City of Davison, Michigan

City Council and staff are in the final review process of choosing an architectural firm to help us decide what to do with a new municipal center. The three finalist all understand the first step is to do an analysis of our existing structure to see if anything can or should be salvaged or built onto.

These blogs are going to be a bit longer, but I hope to show how hard a decision the city council has to make because these are three very qualified architects.

From the French offices we went to 52/3 District Court and Sheriffs Station in Rochester Hills. Some very good security ideas that blended well with building design. Good functionality between “public space” and “secured space.”

Council member Don Csutoras inside Northville Township lobby area.

From there we traveled to Northville Township Offices. Very functional. I liked the materials used in the public spaces (bricks, steal, and wood). Separate council chambers and usable training space. According to employees they love the building and so does the public. Drive up window is a big plus according to residents.

An outdoor employee break area is very popular.

A lot of Service counter area in Northville Twp.

A small kitchen area gets used by employees and for other public functions.

Chief Brandon inspects the Council Chambers that get used by the

public and is the official meeting space.

Then we trekked down to Coldwater. This was a neat looking Limestone building. Very stately with a cool water feature in the front that gets used by many children during the summer months. They had some more pricey upgrades on this building, but also had a very generous benefactor who paid for them.

Coldwater has a unique water feature.

That is what news papers normally do when they goof up and get caught printing something that was wrong.

It is not a big deal to me when our local paper may print something that I saw happen differently. It really doesn’t bother me when they sometimes use misleading headlines to draw people’s attention. Or sometimes when they are championing a cause they give a certain group or person priority news space.

Life happens and we normally try to help people and give them the information the need.

Well today it has been brought to my attention that there was a major gaff by our local Editor, Don Schelske. He had printed in an article about Petitions for the upcoming City Council election. He had printed that you need 50 signatures or $100 filing fee in lieu of the signatures.

We have been hearing it from the public “…When did you start allowing people to buy their way onto a ballot?”.

We haven’t, you need to get the valid signatures. A strange thing is Don was explained this. I guess that doesn’t matter. Then he wanted to argue with our Clerk, Beth Holm about it. He said it was State Law, okay Don what ever you say.

The good news is some people came up and said “Pete, you have to blog about it and let people know. The paper only comes out once a week, and at least you can start getting the word out.”

You know they are right, and this means people are looking to the blog for current information.

While we are at it. Don you also stated in your editorial “how local governments are spending their tax dollars.” “…everyone seemed content to let the rubber stamps fly.” WOW, maybe next time he should check with the reporter that comes to city meetings. We had months of discussions, input, compromises prior to approving next year’s budget on a 4 to 3 vote. Sure doesn’t sound like a rubber stamp to me.

At last Night’s City Council workshop Kevin Hammer from the Davison Chamber of Commerce brought the City Council up to speed on the annual Festival of Flags that is coming in the end of July.

I thought I would share what the Chamber has planned.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

• 5 K Run Downtown to High School
• 6:30 PM Parade, already 150 parade entries.
• Visiting Nurses Fundraiser (Coney Dinners)in Entertainment Tent
• Carnival Hahn Elementary Parking Lot
• Pony Rides & Petting Zoo in Abernathy Regional Park
• Ice Cream Social
• Fireworks in Abernathy Regional Park at Dusk.
• Karate Demonstration

Thursday, July 27, 2006

• Carnival
• Pony rides and petting zoo
• Talent Show at St. Johns Family Center
• Inflatables, Kroger Parking lot
• Entertainment tent 7:00 PM to 1:00 AM (downtown)

Friday, July 28, 2006

• Inflatables, Kroger Parking lot
• Farmers Market 8:00 AM to 1:30 PM
• Downtown Car Cruise 6:00 PM
• Pony Rides & Petting Zoo in Abernathy Regional Park
• Carnival
• Entertainment tent 7:00 PM to 1:00 AM (downtown)

Saturday, July 29, 2006

• Pony Rides & Petting Zoo in Abernathy Regional Park
• Inflatables, Kroger Parking lot
• Kids Parade downtown
• M-15 Heritage Route Car Show downtown
• Habitat for Humanity fund raising breakfast Entertainment Tent.
• Demolay Lunch Entertainment Tent
• Art in the Park
• Carnival
• Battle of the Bands
• Entertainment Tent.

Sunday, July 30, 2006

• Art in the Park
• Carnival
• Inflatables, Kroger Parking lot
• Pony Rides & Petting Zoo in Abernathy Regional Park

Looks like another great schedule and another reason to hang out in Davison at the end of July.

Had the opportunity to meet in East Lansing yesterday with a group of other professional managers to speak about many topics that affect local governments through out the State of Michigan. We spoke about a lot of things from different legislation that is in the House of representatives or Senate. We even spoke on a few of the ballot proposals (I mentioned in an earlier blog) that would be very bad for local governments.

But the conversation that got me the most is that the State/Local Government partnership that seems to be eroding. A lot of people don’t realize that there is, or at least has been a partnership between the state government and local communities to provide services that people need.

Part of that partnership is the open communication and dialog that goes into some programs or legislation. But there is also a financial relationship that exist also, and this is the relationship that is becoming tested.

Some people at the State level see State Shared Revenue (SSR) as the State being benevolent and out of the goodness of the collective States legislator hearts share some of the State’s tax revenues with local governments. The State, like other agencies and business’ in Michigan, have had tough economic times in the past half dozen years. One of the tools that the State has used to balance its budget is cut funding to the local governments. Out of everything the State funds or helps fund the local government have had the largest cuts by far (around 38%).

The City of Davison gets about $150,000 less a year than we did 6 years ago. Oh what we could have accomplished with that million dollars.

