Mayor Landry called the meeting to order at 7:00 P.M.

ROLL CALL: Mayor Landry, Mayor Pro Tem Gatt, Council Members Crawford, Fischer, Margolis, Mutch, Staudt

ALSO PRESENT: Clay Pearson, City Manager

Tom Schultz, City Attorney

Mayor Pro Tem Gatt added a review of the Animal Ordinance to Mayor & Council Issues.

Mr. Martin and Ms. Meyer made their second update of two years. They were happy to have their new president, Jean Meyer and to have a very good, strong coordinated group of employees at the hospital, ever-growing. Mr. Martin said they thrive under Ms. Meyer’s leadership.

Ms. Meyer explained the layout of Providence Park and stated the campus was 200 acres and they had room to grow. She noted the inpatient bed count started at 80 beds in 2008 and within a year there were 200 beds and have space for an additional 68 more beds. Ms. Meyer said there were 1,600 associates that worked in the hospital, which did not include those working on the campus and almost 1,500 physicians. Fiscal year 2010 was on target, they exceeded their budgets and there were over 11,000 admissions, 10,000 surgeries, over 1,800 births and 40,000 people were seen in the Emergency Room. She said, financially, they were in the black, the quality matrix was on target and their satisfaction scores were in the 99th percentile. Ms. Meyer explained the atmosphere of the hospital and campus and noted they offered all ranges of clinical services. She noted they, also, had an interpreter for the Asian community who had proved to be very valuable. She interprets for patients day and night, translated all their materials into Japanese, worked with the chef to fine tune their Japanese menu and worked with the nursing and clinical staff to make sure that the staff understood the culture and customs of Japanese populations to better serve their needs. Ms. Meyer said they also worked with the Novi Jewish Center to better meet the needs of the Jewish population. She commented they had many new surgeons on board. She explained their Occupational Health services with over 4,600 organizations and companies in Michigan and served municipalities and many school districts. Occupational Health provided programs that helped companies review their health care costs, claims data and workmen’s comp issues with the goal of increasing the health of their employees and decreasing the cost to the companies. They provide scholarships and have a Partner in Excellence Program with the Novi School system and over 250 students had participated. Ms. Meyer said they were very fortunate to have phenomenal leaders and thousands of staff that were the most compassionate and dedicated staff that she had ever seen.

Member Crawford said she had been to the hospital a few times and it was as good an experience as she ever could have anticipated. She said she had read that, in this economy, the brightest star in Oakland County was the medical services and programs, and was the one thing that was continuing to grow. She thought it was great that this was in their midst and that it had contributed a great deal to the Novi economy.

Mayor Pro Tem Gatt said Providence Hospital was the jewel of Novi and Ms. Meyer was one of the hardest working, most dedicated professional people ever to make her business home in Novi. He said Novi was very grateful and he thanked her and her staff and asked that she continue to embrace the diversity of Novi and that it was one of the things that made Novi great.

Mayor Landry said he often told people if they wanted to see what it was like if the hospital was run by a nursing staff, come to Novi. He said she was very patient oriented and it showed in the whole approach to patient services and he echoed what the previous speakers said.

Mr. Hayes updated everyone on the I-96 Area Transportation Study, which was bounded by 12 Mile Road to the north, Grand River Avenue to the south, Haggerty Road to the east and Napier Road to the west. He said they had been working with MDOT and their consultant, the Corradino Group, since February 2010 developing some alternatives that could possibly be implemented by the City. The goal of the study was multi-pronged to improve public safety, reduce congestion, improve accessibility throughout the corridor and enhance or foster ways to stimulate economic development within the study area.

