City of Davison, Michigan

Today I had the privilege to Chair the Michigan Municipal League’s Public Safety Committee. For the second meeting we utilized phone and internet technology to discus various issues in Lansing from the convenience of our own office. Meeting this way is not as good as meeting in person where we can get to know the people on the committee face to face, but it does save us all an immense amount of time. We do not have to commute to Lansing from all over the State to discuss important legislation that will have an affect on us all.

We had good discussion today on the following pieces of legislation:

Senate Bill 410 & 411- 911 Dispatch Funding
The current law is expiring that allows counties to collect X amount of dollars per land line to fund emergency answering points, or better known as 911 centers.

These two bills place a lower cost on the land lines, but expands to all telephones. As technology changes less people have and use land lines and are relying totally on cell phone use for their communication.

We have seen this in 911 operations as more and more calls are coming in via cell phones.

The Committee supports this legislation.

House Bill 4852- Public Safety Funding Proposal
This bill has more politics attached to it. The concept is to add an additional $1.35 to every communication device to help support the Michigan State Police. There is a provision in there to help offset small cost to local units of government and they are looking at a way to give grants to local communities.

Some in the House want to tie this to the above 911 funding.

The committee did not support tying this to the 911 funding. When done the proposal should be good enough to stand on its own was the committees view.

This issue needed much more work and the committee tabled the bill for future consideration.

Senate Bill 102- Firefighter Presumption
House Bill 4401- Firefighter Presumption
These two bills grant a Firefighter the presumption that if he/she gets cancer it is job related. The committee could understand the intent of such sediment , but felt the unintended consequences were to great to support.

We also had other discussion on PA 312 (binding arbitration for Public safety employees and a Legislative Update from MML staff on various topics.

Our next meeting will be at the MML Conference in September. A face to face meeting.

When you are gone to Harvard, how are you going to blog?

This was an interesting question from one of the blog’s faithful readers.

Well I can promise you won’t be disappointed (now the pressure is on). You will get an opportunity to read from some of Davison’s finest guest bloggers. That’s right, Our Department Heads are going to take turns posting information on the blog during the month of July.

I could hardly hold them back when they volunteered to step to the challenge. I really look forward to seeing what they would like the public to know about the Davison operation.

I do not know what order, but you will get a chance from top staff like:

Police Chief Bill Brandon
City Treasurer Cindy VanMegroet
Community Development Director Hackney
City Clerk Schroeder
DPW Director Klaassen

Each of these people performs great services for the City of Davison. Some of the things that they do you may not even know we do.

The plates are full in each department so I am sure you will find their thoughts interesting. I look forward to seeing what they come up with.

We had a stakeholder update session today on a project we have been involved with since 2004. The Flint Mass Transit Authority (MTA) has been spear heading the county wide Intelligent Transportation System (ITS).

New technology has a great role in modern mass transportation and we are seeing that in the first phase of countywide ITS architecture. As in most Public work, communication is crucial.

Each stakeholder has different needs or wants. Our interest is in Public Safety and Public Works. To be able to communicate better with both these functions could help stream line our units in the near future.

These systems would really assist us if we ever had a disaster situation in the county where we could mobilize transportation, public safety and public works in an organized and efficient system.

In Genesee County, we are still in our infancy with this technology. In one way, we are fortunate to learn from those who have already implemented such systems and ironed out some of the details. However, each community is different so each system will also be a little different.

Just another step in our journey.

The Davison area hosted another successful Relay For Life at Cardinal Stadium in the shadow of our water tower this past weekend.

This year the American Cancer Society set a goal for our committee to raise awareness and $81,000. Our local committee said “fuey” (I think that was a quote) to the $81,000 number and put their goal at $99,999.

With a combination of great teamwork, great organization and preparation work and awesome weather the Relay teams raised over $104,000.

There were 34 teams and 630 participants this year. Both numbers are up from last year.

The luminaries were a sight to see with 1,700 of them lit across the bleachers. Add the 90 Tiki torches and you get quite a visual.

Two teams raised $10,000 each. Way to go Siple Elementary School and Geneses/Hurley Cancer Institute teams.

Donations can still be made until August. People can email Sue at sue@cbhomeandheath.com for more information.

Congratulations to all who help organize, run, or who donated to make this another great Davison event.

We have been working on (for some time now) connecting communities in a different way. One of these ways is the non motorized routes. This si so people feel comfortable commuting without getting in a car.

Some people do this for recreation, but others are gearing more transportation.

We have had great success with our non-motorized route (DART) in our regional park. This two mile trail is enjoyed by those of all ages and types of people.

What we worked on now is broader in scope and is an attempt to connect Genesee County.

Although a lot of work has been done and we have received much public input, we need your comments on the Genesee County Regional Trail Plan! Tell us what you think about this plan to create an interconnected system of trails throughout the county!

There are three Public Sessions (listed below) for us to hear what you have to say, and one is located in Abernathy Regional Park.

These sessions will be held outside in parks at or near one of our non-motorized trails in Genesee County. We hope you will attend one of the three sessions and share this information with others in your community.

