![]() “It think there’s people that realize that coming up with a ‘master plan’ and deploying this all at once and making the compliance firm and the administration try to handle $94 million all at once is reckless. I really, really would caution people on that,” he said. You’re going to vote no on once in a generation money and god bless you with those recall ballots if you vote no on something that your constituents really care about. There are hurting people in the community but you don’t want to vote on anything until you see every dollar allocated. “To sit here and say you’re going to ‘die on a hill’ and you’re going to vote no on anything because there’s not a ‘master plan’ you’re just hurting your constituents. “It makes sense to approve things as you go and figure stuff out when you have 20 to 30 per cent left of the money,” Pfeiffer contended. We owe it to ourselves, we owe it to the city and we owe it to our constituents to have a full plan before we start voting for anything related to ARPA.”Ĭouncilperson Dennis Pfeiffer (Ward 8). ![]() It’s just not fair to other businesses and non-profits that want to apply.”Ĭouncilperson Herkenroder (Ward 7) added, “It is fiscally irresponsible for us to piecemeal resolution after resolution and spend this money like it’s $94 and not $94 million. “I would like to prevent the city from having to spend money on that. “I think it would open up the city for litigation if we just start bringing in resolutions on our own without having a proper process in place,” Worthing said. Also, the process for businesses and non-profits will be that they will apply and then they’re all considered at one time. Worthing explained the reason she made a motion to drop the resolution is because, “we are still holding our ward ARPA meetings. In last week’s council meeting Worthing had a heated exchange with a representative from the NFFM, Pastor Bernard Drew. Initially Councilperson Eva Worthing (Ward 9) made a motion to have the resolution dropped. $600,000 for North Flint Food Market council votes for it to stay in committeeįor the next five hours, the group argued over the resolution to allocate $600,000 from the city’s $94 million ARPA funds to the proposed North Flint Food Market (NFFM). Mays added he’s not scared to talk “frank.” Mays admitted he planned on voting to approve the change order but made the point that he believes different projects in different parts of town are treated differently by council. Mays added, by example, the NFFM is more heavily “scrutinized” and “screened” by council as to the very same issues that were being raised for a $300,000 change order on a Miller Road reconstruction project scheduled for next year. He motioned towards Councilperson Dennis Pfeiffer (Ward 8) and said Pfeiffer’s ward, in the south end of Flint, was more “white” than his ward (Ward 1) on the north end. Mays contended that the council treats projects differently that come before council based on where a project is located in town. The council ultimately voted, 7 to 2, to set a date for a public hearing on rules governing the city council to remain on the finance committee agenda for two weeks. Mays held up a green folder containing a 2017 draft version and asked the council, “Aren’t these the rules we follow?” Various versions of council rules have been floating about for years.Ĭouncil President Eric Mays (Ward 1), who often almost affectionately refers to the council rules as “these goofy rules,” spoke up. But in Wednesday’s meeting even members of the city council themselves were confused about which set of rules they were to follow. Those rules, once established, would be the “holy grail” from which the council meetings will operate. Each governing body throughout the country tweak the rules to their own liking. The council rules are largely based on a national standard set of rules for local governing bodies. The city council has had plans for years, since 2017, to overhaul the set of rules established to conduct their meetings. The discussion of the NFFM was a carry-over from last week’s city council meeting and details from that meeting are noted at the end of this article. ![]() The other was a resolution to allocate $600,000 of the city’s $94 million federal ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) stimulus funds to the North Flint Food Market (NFFM). One resolution concerned setting a date for a public hearing for residents’ input on the rules that govern the city council. The agenda contained 10 resolutions to be discussed, but the council spent most of the eight hours discussing, arguing and battling through two resolutions in particular. It took the city council finance committee eight hours Wednesday evening to tussle their way through a contentious meeting.
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