Livonia council advances all 10 study items; engineering contract extension and disputed drainage bid headed for debate Sept. 28

Eight items land on the consent agenda. Procurement questions push a five-year engineering extension and an $84,689 drainage contract to the regular agenda for separate discussion.

Livonia City Council Study Meeting · Monday, September 14, 2026 · City Hall Auditorium, 33000 Civic Center Drive

The Livonia City Council on Monday worked through a 10-item study agenda that sets up the 2,049th Regular Meeting on Monday, September 28, 2026, when the items will be formally voted on. Study meetings do not produce final approvals; instead, council members direct each item to either the consent agenda, where it is approved in a single vote without discussion, or the regular agenda, where it is debated and voted on individually.

All seven council members were present: Council President Kayleigh Reid, who chaired the meeting, Vice President Patrick Brockway, who led the Pledge of Allegiance, and council members Carrie Budzinski, Brandon McCullough, Eileen McDonnell, Robin Persiconi and Martha Ptashnik. Reid noted at the start that the printed yellow agendas were missing Item 6, and that QR codes posted in the auditorium linked to the full agenda.

Eight items were sent to consent. Two engineering items were sent to the regular agenda after questions about procurement practices: a five-year extension of qualification-based engineering contracts with four consulting firms, and a rear-yard drainage contract whose low bidder initially submitted a bid bond for a different community's project.

Procurement was the thread running through the evening. Public speakers returned to a dispute from earlier council meetings over McDonnell's access to the city's online bidding site in connection with a boiler bid, a resident urged a study session on consultant contracts, and McCullough closed the meeting by proposing more detailed agenda cover sheets so residents can see how each purchase was procured.

Agenda summary

No items were approved or denied at this meeting, and the agenda contained no unfinished business. Every item below is new business awaiting a final vote on September 28.

Significant events

Engineering contracts spark procurement debate

Zilincik gave an extended defense of the QBS extension, citing the federal Brooks Act of 1972, which lets public agencies hire engineers based on qualifications rather than lowest price. He compared it to choosing a surgeon for expertise rather than cost.

He listed recent work by the four firms. OHM Advisors handled the Newburgh Road reconstruction, which paired a $1.25 million grant with about $3.7 million in work completed in five months. The city also coordinated with Wayne County, which contributed funding, on five traffic signals along Newburgh at Seven Mile Road, Plymouth Road, Hines Drive, Churchill High School and Ann Arbor Trail. OHM prepared a 2023 Highway Safety Improvement Program application that won about $660,000, with the state covering 90% of construction, for signal work that included Newburgh Road at Lyndon. AEW designed the federally funded West Chicago project, which was awarded in 2024 and designed in 2025, and HRC is designing a road segment targeted for 2027 construction. Zilincik said the city does some design in-house, including Ann Arbor Trail between Newburgh and Eckles in 2019, 2024 water main work on Westfield and Harrison, and recent work on Pickford Avenue and Clarita west of Inkster Road.

McCullough said he respects all four firms and would likely vote yes, but after six and a half years on council he wants proof of value, not just track record: third-party data or comparisons with other communities showing the firms' pricing beats the market. "Help me help you," he said, likening it to Jerry Maguire.

McDonnell asked who created the fee schedules and why all four firms charge identical percentages. Zilincik said the engineering department built the schedule in 2010 through a request for qualifications, has updated it twice for inflation, and added a 0.7% design discount for firms that continue the road program. He said his department has 10 people and relies on consultants for utility coordination and permitting. McDonnell suggested a shorter term so the city could test the market within a year or two, and suggested budgeting a second purchasing staff member, noting the department has one person.

Budzinski offered the item for the regular agenda so Zilincik could prepare a memo explaining the cost savings, which she described as a kind of council 101.

Bid bond question moves drainage contract off consent

McCullough initially offered Item 10 for consent, then offered it for the regular agenda after McDonnell raised concerns. McDonnell said the packet showed the low bid did not include a proper bid bond and that, under normal bidding rules, a missing bid bond disqualifies a bid. Zilincik said the bidder uploaded a bond for a Commerce Township project by mistake, the purchasing manager confirmed a Livonia bond had been obtained a week earlier, and the Law Department agreed Dynamic Underground Group is the lowest qualified bidder.

Shelden Park sidewalk widths

Before the agenda, Erica Smith, the city's director of government affairs, responded to a resident's concern about sidewalk widths at the Shelden Park renovation. She said the concern had not come up when council approved the plans. The Planning Commission follows a six-foot standard for sidewalks along major roads and five feet elsewhere, and five feet is what the ADA requires; wider paths could invite motorized traffic such as e-bikes; and the budget does not allow design changes. A wider curved path serves the event space, playground and splash pad, where the heaviest traffic is expected. She said she had not heard of any plan to remove a pavilion and would report back. McCullough asked whether the project's scope had grown since council approved it.

Payment fee drop for residents

The BS&A switch lowers the fee residents pay to use a card for city payments from 2.8% to 2.65%.

Votes and council direction

No roll-call votes were taken. Each item was placed on the September 28 agenda by a council member's offer with no objection, except Item 10, which moved from consent to regular after an objection.

Public comment

Times reflect the meeting recording. Speakers had three minutes for general comments and two minutes on agenda items.

