Statements by Fred A. Neil
1,535 statements from meeting recordings, newest meeting first.
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Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
Yeah, so so the total numbers, I mean, sometimes I only see maybe one or two of our officers are there, but we're overloaded from around the state.
Play from 3:06:32Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
And unlike
Play from 3:06:45Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
...the state training program, we concentrate really on the municipality...
Play from 3:06:46Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
...level of it.
Play from 3:06:53Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
Okay. All right, thank you, sir. How are you?
Play from 3:06:58Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
Go ahead.
Play from 3:11:21Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
Uh if there are no other questions, I want to thank you, David.
Play from 3:16:25Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
At the last minute realized we had an issue for
Play from 3:16:28Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
presentation, so uh as usually you came through and asked you for a presentation.
Play from 3:16:30Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
Um that's we're going to take a brief break right now for
Play from 3:16:34Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
I think it was helpful. I think the statistics were particularly helpful. Uh I know how to clear out a room, because I was the I was the last one to speak, and I declared that, did I not, uh, Mr. Hugg?
Play from 3:18:18Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
That I would save my remarks the last.
Play from 3:18:31Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
I know how to clear out a room. That's for sure.
Play from 3:18:34Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
I I think basically the the presentation showing what we've done, let's say over the last 3 years where the tax base, how much it's produced from 2024 fiscal year at five uh 59.2 million, and where it is currently in uh 20 fiscal 2026 at 64 uh 0.7 million. And then you look back on the same 3 years and our tax rate has not climbed. It is still four, four and a half uh cents per 100. We need to have um the tax base has got to increase, and the presentation that uh Councilman Anderson arranged for the Kent County Kent County, uh Kent, um, Economic Partnership which uh we will see in um now in February, basically is important in terms of the spread of the tax base in certain areas of the city where they have participated. But I I emphasized in my conversation with uh Senator Paradee, we need to bit preserve the properties we have now that will not sustain will not increase in value as part of the tax base, Right. simply because of the problems we're having with the broken justice system. The second thing is it becomes important in terms of the evidence of the necessity uh of the Downtown Partnership's master plan, because I don't know what uh the uh Acme property brought in, if anything, and what will it bring in now that we have a an agreement that is in place when that that's going to be built where you have 120 apartments over top of retail, and suddenly now here is an increase, and we need to preserve that as that grows, as that draws more
Play from 3:18:39Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
money in to make sure that we have control over people who can't control themselves. And that is a very difficult task that we have. We also have at this particular point noise that's coming to from us from from the public or segments of the public. Not one single person has ever come up to tell us where the money tree is that grows the trees that grow money. None of them said, "This is where you can get one of those trees." And because of that, we have got to stop listening to what is people who are looking for money that we can't get the money for what we need in order to help them. And they're really not helping their own cause in that process. We've even been threatened now by someone who is a a member of a committee, appointed to a committee for the city, who has now threatened us to bully us, to come to our homes with bullhorns and advocates and raise all kinds of heck. We have to basically shield ourselves off from that. And we as members of the council have got to listen and do what we have to do to meet our commitments and to kill keep going forward. And I yield, Mr. Hugg.
Play from 3:19:52Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
That is why I yielded to my colleague. She covered everything. Um, the only thing she did not cover, and I I'll make a wry comment, is the only people that you solicit to say will you pay for it, and they say yes, probably don't pay taxes. I yield.
Play from 3:32:08Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
If I may, you're preaching to the choir here. We don't have the rest of the choir. And you understand that past couple of years, just the penny or two that I had favored, we were not getting. And the pushback from the people, just as I've indicated, I've already said it. They don't want us to raise taxes. Don't raise taxes! They don't understand that what it's going to cost us in the future if we delay replacement of a part that has long passed its life expectancy, then the emergency costs more. We can't use the money from the enterprise funds to the point where it cost us more when we borrow, it's going to cost down the future even more money. And we've already made, as you've indicated, the commitments of of pay raises and other things. And I don't want to talk about storm water, storm water. I mean, that turned out to be an absolute disaster. But we're still paying that because we can't get it to where we can shift some of the service charges. It may have to be an artificial type of thing that we do to make it reasonable, because Chris and I basically went before the Speedway folks and they said, 'Hey, we may have to move out of town,' because it was just the way it was set up and the portions and what have you, it just didn't work. So, there has to be a different way to do that. We haven't even touched that. And then you're talking about the cross piping that was supposed to be done that we've had outrages from from the business people saying, 'Why? I'm not I'm not going to cause this. I'm not going to cause this.' I've had my plumber come and tell me, says, 'You can't even touch that.' So, these are things we haven't even touched yet, but you're not talking You're not talking to everybody who has to make that decision. You're talking to the people who I would guess, because I don't know, I didn't ask them, will they us understand fully what we have to deal with. And this is for the record. I mean, we're we're recording this for the record. And we have to make sure that they understand, hey, this this isn't fun and games. This isn't to play to the crowd. This is what we have to do to run this city responsibly. I yield.