Mr. Hartman stated they had been working closely with Mr. Hayes’ staff, MDOT, SEMCOG and the Road Commission of Oakland County over the last nine months meeting monthly. They collected a lot of new transportation data and had an online survey that 150 people responded to regarding what they wanted to see improved and they had and were still receiving a lot of good input. Mr. Hartman said they were looking at ITS and access management opportunities and they had two subs on their team, URS, who were helping them with some of the micro simulation modeling and the Greenway Collaborative, which was a non-motorized trying to make complete streets within the study area. He said they wanted to give Council lists of prioritized improvements, short, mid and long term out to 30 to 50 years so Council could continue to build on some of the Providence Park type successes. He said now they were in the middle of doing some quality of life evaluations regarding what roads should be widened, where were the bottlenecks, what were the alternatives and how would they work within the region, southeast Michigan and the State, as well as at a neighborhood level. He said there were only one or two ways to get across I-96, and they were going to look at ways to get across I-96 and bring the community back together. He said the evaluation would be done in a week and a draft report would be out with some recommendations but they hoped to get input from Council as well as the public. Mr. Hartman said they wanted to come back in December or January to share what they found out.

Mayor Landry asked if they would receive a report by the end of December, because Council would be doing their goal setting the first week of January. Mr. Hartman said yes, they would receive the report before goal setting.

Member Mutch asked what role MDOT would have formulating those final recommendations that would come from all of them and would it have to go through process with them as well. He said their focus was not just the City of Novi and asked how much influence that would have on the final outcomes they would present. Mr. Hartman said they were working collaboratively with MDOT and if they were off base, they would bring them back in line. Member Mutch said he would echo Mayor Landry’s comments.

Duane Noworyta, 24513 Queens Pointe, Meadowbrook Glens Subdivision, noted that some people had moved in nearby and were raising chickens. They had built a coop and the chickens were roaming free and he hoped Council would consider ordinance regarding this as he felt it affected property values. Mr. Noworyta said the Dog Ordinance regarded habitual barking basically. He thought there should be times they were not allowed out to bark, they couldn’t bark at people using the street or neighbors in their yards because that was a nuisance. He said it was uncomfortable to call Police on a regular basis as they were too important to spend on dog ownership.

A. Approve Minutes of:

1. September 13, 2010 – Regular meeting

B Enter Executive Session immediately following the regular meeting of September 27, 2010 in the Council Annex for the purpose of discussing pending litigation, labor negotiations and privileged correspondence from legal counsel.

C. Approval of a one-year extension of previously granted landscape waivers associated with the approval of the Preliminary Site Plan for Building G Partial Demolition at the Novi Town Center, SP09-22.　 The subject property is located east of Novi Road, north of Grand River Avenue, in the TC, Town Center District.　 The applicant is proposing to demolish a portion of Building G and construct a parking lot and associated landscaping in its place.　　

D. Approval of a resolution for a one-year extension of architectural façade consulting services contract with DRN & Associates, Architects, PC, through December 1, 2011.　

E. Approval of Macy’s Retail Holdings, Inc. (A New York Corporation) to transfer all stock interest in 2005 licensing year in 2010 Class C Licensed Business, located at 27550 Novi, Novi, Mi 48377, Oakland County, wherein sole stockholder, The May Department Stores Company (A Delaware Corporation) transfers 249,084,436 shares of stock to new stockholder, Milan Acquisition LLC (A Delaware Limited Liability Company) formerly known as Milan Acquisition Corp. (A Delaware Corporation) through merger, on August 30, 2005; and by dropping Milan Acquisition Corp. (A Delaware Corporation) as stockholder through transfer of 249,084,436 shares of stock to new stockholder, Macy’s Inc., (A Delaware Corporation) formerly known as Federated Department Stores, Inc. (A Delaware Corporation), on August 30, 2005 (Step 1).

F. Approval to set a Public Hearing Date on October 25, 2010 for the 2011 Community Development Block Grant Program.

G. Approval of Final Payment to Great Lakes Roofing, Inc., for Salt Dome Roof Repair, in the amount of $29,085.

H. Approval to award an amendment to the engineering services contract for construction engineering services related to 2010 Capital Preventative Maintenance - Major Roads Phase 2, to URS Corporation, for a not-to-exceed fee of $25,802.

I. Approval to award a contract for design engineering services for the　repair of the Cranbrooke Drive Bridge to URS Corporation for a not-to-exceed design fee of $20,500.

J. Approval of the Final Payment to Anglin Civil Constructors, Inc., for the Bishop and Taft Regional Stormwater Detention Basin Improvements project, in the amount of $24,370.79.

