Mayor Clark called the meeting to order at 7:37 p.m.

ROLL CALL Mayor Clark, Mayor Pro Tem Bononi, Council Members Capello-absent/excused, Csordas, DeRoche-absent/excused, Landry, Lorenzo

ALSO PRESENT: City Manager Helwig, Assistant City Manager Pearson, City Engineer McLain, Parks, Recreation & Forestry Director Auler

Member Lorenzo Island Lake and the hiring of three police officers were

postponed from other agendas to be placed on tonight’s agenda and she asked Mr.

Helwig why they were not on this agenda?

Mr. Helwig said Toll Brothers was listed for the November 12^th agenda and due to the

lateness of the evening, fullness of the agenda and the amount of time that several

items took, Member Capello requested the items be deferred until December 2^nd when

he would be available. Member Capello called on November 13^th and a memo was

issued to Council on November 14^th saying that he would also miss the December 2^nd

meeting. Mr. Helwig noted he contacted Toll Brothers and representatives of the Novi

Schools and moved those items to the December 16^th agenda when there would be a

full Council.

Regarding the consideration of the police officers, that started back in October and was

deferred by a motion of Council and was put back on the agenda for November 12^th and

again due to the lateness of the evening, it was not addressed. He spoke with Mayor

Clark while going through this agenda and it was decided to defer until a full Council

was available on December 16^th.

Member Lorenzo said the minutes of the meeting said it would be postponed to this

date and Member Landry requested it to be postponed to this date. She requested

that, in the future, when the minutes reflect a decision or direction made by Council,

that it be placed on the agenda and if Council wanted to postpone it again, it would be

their prerogative to do so.

Member Lorenzo noted that, as a courtesy to Member Capello there had been two

postponements and that had resulted in a discourtesy to the Council, as they are being

asked to start the December 16^th meeting earlier and it might adjourn later. She hoped

in the future there would be consideration to the full Council and not to just certain

individuals or certain applicants.

Mayor Clark said the same courtesy extended to Member Capello would be extended to

any Council member. The applicants involved were not opposed to the adjournment. It

would have been different if the applicants were not agreeable. He felt the last meeting

of the year would move along expeditiously. Mayor Clark said he offered to have three

meetings a month, which would mean shorter agendas, but there was no consensus.

Member Lorenzo noted according to their Council Organization Rules and Order of

Business "the Mayor and administration will strive to have agendas resulting in

consistent length of meetings" and she would appreciate that. If on the 16^th there is

no full Council, will these items be postponed again? Mayor Clark said if a Council

member requested a postponement and the applicant was amenable, he would

cooperate with any member of Council.

Mayor Pro Tem Bononi noted there was nothing in the Council Organizational Rules

that addressed these courtesies. She thought there was a very fine line in asking for a

courtesy and crossing over into manipulating Council agendas and suggesting that a full

Council was needed for matters that do not require five Council votes in order to expend

funds. She said when she was on vacation and issues came before Council that she

was very interested in, she didn’t expect Council to change the agenda to suit her. If

Council was going to be in the habit of doing that, the Council rules should be amended

to reflect that. She said it was not a courtesy; it is meddling with our rules, suggesting

that votes are counted before issues were brought to the table and she didn’t want to

see Council move in that direction. Secondly, the length of meetings is ruled by

planning. She doesn’t have the option of the day off or to go in to work late the day after a Council meeting and to expect anyone to come in early and stay until 1:15 a.m. is not part of what we get elected to Council to do. To suggest that because different folks want to be here on a certain night, that we are going to be here until 2 am is just bad planning and has nothing to do with anything else. She didn’t feel it was a reasonable request. It had nothing to do with devotion or expectation, but it does have to do with management and she was looking for better management.

Member Landry stated Council members were elected to do a job and that they were

not governed by the clock. He thought they owed an obligation to do the best job they

could in whatever time it took to do it. He didn’t think it was a big deal and he didn’t

think it was a big deal to offer someone a courtesy so there could be a full Council with

seven viewpoints and discussion. He found nothing inappropriate about any of this.

