Warren City Council denies proposed coffee cart at City Hall again

WARREN — A proposed coffee cart that has caused tensions to brew between the mayor and City Council members has been unanimously denied again.

At its Aug. 26 meeting, the Warren City Council voted against a coffee cart that had been proposed at City Hall.

The proposed cart would bring a smaller location for Gather + Grounds, a nonprofit that provides job training for individuals with intellectual disabilities. They currently have locations in Center Line, Ferndale and Richmond.

The coffee cart first came before the City Council several months ago. Members voted against it, removing the funding from the current fiscal year’s city budget. However, at the Downtown Development Authority’s July 16 meeting, the board voted to bring the proposal back to the council to request funding for the project again.

The DDA is requesting an amendment to the budget in the amount of $100,000 for the cart.

In addition to coffee, it would also provide sandwiches and baked goods. Warren Mayor Lori Stone, as well as DDA Director Tom Bommarito, have been advocating for the cart.

During the public comment portion of the meeting, former City Councilman Garry Watts said he was against the coffee cart, calling it “a silly idea.”

“We have restaurants in that area that count on business from General Motors, City Hall, other businesses around there, and I think it would be wrong to put something in there and take business away from them. So hopefully you guys give that one a thumbs down,” he said.

When the item came up for discussion, Councilman Jonathan Lafferty accused Stone of being more focused on bringing a coffee shop to City Hall than fixing problems in the city.

“We finally know what Mayor Stone has been busy with instead of attending to the important issues facing our city,” he said.

Lafferty went on to accuse the mayor of prioritizing the coffee cart instead of focusing on a shortage of police officers, infrastructure concerns and “a total lack of a strategic plan or vision to the city.”

He also stated the fact that bringing the coffee stand back to City Council despite it having previously been rejected is disrespectful.

“This proposal can only be characterized in one of two ways, either a total lack of respect for the decision already previously made by City Council, or incompetence,” he said.

Despite accusations that no other businesses were contacted about the possibility of opening a shop in City Hall, Council Secretary Mindy Moore said Bommarito had reached out to other businesses, but none were interested.

“They weren’t interested because it’s not feasible,” she said. “We don’t have the numbers to make any sort of business.

Moore said other businesses, such as Dave’s Deli, had attempted to open in City Hall but failed due to a lack of traffic. She also said she would prefer to give the opportunity to a Warren-based business and stated the City Council can’t give money to a nonprofit.

“I think you’ll remember when we discussed the challenges we faced in the winter with the homeless population, that we found out we can’t fund a nonprofit. The city is just not allowed to do that,” she said.

During Moore’s comments, the Warren TV live stream of the meeting stopped. When it returned, while they were having what Councilman Gary Boike called “a healthy discussion,” Bommarito allegedly walked out of the building.

“It would be in his best interest to answer our questions, but he decided to leave,” he said.

Bommarito could not be reached for comment.

Councilwoman Melody Magee asked how other cities had been successful with coffee shops in their city buildings.

“I would like to understand how is it working for them, and it can’t work for us, because we’re the third largest city,” she said.

City Attorney Jeff Schroder said in many cases, the businesses are not operated by the state or the municipality and instead the space is leased.

“The state of Michigan or the city of Detroit is not going in and building out a sandwich shop and then leasing it after you pay to build it, so I think that’s the difference here,” he said.

Council President Angela Rogensues said after she put out a poll on Facebook, some residents responded that it was a great idea, while others replied that they’d rather see the money spent elsewhere.

“They wanted it spent on their park or some other very worthy cause,” she said.

Rogensues also stated that the city gives out money to generate economic development in the same way that the $100,000 would be going to the coffee cart.

In an interview Aug. 28, Stone said it wasn’t about either the company or the city making a profit as much as it was about providing a positive environment for people with disabilities to come out and get working experience.

“While most businesses, it wouldn’t serve them, because they’re not necessarily going to make profits off of this location, it potentially could have been a very positive partnership where adults with developmental disabilities would have a space to be active members of our community right here in City Hall,” she said.

While the City Council continues to call the coffee stand her idea, Stone said it came from the city’s economic development department.

“My economic development department said, ‘Hey, here’s an opportunity, we found a win-win, what do you think?’ And I said I can get on board with this,” she said.

Stone said she respects the council as a deliberative body, and while they’re allowed to disagree on certain things, unless the Council changes its mind, she had no intention of bringing it before them again.