The Graphic Packaging International factory in Kalamazoo.

KALAMAZOO, MI -- The Kalamazoo City Commission took no action on a recommendation to approve a Community Benefits Agreement with a factory that recently expanded.

Citizens commented to elected officials about the proposal at the Monday, April 18, commission meeting. Some commissioners and citizens spoke against the agreement as proposed and asked for a more robust agreement to benefit the community.

Commissioners gave direction to city staff to work with GPI and other stakeholders to craft a new Community Benefits Agreement proposal to bring before the Kalamazoo City Commission in late 2022, to coincide with a tax abatement for 2023.

The Graphic Packaging International (GPI) paper mill completed a $600-million expansion that began operating in early 2022. After the expansion, GPI volunteered to enter into the proposed Community Benefits Agreement with the city of Kalamazoo. The agreement is meant to provide benefits to the neighborhoods where the plant is located.

The proposal includes job fairs at GPI, improvements of a site in the area, and the creation of a $60,000 community grant fund. GPI would also contract with a community liaison, the proposal states.

Commissioner Esteven Juarez asked why the agreement did not happen when the previous city commission voted to approve the factory expansion. He asked about concerns about what’s being emitted from the factory. The factory emits hydrogen sulfide, a toxic gas that has been found in neighborhood locations in amounts that experts say merits further investigation. The city’s wastewater plant has been identified as another source of the gas.

“What is being emitted there, does it cause health issues?” Juarez asked Kalamazoo Community Investment Manager Antonio Mitchell.

Mitchell said he did not know, and said the state of Michigan is doing research to determine the answer.

Juarez said that information is needed, and he suggested waiting for the health report before proceeding.

Without having the the answers about health issues, Juarez asked how the commission can create an agreement to hold GPI accountable. It is concerning to be asked to make the decision without having all the information, Juarez said.

Kalamazoo resident Fred Lawrence spoke to the commission business meeting Monday. He lives in the area of the GPI factory and the wastewater treatment plant.

The smell has been an issue in Kalamazoo for years, he said. He equated the proposed agreement with GPI to “crumbs” compared to the money the factory is making while operating in Kalamazoo.

“Now you’re going to give us crumbs? I think that is belittling to the community,” Lawrence said. GPI needs to do better, he said, asking commissioners to reject the agreement until the factory comes back with something better.

Several others spoke on the issue, and several asked for money to relocate away from the neighborhood.

Western Michigan University Associate Professor of History David Benac also spoke to commissioners. He went through some details of the proposed agreement and said it does not provide enough of a benefit to residents.

“Graphic Packaging is attempting to hold the city hostage for more tax breaks.,” Benac said.

He urged commissioners to ask for more for the community.

Former Kalamazoo City Commissioner Jack Urban spoke in favor of the proposed agreement. He called it thorough and substantive.

“You can’t put the pollution back in the ground or in the sewer, it’s out there,” Urban said, and talked about the proposed agreement as a collaborative effort between the city and GPI. Urban served on the city commission from 2013 to 2021.

About a dozen people called in opposition of the agreement. Urban was the only one to speak in favor of it during public comment time.

Mitchell said some of the items in the agreement were included because company officials believe they can be implemented within months.

Mitchell said the steering committee did not discuss the health issue while making a recommendation on the agreement to the city commission.

Commissioner Qianna Decker asked about a report expected from the state of Michigan about the possible health effects of the gas found coming from the plant and from city infrastructure and measured by sensors in nearby neighborhoods.

The work is ongoing and there is no estimated timeline for the release of the state report, Public Services Director James Baker said Monday.

Andy Johnson, vice president of government affairs and sustainability at GPI, also spoke. The company asked what they could do in the next eight months to make an impact, while working with others to create the proposal, he said. The company wants to build back its relationship with the community, he said.

Commissioner Stephanie Hoffman said we need to be transformational, not transactional.

“We could have gone much deeper with that Community Benefits Agreement,” Hoffman said. She asked for more input from residents to add to the benefits agreement. “I would like to see this have a little more meat and teeth to it.”

Vice Mayor Don Cooney thanked GPI for the good things it is doing in the community, but said the people living nearby are paying costs to operate the factory.

“They are paying cost with quality of life issues,” Cooney said.

An agreement is a good idea, he said, but the agreement is far from addressing the cost the people are paying.

Cooney said the agreement could contain a commitment to eliminate offensive odor, or to hiring people in the community at the factory. It could include diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, or childcare for plant employees, he said.

“We don’t know the health effects of the expulsions from GPI. We do no in the immediate neighborhood, life expectancy is 14 years less than the highest census tract in the community,” Cooney said.

That is unacceptable and has to change, he said, noting he does not believe it is solely the fault of GPI.

GPI should ask community members what they want, Cooney said.

“What can you do to stop the odor and stop the health effects in that community?” Cooney said.

Commissioner Chris Praedel highlighted how people are concerned about health and quality of life. He said he wants the city to address what citizens care about. He talked about the issue between approving something vs. approving nothing on Monday.

Juarez said it would be ok to take no action Monday, because he is tired of seeing people not get what they deserve.