1. 1:21
   Steve King

   Cited city charter provisions giving council authority over parks, the power to investigate city departments, and the power to amend ordinances, and asked council to use that authority. Cited his more than 50 years of community involvement and his induction into the Livonia Hall of Fame, and responded to repeated criticism from a man he named as John Pastor, calling claims about a past incident false and saying a charge against him was dismissed. Said his next Facebook reel will focus on the Rotary Pavilion. Defended McDonnell's challenge of the boiler bid, which he called illegal because the bid was unsigned and the bidder skipped the pre-bid meeting, and criticized Jay Murray for going after her at earlier meetings.

2. 3:59
   Jay Murray

   Called McDonnell's earlier response to him "reprehensible" and said she should apologize. Argued that by viewing boiler project documents on the bidding website under a company account, rather than requesting them through normal channels, she left a record other bidders could see, creating a chilling effect and an appearance of impropriety on a project she voted on. Reid reminded him to direct comments to the chair.

3. 6:16
   Christopher Martin

   Asked that poor trash and yard waste pickup by Priority Waste be placed on an upcoming agenda, a request he made at the earlier 7 p.m. Regular Meeting and that City Clerk Lori Miller stamped between meetings. Said yard waste has sat at his curb for a week or longer, noted some cities have dropped the hauler, and said the company has cycled through excuses from COVID to truck shortages to driver pay. Suggested a personal relationship between a company figure and city administration should not excuse poor service.

4. 8:17
   Nicole Hefty, Melrose Street

   Said she routinely views bids on the MITN (Michigan Inter-Governmental Trade Network) site for her job, and that viewing open bid information without bidding is not an ethics problem. Urged a study session on consultant contracts, saying some firms keep contracts for years without rebidding, charge high hourly rates for administrative work, and find grants they then bill cities to apply for. Said repeated change orders signal someone is not doing due diligence and asked for more transparency with vendors.

5. 11:05
   Steve Johnson

   Said McDonnell had explained her actions, that he understood her son's company did not bid on the boilers, and he sees no ethics violation. Expressed full confidence in her ethics and said she would have recused herself if needed.

6. 52:14
   Denise Mika (Item 8)

   Questioned approving five-year agreements with fee percentages but no dollar values or hourly rates. Challenged Zilincik's inflation example, saying her own search put $100,000 in 2010 construction costs at roughly $150,000 to $200,000 today, not $350,000, and asked what market data the schedule was based on.

7. 58:27
   Jerry Krasinski, Bainbridge Avenue (Item 10)

   Observed that, as he understood it, the bidder was given a chance to correct its error before bids were reviewed. Zilincik responded that the purchasing manager only discovered the wrong bond when opening bids and then confirmed a Livonia bond existed.

8. 59:31
   Denise Mika (Item 10)

   Said that in a sealed bid process the bids should be taken as opened, without contacting a bidder to fix a document, and said she would research the rules.

9. 1:00:16
   Jerry Krasinski, Bainbridge Avenue

   Said recurring purchasing problems in recent months warrant a review of city purchasing processes and department compliance. On the budget, said his understanding is the city expects a few million dollars in added revenue but about $900,000 less from the state, and asked what services the city might reduce to address capital infrastructure needs.

10. 1:01:53
    Elijah, Livonia resident

    Spoke against Flock license plate reader cameras using a base-rate argument: even a 96% accuracy rate, applied across large numbers of scans in a city of about 95,000, produces many false matches. Said those errors, along with potential data leaks, would ultimately cost taxpayers, and urged the city to spend money elsewhere.

Council member updates

1. 12:46
   Brandon McCullough

   Praised Parks and Recreation staff following a week of renovation work at the city's recreation center. He acknowledged criticizing the facility about six weeks earlier, said the concerns were warranted though his approach may not have been ideal, and said the building now "looks like a different place," including the cleaned-up tree fort. Asked Keppen to pass thanks to Superintendent Michelle Koppin and staff.

2. 14:43
   Erica Smith, director of government affairs

   Delivered the administration's update on Shelden Park sidewalk widths (see Significant events).

3. 16:25
   Brandon McCullough

   Asked Smith to find out whether there was any scope creep between the Shelden Park design council approved and the current plans.

4. 27:06
   Martha Ptashnik

   Disclosed her employment with Livonia Public Schools before offering the Stymelski Park agreement, stating she has no financial interest.

5. 30:02
   Martha Ptashnik

   In a light moment, asked Treasurer Nash to reward her tax-day staff with her well-known baked goods. Nash said peanut butter cookies are likely this week.

6. 1:03:57
   Brandon McCullough (closing)

   Asked Reid to consider agenda cover sheets like those in other municipalities where he has worked, spelling out whether a purchase is a bid or a cooperative purchasing agreement, along with the staff recommendation. He said he had reviewed the Item 10 packet and considered the bid bond problem a scrivener's error. Said residents are demanding transparency, some past bids were rushed, and meetings have started to feel "like a game," with faults on all sides. He said council would likely have supported the earlier Bennett Civic Center Library boiler purchase had it been presented as a formal bid alternate packaged with the Sandburg Library project rather than as a standalone quote. When a colleague asked whether that is what happened, he said it was not.

What's next

All 10 items go to the 2,049th Regular Meeting on Monday, September 28, 2026. Items 1–7 and 9 will be taken up in a single consent vote. Items 8 and 10 will be discussed and voted on individually, with a memo from the engineering department expected on the QBS contract extensions.