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Votes at a glance: Commission approves consent contracts, property purchase and NEZ; schedules Oct. 20 hearings
Summary
The Kalamazoo City Commission approved its consent agenda of city contracts and purchases, authorized a property acquisition for a water station, and adopted the Porter Street NEZ. Item 20 was postponed to Oct. 20; the transformational Brownfield plan and related certificates will be considered at that meeting.
At its Oct. 6 meeting the Kalamazoo City Commission approved a broad consent agenda of routine contracts, purchase orders and staff recommendations and took several separate votes on capital and development items.
Consent agenda (items 1–19): The commission voted to approve items 1 through 19 as presented, and to postpone item 20 to the Oct. 20 meeting. The consent package included a range of water, wastewater and public-works contracts and purchases, among them:
- Liquid sodium bisulfate (PBS Chemical Solutions) — $110,124 - Design professional services for transmission loop project — $111,600 - 2025 tree planting contract (County Line Nurseries) — $115,250 - Liquid chlorine cylinders (Jones Chemical) — $151,000 - Wastewater rate development supplemental contract (Foster Group) — $180,000 - Primary settling roof and roof repairs (Division 7 Building Contractors) — $185,978 - Sodium hexametaphosphate (CARS LLC) — $199,320 - Fluorosilicic acid (Water Solutions Unlimited) — $200,000 - Downtown parking and mobility consulting contract extension (Mission North) — $239,440 - Water system corrosion control improvements supplemental (L.D. Doza Associates) — $248,799.06 - Elgin Pelican sweeper purchase (Bell Equipment Company via MyDeal) — $317,589 - Replacement of galvanized domestic water pipe at City Hall (RW Lepine) — $435,000 - Liquid phosphate (Alhorn Engineering) — $517,503.84 - Roll-off containers for street sweeping (Republic Services) — $556,800 - Sodium hypochlorite for wastewater (Raul Chemical) — $693,875
The consent agenda motion passed on a roll call vote with commissioners recorded as voting in favor (several commissioners noted present earlier in the meeting; one commissioner had briefly left the room during the roll call). The commission also approved public-hearing resolutions to consider tax-exemption certificates for two redevelopment projects on Oct. 20.
Regular agenda votes:
- Purchase of 6086 East Michigan Avenue: The commission approved acquisition of 6086 East Michigan Avenue from Scott and Sarah Smelker for $249,300 for a site that city staff said will be used for a new pumping/transfer station to link pressure districts and improve water-system operations. Director James Baker told the commission the parcel was available, not residential, and was acquired without use of eminent domain. The motion to approve the purchase was made by Commissioner Hoffman and passed by roll call (recorded yes votes included Commissioner Hoffman, Commissioner Bridal, Commissioner Wilson, Vice Mayor Hess, Mayor Anderson, Commissioner Decker).
- Adoption of Porter Street NEZ: (See separate article). The commission adopted the resolution establishing the NEZ for the Porter Street block; vote recorded in the NEZ article.
Administrative and procedural votes:
- Agenda adoption: The commission approved the meeting agenda as adjusted (moved the city manager candidate interview list forward) by voice vote.
- City manager recruitment items: The commission conducted a confidential ranked-ballot process to identify finalists for the city manager interviews and later confirmed and announced the finalists (see separate article). The commission took a procedural motion to table and later remove from the table item L1 during the meeting to allow recruiter confirmation.
Several items approved on the consent agenda are contracts with multi-hundred-thousand-dollar values affecting water, wastewater, street sweeping and downtown mobility work. Staff noted that some contracts (for example, the commercial-rehabilitation and NEZ items tied to Brownfield projects) will return for public hearings on Oct. 20.