K. Approval to award an amendment to the engineering services contract for design engineering services related to the South Lake Drive Intersection Improvements to include the design of the 13 Mile Road Pathway Gap (at Martin Avenue) to Orchard, Hiltz & McCliment, Inc. (OHM) for a not-to-exceed design fee of $2,327.

L. Approval of Claims and Accounts – Warrant No. 828

Mr. Pearson said Council adopted this as a trial and it expires the end of October and they were seeking policy direction on what Council desired on this.

Member Crawford stated she still intended to vote no on this because she believed that the majority of Civic Center events and programs were designed for families and youth. She thought having alcohol consumption in a room next to a Scout meeting or Youth Theatre delivered the wrong message from the City. Member Crawford said whatever small amount of money they could make wasn’t worth the liability that was involved and she didn’t want to compete with the private sector.

Mayor Pro Tem Gatt said he would also continue to vote no. He felt that three parties in the past few months was no way to judge what could happen in the future. Also, he saw Council was going to allow liquor in the Township Hall, which was 50 feet away from the school and would do so because it had a Ten Mile Road address. He hoped that Council would, at least, get approval from the School Board before moving in that direction. He echoed Member Crawford in regard to competing with the private sector.

Member Margolis noted she was in favor of this when it first came before Council as a temporary request and thought it was a short term policy to try it out and see how the events went. She said she didn’t see it as a money issue but saw it as allowing people to use the facilities that were paid for if they want a small wedding, shower, etc. She thought the Township Hall was a lovely setting for a small wedding and she had no objection to continuing the policy. Member Margolis thought regarding the events, they had proved that it was a good policy to have on a limited basis and under the requirements they had in terms of risk management made a lot of sense.

Member Mutch stated he initially voted in favor of this and one of the reasons he was willing to support this was that it was temporary in nature and would give Council an opportunity to try it out. He said overall, based on the feedback, there had not been any significant problems with it and he was surprised there had only been three events that took advantage of it because staff indicated there was significant interest. He stated he was not willing to support the expansion of the policy to include the Township Hall location because it was clearly connected to the school parking lot, it was 500 feet from the high school and he thought that created a real problem. It opened up the potential that alcohol would be served at a venue the City was sharing with the high school at times when there might be after school/evening events at the high school where students would be present. Also, other than opening up and closing the building, there were no employees on site at that location like there were at the Civic Center or the Library. He felt it made monitoring and policing that use more difficult. If the policy was approved as currently written he would not support it.

Mayor Landry stated it was originally a six month trial period and he had seen no problems with it and for that reason he would support the motion.

Mr. Pearson said they had looked at all different opportunities for cost savings and restructuring contracting out this light fleet maintenance, oil changes and lubrications was something they could do. He said it involved all of the trucks, administrative and police vehicles. He said they received one bid and checked it out and they were comfortable with the group that submitted and they recommended. Mr. Pearson said they were fully vested with this and it gave them opportunities if there were openings down the road or they needed to create some openings with full time staff they could look at that.

Mayor Landry asked what the duration was of the proposed contract. Mr. Pearson said it was one year with a one year renewal.

Member Mutch asked Mr. Hayes to talk about the second alternative considered that was $7,700 and what it involved. Mr. Hayes said it was essentially a geo-tech style or a fabric that would be placed on the existing pavement and then a thin layer of asphalt would be placed on top of that as a wearing course. He said the purpose of that mat was to reduce reflective cracking that started at the bottom of the pavement and worked its way to the surface. He said if that interface was in there that would minimize or maybe eliminate a lot of that cracking. It was a relatively new technology and alternatively included and hoped to award but they didn’t have the budget available. He said it would be something they would test to see how it worked and possibly implement it on a larger scale on other projects. Member Mutch said this was something they had not used in the City and Mr. Hayes said he was correct. Member Mutch said the location Mr. Hayes indicated was Old Novi Road from Novi Road to 400 feet north, so it was a relatively short section of pavement and Mr. Hayes agreed. Member Mutch appreciated the fact that Mr. Hayes was looking to stick within a $200,000 line item set at budget time. However, he thought when staff came forward with alternatives like this that look at new opportunities to do some tests where they could look at new materials that could expand the life span of the roads and hopefully drive down the long term costs of maintenance. He said when looking at budget numbers that was what was hurting the City on the road side of the budget because there were hundreds of miles of roads to be maintained with a shrinking funding base. He asked the motion makers to consider a friendly amendment to add in Alternative 2 at $7,725, which was a low cost alternative to give staff the opportunity to try new materials in a discreet location to see if it worked. He felt it would be worth the $3,000 over budget and then ask staff to find an opportunity to save money in another project and make up the difference.

