A while ago the City Council adopted an Training and Conference Policy for Elected Officials. Because our agenda management system is hard to navigate when items span multiple meetings, I am creating this article as a one-stop-shop for the Training and Conference Policy for Elected Officials.

• September 17, 2019: First debate on the proposal from Interim City Manager Ryan Cotton.
• October 15, 2019: City Council again debates the proposal from Interim City Manager Ryan Cotton. The proposal is not adopted, but limits are set on budgets at $1,500 for each Councilperson, and $1,725 for the Mayor.
• January 5, 2021: I added to the City Council agenda a renewed discussion on the policy. A final policy guideline was approved at this meeting.
• January 19, 2021: Resolution written and presented to City Council, and approved with modifications. 

Sturgis is our adopted parliamentary procedure, according to the City Council Bylaws (the Sturgis Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure has been renamed to The Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure). For all seven years I have been on City Council, we have informally followed Sturgis parliamentary procedure. This has worked pretty well for us. But then I tried offering a minor amendment.

At our City Council meeting on Tuesday, we had Green for Life (GFL), our refuse contractor, at the meeting, to confront them about their employees throwing yard waste and recycling in with the trash. GFL promised to fix this issue. If you see this occur August 4, 2021, or later, please let me know. 

It is also true though that some residents have improperly combined recycling with garbage, or compost with garbage. This article is to help educate our community. Please check out the following:

• DPW's Refuse Information page: https://eastpointemi.gov/departments/public_works_and_divisions/dpw_department/refuse_information.php
• Direct Link to Refuse, Recycling, and Compost Information: https://cms9files.revize.com/eastpointemi/Refuse-Recycle-Compost.pdf

As we did last year, shown is the fiscal year 2021-2022 water bill explained. The rates have been updated. The combined water and sewer treatment rate increase is 2% from last year, based on usage. Originally, City Administration proposed a 4.5% increase, and we were able to work it down to 2%.

Learn how to save water!
https://www.epa.gov/watersense/start-saving

Sign up for auto-pay!
https://www.cardidemonaco.com/how-to-help/221-water-bill-direct-payment-and-emailed-bill