001uh and uh well we don't have Alan actually um one two three we have six uh members so we are in Quorum uh okay all right we'll go ahead and we'll go ahead and start then um it is 704. um and we'll go ahead and call the meeting to order Chris if you could just watch to see if Ellen does hop on here yeah um we can advance him on uh to a panelist role uh and we'll take a roll call Chris could you help us uh run through uh Steve is here oh cool okay Steve we didn't think you were going to be joining us any longer here I'm so mute I think this was his last meeting yeah I was gonna say we tried to say goodbye to him last time are you
002guys talking to me are you guys getting ready that's okay sorry that's all right we'll go ahead and call the meeting to order then uh and uh Chris could you help us with the call the roll and just a reminder to everyone we do need to indicate which municipality you are in okay um so I will now call roll I've received regrets from commissioner Hamish mid who will not be able to attend uh please say here and from where you're dialing when your name is called commissioner Briggs yes here in Ann Arbor commissioner I'm here in Ann Arbor commissioner Cornell here Ann Arbor commissioner Aber okay commissioner Hammerschmidt is is also absent commissioner Henny I'm here Ann Arbor fourth ward okay commissioner Mitchell you're an Ann Arbor commissioner Ralph here in Ann Arbor commissioner Wilhelm
003here in Ann Arbor commissioner Zemke you're in Ann Arbor and commissioner the honey will be absent and six six or more we have Quorum did you get Jen yeah okay okay excellent all right thank you very much Chris uh we're gonna go ahead and go the next item on the agenda and that is the approval of the agenda um there uh we published the agenda last Friday and made some updates on Tuesday uh that should be in the link that Chris sent out uh to legisstar um and uh could we have a motion to approve the agenda if there are no changes desired motion to approve thank you Jeff a second all right second by Jen uh all in favor say aye aye any opposed excellent uh thank you very much motion passes uh next
004is approval the minutes from April's Meeting those are linked into the agenda uh could we have a motion to approve the minutes from the last meeting motion to approve Jeff uh and then seconded by Frank thank you uh all in favor say aye aye aye any opposed excellent thank you uh motion carries uh we're gonna go into public comment then uh Chris do we have any members of the public with their hands raised seeking to comment yes yes we do excellent would you like to unmute one of them yeah let me just start by saying that this is an opportunity at for all uh persons to speak up to three minutes um now I will allow the number ending in three to six to speak first if you wish to speak please raise your hand
005number ending in three two six you may now speak hello uh this is Joe cracker can you hear me yes before I get started I want to let you know that I did receive uh something from ale and he's trying to get on via phone and he he says that he's been trying to get on but he can't uh unmute himself I don't know does he should be star do you receive any other phone number uh yes we have two more phone numbers one ending in zero eight three and another ending in four six four I think it's zero eight three I think that's Allen's um okay okay so Jeff how about we do this if you have uh comments what you can do I do finish your comments and then we'll Advance Alan here
006uh and bring him in okay all right um my name is Jeff Crockett I lived in the old Fourth Ward Storage District since 1980. I am a leader of a volunteer group called The Green Team which has developed four Gardens consisting of native plants to attract pollinators I would like to recognize the members of the green team who contribute a total of over 800 volunteer hours Elizabeth Smith odile huguna Haber reader Mitchell Jeff Crockett Leoma Sherry Thompson Eileen Tyler Christine Crockett and Banister Marcia Benz Chad manfreda Ellen Haber Brooks Curtis Richard Corson Francoise damres Amy Rowe Robert black from go Factory WAP John and Julie Ritter uh Jeff Henney uh and Maura Thompson Ali alawi Scott Spooner and Robert greasy I'd also like to recognize cm's Briggs and dish for helping to activate a spigot
007for irrigation a personal request to uh CM Briggs the sprinkler system um does not work uh at the DDA uh Gardens and needs to be repaired so if somehow that could be included in the budget I would be greatly appreciative I also want to congratulate members of the Council of the commons with their superb draft of an RFP to be submitted to the parks department in particular Adam Zemke Rita Mitchell Alice Ralph and Frank Wilhelm did a wonderful job of reaching out to comparable communities to set the groundwork for the draft RFP also Allen Haber deserves credit for planning a series of events at the cut center of the city over a number of years and the Council of the commons has fulfilled its purpose and it's time now to pass the Baton to the