2007 Genesee County Regional Trail Plan Public Input Sessions

Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Flushing County Park
5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
McKinley Rd ¼ mile south of Carpenter Rd in Flushing
Pavilion #5 (first pavilion on the right at the main entrance)

Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Kearsley Park, Flint
11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Donnelly Pavilion at Kearsley Park on Kearsley Park Blvd., ¼ mile north of Robert T Longway Blvd. in Flint

Thursday, June 28, 2007
Davison Regional Park (Jack Abernathy Regional Park)
5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Frank Boyce Parkway off of Dayton St and Harvey Dr, west of M-15 in Davison
First pavilion on the right as you enter the park.

To download a copy of the plan visit our website at www.gcmpc.org

Don’t be shy let us know…

I and I was back in the public eye last night with our first group of home owners who are going to be affected by the first stage of the project.

There were over 50 people in the basement of city hall to get updated information and learn the process to have work done around and in their homes.

We had a little bit of everything at last night’s meeting.

The big item was the process and meeting the contractors.

L& H Plumbing
Steve’s Plumbing and Heating
Waldorf & Sons, Inc.

All three contractors were at the meeting and discussed their qualifications, experience, and general information with homeowners.

One of the big questions was “how and when do I make an appointment with the contractor to come look at my house?”

Do to the fact that the contractor as well as a DPW representative and someone from Rowe, Inc. (our city engineers) will be on these initial inspections, all appointments are being run through our DPW offices at 653-6452. People can start calling for this first round on Monday July 2nd.

We did have one resident who stated they are not going to participate. What happens then? As it stands right now, our Ordinance states that anytime there is improvements done the system will have to come up to today’s codes and standards. This would include disconnecting weep tiles from the sanitary sewer system. This is done at the home owners expense and would not be a part of this tax funded project.

The City Council has discussed amending or adding stricter language to the ordinance to ensure we keep removing these non-compliant systems from our sanitary sewer system. We have not come up with the wording of this, nor has City Council decided which way to go with the Ordinance. There are a few ideas out there and council is looking at them all. Items such as systems must be up to code at time of sale extending to a arbitrary date, say by 2020 all homes weep tiles must be disconnected.

Whatever City Council decides on for future Ordinance language, this initial project is off to a great start.

We did have a few homeowners looking forward and starting to think about removing their old sewer leads while the contractors are on site. This is fine and these arrangements should be made with the individual contractors (and the homeowner is responsible for these added costs).

After speaking with the contractors and some homeowners after the meeting, most concur that the meeting was very valuable.

We look forward to the work starting in July.

Last Friday was the first outdoor movies for the season. This is the second year for this unique experience. The City closes off the old “Colonial Square” parking lot (between State Street and Pksa Davison Karate).

The first movie was “Cars” and over a hundred people enjoyed the great June evening.

Running before the outdoor movies is the Davison Car Cruise (which runs between 6:00 PM and 9:00 PM) on Main street. We’ve had great turnouts so far, so if cars interest you are sure to find something downtown.

Starting July13th our DDA’s Friday Farmer’s Market opens up and we are looking for another great year of fresh produce, home made wares, and entertainment at the end of Second Street.

You can tell it’s Friday during the summer in downtown Davison. There is literally something for everyone.

At 6:30 PM Monday June 18th we will have a meeting with the first 57 homeowners in our I/I Project. We met with the 3 contractors today to ensure that everyone is on the same page as we get into the construction phase of this program.

All 3 contractors, ROWE, Inc. and staff seem to be on the same level of understanding to start this project. This is good and expected.

Monday evening property owners will get a chance to meet the contractors and also staff will be available to answer any questions. If you recall, the property owners will select the contractors to work on their property. The city will not make this selection.

We close on our loan Thursday June 18th and people can expect the work to begin in July.

To think this project has been in different stages for over thirty years. Some things take longer than others do. There have only been two communities to use this type of funding to perform these disconnects (Ann Arbor and us).

At the last Council Meeting City Council voted to ratify our patrol union contract.

Contracts are always interesting. What I was impressed with this year is that both the elected council and the patrol union approached this contract with a solid understanding of the economics of the day and the commitment to maintain the best police service in Genesee County.

Like most contracts, there was some language changes to keep current with new laws, legislation, or precedent setting court actions. We also consolidated all time off from work into one category called Leave Time. In doing this the patrol union also gave up 2 days off that were available to them.

The union also agreed to extend this contract to 4 years instead of 3. During the duration of the contract, they agreed to pay increases of 3%, 2%, 1.5% and 1.5% respectively.

The officers did want to increase their retirement benefits, but to their credit, they stepped up and are paying for the benefit through payroll deduction.

As I mentioned before, it is sure nice when we look at the real world and what is happening while we negotiate these labor agreement.

Last night I had the honor of kicking people out of City Hall. I had to flash the lights on and off and interrupt conversations. It was all taken well, but as I locked up the facility for the night, it was close to 11:00 PM.

We definitely had a full agenda, here is a list of some of the items: