001the Charter Township of Oxford Board of Trustees regular meeting for Wednesday, February 11th, 2026. If we could all please rise and play pay respects to the flag. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Roll call, please. >> Right >> here. >> Piccolo >> here. >> Present. >> Charles >> here. >> Thank you. Approval of the agenda. >> I'll make a motion to approve the agenda as presented. >> I'll support. >> I have a motion by Treasurer Ferrari, a second by Trustee Kovven. Are there any questions? Hearing none. Uh, all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Those opposed? Hearing none. Item five, approval of the consent agenda.
002>> I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. I'll >> support. >> I have a motion by Treasurer Ferrari, a second by Trustee Coven. Are there any questions on the consent agenda? Hearing none. Roll call. >> Trusty Leicolo. >> Hi. >> Trusty Coven. >> Yes. >> Trusty Charles. >> Yes. >> Trusty Wagner. >> Yes. >> Treasure Ferrari? >> Yes. >> Quick Wright? Yes. Supervisor Curtis? >> Yes. >> Item number six, public comment on items not on the agenda. Are there any members of the public that would like to speak uh on items not on agenda? Please come on up. You have three minutes to speak. We welcome your comments. >> Good evening. I've been here before, but this is a completely different role for me. My name, for those who don't know
003me, my name is Mary Spearman, and I am the new Oakland County Senior Advisory Council representative for District 5. And that will include working with Oxford Township Senior Center as well as the Addison Township Senior Center. The senior advisory council was one of several that were established in 1992 by former Oakland County Executive El Brooks Patrick. The mandate and purpose of the advisory council is to inform the county executive of older adults needs and services to identify gaps in the older adult network and to collaborate with organizations and centers serving Oakland County senior adults. Its appointed members accomplish this by actively working with the recognized senior centers in the respective districts to gather information on needs and services there as well as share identified emerging issues, needs, and challenges with the county executive and with
004their respective county commissioner. The goal is to be an effective conduit between the county administration and the county's senior centers. This includes sharing information on senior needs, concerns, and activities that have been implemented and lists of available resources. At this time, the Senior Advisory Council is the only council still reporting to the Oakland County Executive. Currently, the council consists of 23 members, one representative for each of the commissioner districts and four members at large with special knowledge or expertise. Additional support is supplied by the county department of health and human services. The 2026 goals for the senior advisory council are to expand education and outreach to older adults and their advocates, educate seniors by providing trainings and meetings with partner organizations, community groups and institutions, and improve public awareness of the senior advisory council. The
005senior advisory council works closely with the following agencies. The Oakland County Older Adult Service, the Oakland County Health Department, Ageways, which was formerly the Area Agency on Aging, the Oakland Livingston Human Service Agency, Energizing Connections for Healthier Oakland, the National Association of Counties, as well as others. For the Michigan Community Health Network, Michigan is the third fastest aging state. As the conduit, excuse me, between the county and the senior centers, my job will be to help find and share resources available to our senior population. I'm honored to have been selected to represent District 5 and look forward to working with Marie May at Addison Township and to D with Don Medy at the Oxford Senior Center. >> Thank you, Mary. >> You are a little different than last time. >> Thank you. Are there any
006other members of the public that would like to speak? Seeing none, uh, board of trustee comments tonight. We'll start down with Trustee Charles. >> I have none. >> Trusty Wagner. >> Yeah. I'd like to briefly address a misconception that came up at our January township board meeting regarding the proposed AI enabled chatbot for our website. And uh, for those of you who don't know, AI stands for artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence applications are still relatively new and especially at the consumer level and as with most new technologies they can be they can be misunderstood. That kind of appears what happened in this case. The purpose of the chatbot is straightforward to help residents and staff find information and get answers more quickly. Uh a nearby example is at Lake Oran where residents can either search the
007website, you know, clicking around on pages trying to find information or simply ask a question and be guided to the right information. I believe Oxford residents also deserve the same level of access, especially since this is an extremely lowcost tool. AI improves efficiency by helping people handle routine informationheavy tasks more consistently so folks can focus on service and decision making. One of the strongest capabilities is organizing and summarizing information that already exists. We're not looking to use AI to make decisions, set policy, or replace staff. The goal is to help residents and staff more easily find information and get answers to common township questions. That is exactly why the AI committee was formed. If we think about past technologies, say the internet and and smartphones, they didn't solve any specific problems at least at the