Related: Michigan’s health assessment of toxic gas in Kalamazoo delayed again

“Graphic Packaging needs to pay us to relocate,” resident Deandre Jones said by phone to the city commission Monday. Jones, who speaks between pauses, spends most of his time hooked to a machine that helps him breathe. He suffers from asthma and was recently admitted to the hospital, where he lost consciousness temporarily, according to his mother, DeAnn Winfield.

Portrait of Deandre Jones at his home in the Northside of Kalamazoo on Tuesday, July 27, 2021. Jones contracted asthma from what he believes was the environmental waste output of Graphic Packaging International and had to be put on life support when he went into a coma after an asthma attack. He now requires assistance from a ventilator and must be constantly watched over. (Photo by Carlin Stiehl | MLive.com)Carlin Stiehl | MLive.com

Winfield also called to comment Monday, asking for money from GPI to relocate. Winfield also suffers from asthma. Her daughter died after suffering an asthma attack years ago, Winfield told MLive previously.

Related: Asthma is killing Kalamazoo family living near a stinking factory. Now the state is studying asthma in the neighborhood.

Her family lives on the corner of Krom Street and East Prouty Street, about two blocks away from the GPI factory property and near the city’s wastewater treatment plant.

“I don’t see anything listed in the Community Benefits Agreement that addresses the health impacts of residents or the ongoing environmental racism. No medical monitoring or offers of relocation are included,” former resident Brandi Crawford-Johnson said in a phone call to the commission Monday.

Crawford-Johnson said she suffers from asthma and moved away from Kalamazoo because of pollution concerns. She is worried about her family members still living in the Northside and Eastside who are also sick, she said.

Environmental racism refers to how minority group neighborhoods—populated primarily by people of color and members of low-socioeconomic backgrounds—are burdened with disproportionate numbers of hazards including toxic waste facilitates, paper mills, and other sources of environmental pollutions and foul odors that lower the quality of life, she said.

She asked commissioners to vote against the agreement, and asked them to fight against injustice.

“Those who accept evil without protesting against it are really cooperating with it,” she said.

Kyle Whyte, a professor of environmental justice at the University of Michigan, and member of the White House Environmental Justice Council, called in and asked commissioners to take action on the issue of pollution.

“It goes against environmental justice policy, civil rights policy, and I’m very concerned that somehow this company is allowed to continue noxious and harmful activities, and the people who are suffering are not being listened to,” Whyte said.

GPI agreed to enter into the proposed Community Benefits Agreement meant to direct the company to undertake additional efforts to address the impact of its expansion project on city residents in the Northside and Eastside neighborhoods, the city agenda packet states.

GPI undertook an expansion of its Kalamazoo facility in 2021, making it the largest North American producer of coated recycled paperboard, the city said. The project included new construction, new machinery, and site improvements, and the expansion came online earlier this year.

A Community Benefits Agreement is a legally enforceable contract that would be signed by the city and GPI, setting forth a range of benefits that the business agrees to provide as part of a development project. The CBA is being used elsewhere in the country as an effort to engage communities to ensure affected residents share in the benefits of major development projects in the local community, according to the city agenda packet.

The document lists four main goals of the agreement:

GPI will select and contract with a Community Relations Liaison to connect with the residents, neighborhood associations, faith-based organizations and other organizations serving those neighborhoods to enhance GPI relationships with residents of the area near the plant and the city. The liaison will work with the CBA Steering Team to assist GPI in engaging with the community and residents in a meaningful manner, providing a greater understanding of GPI and its local facilities and employment opportunities. The liaison will conduct both a current survey and a year-end survey of the residents to evaluate the relationship between GPI and the residents.

In 2022, GPI will conduct two job fairs designed to provide greater access and awareness of potential GPI employment opportunities to residents of the two local neighborhoods. The job fairs will take place and be publicized at venues located within the designated neighborhoods to maximize neighborhood outreach.

Following each job fair, GPI will report to the CBA Steering Committee the number of participants, the number of applicants interviewed, and the number of individuals hired who attended the job fair. The CBA Steering committee will analyze and identify barriers to hiring to make improvements for an effective job fair and hiring process to maximize the opportunity for residents for successful employment with GPI.

GPI will assist in the improvement of a multi-use site for use by neighborhood businesses, food trucks and youth activities to create healthy community engagement, community inclusivity and to promote economic empowerment. It is anticipated that this objective will be accomplished through the improvement of an existing site or venue.

GPI will make available funding equal to 50% of the amount of the tax break amount, anticipated to be approximately $60,000, to fund programs aimed at engagement by GPI with neighborhood residents by promoting inclusivity and economic empowerment. The CBA Steering Team will determine the distribution of the grant funds.

“Graphic Packaging has been engaged in conversations with the CBA Steering Committee over the past three months in a very thoughtful and productive process,” Graphic Packaging Vice President Government Affairs Andy Johnson said in a statement to MLive sent in mid April.

“During our meetings we reviewed a number of ideas that were brought forward by committee members and discussed those ideas in a transparent process. We have jointly developed a proposed agreement that we believe sets the stage for increased community involvement and supports local economic benefits,” he said.

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