Transparency, accountability and community engagement are essential in a democracy. Local government is important and City Council meetings provide insight into what’s happening in your community. Here is a summary of the Augut 21st, 2023 Regular + Study Meeting of Livonia City Council.

General Meeting: https://livoniami.portal.civicclerk.com/event/350/files

Following a series of public comments about residential chickens and native plants, the issue was referred to the Senior Citizens, Families and Environment committee for further discussion.

An overview of the August 2nd, Finance and Budget Committee meeting was shared. Committee meetings are not streamed or recorded and VRS was unable to attend the meeting to provide a complete summary.

• General fund revenue is up
• Taxable value and interest rates are up
• Community Recreation Fund is solid with 14k members (previously down below 9k during COVID, target sustainability number is around 13k)
• The City will have to increase expenditures for retirement contribution and the Court House Fund balance
• A discussion was had about the administrative fee charged by the City to collect taxes on behalf of Livonia and Clarenceville Public Schools and Schoolcraft College. The schools would like to see the fee amount decreased

Approved:

• Consent agenda
• Block party
• Additional appropriations for sidewalk repair program
• Demolition of properties at 37739 7 Mile and 11033 Berwick
• Rezone of residential property from N2 (Neighborhood) to RUF (Rural Urban Farm)
• Rezone of property at Angling Rd and 8 Mile from C-1 (Local Business) to N1 (Neighborhood) to build new homes
• Closed Committee of the Whole Meetings will be held to discuss two pending court cases. Donald and Dina Croskey et al v City of Livonia and Barbara L. Thomas v City of Livonia

First read for Tree Ordinance

Roll Call for a surface drainage easement request

Study Meeting Agenda: https://livoniami.portal.civicclerk.com/event/366/overview

The following were approved for the consent agenda:

• Clarenceville Homecoming Parade – Sept. 29th
• Block party
• Purchase requests by DPW for security cameras
• Amendments to OHM contract for increased services
• Intergovernmental agreement with Wayne County for improvements on Wayne Rd between Joy and Plymouth

A solar panel ‘field’ will be put in at the vacant parking lot area of 38777 Six Mile Road. This will be comparable to the solar field at Madonna University and cut down the power usage of the building by 1/3.

The following items were put on the regular agenda due to the amount of money involved in the projects but both are expected to pass.

• Extend GFL contract for 1 year ($7.4M total, 12 month change would be $10.14 to $13.39 per unit increase)
• Approve a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system for water/sewer ($1.6M)

As always, the meeting agendas can be viewed on the city website here: https://livonia.gov/129/Agendas-Minutes

The meetings can be watched unedited on the city’s Youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@Livonia