008start. Instead, they dramatically improved communication and access to information. Today, most people could not function or live without them. So, I would encourage our staff, board, and residents to focus on the potential of this tool rather than defaulting. This is this is how we've done it in the past or trying to focus on what problem it does solve. Again, thank you for your time. >> Okay, Treasure Ferrari. A couple items. Uh, the sewer bill change letters will be going on a week from Friday. Uh, April 6th, we're looking at converting over from BSNA.net to BSNA cloud. Like to thank Deputy Supervisor Smith and Administrative Assistant Davis for taking the lead on that. March 9th at the water and sewer committee will be looking at possible water financing options for our water improvements, our water system
009improvements and hardship guidelines committee will be meeting at the end of February to discuss our 2026 hardship guidelines. >> Thank you. Um clerk right? >> Uh two items. On March 9th, the clerk's department will be vacant. We are going to state of Michigan election training for train the trainer for the upcoming 2026 elections. And then on March 10th, Deputy Clerk McCulla and myself will be going to the county for an election security training. So, uh, administrative assistant director will be here for that. So, those are my two comments. Thank you. >> Okay, Trustee Lipola. >> Um, just a couple things. Um, happy to be here. Excited. So excited to to have my first uh official meeting uh to Trusty Wagner. I'm a very big proponent of AI. So, I'm looking really forward to being on
010on that committee with you and and seeing if we can figure out the right way to to move the township forward with AI. We use it every day in our office and it makes our life a lot better. And it's once you get to understand what it is, it's not a scary proposition at all. So, I'm I'm looking forward to that as well. And uh uh we've marked our calendars for the MTA conference in Traverse City for the for the 21st through the 24th. So, looking forward to that as well. Thank you. and Trustee Coven. >> I just want to welcome our new trustee. >> Thank you. Um I have been requested by um Oakland County Treasurer Robert Whittenberger Whittenberg to read a letter for all residents. Um the Oakland County Treasures Office is in
011the final stretch of their foreclosure prevention efforts. The tax foreclosure deadline for the 2023 and prior year taxes is on March 31st, 2026. That means if these taxes aren't paid off by March 31st or any interested party hasn't entered into a repayment schedule with the treasur's office by then, the property will be foreclosed. Since December of 2025, the Oakland County Treasurer's Office has conducted over a thousand taxpayer assistance meetings to assist taxpayers with keeping their properties by working with them to get a repayment schedule andor identifying resources that may be beneficial to them and their situation. They are here to help and strongly encourage t taxpayers to contact them before the tax foreclosure deadline if they have delinquent taxes for 2023 and prior year's taxes. Oxford Township taxpayers interested in scheduling a taxpayer assistant assistance
012meeting may call the treasur's office at 2488580611 or they may visit www.okev.coreasure coom forward slashtreasure and I will ask our uh communications person to do a little number on this but they asked me to read that for our residents. Um other than that we'll move on to item eight fire department. >> Good evening everybody. Uh no official business from us. Just more of a give you a heads up. We were recently notified that two of our crews are going to be recognized by Oakland County for life- saving efforts and uh just really nice to see that the the guys doing their work, guys doing their work are going to be recognized by the county and uh they were cardiac arrest victims that are now alive and we've heard so far one of those uh patients
013is actually going to be there with the guys as well. CJ and I will be there, GMS will be there. We're going to uh make sure we get it documented and just let you guys know about that. That's coming up uh 26th of this month. So, >> yeah, I'm going to go down too, Chief. >> Congratulations. >> Yep. >> Thank you. Item nine, Sharp Engineering Report. Uh board members, in your packet was the uh engineering report from Sharp Engineering. Uh if you have any questions, we can address them to engineer Sharp who's with us tonight. If you have your questions, I'll be glad to take them. Seeing none, hearing none, we'll move on to item 10, unfinished business. Item 10A, personnel committee. Trusty Cvin. >> Yes, board. Um the personnel committee um when we passed
014our resolution or our motion back in November 12th, um for our holiday schedule, we passed it only for this building. There are some township employees that are still working five days a week. As such, we didn't pass the holiday schedule to include Fridays that are actual holidays. So, we need to amend that so that employees that are working the five days a week, such as at the sheriff's office, at the fire station, um we get these paid holidays. >> I move that the additional paid holidays Friday, April 3rd, 2026, Good Friday. Friday, June 19th, 2026, Junth. Friday, July 3rd, 2026, 4th of July. Friday, November 27th, 2026, day after Thanksgiving. And Friday, December 25th, 2026, Christmas Day, for the employees continue to work 5day week be approved as recommended by the personnel committee. >> I'll
015second that. >> I have a motion by Treasurer Ferrari, a second by Trustee Charles. Are there any questions? Hearing none, roll call. >> Trusty Charles. Yes. >> Trusty Wagner. >> Yes. >> Treasure Ferrari. >> Yes. >> Clerk Wright. Yes. Trusty Le Piccolo. >> Yes. >> Trusty Culvin. >> Yes. >> And Supervisor Curtis. >> Yes. >> 10 A item two, employee handbook updates. Trusty Kovven. >> Okay. Um kind of stemming from the same situation. We realized there were some uh handbook updates that we needed to make. Um we want to make it so the holidays are just as passed by the township board so we don't have to update the appendix every time we change a holiday. And also Some employees are having 30-minute lunch periods. You want to change the lunch hour to lunch period.