Play from 3:46:29Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
You're part of this gang. Take Take a seat.
Play from 3:57:36Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
Yeah, and that and that would benefit the general fund because it would take those expenditures out of the general fund and put them in an enterprise-type uh situation, so and it would be a source, you know, depending on how it's done, it would be a source of revenue that equals or exceeds the the cost. Well, hey, I thank you all for putting up with us all half a day anyhow, or three quarters. Um I you know, I'm I'm hopeful that as we work our way through, some of these issues will start to get defined in in better terms. Um I do want to throw out, I've thrown out a couple of things for your consideration before, but um there are some things we have not typically done in addition to borrowing. Um you know, some some governments use special assessments. Uh it's kind of aimed at, okay, you benefit from this particular thing, we're going to assess you differently than than Miss Arndt who doesn't benefit from it.
Play from 3:58:22Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
Th- the problem I have with that, it's going to be negative. Uh I don't know whether we're going to get something positive out of it. Uh we have Mr. Doom and Gloom who comes in and anything you say, this is the reason why we did it, we did it to cut down on taxes, we've added fees, what have you. It just does not sink in. So I think you have these people who are very negative, that are going not going to add anything positive about the program. I think the more we can educate people who really comprehend what we're trying to do is going to be worthwhile. If you survey them, they're going to be they're going to, you're going to get the reflections of the negativity as opposed to reflections of how we basically can help, or or what what we think we need, or how how to accomplish the things that we want. How do we increase revenue? I mean, ultimately, that's what we're talking about, how do we increase revenue. And I don't know whether that is going to be, I don't know how accurate it would be. It's not going to be scientific. And it's just going to be words, and I don't know what we're going to take out of it. So, I think that the education and more publicity that we can possibly do. I mean, one of the things
Play from 4:01:19Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
because I asked about the smart energy program. How many people take advantage of it? Do they really know? I mean, could we save something? I mean, we've had it posted. It's all posted on the website. Is the website good enough to say, here's money-saving things? I can go down about energy, and that smart energy program that we're paying for doesn't show up. There's other things that are on that website that show up, but not that particular program. And if I go and had posted the police quality life program, it's hard, I can't find it. I can't go right on it and find it, it's not there. So I think we need to look at that to expand what we can do or what we can find on the website in terms of making it easier for the educational program factor of it. Can you do it? Here it is, it's available to you there. And there's two stories today, when I go back, that I'm anxious to look at in the newspaper that I didn't get a chance to do this morning. One was on the police report, how was that reported, that presentation, and DDP. I think that's things that we have to constantly get out to the public, and who knows if they're reading the paper, we don't know that. And I suspect a lot aren't anymore. So that's it's a constant battle to get our message across to people and say here's where you can find the information, here's what we're going to do. The best thing that's happened was in terms of when you opened up the program for the city, you saw all about the information that we needed for the snow removal
Play from 4:02:28Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
and when trash pickups are going to be. I sent out additional of that information to the Third District people and, you know, for Tricia and myself, to make sure that the movers and shakers know, so if their members come to them, that they can either circulate it or answer the questions that otherwise we would answer if they came directly to us. So there's no question about it. And I think one of the first things that Councilman Anderson gave me was a list of things, and one of those things dealt with the expansion of publicity of the things that we're doing that are positive and are available to the city. So that's my feeling on it.
Play from 4:04:05Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
Wouldn't that go through Kay? Kay Sass, I mean. Yeah, that goes, anything should Kay, go through Kay. She's she's...
Play from 4:07:03Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
Thank you, Dave. And...
Play from 4:08:40Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
And those staff that remained, and those members of the Council who've remained. Thank you.
Play from 4:08:42Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
Meeting adjourned. Yes.
