Hello Residents of Eastpointe,

I took no pleasure in offering a motion to censure the Mayor at our City Council meeting yesterday. She called the Public Safety Director asking for a police presence, simply for feeling disrespected. And also, she threatened to remove a board member, and asked the City Manager to remove a board member (neither of which are the appropriate way to handle the situation). These abuses of power cannot be tolerated. All citizens in Eastpointe should have equal access to the police, and the Mayor and City Council should not be abusing their access to the police (the police department reports to the City Manager who reports to City Council). City Council members should be calling 911 or the non-emergency line if police resources are needed (I have done both). They should not be calling the Public Safety Director instead. Board members in the community, who volunteer their time, should not be subject to threats from the Mayor (or other City Council members).

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