CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF JULY 27, 2009

The City Council of Port Huron met on Monday, July 27 at 7:00 p.m. in the council chambers of the Municipal Office Center. The meeting started with a Public Hearing to hear comments on the request to have Nern Street from 28th St. to 32nd St. renamed to John L. Portis Drive.

Three letters were submitted to the City Clerk prior to the meeting in response to this hearing. The first was from Genevieve Wojak who did not think there was any need to change the name.

Rev. Carson Jr. supported the renaming of the street on and near the historic Shilo Baptist Church.

Anita Ashford, who is a niece of Rev. Portis' felt that he had such a huge impact on the community over the yeas, that this was the right thing to do.

The Public Hearing continued with those in the audience who were present. Yvonne Malachi of Moak St. was in favor of this. She stated that Rev. Portis has given much to the community and has given the south-end pride in what they have accomplished. She also read a letter from a Dr. Wood who lives in Lansing, but has visited here many times over the years and became a great friend of Rev. Portis. Dr. Wood wanted to support the idea and hoped the council would adopt the proposal.

Rev. Compton and her mother, Dolly Johnson Compton, attended in support of this saying that Rev. Portis' legacy is awesome and this would memorialize him well.

Audrey Pack agreed with everyone that Rev. Portis should be honored. However, she feels it's an insult to rename just 2 blocks, and if they were going to do it, they should rename the whole street. She also asked what this would cost to the taxpayer and did it go before the planning commission.

Pastor Diggs felt that the renaming should go all the way from Electric to the end. He wanted to see Rev. Portis better recognized.

Sharon Bender felt the entire street should be renamed for Rev. Portis but she felt that it should be better investigated.

Once the Public comments were heard, the discussion was turned over for Council Consideration. Mayor Moeller started out by stating that the reason this came up was because Gloria Portis, who is Rev. Portis' niece, contacted him to change the street name right in front of Shilo Baptist Church. It was discussed and asked that it be changed from 28th St. to 32nd St. When you look at it, it's two long blocks and this would allow the family to leave church and see Rev. Portis' name on the street sign. As far as the taxpayers paying for it, the total cost would be around $300. The street signs cost $75 a piece and this was the major cost to the project. He also mentioned that Operation Transformation has offered to pay for it so there would be no cost to the taxpayer. He also said the only cost to the residents who live there would be changing their utilities and drivers licenses, etc. This would not be a huge charge, mostly in inconvenience.

Councilmember Doorn felt that the reference describing this as an insult ws a stretch as all Mayor Moeller was trying to do was lift Rev. Portis up and show respect for him.

Councilmember Lewandowski wondered if making John L. Portis Dr. a secondary name like Matin Luther King Jr. Blvd. (24th Street) would help with the confusion. He asked if he city could do that. He felt this might keep the confusion down. He asked if they could do it. Mayor Moeller said that anything was possible and asked Bob Clegg, city engineer, if it was possible. He agreed that anything was possible.

Councilmember McCollugh would like to see the entire street renamed too.

Councilmember Stevens felt that Audrey Pack made a good point concerning the procedure that it should have gone through. She wanted to know how come it had not gone through those procedures.

Mayor Moeller stated that he had asked the city administration about it but had gotten a very vague answer.

At this point Councilmember Lewandowski asked to amend the motion to rename the entire Street and Councilmember McCollugh seconded it. Mayor Moeller was concerned that this would not work because they had not written or found out what the rest of the residents on that street felt about it. Just those 2 blocks.

Much discussion followed as to how the motion could be amended, should it be amended and what to do with it being amended. Councilmember Stevens asked for a point of order because she was not sure where they stood on this. She felt that if they were going to rename the whole street they would have to go back and send letters to all the residents on the street.

Councilmember Lewandowski and Councilmember McCullogh rescinded their motion.

Councilmember Byrne was bugged about this because Nern St. was named after someone at one time. He felt that it was not respectful to change the name on that person and was also concerned that if they changed the name to John L. Portis Street now, who's to say that 50 years down the road someone else wouldn't change the name. He felt a more centrally located memorial for Rev. Portis would be good. Something between the north and south ends of Port Huron because Rev. Portis had tried to bridge the gap between the north and south ends of the city.

A motion was put forth to delay the renaming and look into renaming the whole street and what is the best way to do it.

The vote was taken. It passed with Mayor Moeller and Councilmember Doorn voting no.

At this point Public Audience was held.

Margaret Enright complained that the weeds on her street are becoming taller than she is. Some weeds are almost to the second story of a house on her block. She is upset that the seeds from the weeds blow into her yard and she has to go out and pull weeds out of her lawn when they begin to grow.

