland Park police.

It’s a used K-9 unit with 17,000 miles on it. The agency they’re getting it from is disbanding their K-9 unit (I have questions about what happened there!!!!!)

Their intention is to reinstate having a K-9 officer. Their old one aged out of being able to work.

The Chief says getting a K-9 for Highland Park would “enhance search and rescue” and depending on training they could also help with other things.

They’re at the mercy of whether or not a dog is available.

Search and rescue includes if someone is missing, and “tracking criminals” such as “from a B&E if they go on foot.”

A councilwoman off camera asks when they would get the dog if they approve the vehicle. They’ll come ask for funds for the dog and officer training, he responds.

It would be a ten week program where the animal the new handler train together, says the Chief.

Councilman Ash-Shafii asks that they make sure they don’t abuse the animal, he doesn’t want to hear that someone got mauled by a cop dog

“We’re creating a department to be respectful to citizens.”

The Chief says they sometimes have to call other agencies to bring dogs, and “sometimes they flat out tell us they’re not available.”

Still personally mulling what Councilman Ash-Shafii said–definitely have heard of police dogs being misused (Not in HP specifically)

The Chief also says that the dog will be “great PR” for the department and they can bring it to schools.

Council President Thomas speaks in a brokenhearted, halting voice about the late police officer Collin Rose, who was a k-9 officer. “He was my friend.” He encourages a memorial name for the dog.

The Chief says he was there that night and there “was not a dry eye in the house”

Resolution regarding getting a K-9 vehicle for Highland Park, MI, police passes Council unanimously.

HP council’s procedure is that every single time, they put forth a motion first and then discuss it.

I don’t know that I’ve encountered this exact parliamentary procedure before.

Next agenda item is water dept items.

Glad to transcribe this portion of the agenda if you’d like. This is moving very fast and I wanted this to be accurate. https://t.co/iifs0mGkSl

Now someone from City Engineering speaks. He’s the same person who spoke about road repairs. He gave his name this time (noting that he didn’t before) but I missed it.

These are sewer repairs, from the sound of it. They need to replace manholes and tighten up joints. They are paying Detroit for that, and “we don’t need to pay for that.” And “we can’t afford to pay for that, with the state that the City’s in.”

The work needed in Highland Park would include “jetting sewers” with water to blast out debris, and lining about a mile a year. They would be replacing about 18 water structures.

This agenda item is to set a public hearing about water and sewer issues in HP.

Council President Pro Tem Sharmaine Robinson asks about the flooding. The City Engineering rep says there was flooding when they got here in 2016-17. Part of the issue is the amount of sediment filling up space in the pipes

This should reduce water coming into basements and into streets, although street flooding has improved somewhat already, he says.

I support people speaking up about basement flooding............ whew

Motion passes unanimously

Next item is submittal for the 2023 financially distressed cities and townships grant application, being submitted by several city depts including engineering and parks.

Since I haven’t noted it in a while, this is a livetweet of the Highland Park City Council meeting here in Michigan, March 20, 2023.

I’m tweeting for the Detroit Documenters.

I missed the first item but the second one would be resurfacing the parking lot at the Highland Park rec center. They also want to do green improvements to minimize runoff, perhaps pervious pavement, which would reduce the amount of water going into sewers

The Councilwoman says she really likes the connectivity to the Joe Louis Greenway.

Councilman Ash-Shafii asks about sidewalk repairs, and about repair of a road that is “like Swiss cheese”

Financially distressed cities grant application item passes unanimously

A commenter from the board of review speaks. She notices other cities and countries “manage to keep their roadways up to standard.”

Why is it bad in America and Highland Park?

She also wants to know if there is a citizens’ commission re: police

Yes there is a police commission in Highland Park, responds President Thomas. They meet monthly on the 4th Wednesday, via zoom.

No response re: road quality

A commenter asks if either of the grants would address places in Highland Park where water inlets in the street have been cemented over by shoddy workmanship. “Not only is that damaging streets, the citizens are being charged a water runoff fee for water that isn’t running off.”

Apparently there were inlets in the middle of the street but they were paved over, says a councilwoman.

City Engineering responds, but he’s on the far end of the room and not being picked up by the microphone.

The commenter says “Prayerfully, if you find any other grant that would address that, bring that before Council. Prayerfully.”

He thanks Council for being responsive.