The maker and seconder of the motion accepted the amendment.

AUDIENCE COMMENT – NONE

Mr. Pearson said this was for the actual construction and the volumes on page 191 in the Council packet was what really broke down the big picture of how this broke out. He said this was multi-faceted with many funding sources to make this come together and the good news was there was action going on out there and this was one of the pieces to make sure that kept going.

Mayor Pro Tem Gatt stated he heard a rumor in Oakland County today that the project had been delayed and asked if that was true. Mr. Pearson said there would be lots of delays and hiccups and the latest was that they ran into some utilities, so some of the weekend closures had to be pushed back. Mayor Pro Tem Gatt asked how the meeting went with the business owners and what the impact would be with the business owners on Novi Road and on Ten Mile Road. Ms. Walsh said there were nearly 100 business owners that attended the meeting and a lot of great feedback was received. She said the RCOC partnered in the meeting sharing an overview of the schedule, the timeline and what could be expected. She said at the meeting businesses were looking at how they could partner together. They actually began brainstorming on different ways they could partner on marketing opportunities and helping each other and referring each other to the others business. She said it was still on schedule to begin construction early next spring and they were looking at an April full closure of the road.

Mayor Pro Tem Gatt asked if there had been discussion regarding relaxing sign ordinances or anything for the businesses that would be affected. Ms. Walsh said something was brought up by the businesses and obviously that would be a City Council decision as they had done for Ringing in the Holidays, Fifties Festival, etc. She said the City had, in previous construction times, had put up large signs announcing that the road was open to businesses but as far as placing sandwich boards or anything like that direction would be needed from City Council. Mr. Pearson thought that would be best when the closure happened next April. Mayor Pro Tem Gatt said he would be looking for Administration to bring that before Council.

Member Mutch said he would support the motion and thought this was a critical project for the City. He asked about Section 6 of the agreement, which said "Novi shared the estimated local match for part A of the project" and then "any project costs for part A above tri-party programming funding would be funded first with available tri-party program funds. If no tri-party program funds are available, any project costs for part A above $1.5 million will be funded 100% by Novi." Member Mutch stated that it sounded like any significant project overruns would be the responsibility of the City to cover. He asked Mr. Schultz if that was an accurate reading of that. Mr. Schultz said subject to Mr. Hayes disagreement that was how the agreements worked. He said the City would ultimately be on the hook for the amount up to the local match whatever the cost of the project turned out to be. Member Mutch asked if that was structured in a way that it followed the same percentages as the total project cost or was it once that entire amount of Federal funding was tapped out the RCOC would come back to and say Novi had to pay for the rest of it. He said the concern was that they were entering into an agreement for a project and saying they would pay the overruns but were not in charge of making sure there weren’t overruns. Mr. Schultz said that was the same in every one of these projects. Member Mutch said the project of this scale had the potential for some significant overruns but as long as they were aware of that they just had to be mindful that if there were any significant problems Novi might have to divert resources from other projects to make this whole. Mr. Pearson said they had also seen this with the Grand River project and some other major projects.

Mayor Landry asked Mr. Hayes if they would be monitoring the project and he said they would. He said if there were any unforeseen problems Council would know about it well in advance. Mr. Hayes said yes. Mr. Coburn pointed out Exhibit A of the Tri-Party Agreement that right off the top the Board of Road Commissioners was paying $1.2 million compared to Novi’s roughly $500,000. He said it might offset a little bit of the overruns, if there were any, Novi would still pay less than the RCOC was paying for the project.

