City of Davison, Michigan

My wife Jennifer thinks this blog thing is a neat tool, so she ask if she could post something about being married to a city manager. So, here are a few words from my better half.

We are sitting here in a hotel in Pennsylvania. My husband is excited they have internet access. First thing he does in log on and check his e mail.As the kids are waiting to go to dinner and swim. “How is Davison surviving without me?” I am sure that is what he is thinking. But that is something that maybe not everyone knows about Pete, Davison’s city manager.

Pete is truly dedicated to his job and his family. I know he often struggles with how to split his time. He loves being a dad and loves being a city manager. Being married to him often has its challenges. There are late night meetings, people knowing us everywhere we go, social obligations and politics in every discussion. The funny part is we have grown to love his job too. Its kind of fun going to events and our children have become very knowledgable about politics locally which has sparked a deeper interest globally. Tubing down the Au Sable river this week with our oldest daughter asking “So what happened with the Rove leak at the White House?” I don’t know about you but at 16 I did not have a clue about such happenings in the world. This week we are visiting New York, not because of the city per say, but because the kids wanted to see ground zero. We also plan on seeing Philadelphia and Gettysburg. It has sparked an interest in politics and history like no classroom could.

I have to admit it has been hard moving to different communities. I live further from my family than I would like. And coming to Davison has been, well no offfence, lonely. Everyone here seems to know everyone and there is a certain sense of history that we as a family have not grown up with. But what I have learned in my 3 years here is that it is a great place to live. We live in a great community, we feel safe, and everyone likes to smile. There is a small town feel with some modern conveniences. I look forward to watching Davison grow and am proud that my husband can be part of those changes.

The hardest part about being married to a city manager is when I hear negative talk about my husband. I know it comes with the territory, but honestly I have to wonder sometimes how people can say such personal things to such a dedicated person. Pete truly loves his job, wants what is best for the city and works even if he is not at work. He comes home from council meetings, wakes me up, and I have to spend an hour or 2 talking to him about all of the new ideas (good or bad).

The best part of being married to a city manager is being part of a community. Knowing what is going on sometimes before anyone else. Watching our family learn and become interested in how government works. And seeing someone who comes home from work everyday with a smile and knowing that he leaves every morning to go do something that he loves.

Davison has changed so much in the 3 years we have been here. I can’t wait to see what is yet to come.

Where I insist on all my employees take their vacation time and get away from the office, sometimes I feel I’m the worst violator. I have found that people need to get away from their work environment to recharge their batteries and reconnect with their families and significant others.

Most of us spend more of our awake time at work than we do with our loved ones. Where it easy to understand the neccesity of this, sometimes the family looses out and that’s a shame.

I will be out of the office on vacation next week with my family. We will be driving accross part of this great country and kind of “winging it”. Where we will be at what time is an unknown. Its kind of a small adventure, my three daughters and wife are looking forward to taking.

For city managers, January through June are hard months to take away from the office. This is the time (in a July/June budget cycle) that we go through the budget process. Lots of meetings and lots of numbers. Come July my family is ready for some dad time.

I will be taking my lap top with me, but don’t know how often I’ll be able to post. Staff back at city hall likes this time that I am away. You can draw your own conclusions there, but I’ve convinced myself that they are thinking of me recharging my batteries and not the fact that it is harder for me to give more assignments when I’m away…

There have been a lot of questions about getting a turn arrow for the intersection of M-15 and Flint Street. City Council has been attempting to get one for years.

A challenge is that M-15 is a State Highway and falls under State jurisdiction. There is a process set up for traffic signals and traffic single upgrades. In past years we have not met enough of the merits set down by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) to get the improved traffic lights.

The good news is that MDOT has done another traffic study, and with the new development on the north/east corner, we think we will meet the requirements for the left turn arrow.

The paper work is in Lansing and we are currently awaiting the decision. In the mean time, we must remain patient making our way through the intersection.

While reading your local newspaper, have you ever thought “Why did the city council make that decision?”

I often hear something similar with jury decisions either in favor of or opposed to a conviction.

The answer to both the above quandries are in the process. Most of the time in a trial situation, we as a public, only read what someone reports to us. We are not there for every detail as laid out by the prosecutor, defense counsel, or hear the live testomony of the witnesses and/or victim.

Like wise, in city council decision the local press only has so much room to cover an item being decided by local government. We are lucky in Davison to be covered by two newspapers. Locally by the Davison Index and regionaly by the Flint Journal. But even with reporters at a meeting or workshop reporting on what they hear, you as the public don’t get all the details, questions and passion that would can get from being at a meeting.

Have you ever been to a local government meeting?

Going to a small local government meeting is rather painless (and it is free). In the summer we normally have air-conditioning, and in the winter heat. There are normaly three to ten people in the audience and there is no test or quiz at the end of the meeting.

So, who are these elected officials? On the Davison City Council right now we have three business owners, someone who works for GM, two retired people, a mother, six fathers, grandparents, an engineer, photographer, former police office, school teacher, mortitian, realator, retired Fire Chief, couple of want to be golfers, a hockey player, and an active firefighter.

How many people set on Davison’s City Council? Seven (including the Mayor).

I wonder how many people could tell me which of the city council members go with the above titles?

The main point is all of our elected officals are your neighbors. Normal people who come together at least twice a month to attempt to make Davison the best place to live, work and raise a family. These people are volunteers, they only recieve a small stipend for each meeting they attend. But they do share something in common. They all care about Davison.

Have you ever thought about sitting on City Council? We have an election every year. There are three positions up at every election. To run for city council you have to be a registered voter and have all your taxes paid.

The Davison City Council meets on the second and forth Moday’s of the month. To find out more information you can vist our website at , call us at 810.653.2191, or stop by city hall.