Mean while the State tells us to be happy they are not going to cut any more (maybe). What is interesting is that most people who receive government services receive them from their local government, not the State.

• Call for Police or Fire, Local.
• Want your street fixed, Local.
• Want snow plowed or salt put down, Local.
• Want to vote in an election, Local.
• Want to drink water, Local.
• Flush your toilet and things just go away, Local.
• Complaint against a neighbor junk in their yard, Local.
• Curb side garbage pick up and recycling, Local.

It would be nice if we could get back to that Partnership again.

Monday June 26, 2006 at 8:00 PM during our City Council workshop we will have a Public Hearing on the city’s I&I project. This Public Hearing is required by the state of Michigan if we are going to apply for a low interest loan through the State for part of this project.

Rowe Inc. will be at the meeting to go over the options we have discussed and the relevant cost of this project.

Other interesting information:

It looks like there will probably be 4 interesting items on the State Ballot in November. These proposals all would affect Local Government.

Already assured is:

• A proposal to limit the use of eminent domain by local government.
• A proposal to eliminate the use of affirmative action in hiring or awarding of jobs.

The two others are:

• A proposal, which would statutorily guarantee increases in funding for K-12, community colleges and higher education This will only be included if the Legislature does not take action within 30 days.
• The “Stop OverSpending” proposal, which would place a strict spending limitation on both state and local governments.

These last two would add huge challenges to local government. Guaranteeing an increase every year to schools regardless what else is happening is very open ended and if put in the constitution could drain funding for other services like police, fire, roads, library’s, water sewer, etc..

The second would require local governments to get voter approval for any fee increase. So, if the cost of our garbage bags go up five cents, in order for us to pass this increase on we would have to hold an election. They tried something similar to this in Colorado and then ended up placing a five year moratorium on the same bill because it was bringing local government services to a stand still and increasing cost to local governments.

Sometimes even internet jokes have a ring of truth to them. I have been enjoying a few days off and came across the reason the ten commandments can not be posted…

The real reason that we can’t have the Ten Commandments in a courthouse. You can not post “Thou Shalt Not Steal,” “Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery” and “Thou Shall Not Lie” in a building full of lawyers, judges and politicians — it creates a hostile work environment.

This is obviously a joke. But in order for a joke to be funny, it has to have some sort of ground in reality. We, in government, must always work to stay above reproach. It is to easy for others to take pot shots because sometimes we do live in a fish bowl.

Just received news today that I friend I grew up with had a heart attack and died yesterday. Tim Davis and his wife Gail grew up in Michigan but moved south.

He was a few years older than me and was actually one of my brother Steve’s best friends.

It really grounded me. We never know when its our time. The last chance I had to see Tim was an offer to golf with my brother and Tim while Tim was up visiting. I’m sorry I was not able to go now.

Funny thing is when my brother passed on this news my mind raced back to Little League or Boy’s Club baseball. Tim and I played on the same team and I remember walking to the Stroh’s Ice Cream shop before the mile walk back home. Funny how something like that sticks in your mind.

We take so much for granted living life at a hundred miles per hour.

Gail, my condolences on your loss and what must seem like unbearable grief.

I am also sad for my brother Steve, I know how much he cherishes and holds close good friends.

For the rest of us, let us not forget to live life while we are here. Thank the friends we have for being there. Don’t take your co-workers or peers for granted, and when a friend offers to go golfing do what you can do to enjoy the time together.

Some times people change a look just to change a look.

Office Clolinger comes
off shift in the old style
Crown Vic Flat top Cruiser

Then there are times when the circumstances help dictate change.

The change in our police vehicles is one of those circumstantial changes. We used to have Ford Crown Victoria (Vics) as our Police Cruisers. Well in the near future Ford is not going to offer the Crown Vics as a Police Package.

That got our men in blue searching for a solution as we rotate our older vehicles out of service.

Today we put in service the new look for Davison’s Finest.

The Dodge Magnum is a versatile vehicle and it is sure to turn heads for those use to seeing the white with red and blue details of our older cars.

Office Kravat heads out

to protect and serve.

This phrase is often heard around city hall when people come in to discuss public projects. “This looks great, as long as it doesn’t raise my taxes.” Or “I agree we need to disconnect houses sump pumps from the city’s sanitary sewers, but don’t raise our taxes.”

The city charter allows city council to set the tax rate at 13.5 mills. Of that rate 1.5 is dedicated to Police services, the rest city council can spend as they see fit to provide the services city residents and business’ require. The “Headlee Roll Back” rolls that tax rate down every year. This years budget is based on 12.7837 (last year it was 12.8004), again with 1.5 of that specified to go to the Police portion of the budget.

City Council is very aware of our citizens watchful eye on the tax rate. What some people don’t realize (and maybe we don’t do a good job of telling our story) is that we have taken 3 mills off the tax rolls in the past four years. These have been voter debt millages for infrastructure projects. There use to be 1.5 mills per project on the local portion of the tax bill. When we saw we were closing in on the amount to pay off the money we borrowed we lowered both rates to 1.25. Then we were able to drop both off the tax bill early because between the amount collected (and invested) was enough to pay off the debt.

One of our council members floated an interesting idea at our last council workshop. What if we were to ask the people to support reinstating some or all of that debt millage for some of the projects we have coming up. An example would be:

• 1 mill for the I/I project.
• 1 mill for City Capital Improvements.
• 1 mill for Road Projects.

This would be an interesting way to fund some of the major work that we have upcoming. With the Headlee Rollbacks, even with 3 additional mills put back in place, a tax payer’s tax rate would still be lower than it was five years ago.