008parks department and City staff for the development of the RFP but there is another path forward and that is short-term activation spurred by the removal of parking from the library lab there would be no Financial impact on removing Park on any given day there are 500 empty undergrad parking spots Why not start by removing the parking just on the Northern section of the library lot if that happens Dr Missy Stolt said to me that she would help by providing several sheltered tables and benches with a solar power charging station so similar to what is provided in some parks around town also consider an Adaptive Garden program for the remaining 10 garden plots that run the library similar to what has been done in other small garden areas around Ann Arbor and in numerous communities each
009plot could include a sign that promotes a community group or business Creative Solutions such as these will generate interest and engagement in the center of the city finally imagine how the space could be transformed with public art stay tuned on that one please consider that the end result of the development of the center of the city should be an increase in citizen engagement that's really what this is all about as a council of the commons comes to a close I hope you'll all continue your advocacy for fulfilling the promise of prop a once a vision has been established with the RFP I have no doubt that the dollars will follow this is what we have learned from studying comparable communities around the state thank you very much thank you Jeff and I think the other
010person with this hand up uh is alan083 could we advance element as a panelist here okay Alan do we have you you're going to need to unmute yourself to uh muted yep well I'm just trying to get in to be part of this meeting and I couldn't I've not been successful now Chris seems to have sent me a link so good I mean as a you know in terms of the agenda I do have a couple little announcements or notices so there's something I want to say but yeah I just want to be part of the meeting well Alan we're going to get you advanced in here is it are you in front of a computer I am I am maybe I'm loading launch meeting I've done something that Chris has sent me um advice
011uh given that this is the public comment section uh while we wait for Ellen to rejoin the zoom meeting we continue on with our public commenters I think that sounds good uh I think Chris could you advance the next person yeah all right um Daniel Adams you will be given three minutes to speak is Dan going once rather hey can you hear me okay we can't yes yes we can yeah I just I didn't want to be promoted as a panelist so I I clicked attendee and that was the um yeah Dan Adams 1016 Daniel Street oh um the the only thing I wanted to mention is um you know there's a kind of a troubling comment in Mr haber's uh proposed amendments there are he that relates to um what's really a threat right
012to pull funding away that Library green only recently committed to the project um I'm not going to quote from it it's in the it's in the text I'm just hoping that that's addressed tonight because I think it's important that as this RFP is handed over to um you know the city and the parks department um that Library green be very clear about whether it's committed to the process and committed to taking the money that's been collected from the public and investing it uh to advance the project uh that Library green was it was created to to advance and that those donations were were made to advance I think that's important to flush out tonight and talk about um that's all I wanted to say thanks Stan yes all right uh because you can remove Daniel
013as a panelist I believe he says he's a he's a panelist at this point no no he's not oh okay it shows up that way yeah okay we have one more person okay um Daniel Rubenstein you'll now be allowed to speak you have up to three minutes can you hear us okay I can hear you can you hear me yes we can all right whenever you're ready okay so I drafted a memo which I will submit to the Council of the commons during this meeting so I won't go into all of it here but um one thing I just wanted to note is that um it's unclear what the legal basis is for the statements made by the city administrator recently that removing parking from the service of the library lot would require compensation to
014the DDA so I will document that in in my memo that I said and there are a couple of other things as well I would really like to see the recommendations from the Council of the commons that are being considered tonight to revisit and include the issue of the comprehensive plan and or the prose plan because I continue to believe that being excluded from those two things um is a disincentive to donors it's a drag on the whole project it is definitely not best practice with Urban parks around the country and the world um and so I would really like to see that addressed and Incorporated and I'll Reserve any other comments till the end of the meeting thank you thanks cam uh Chris do we have any other members of the public wishing to
015speak okay uh Alan is once again uh here let me promote Alan as a panelist and Daniel Rubenstein just spoke so I believe we uh all public commenters have spoken at this time excellent thank you thank you we'll make sure Alan can get in here Alan can you hear us okay you want to meet yourself Ellen uh okay okay excellent just wanted to make sure you can hear us okay [Music] O'Neill had wanted to speak I don't know why I had so much trouble getting in and I had so much trouble getting down to the city council the other year that's okay we've got you here now um and if a deal would like to speak she can definitely do so at public comment at the end of the meeting okay we are going to