Who knows, you could even have some fun.

I am scheduled to be out of the office for the remainder of the week to attend a City Manager workshop.

Like most professional Organizations the Michigan Local Government Manager Association (MLGMA) encourages government managers to continue to learn. The MLGMA sponsors two formal opportunities to gain educational instruction and share real life experiences. The Winter Institute is normally held near the end of January and the Summer Workshop in late July.

The International City Managers Association (ICMA) has a credential Manager Program. A manager who has reached the credential Manager status must meet a combination of experience and educational qualifications. The credentials are renewed on a yearly basis and require forty hours of continued education yearly. I was credential in June of 2004 and have continued to hold those standards.

I also sit on the MLGMA Professional Development Committee (PDC). The PDC is charged with keeping our profession moving forward with opportunities to give managers and assistants the tools to keep growing intellectually. In turn each community gains with a professional manager that increases his/her worth to the community they serve.

As professional managers we learned from guest speakers on many different topics. We also learn from our peers. Michigan is blessed with a very active manager association and some very experienced managers.

To see some of the topics that will be covered at this year’s conference you can visit the MLGMA website .

Someone once said “Making laws is like making sausage.” In another words the process can be very ugly. I spent Friday Morning in Lansing, Michigan (our State Capital) discussing “Annex 2001″ legislation. This is an annex to The Great Lakes Compact between the eight States the are in the Great Lakes Basin, the Province of Ontario, Canada and the Government of Quebec, Canada.

(Can you name the eight States without scrolling down to the bottom of this page?)

The compact was formed in 1985 to look out for the natural resource that we all share -the largest fresh water source in the world. Many States outside the Basin have inquired about tapping into this source for their water consumption. Obviously this is an important issue for our region, but setting up regulation can be a complex process. Diversion seems to be the biggest issue, and getting ten parties to agree can be challenging.

Personally, there is a line in the draft that concerns me. It reads “Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as reason for postponing measures to prevent environmental degradation.” I could be wrong, but in lay mans terms this normally is interpreted to mean “Don’t let the facts get in the way.”

As I sat in a room full of twenty to thirty municipal water people (all had more experience and ran much larger water systems than in Davison) who had serious questions of the numbers being used that above sentence kept jumping out at me “Do not let the facts get in the way.”

The legislation has other issues (like exempting the State of Illinois from the agreement and they divert probably as much water than all other States combined). This is a complex issue that we will keep our eye on. It may seem minor for our little water system, but depending on what gets implemented could affect not only the cost of water in Davison, but the amount we are allowed to use.

If you are interested in the Language you can find it at http://www.michigan.gov/deq/0,1607,7-135-3313_3677_3704_5808-121083–,00.html.

By the way the seven other States are: Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. You may notice that Michigan is the only State that totally surrounded by the Great Lakes Basin.

The City of Davison will be hosting its 24th annual Festival of Flags July 27th until July 31st. This has been a great community event for years. This year the Festival is being spread out all around the City with something for everyone to do.

The Festival starts out with our annual parade (one of the largest parades in Genesee County) right on Main Street. There is a carnival that opens at 2:00 PM and the ice cream social in Abernathy Regional Park. The night concludes with our annual Fireworks display in the park.

The next few days of activity include but are not limited to:

• Carnival
• Art in the Park (with over 100 vendors)
• Petting Zoo
• Miniature Golf
• Battle of the Bands
• Entertainment Tent
• Inflatables
• Professional wrestling
• Talent show contest
• Pet Parade
• Plenty of Food

The neat thing is this is an event that is geared toward the family. The Chamber of Commerce and Community Recreation has been planning this addition of the Festival for many months now and I’m sure this one will top last years.

For more “cool” events check Davison out.

Some people around Davison have not seen me walking around town in the last five or six months. The truth is I have been hobbled with a bad wheel. I “shredded” my Achilles tendon back in February and it has been a long slow recovery time from surgery.

It is not till you loose something that you appreciate the little things most of us take for granted. Last week I had my last cast officially removed and now I’m learning to walk again. Being on crutches for two months and then various types of cast one can really appreciate the job the city of Davison has done on our sidewalk programs. Proper curb cuts and maintenance programs do make a huge difference for those whom a two inch lip could mean a quick lesson on gravity.

But I’m back now, so hopefully you will see me up and around more often.

Speaking of walking around town. Check out the Davison Area Regional Trail (DART) in Abernathy Regional Park. While it is not completely finished (volunteers will be doing approximately 1,000 feet of boardwalk over a wet land area) the two mile non-motorized asphalt trail is gorgeous. This trail winds through the wooded parts of the park that wasn’t accessible before. The DART Committee is to be commended for all their years of hard work on this endeavor. I promise to post more later with some pictures.

Welcome to the city of Davison’s newest communication tool.

The reason for me to set up a BLOG (short for Web log) is to add a way that people can find out about how things operate in our local government. Local units of government can and do have a big impact on people’s lives. But I find that not many people understand how these local bodies of elected people and hired staff plan for projects, make decisions, or react to the latest crises.

One thing I plan to do is point to the human side of local government. Local government is truly run by the people, for the people, and by people.

The goal for me is to post items four or five times a week on current happenings in and around the city. I may highlight an employee that is going above and beyond what’s expected, maybe a business that is attempting something new, or a committee needing new members.

I would also look forward to responding to email questions about different issues, but the major emphasis on this Blog is an additional way for us here at the City of Davison to tell our story.

This is a new venture for me, so I hope you will bare with us as we evolve. I know there are times when I will not use “proper English”, but this Blog is meant to be a running conversation. In our everyday conversations we all have different personalities and styles and its my hope that you can pick a little of that up by my postings.

Thanks for reading and I look forward to this adventure. For more about me see the about me section .