016So, some that have 30 minutes, some that have an hour. Um, it's just the lunch period as scheduled. >> I move that the lunch and relief section, page six, holiday section, page 11, the employee handbook be updated as recommended by the personnel committee. I'll >> support. >> I have a motion by Treasurer Ferrari, a second by Trustee Coven. Are there any questions? Hearing none. Roll call. >> Clerk right? Yes. Treasure Ferrari? >> Yes. >> Trusty Leicello? >> Yes. >> Trusty Wagner? >> Yes. >> Trusty Coven? >> Yes. >> Trusty Charles? >> Yes. >> Supervisor Curtis? >> Yes. >> Okay. Item 10A. Brad Dwey Subdivision Alleyway Special Assessment District for the stairway repairs. Attorney Ellis, this is our board a township initiated uh special assessment district to address the um alleyway of the road commission for
017Oakland County stairway access to homes down below the hill. >> Good evening. That is accurate. Um if this resolution looks familiar board, it's because you've seen it before. This is the resolution actually set the first hearing um we had some questions about addresses um and the appropriate all the appropriate ensuring all the appropriate addresses were being noticed. Um so we had worked with the assessor to make sure that that was the case. So we need basically to reset the public hearing for your March meeting instead of having it tonight. I'd like to make a motion that the township board approve the resolution titled tenative special assessment resolution grab dwie stairway sidewalk improvement project and authorize the township clerk to certify and file same hereby set the first public hearing required of public act 188 of
0181954 for March 11 2026 at 6:30 p.m. Township Hall near Dunlap Road, Oxford, Michigan. >> Second. >> I have a motion by Treasurer Ferrari, a second by Trustee Coven. Are there any questions? >> A quick question. >> Yes, Trusty Charles. >> Uh, can I ask the fire chief, what would you do if there was an issue with some of the properties down by the lake that have this limited access? >> Chief, what would you do if you have limited access down there? >> We're going to do whatever we have to do. >> What is that? >> Every scenario is going to be different. I you know there's no currently um you know we end up having to try and use the stairs that are in place at this time but they are there's a very
019good chance somebody's going to get hurt. Um as far as a fire response there in and of itself it's going to be a nightmare no matter what we have there. Uh it was nice to have a set of stairs accessible to that area. Uh but in all honesty, in case of a fire, it's really only going to help for those first two houses that are closer to the stairs. It's still going to be quite a a challenge regardless uh because of the drop, because of the lack of water up there. We obviously, you know, we don't have uh water maintenance in that area. So that's going to be a challenge in and of itself, but limited access doesn't help. It actually is going to make things >> that help. Yes. Thank you. Uh, any other
020questions? Roll call. >> Uh, Trusty Wagner, >> yes. >> Trusty Charles, >> yes. >> Trusty Coven, >> yes. >> Trust Piccolo, >> yes. >> Clerk Wright, yes. Treasure Ferrari, >> yes. >> And Supervisor Curtis, >> yes. Item 11 A, November 4th, 2025 special election certification. Clerk, right? >> Yeah. Board members, this is the certification for the uh November 4th, 2025 special school board election. And uh just as the protocol, we always approve this to get in the minutes. But one thing I want to draw your attention to is on page 249 of your electronic, you'll see that uh on this sheet here, there are 6,081 ballots cast. You can see the discrepancy now that the absentee ballots are 3,800 to 22 in this election here. And one good thing about this, it's not just Oxford.