016keep moving uh because we have several items on the agenda um so we've closed out public uh comment and we're going to go into the working group meetings um and so there are several um items uh that are attached to the working group and I'd like to go ahead and uh go into the first one which is the working group related to Future space design this is the RFP fundraising planning Etc we've commonly referred to it as the longer term uh working group and so I'd like to note that there are two attachments within this working group uh section on the agenda uh the first one is related to a resolution recommending the RFP scope proposal that is the second uh attachment to this area of the agenda we've had a chance to take a
017look at the RFP scope proposal at the last meeting and I think had a good discussion uh and then we had a follow-up discussion with the park staff regarding that and so I'd like to just note that piece and we do have a couple hands raised Rita would you like to go first yes I just this is a an administrative question or a request um that to um that would expect with respect to the documentation um the resolutions currently um are in draft form and do not have headers and dates on them so my request is that as we proceed with this and as these documents proceed two minutes that they are correctly titled and associated with the meeting that's all thank you thank you for that I think we can make sure that work
018with Chris offline to make sure that that's uh clear uh Alice you had your hand up later okay all right uh so uh are there uh Ellen uh go ahead yes well this is uh I just wanted to speak right here this is a beautifully done statement I agree with everything about it except for its own mission and the question that is critical in my thinking is where is the Commons in the sense of what is the Commons in this whole process and I feel that was a point of order we haven't read the we haven't read the read the resolution yet that that is my reservation about this but it's a beautiful piece of work and I just wanted to say that thank you all right thank you for those comments Alan uh LSU
019of your hand up did you want to uh say anything else here no not yet okay well uh why don't we go ahead and uh uh Chris uh I don't know that we need to pull up the result the resolution but if you uh want to um uh do you want to throw it up just uh so people can see we've had a chance to look at the document that the resolution is indicating but if you want to pull up the resolution just real quick in no problem pulling out right now excellent thank you foreign excellent thank you Chris I'll just go ahead and read this quickly and everyone can hear I can read it on their own as well as I indicated this resolution is in support of uh adopting the uh other attachment
020in this working group which is the actual draft of the RFP uh scope so it just says Council the commons has been charged by city council as described in resolution r-20-397 serves as an advisory body to city council and provide recommendations for the public spaces on the center of the city block and whereas after significant public input and discussion with the within the center of the city task force and during the Council of the commons meetings and within its working groups majority of the members of the council the commons have come to consensus we're on a proposed scope of work for a request for proposal to be issued for the transformative design and planning of the center of the city in the spirit of the 2018 citizen pass ballot initial ballot proposal resolved the Council
021of Commons recommends that city council and the city parks department utilize the scope of work when issuing the aforementioned request for proposal so it is literally just uh indicating that a majority of this body supports the request for proposal scope that is attached to this working group area um Alice you've got your hand up yes now that it's been read and uh sounds really good I'd like to move to approve this recommendation okay we have a second a second as presented it's presented seconded by council member Briggs thank you all in favor of uh Alan did you have something you'd like to add yeah I would just add that uh as this represents the majority uh noting there is a minority I would intend to make some kind of Minority Report on those aspects that
022are not of consensus well that's all I wanted to say okay thank you duly noted uh all in favor of the uh motion that uh Alice has made say aye raise your hand I I any opposed okay uh thank you the motion passes uh we'll go into the second working group uh then at this point and uh Chris if you could pull up the resolution uh for the current space activation and similar to the previous working group we have a resolution that is supportive and tied to a series of recommendations and that series of recommendations does the draft activation recommendations document that we looked at at the last council meeting here so um we'll give Chris just a minute here to pull up the resolution uh regarding this and uh and then we will proceed