Play from 4:08:52Jan 23, 2026, Construction and Property Maintenance Code Board of Appeals Meeting
Well, basically this The reason there's a reason for for what we do. It affects the neighborhood. Mhm. And because of that, if your neighbors call in and particularly if you're trying to sell a house and then yet the price sees this on the other side, it affects them. So, it
Play from 06:02Jan 23, 2026, Construction and Property Maintenance Code Board of Appeals Meeting
it it really goes a long way It's not so much
Play from 06:21Jan 23, 2026, Construction and Property Maintenance Code Board of Appeals Meeting
Well, once it's spotted, uh, this these guys are very these guys the the our code inspectors are really empathetic, okay? You have to let them know what the status is.
Play from 06:45Jan 23, 2026, Construction and Property Maintenance Code Board of Appeals Meeting
You reach out to them, they'll let you know. If you need some time, whatever. But when you do this, it it really affects the neighborhood.
Play from 06:56Jan 15, 2026, Code Board of Appeals Meeting
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh I believe we ought to hear from the code inspectors about what this was about, because the uh information that was sent to get provided in the packet shows that it was actually closed in uh 2023, on May 10th, as being in compliance, and then it was reopened uh by Mr. England on February 20th, 2024, when you see he noticed the same violation of the gates and sent up a new violation letter. So there is a history here. And in this uh notice, um uh Mr. England noticed on March 20th, 2024, spoke to Ms. Capone and gave her a 30-day extension. A second notice and a citation was sent on April 21st, 2024, and again, another extension has been provided. So I think we have to know something of the history of it because there has
Play from 02:38Jan 15, 2026, Code Board of Appeals Meeting
...been conversation back and forth. And I would like to have a presentation by Mr. Kopp and Mr. Enright in terms of the circumstances of why this was reopened and brought to our attention again.
Play from 03:34Jan 15, 2026, Code Board of Appeals Meeting
That that's a motion.
Play from 03:50Jan 15, 2026, Code Board of Appeals Meeting
Yeah, I think I yelled. The biggest problem that you look at, if you take the human factor and you say, you understand this, look at the neighbors. I don't know how many neighbors have complained, but if you let that happen and you let a lot of people do the same thing, then all of a sudden, in this area, you have of junk cars. Because you can't move a junk car. And now the entire neighborhood, the value goes down for those people who really can't do anything about this. And that's why the law is is in place is to make sure that you're looking after their interests in terms as well as the person who's there. And one thing about our code inspectors, and I've seen this ever since I was elected in 2015 along with Dr. Sudler before he was a doctor, but anyhow, is that they really care about what's happening. They're not doing it they work and they will actually work with the person to resolve the problem before it gets to the appeal. And I've sat into other appeals where they've actually made suggestions where we were able to not have to take any action because of the suggestions they made. They care about the city and they care about the people. And I think here it's a problem, and that problem that the city, that the people in this city are concerned about: why would you let this happen? How many times would you have it through the neighborhood that suddenly you have these cars that are inoperable, that have wrecked or or or pushed off to the side,
Play from 14:18Jan 15, 2026, Code Board of Appeals Meeting
All right. Yes, uh, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, compliance makes this whole thing very simple. Compliance makes it disappear. If she takes action, knowing that it's there, she gets a letter and disappears. But if she doesn't, then no clue...
Play from 30:05Jan 13, 2026, Council Committee of the Whole Meeting
meeting of Tuesday, January 13th, 2026. I would like to remind the public that public comments are welcome on any item and will permitted be permitted at the appropriate time. We now have before you the evening's agenda, and I will entertain a motion for its adoption.
Play from 00:00Jan 13, 2026, Council Committee of the Whole Meeting
It's been moved and seconded. Any questions? If none, all in favor please say aye.
Play from 00:24Jan 13, 2026, Council Committee of the Whole Meeting
Any opposed? Hearing no opposed, it has been moved and seconded and we now have a motion uh saying none all in favor have said have approved. Finding the first on the agenda we have presentations. One is Booted and Suited, Bobby Wilson, CEO and founder, please come forward to the podium.
Play from 00:32Jan 13, 2026, Council Committee of the Whole Meeting
Mr. Wilson, we invite you to brief us on your program.
Play from 01:04Jan 13, 2026, Council Committee of the Whole Meeting
Ms. Gibson, was that your assistant helper?
Play from 06:49