Ken Harris wanted to let he council know he was happy that they were approving the liquor license for Black River Cafe. He said this restaurant was a great asset to downtown. He also stated that everyone should be at the City Charter Commission meeting on July 28th as there is a motion on the table that will remove the right of people to petition the city.

Jason Sawyer, owner of Taurus Comics, had requested that a tree be trimmed in front of his new store on Huron Ave. He mentioned the tree completely blocked the view of his storefront. By Wednesday morning the tree was removed. He had come to the meeting tonight to thank the city council and Chief Eick for taking such amazingly quick action.

Mike of the Landlords Association stated that Kim Harmer has done an excellent job and has worked with the Landlords Association well. He asked the city to take the lead to stop the building of low income housing in Port Huron. He said there are only 2 types of people buying housing right now, investors who will wait until the market is better and then build good housing or ones who will buy and then rent to anyone who has $300 in their pocket. He said the city and landlords need to work together and do something about it now as 60% of the city is rental housing and will only get worse. He also said that rent is going lower and lower and the better landlords who take care of their properties can't keep up with that.

After Public Audience was over, the motion to adopt the consent agenda items was done and the items were read by Mayor Moeller.

Communications & Petitions - Receive and file the notification from the Michigan Liquor Control Commission that they have received an application from Walgreen Co. (an Illinois Corporation) requesting a new SDM license to be located at 3990 - 24th Avenue.

Resolution #1 - Confirming and declaring single lot special assessments in the total amount of $152.62 for special trash pick up.

Resolution #2 - Certifying John Zielke (employee delegate), Jana Schultz (employee alternate), John H. Ogden (officer delegate) and James J. Brennan (officer alternate) to represent the City at the annual Michigan Employee Retirement System meeting, September 15 - 17, 2009 in Grand Rapids Michigan.

Resolution #4 (added) - Recommending that application of Stevens Block - Black River Cafe Development Company, LLC, 213 Huron Ave., to transfer ownership of a 2009 Class C licensed business with dance permit be recommended for issuance by the Michigan Liquor Control Commission.

At this time the Mayor announced upcoming events in the area:

July 28 - Charter Commission meeting at 7 p.m. in Room 408 at the Municipal Office Center
July 29 - Candidates Night at City Hall at 7 p.m.
July 30 - Rockin the Rivers - Port Huron Idol Contest Finals, East Quay Street Area.
July 30 - Taste of Port Huron
July 31 - Aug. 2 - Blue Water Music Fest at Vantage Point
Aug. 1 - Open Pottery Days, Studio 1219
Aug. 1 - 4 - Farmers Market at Vantage Point
Aug. 2 - Welken Base Ball Club hosts the Rochester Grangers at 2 p.m. at Lincoln Park.
Aug. 2 - Plaque dedication ceremony for Reverend John L. Portis at Heritage Park on the Quay at 3 p.m.
Aug. 4 - City Council Primary Election, polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Aug. 4 - Bedtime Stories big screen movie at Optimist Park beginning at dusk.
Aug. 6 - Rockin the Rivers Summer Concert Series, Fifty Amp Fuse, Kiefer Park along the river, north of the Municipal Office Center from 5 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

FROM THE CITY MANAGER
Recommended that the bid of L & J Construction, Inc., in the amount of $128,323.00 for the Cedar Street and Water Street sewer repairs be accepted. Councilmember Byrne asked if the bids had come under budget and City Engineer Clegg explained that they had. It was put together with another project concerning some sewer parts that were not working correctly in the location of the new hotel being build at the old Water Street Marina site and had to be fixed for that to continue. The council voted and approved it unanimously.

RESOLUTIONS
#3 - Approving the agreement with the Michigan Department of Transportation for the reconstruction of Riverside Drive from Garfield to Mansfield St. There was no discussion and it was passed unanimously.

For the good of the order, Councilmember Stevens felt that the housing problem was becoming a huge problem in our city. With 26% unemployment as of the day, it could only get worse. She felt the city council needs to meet and have a work session that will look in depth at the facts and statistics of what's going on. She had recently read an article in one of the Municipal magazines they get that discussed now is the time to do natural urban renewal and they need to look at how to do this. The council was having a hard time getting their private schedules together, so they decided to schedule a meeting through email so everyone could look at what they have coming up in the near future. They do not want to wait until September to get working on this. Once the meeting was scheduled, the city clerk would announce it.

The meeting was adjourned. The next regular meeting will be held on August 10, 2009 at 7 p.m. in the Council Chambers of the Municipal Office Center.

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