023through a similar discussion thank you Chris so this resolution indicates uh that the Council of the commons has been charged by City councils described in resolution r-20-397 to serve as an advisory body to city council and provide recommendations for the public spaces on the center of the city block and whereas the Council of Commons has created a detailed list of recommendations that link links to the document that is uh that we are recommending uh if this resolution passes based upon comparable communities to create programming improve governance appearance and functioning of all three Parcels that comprise the center of the city for use by residents and visitors prior to any design alteration of the spaces so short-term activation is what we've been commonly calling it here resolved the council the commons recommends that city council take
024action to activate and program all the spaces that comprise the center of the city working in partnership with interested members of the community in the city parks department and utilizing the aforementioned recommendations and research around comparable communities as a guide to do so foreign all right any uh Rita you got your hand up go ahead I most that we adopt the resolution as written excellent thank you Rita uh is there a second uh I'll go ahead and uh and second it Brayden and I worked on this together any questions at all on this resolution okay uh in that Alan go ahead Ellen you are muted yeah so yeah following my consistent concern about having forward the concept and the philosophy and practice of the commons this particular form of recommendation as us branding the uh
025area of the center of the city geographically rather than as a Commons as a sense of relationship among the people of the city so I have a minority view on this though much of the work is very very good it's particularly important to see how from below the people participate in the development of programs activating what is going on on the common space thank you Alan for those thoughts we have a motion and a second on the floor I'd like to call for a vote on the uh resolution all in favor say aye aye aye any opposed okay uh motion passes thank you very much uh and then uh we'll uh I'm sorry I just want to I just wanted to note for the minutes that I abstained from that vote okay we will make
026sure that is noted council member thank you as did I Adam and thank you council member all right uh so that closes out the uh working groups uh section of the agenda this evening uh the next item on the agenda is under uh COC next steps meaning Council the commons next steps um there's a resolution that is attached to uh this uh item that uh we'll give Chris a minute to go ahead and pull up but I'd like to uh just uh say a few things uh as uh he works through that I had a chance to speak with I think pretty much everyone here one-on-one um and certainly not just on not just one time on this particular topic um but uh I believe that uh we're in a phase now uh where we
027have where we are working on uh the RFP where we've raised sufficient funding to send the RFP out uh and uh and that the uh transformative redesign process as we saw through the RFI response uh that we received uh responses that we received a little over a year ago or I guess a little more than a year ago now um that there is going to be a robust Community engagement process uh associated with that and so I felt that uh it was good to uh to float the idea and I think others uh feel this way as well uh that we transfer uh immediate public engagement opportunities uh away from this group dissolve this group and uh work to advance the RFP uh on the transformative redesign that it will include the uh the commute
028engagement process so uh Chris if we could see the resolution regarding dissolution of the Council of Commons that would be wonderful just one minute I can't help but notice the correlation with my leaving the council somehow you've done Us in you can't go on without me I I understand clear Steve I felt very personally compelled uh that uh that that was the case um I think others did as well you know in truth we can't go on without the parks so that's what part of what we're doing Steve yeah thanks while we're waiting for the resolution to come up I just wanted to make a comment that um how much how grateful I am to this group for for meeting and people's everybody's time and insight um into the recommendations that we voted on this
029evening um you know everybody around the screen is is devoted a lot of time to this effort so thank you council member I'd like to say we're delighted to get this get this going and to keep going because it's in service of the voters who ask for it so appreciate so what everybody has done I agree with Erica a lot of work all right thank you very much uh Chris for pulling this up I'm gonna go ahead and read the resolution Alan you do have your hand up but I'm I'd like to put the resolution on the floor uh before we get to your comment um so uh resolution says States whereas the Council of the commons has been charged by City councils described in resolution r-20-397 to serve as an advisory body to city