Member Lorenzo said the Council Organizational Rules do speak to the goal of

adjourning by 11:30 PM and she expected the rules to be adhered to. She said she

would not be there until 2 AM. She devoted a lot of time to this job, but she would not

devote her life to it and she would not devote 2 AM to it because it is not reasonable to

the public, the applicants and the Council.

Member Csordas asked Mr. Helwig for an update on Fire Station #4 on December 16^th.

A. Approval of Minutes of November 12, 2002, Regular meeting

Approval of Minutes of November 25, 2002, Regular meeting

B. Approval of claims and accounts on Warrant 638

Member Lorenzo asked if the committee endorsed the rate change for Mr. Arroyo? Mayor Clark responded that they did. She asked if there was any consideration for the rate that he would charge to attend Planning Commission, Council or other meetings? Mr. Helwig said it would be the same. Member Lorenzo commented that her expectation was that if the consultant prepared a review, that consultant should be at the meeting that is considering the application for the review. She was disappointed that Mr. Arroyo was not present when the Planning Commission reviewed the site plan for the Novi Expo Center. Mr. Pearson stated he would check the minutes, but thought Mr. Arroyo was in attendance.

Member Csordas asked if the bond was enough to cover whatever happened at the end?

Mr. Pearson said yes, the punch list item was well below that. These streets have been built for sometime and in the past, Council has said that the full two years would not be necessary if the City hasn’t accepted the streets and they have already been in place. In this case the developer is offering to renew another full two-year maintenance bond.

Member Csordas asked Mr. Helwig how his streets were holding up. He said fine, but there was some spalling of concrete in Phase II but not in Phase III and that needed to be attended to.

Mayor Pro Tem Bononi noted we seem to be absent an engineer’s actual certification with the engineer’s seal with regard to the acceptance of the streets as constructed. She didn’t know that the qualification of the persons name listed as an observer got anywhere near that certification. She wanted to see Council move forward with regard to an engineer’s

certification for all public improvements that Council accepted. She asked if they were any where near that process. She also asked for an update.

Ms. McLain said they had been working on that language and she was looking at it along with Haim Schlick and it had been sent over to JCK to see if there was any additional language that was needed. She expected it to be ready to go to the attorneys within a week or two. The final acceptance for the document would be shortly after the beginning of the new year if not the middle of January. Mayor Pro Tem Bononi said she would look forward to it.

Member Csordas asked if this was one of the issues where our current consultant was required not to do any business within the City? Mayor Clark said this is strictly dealing with the Façade Architectural Services. The committee has not interviewed candidates for the Civil Engineering portion. Member Csordas asked if that was required for façade?

Mr. Pearson said he understood that was a longstanding desire and practice for obvious reasons, but he had not seen anything where that is an absolute requirement of the Council. He said given approval tonight, he would try to formalize that in the services agreement Council would see on the 16^th. The Consultant Review Committee said they would like to have that kind of clause. The recommended firm Nordstrom Samson is doing work such as Fire Station #4 and obviously there are some projects that would have to be grandfathered in and he would work with them regarding whether or not that is an absolute ban on any independent work in the City or if there could be some accommodation made for special projects or instances. Member Csordas said he knew it was a longstanding policy. He was glad to hear that the Consultant Review Committee was considering continuing it, as there was probably value to it to avoid conflict of interest.

Member Lorenzo asked if the $45,000 represented the full amount of outstanding fees?

Member Csordas said that was debated. There was an audit done by SWOCC, which landed in the $94,000 to $96,000 range, and there was an audit done by Time Warner that landed in the $14,000 to $15,000 range. A couple issues were in there including the question if SWOCC was entitled to a percentage of profits on the investments that the cable company derives. The bottom line was that the offer made at the meeting by the Chair of the Cable Commission was to split it in half. Member Lorenzo asked if he thought it was a fair compromise? He said yes, because it was very nebulous and the bottom line was that SWOCC had spent so much on legal fees over a two-year period that it seemed like the prudent thing to do.

There being no further business to come before Council, the meeting was adjourned at 8:15 p.m.

Richard J. Clark, Mayor Maryanne Cornelius, City Clerk

Transcribed by: ______________________________

Charlene Mc Lean

Date approved: December 16, 2002