021It shows Addison and Brandon townships showing the the way the voting is going now. And I think this is a benefit to us because of our consolidating our precincts. You're going to see more of the absentee ballots being cast here, thus reducing the need for additional precincts. So, I just want to bring that to the attention of the of the township board on this. So, with that, I will make a motion to approve the canvas of votes for the November 4, 2025 special election for the Charter Township of Oxford as presented and to include them as an attachment to the minutes. >> I'll second them. >> Oh, I got four seconds. Good. Uh, >> whatever you want. >> I have a motion by clerk, right? >> And a second by Trustee Charles. >> Are there
022questions? Hearing none. Roll call. >> Trusty Culvin, >> yes. >> Trusty Le Piccolo, >> yes. >> Clerk Wright, yes. Treasure Ferrari, yes. >> Trusty Wagner, >> yes. >> Trusty Charles, >> yes. >> Supervisor Curtis, >> yes. >> Okay. Item 11B, Oxford Addison Youth Assistance Appointments. Clerk, Wright. >> Yes. Um I'm thinking after I did this, I probably should give this to Trusty Charles, but I'll take it. Um, this is something that usually because we're a contributor to the youth assistance for Oxford Addison that we are just uh affirming the appointments that they've made to their board on their youth assistance board of directors. So with that, I'll move to approve and support the appointment of Ben Caretta and Jenny Debniaak to the Oxford Addison Youth Assistance Board of Directors as recommended in the Oxford Addison
023Youth Assistance letter dated February 4, 2026. >> I'll second that. >> Okay. We have a motion by clerk right. I have a second by trustee Charles. Are there any questions? >> A quick comment, Supervisor Curtis. The both these people are pretty quality or are quality people. Uh Ben does a lot of work with the youth in our area. It's done a phenomenal job with them and Jenny's done a very good job at our meetings too, keeping things on track. So both of them are very very quality people that we should be happy they're on this board. >> Thank you. Uh, roll call. >> Trusty Charles, >> yes. >> Trusty Wagner, >> yes. >> Treasure Ferrari, >> yes. >> Clerk Wright, yes. Trusty Le Piccolo, >> yes. >> Trusty Coven, >> yes. >> Supervisor Curtis, >>
024yes. Uh 11 C, uh, moratorum on data center res uh, centers resolution. Uh board members, you you're likely aware that facilities are now being marketed as proposed as data centers, which difference uh which differ substantially from the traditional office, research or light industrial uses that many zoning ordinances, including the townships were originally drafted to regulate. Modern data centers often often involve larger building footprints, intensive and continuous electrical demand, substantial wastewater discharge, specialized fire suppression and life safety systems and unique response considerations. So these characteristics raise the uh land use infrastructure and um the placement of them throughout the township. in discussing this with uh planner uh Pasalacqua and attorney Ellis uh a a temporary moratorum uh so that we can go through and uh finitely organize our ordinance to regulate where, who, what, when and
025how a data center would be uh offered in if one were to come to our township. Uh just making our township prepared for them. Uh this moratorum doesn't say we are against them. It just gives us an opportunity to make sure they're in the right place utilizing the right resources. >> Just a question for you. >> Excuse me. >> Just a question. >> Sure. >> Number eight says during the moratorum the period the t say shall withhold says because we're having a mortorium says may withhold. Attorney Ellis. >> Well, the reason I drafted it that way is because there is a subsequent section that allows if there were extenduating circumstances um the board to wait actually wave the moratorium and allow someone coming in for a data center to come before the board. Um that
026would be under specific defined circumstances um that within the board's discretion. >> Okay. Yes, >> I don't want to defeat the morator because um basically we have to allow these facilities some kind of due process. >> Okay, >> they did want to come before the board under our current zoning ordinance. It could be possible that there could be extenduating circumstances where the board decided that was reasonable. um or uh data center as we traditionally think of them not in 2026 but previously wanted to come before that board the board might say that's a reasonable basis for that type of applicant right >> so there may be that that's why there's a little flexibility built in okay >> currently we have no applicants come in this is preparing us so that we get our ordinances correct