030council and to provide recommendations for the public spaces on the center of the city block and whereas the Council of Commons has provided a detailed list of recommendations based upon comparable communities to city council to create programming improve governance appearance and functioning of all three public Parcels that comprise the center of the city for use by residents and visitors prior to any design alteration of the spaces and whereas the council the commons members have supported the fundraising efforts of the library green Conservancy to obtain private funding to partner with the Public Funding commitment made by the city for the transformative design and planning of the center of the city and whereas the aforementioned design and planning of the center of the city is now proceeding with a request for proposal to provide for a robust
031Community engagement and design process and plan to trans transform the center of the city in the spirit of the 2018 citizen pass ballot proposal resolved the Council of the commons recommends that city council dissolve the council the commons and immediately transfer short-term public engagement for the center of the city to the parks advisory commission until such time as the transformative design and planning process directly engages the public in partnership with the city parks department and I'd like to move this resolution the floor Frank you've got your hand up uh I'd like to Second it all right we have a motion on the floor and seconded Alan go ahead you have your hand up well this was a little bit of a surprise and I do not really consider that the task of an advisory relation
032to the city council is completed as a Dan reubenstein said at the beginning the need to get this endeavor recognized in the comprehensive plan in the Pro's plan and in the master plan as called for by the center of the city task force remains and some press toward the city staff actually to do the kinds of uh hardly controversial developments like Wi-Fi and so on that have just been stalled we need something that represents the spirit of The Proposal a and the ties to keep things moving so it may be that and I my own experience suggests that perhaps it is that the juice of this committee to or Council to represent the commons is kind of exhausted but I would say that that is not the case of people in general and the City
033Council in its previous foresight it did give recognition Authority empowerment to the initiating committee to help in the Grassroots development of activity on the spot and we have been doing some of that so when the recommendation at whereas at the resolved at the end says devote this to the parks department it would be appropriate to say in cooperation with the open citizens committee for the Ann Arbor Community Commerce initiation the task is to carry out and effectuate the recommendations from the center of the city task force which over seven months was able to produce a fairly positive and understanding recommendation about what is the Commons in terms of the cooperation and the self-management of resources and I think that aspect oh well what the commons is about to the Council of the commons as a
034learning group among ourselves could better advance but in any case if the group as a whole feels like it's done its job by calling for professional help which it certainly can be helpful though myself as I think I've share things that there's enough uh help right in the town from the bottom up and all around that we don't need to Outsource the call for our creativity maybe we will find within the town they hope that we need and anyhow I think their functions still to be continued and that we've been told many times that the parks department is not able to take on any more programming stuff so our devoting what we could have been our functions to them seems a little well without appropriate consultation or a change of policy there that I as
035uh observe a member of this team has not really noticed but anyhow I will miss the opportunities for our own conversations they could have been better and I do encourage self-education about what the commons is all about and eventually its inclusion in your thinking I share some of these thoughts with the city council and I was able to get unmuted for my Monday effort so thank you that's my basic thought there's more to do thank you Alan all right thank you uh for that as well uh and I think there are many ways to move this forward and I think that uh um I am in particular are enthusiastic about the direct professional relationships that we've established and the work uh that uh Frank and others uh at the library of green have uh have
036uh put forth to help make that happen as well as council member Briggs and prior council members uh who have helped secure uh the funding uh commitment from the city as well so um we have uh resolution of motion on the floor um all in favor of passing this resolution or adopting this resolution say I I suppose no okay one opposed about the meeting minutes reflect that all right thank you very much to the motion uh passes or resolution passes um and we'll go into public comment and then uh it's not on the agenda but we can take a little uh liberalism and just say thanks to everyone uh briefly after the public comment first we have other members of the public who would like to speak at this time no um yeah actually we