A commenter from a senior building says “HELP! Cause this is crazy. It used to be one of the best senior living homes in the city. Now it’s like a project.”

Broken elevators in Downs Manor and other HP senior buildings have been an ongoing issue. I’ve heard repeatedly about it

Mayor McDonald says she’s reached out to HUD to see why funds are not being used and the buildings are not being fixed.

The stuff I’ve heard about senior buildings in HP has been really bad.

A commenter asks if Highland Park has code enforcement.

“I don’t live like that. It’s people on my block that chooses or they live like that.”

When she has called in the past, people didn’t answer their doors and weren’t ticketed.

“I don’t want the rodents.”

Having worked for another severely financially strapped city, I can only imagine how HP’s code enforcement is. We barely had any where I was, and citizens knew which days weren’t monitored.

Council President Thomas says he rides around the city every day for at least 30 minutes.

Another Councilwoman says she’s working on amending the blight ordinance.

Discussion from the commenter about whether parking on your lawn is illegal.

Mayor McDonald says they do have a code enforcer and there’s days when he has to be in court instead of riding around.

They’re working on updating the ordinance “for those citizens to receive more than just a ticket” so they have more recourse.

Highland Park Mayor McDonald says to call the police on people if they’re parking on the grass.

I wonder if HPPD has resources to deal with that versus other issues, genuinely don’t know how busy they are

Mayor McDonald says she will personally ride by the house the commenter mentioned to check on it. They will make sure they’re “taking care and putting out the violations” once the nuisance ordinance is updated.

I can’t hear the Councilwoman who is speaking.

Depending on various speakers’ distance to the microphone it can be hard to hear. I have volume set to max so other speakers are really loud while some are inaudible

A commenter says she’s looking to find who owns problem properties–she lists 20 Bartlett, the Red Apple, the warehouse behind it, the cable company, and the Model T factory.

She says when she asks about property she’s often told it’s a grow house.

Commenter says she didn’t know what a grow house was but then she smelled it.

Council President Thomas says all grows in HP are illegal.

He suggests checking Land Grid or the Wayne County site to figure out who owns it.

Commenter says squirrels are a problem, what is Highland Park doing? They came through her friend’s wall, she saw the paws.

She claims she saw a squirrel sitting in her gutter reading the paper today.

The City isn’t doing anything.

A councilwoman suggests things like terminix. The City of Highland Park has bags of rat poison.

(Personally not a fan, you never know what other creature will eat a rat!)

“We’re doing the best that we can as city council, the administration of the city, by providing the poisons” for rodents.

Is it possible to help your neighbors sweep up their leaves, close their trash cans, a councilwoman asks?

The resident says she was told by a City worker to not put down poison. They suggested getting traps.

They will follow up with her.

Mayor McDonald says she’s referring to Gabriel Town Center, within the Gabriels. It’s private property. They can’t put down poison bc of the presence of children playing. They have to work with the owners of that property to come up with a solution.

They could be held liable if something were to happen to a child from rat poison.

Apparently the problem is pretty bad – the Mayor knows someone who has lost two cars to the rats (I’m adding here: They eat wires inside of cars).

The city is looking at alternatives such as things with scents that rates hate. The woman claims she’s tried all of those and “We caught a squirrel with a handful of moth balls” (she’s joking a bit, but has tried moth balls in her garden bed without success)

A commenter wants to give compliments to HPPD.

He recounts watching kids walk to school past abandoned apartments, and a cop helped to make sure they were safe to go past.

He adds “Mayor McDonald, why are you blaming it on the black squirrels?”

Laughs from the room.

An online commenter says she lives next door to a house that’s burned out. Concerned citizens boarded the front, but the entire back is still open. “It is a severe liability.” Dogs have been falling into the back of the house, she says

The previous administration promised to get the house demolished and didn’t (Again this is a fairly new mayor for HP).

The house on the other side of her is also an issue. 4-5 people have purchased it and walked away. Water ran in the house for years.

The second house is “like a forest, it’s tearing up my fence” and causing birds to nest in her gutters.

The mayor says the burnt home is owned by the County. She spoke to the County land bank director. The County land bank will be tearing down at least 102 houses, she’ll try to add it to the list

The other house is privately owned and she’ll see what they can do, they’ll investigate.

Public comment concludes.

Councilman Khursheed Ash-Shafii says there’s a lot happening at the Rec Center. Come into district 3 and enjoy activities!