Mr. Pearson said this was a procedural item to lock in the Tri-Party road funds. He said it was a program that was under threat for funding; it used to be funded at $1.5 million from each of the three parties, the communities, the county and the road commission. So, there was that large pool of money to improve county roads throughout Oakland County at the direction of the road commission. Mr. Pearson said last year Oakland County cut their share down to $1 million and this year in the initial budget they had zeroed that out. However, an amendment had been made in the county budget to move up their share to $500,000 for the current budget year that was still in play. His understanding was the Oakland Executive had said he would veto that for the 2011 program, so it shouldn’t affect this.

Mr. Pearson said this was the same package of roads and agreements that they had seen in previous years successfully.

Mayor Pro Tem Gatt said he was surprised that the City lost money on this deal and asked how they billed the county. Mr. Pearson said they had a formula based on the mileage and it was what it was. He said they took that chance but he thought they had made the recommendation based on that Novi provided a much higher level service on these arterial roads and that would only get worse for the road commission because they had a huge network. Mayor Pro Tem Gatt stated this was a very worthwhile endeavor; he was just surprised that the City lost money on it. He thought it was billed on a one for one basis.

Mayor Landry thought this evidences a commitment that the City had to plowing the roads to make sure roads were passable for residents in the winter. If they waited for the county to do it Novi’s at the end of the line and, in the winter, it might seem like forever. He said it was a shame that it cost the City money as the county should be taking care of this, but they’re not. He said it spoke to the commitment that the Public Works Department had and the kind of standards set for the residents.

Member Crawford stated she attended "Creating 21st Century Communities" and the one thing that struck her after hearing a number of speakers and attending several of the workshops was that it just affirmed that there were some difficulties in Novi with the streets being walkable or non-motorized transportation. She noted that Novi’s main arteries, where all the businesses were, were designed for cars not for people. So, she was happy that they were taking opportunities to look at walkability and the way the roads had been designed to try to include as much as possible non-motorized transportation opportunities.

Member Mutch stated the Walkable Novi Committee and staff and Master Plan consultants would be holding a project visioning workshop on Wednesday, September 29th at 7:00 P.M. at the Novi Public Library. Also, there was a online survey available through the City’s website and they were looking to get people to complete them before the workshop so there would be preliminary information from residents.

Mayor Pro Tem Gatt said it seemed that more and more they were hearing about attacks by vicious animals to the public. A few weeks ago a pit bull had attacked a child and had the child by the head and after that he received an email asking him about an ordinance in Novi prohibiting dangerous animals. He said he also received a phone call basically saying the same thing. He said he contacted Mayor Landry and Mr. Pearson and turned it over to Mr. Schultz and he responded in Council packets this week. He said today there were three pit bull attacks in the metro area. He said he didn’t know if there was a pit bull or dangerous animal problem in Novi. However, there were people raising chickens in a subdivision and sometimes an animal didn’t have to be vicious to be a nuisance and if a dog was barking all the time, it could be very bothersome. He thought it was time for the ordinance to be reviewed by the Ordinance Review Committee so they could look at enhancing the ordinance and looking at what it said now about harboring a dangerous dog. Farmington Hills had a registration process for a vicious animal and pay a fee.

Member Crawford said it had been reported to her that there was an incident with a pit bull that knocked down an older lady who was trying to hold her small animal and she was hurt and her dog was really mauled.

Member Margolis said based on the information received, as a member of the Ordinance Review Committee, she didn’t have a problem taking a look at the ordinance to see if it needed to be updated.

Mayor Landry agreed with Member Margolis and thought it would be a good idea to send this to Ordinance Review to look at and report back to City Council. Mayor Landry requested a motion.

AUDIENCE COMMENT – None

There being no further business to come before Council, the meeting was adjourned at 8:03 P.M.

_________________________________ ________________________________

David Landry, Mayor                                       Maryanne Cornelius, City Clerk

_________________________________ Date approved: October 11, 2010

Transcribed by Charlene McLean