037just got one public comment here Daniel Rubenstein you'll be given three minutes to speak yeah get over here maybe okay Alan mute yourself yeah okay are you this is No Deal Ellen Ellen we're gonna we're gonna go in order here we can let odile speak uh but we're gonna go with Dan Rubinstein first he raised his hand damn hi thank you uh Dan Rubinstein here well um you know this notion to dissolve the Council of the commons um to my knowledge was not uh raised in any previous meeting so to raise that issue and then approve it in the same meeting I think is is wrong I think if you want to do this you should wait till next month because the public has not had a time to consider this to give comments or
038to say what they feel it would mean in terms of doing it you know you say in the resolution something about until such time as so it's not entirely clear to me whether you intend this to be a suspension or a true disillusion um I can understand the suspension given that the RFP is in process and the parks department is is um performing a lot of functions that you might otherwise perform I understand the suspension but a dissolution I have to completely agree with Alan um you know in terms of advocating for funding and recommending funding any funding from the general fund that goes to the library lot competes with General funding from city council that might go to Parks so they have a conflict here where they're they're not in the right position to
039advocate for this not being in the prose plan not being under the parks advisory commission the center of the city and especially the library a lot are like orphan children who have no one to represent articulate they don't have citizens to speak for them except for you guys they don't have anyone to Advocate to city council or to ask for funding so this again will be another thing that hamstrings this effort and uh I'll put this in the memo that I'm going to send to you as well so it will be clearer and more articulated but um I I certainly don't agree with dissolving uh yourselves permanently and uh I certainly don't agree with doing it in the same um meeting where you raise the idea this is this basically this smacks of kind of
040a back room deal you all discuss it among yourselves you decided you were going to do this you put it on the agenda and you approved it you didn't allow any time for discussion or analysis by the by the community and I think that's wrong Stan all right odil would you like to go ahead New York and a deal since you are technically on Ellen's Zoom if you could state your name for the record yes I am Alan spouse and I also feel that I don't understand why you deserve your commission when it seems like the citizen of honorable Empower you to work on this piece of land I also want difficulty understanding the RFP because we raise some money and it seems like we raise enough money to have bench and table and a
041water fountain and that would have been the beginning of a park we didn't need much more if citizens were going to evolve last time I had an event it was for Peace Day on September 21 and we had the table and hide away family came and they had their picnic on the table they say it would be so nice if this park in there we would have table SO waiting for friends that were waiting we just arrived in town we having a little something for our kids and we would love to have a playground nearby the library so it's just simple we don't need millions of dollars to do this thing it's just simple and eventually people would support it and money would come for Force so there isn't much money in an abortion who
042are just waiting for a yes from the city to be able to donate more so I think it's wrong uh dissolving this commission just when you were starting to go and Adam Zemke and Rita I put a lot of work to make it move forward so that's anyways that's what I wanted to say thank you thank you odile for comments um so that concludes public comment unless there are any other members of the public Chris they're not okay very good so I would uh like to uh just open it up to any of the council members um uh I would just like to say personally thank you to everyone here um and I think this has been a uh really enlightening experience uh frankly I I think we've all been frustrated at times but I
043will tell you I've learned a tremendous amount about all of you consider you friends uh and I think we've learned collectively a tremendous amount about what happens in other communities uh and how we can apply that to the betterment of Ann Arbor including residents and visitors alike um so I I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for giving me the opportunity and trusting me to serve as chair and uh have really looked forward to this phase of the experience with you and you can count on me continuing to be involved in the next phase as well so I'm not planning on going anywhere either um So Adam he has his hand up Steve go ahead see if I can successfully unmute myself you have um uh thank you uh and just a couple