027uh before they do come Trusty Wagner the uh moratorum does it have to be done prior to an applicant or can it be established after an applicant comes in? >> So for you to have a legal protection where the township does not have to issue a permit under our current regulations as they exist today in our zoning ordinance we would have to have a moratorum in place before somebody comes in to apply for data center. If somebody were to come in before you had this moratorum in place we would have to look at our current zoning ordinance and regulations and they would we would approve them under that scheme that exists today. >> And an example of that, David, would be uh what are they closest to? What do they provide? Uh they they provide
028a they're they're not a commercial. They're not selling anything. They're not uh manufacturing anything. So, we would have to look at the zoning ordinance, say, what are they closest to and and we would have no finite regulations on it. >> Yeah. I'm just I'm I'm worried that a year is not going to be long enough to to pull this together and get it through our ordinance writing and through planning commission. Are there any situations where we can extend the moratorum? >> So court is highly unlikely in my opinion to ever allow a moratorum to go past a year. That said, um myself and the planner believe that we can get this in front of planning commission for a public hearing and through first and second reading with the board within six to eight months. We
029think that would be a reasonable timeline. Um my office has already drafted several of these ordinances so we know um generally what our municipalities are looking for. >> Okay, that'd be great. Thank you. >> Section Trusty Charles. Yeah, I want to compliment the three people you mentioned there about doing this ahead of time, the moratorum, because we all read about Washington Township and other areas where it seems to be an emotional issue going on and this gives us sometimes use facts, not feelings and develop things the right way. >> Trustee Lipol, >> section 4 addresses the extension. We we can extend it though according to section four then, right? As it comes close to the termination date or is that you're just saying you put that in there for just we'll see if that works
030or not? So to be honest with you, originally we had this drafted as a six-month moratorum and then we thought we might need more time. So we updated it to a year-long moratorum. Um there is enough Michigan state um court um rulings to guide us that the court generally will not allow us to do extended moratorum past a year. Um that said, this moratorum will no longer be in effect once we have an ordinance passed and we do expect an ordinance to be passed well in advance of the year. I move to approve the resolution imposing a temporary one-year moratorum on the establishment, permitting, consideration, approval, construction and or installation of data centers in the township of Oxford and direct administration, the township planner, the township of attorney to undertake the review and preparation of
031proposed zoning ordinance amendments as set forth in the resolution. I'll support it. >> I have a motion by Treasurer Ferrari and a second by Trustee Coleman. Um, board members, we're going to ask the uh planner, he's already been given uh guidelines and as attorney Ellis states, this is not her first one she's written. So, the ordinance should be in front of us within the next six months. We're going to work diligently to get it done. So with that, I'll call the role, please. >> Treasure Ferrari, >> yes. >> Trusty Wagner, >> yes. >> Trusty Charles, >> yes. >> Trusty Kovven, >> yes. >> Trusty Le Piccolo, >> yes. >> Quirk Wright, yes. Supervisor Curtis, >> yes. Item 12, items removed from the consent agenda. We have none. Item 13, another opportunity for the public to
032come up and comment on anything they'd like to speak about. Seeing none, we'll start with a second chance for board of trustees comments and we'll start with Trusty Coven. >> Um, I just want to say it looks like it's going to be a really nice weekend. So, enjoy it. >> Trusty Lipakola, >> have a good weekend. >> Clerk right? Uh, thank you to Mary Spearman for coming out and giving us a little education on uh some programs for the seniors. Appreciate that. Also shout out to the fire department for their accolades and the fine leadership of Chief Majestic and uh Chief Esper. >> Treasurer Ferrari. >> A couple items for 2025 across all the township various investment funds. Uh we earned roughly 1.477 million in interest for all the township funds. Also, I'd like to
033thank Supervisor Curtis and Trusty Wagner and Engineer Sharp for working through the Brad Dwey sewer issue, getting that all worked out. In March, you'll be having a recommendation on where we propose to get the grant match and that'll be on our March agenda. That's all I have. >> Thank you, Trusty Wagner. >> Congrats to the fire department. Well done. >> And Trusty Charles, >> all set. >> And Supervisor Curtis has no comment. Item 15. >> I'll second that. >> I have a motion by uh Treasure Ferrari. >> Changes. >> Was that and a second by Trusty Culvin. Uh, all in favor signify by saying I. I. Those opposed, you can stay here.