T-ball, an easter egg hunt, and ballroom dancing. “Sue is doing a great job at the rec center.”

Councilwoman Martin says the CBAC meeting is coming up (don’t know what that is).

She gives her number.

She would love to see the City transformed.

Councilwoman Manica asks about casework for a resident.

There will be a Highland Park business workshop - Thu Mar 30, let’s talk business! For current and prospective biz owners

12-1:30 at Michigan Works! on Manchester

State of the City Highland Park will be on March 23, Thursday, at Healing Springs Baptist Church.

Spring cleanups and block club cleanups are coming up in Highland Park, Michigan. Bring your ID to the DPW yard and ask them about pickups.

Council President Pro Tem Sharmaine Robinson: “I just want you to know that I love you, and I love Highland Park.”

Council President Thomas speaks about the issues with senior housing and the long history of issues. He says when they come in and close your housing commission, there’s serious issues. It sounds like there was a generator that wouldn’t cover enough during power outages

Continental houses about 14% of Highland Park, so they have leverage to talk to them, says Thomas.

President Thomas encourages talking to your neighbors regarding parking on the lawn.

He notes the common cultural foundation of your family being from the country in HP–referencing the Great Migration–and says his people are from Alabama.

Talk to your neighbors

Council President Thomas says you’re not a bad person if you get a citation. Please respond to them, call them back. Also create a record if there’s an issue, let them know.

“The City is the first place to go as it relates to property issues, not necessarily City Council” but the building dept, economic development, etc. “We can be an ear for you, but we can necessarily be an arm.”

Council President Thomas talks about the Garden Resource Program, which he participates in.

He suggests it and has used it for many years (This reminds me I plan to sign up if I can!)

https://www.detroitagriculture.net/grp

Council President Thomas lays out how he has “harvested, I think my record is 24 squirrels” in one summer.

He suggests an air gun or a simple pellet gun, to stay within the ordinance.

Council President Thomas suggests the Detroit Collaborative Design Center if you want to get renderings or other help for a community-based design project

https://www.dcdc-udm.org

Highland Park City Council meeting adjourned at 9pm.

The zoom instantly closes.

This was my first Highland Park City Council meeting.

One thing that struck me was the small town friendly vibe.

Lots of people not introducing themselves because they all know each other, lots of city workers simply referred to by first name (like Sue who runs the rec center).

Another theme was the City’s capacity to respond to issues: Code violations, large trees falling, abysmal road conditions, flooding, among others.

It’s a struggle.

I’ll editorialize here that HP deserves so much more resources than they have.

Next HP meeting, I’ll do more googling to try to find officials’ photos beforehand, to counteract the way that no one gives their name.

I’m used to people giving names and to that info being easier to find with a quick google.

Lessons for next time

Highland Park City Council members’ photos are not posted with their names on the City website:

https://www.highlandparkmi.gov/Government/City-Council.aspx

I appreciate a hybrid meeting.

It means people who do best with IRL and people who do best with (or require) online, all get taken care of.

I will say in this case, sometimes you can’t hear people if they’re far from a mic or turn away from it. But I caught most of it.

This concludes my live-tweeting of the City of Highland Park City Council meeting for tonight.

Something inaccurate? Email documenters@outliermedia.org with the subject “Correction Request.”

Go to https://detroit.documenters.org for more coverage.

Postscript:

I was still thinking about Councilman Ash-Shafii’s repeated insistence that his district, District 3, gets passed over by the City of Highland Park for resources and services.

I wanted to see where that is.

I have been digging around for a map of Council districts in Highland Park and this is the only thing I can find online, from 2019.

It also includes voting precincts.

https://highlandparkmi.gov/Reference/Forms-Permits-Applications/Clerks-Office/NEW-map-polling-locations-(complete).aspx

If you look at that map, you may notice two things.

North is to the left, instead of up.

And it took me a few minutes to realize this, but it’s a scan of somebody’s hand-done highlighting.

Someone immaculately highlighted and scanned a paper map.

Given Highland Park’s many, many personnel and resource issues, I wouldn’t be surprised if they can’t afford a GIS license and to pay someone who knows how to use GIS.

I wonder if this is something the local mapping community could help with.

My guess about Councilman Ash-Shafii’s district was right. It’s the westernmost slice of Highland Park.

You can feel the lack of investment, that’s why I figured he was likely over there.

Anyway wrapping this thread for now!