044remarks from um from my side uh I thought these were uh good discussions I think with regard to the uh decision we've just taken to suggest our dissolution um as I understand it we're suggesting to the city council that they don't need us any longer and they could dissolve us but it's not necessarily up to us to dissolve ourselves if I have it right that's correct and and we're suggesting that the work has been completed I for one did not know that this body was taking or considering an action for sort of self-disolution uh until I read the you know the agenda and the associated document so maybe there were back room meetings or whatever where this was decided but I wasn't in those uh and I would like to think that the colleagues also
045were not um and that this was a decision taken um upon due consideration of what was before us and and had we had we done what what was charted for us to do and I think that was the the question there um and if I could indulge myself for another moment I mean the the discussions of the council have been um very helpful I think in moving things forward I think I uh want to underscore the complexity of the site and a lot of what we have learned over these months is that it really is almost deceptively simple um but in the details it is it is quite complicated to get to a comprehensive vision for this site and it's very easy to put words on paper or to draw pictures on paper but when
046you walk the site and when you realize the complexities uh it's more difficult and so the the conversations here and the ability to sort of frame frame it into something that a professional teams and can respond to I think is is helpful so I'm happy with the work um I'm pleased with the way forward and and yeah I share Adam's sentiment that I consider these all great conversations among friends and thank you very much for indulging me thank you Steve thanks for your service to pack as well uh Alice was up and then redone yeah um it really I was really sort of surprised that we got to do this way back when and it's um it's been challenging but we have learned a lot and I would say that really we could not do
047it without parks and they did join us a long time ago really it seems like maybe a year ago when was it that we presented our request really what we were doing and how we need the parts to be involved partly because of the parks being the partner already with Liberty Plaza and Ken files so I I know whether this is temporary or permanent I think there is a great opportunity at this point to carry forth in in participation of the RFP um and so with the selected um consultant there will be a lot of community engagement that we couldn't accomplish as a commission and I think it's really great that we have this opportunity to move forward um with the funding that my great green has has come up with with a really major
048donors and I'm sure a number of smaller donors and this this process will probably help fundraising too with the once we get into the community engagement and and we reveal the ideas to the broader public who may or may not have been listening to our meetings but I really appreciate everybody hanging in there and doing what they what you could to um get this this far we have a long way to go and I hope you'll stick with us thank you Alice it's been wonderful to work with you as well uh Rita thanks um so I want to say thanks to everyone as well and I see this as something that for me I feel like we're at this point in time where Ann Arbor is growing it's getting more dense downtown this is our
049chance to move forward with a true Urban Park and a Gathering Place that that in my vision is welcoming to everyone even though I don't have a physical idea of it that's what I want to see come from the upcoming Community engagement process so I I just really feel like we'll be joining uh cities like Detroit Grand Rapids Plymouth elsewhere in the whole U.S that have an active programmed approach or whatever and and um informal approach to using their public space in their downtowns so um I'm seeing this as kind of like the the launch and I appreciate working with you all and Chris I hope we get to work with you on something coming up thank you Rita we'll we'll definitely uh I'd like to say something to Chris and Heather uh after Frank
050uh brings us home here um I I look back over the time I've been involved with this which goes back to about 2015 I believe um and just uh I was very active in the signature Gathering to put the proposally on the ballot and just all those engagements um I think I get I think I actually gathered about three thousand signatures I really had a taste for it obviously um and I I see that process of putting it on the ballot and having proposal a past uh by by a healthy margins the way I'll describe it uh when you have over 53 percent in favor of something in today's world that's a landslide so I I feel like uh we and myself we've been representing those nearly 27 000 voters that said we want to
051park and I think our Collective and individual efforts that has to try to chart a course to that end and I think we are at a pivotal moment with the beginning of the study and I agree with Alan that you know this is a town of many talents and deep Talent uh but we need an official um study that will be recognized by all in the community um and I think to my knowledge this is the only way to do it so I I'm looking forward to working continuing to work with Library green continue to raising raise funding um for the study if it requires more than we've committed um and just to see this forward it's not it's not easy uh I've never been involved in a more difficult project it seems like you
052know asking uh wealthy donors at the University for you know five million for this institute or 100 million to name this school or whatever is that that seemed relatively easy of course that's that's in the rear view a mirror but this this has been really challenging and uh I want to thank everybody for their efforts and uh ask everyone to continue in their own way to help this be successful and I I've said over and over again what what Great American city doesn't have a center to it uh and very very few have it and you know we always show on very high in the charts of a great American city and uh this is a missing piece that I hope we can create in the years ahead thank you Frank uh Alan and then
053Steve uh and then we will uh wrap things up well Frank said it beautifully you know I guess what I the next step is uh in very practical terms on May May 20th Saturday is the Earth Day blooming postponed from the rainy cold Earth day of April 22. so that's an opportunity to gather Community to see one another in a social happy setting with some good music Ralph McKee is going to play other local musicians it'll be art and whatever can make Community because that's bringing the space alive with the people of Ann Arbor and I do want to add one other thing is not at all off topic but odile and I went to uh Berkeley last week for the 30th right after Earth Day here and where it was warm in Berkeley uh
054to the 54th anniversary of people's Park a celebration of a beautiful Community Under Siege the university came and cut down all the trees you can't imagine the brutality but a beautiful community of National Historic Site we haven't gotten to the National Historic Site yet but the process of getting people involved in creating a vision that brings everybody's creativity to the maple is going to be something that will be noted all over the world and we should see that as our aspiration and everybody's talents that went into this and yeah they're not always with it you know as smooth as they could be but we made something beautiful let's keep it going on very gratified to hear Adam that you're sticking with it and that's what we need and I think to esteem will move forward
055in a good way each to our talents thank you Alan Steve I saw you took your hand down I don't know if you had no I I'm sorry I already exceeded my word count but I just also wanted to say thank you to our regular contributors to the Jeff crocketts and the beautification committee and Robert black and everybody who's really uh contributed to the conversations as well as the council members so thank you for for all that uh everybody in the community has really moved this forward didn't want that to be unsaid all right appreciate appreciate that Jeff yeah okay I I just wanted to uh first of all thank everybody for uh giving me the opportunity to be part of all this and and I've enjoyed every one of you but in particular I
056want to thank Adam for having been an extraordinarily uh capable leader of our group and somebody who has been very patient and creative about overcoming some of the challenges that we've encountered along the way so I'd very much like to thank Adam for his service thank you I like the second that thank you both would like to say something uh regarding uh something that Steve just indicated you know the public commenters regardless of uh whether anyone agrees or disagrees with their statement are are always appreciated and should be appreciated for their due diligence to call in and provide input and we hope that you will not go away this project is not going away and uh we really just want to appreciate all the time that you've put in I also want to say thank
057you to both council member Briggs and council member Cornell councilmember Cornell has had an interesting background with this project given her role on the on a commission prior to being elected to city council and councilmember Briggs says uh them with us right from the start in her role and really served as a key Catalyst uh for the the city's funding commitment so I just want to say thank you to both of you and also councilmember dish even though she has moved into serving on other committees I um I totally respect the amount of time that you all have to put into individual committees and I know it is a lot and so while we have one committee you have many and we appreciate your time uh very much and then finally uh Chris we've only
058been with you for a short period of time but we really appreciate you joining uh us for this committee and also appreciate your service to the city of Ann Arbor and the people of Ann Arbor um and uh and so thank you for all of your work and other if you are listening tonight we really appreciate all of your work as well you uh spent tremendous uh amounts of time uh listening and trying to work through things and we just cannot say enough how much uh how valuable of a partner you were to the commission and also to the center of the city task force prior to that so thank you as well and uh with that there's no other hands up so I'd like to make a motion to adjourn so moved seconded by
059Frank moved by Alice all in favor say aye aye okay see you along the way excellent and I will note that it is our quickest meeting yet so see you at the center of the city sounds good absolutely