City of Davison, Michigan

Monday some of our State Government might shutdown. Here is part of a Press release we received from the governor’s office on what will be closed:

Government shutdown details include, but are not limited to:

AGRICULTURE: All Department of Agriculture activities will stop during a government shutdown, except livestock vehicle inspections at the Mackinac Bridge, which are required to maintain the Upper Peninsula’s Tuberculosis-free designation for cattle. During the shutdown, food safety inspections, recall effectiveness checks, gas pump inspections, animal disease monitoring, and migrant labor camp inspections will stop;
agriculture export and cattle movement permits will not be issued; and horse racing will shutdown. Exports from Michigan to foreign countries would essentially cease should state government shut down. Commodities affected include dry beans, logs and lumber, nursery stock, grain, fruits, and vegetables.

THE COURTS: The Michigan Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals will continue to operate with a limited staff to handle emergency matters.

CIVIL RIGHTS: All Department of Civil Rights activities will stop
during a government shutdown. Residents wishing to file a
discrimination complaint will be able to leave a message at
1-800-482-3604 with the details of their complaint. For purposes of meeting the 180-day legal requirement, the message will constitute an official notice of the intention to file a complaint. Residents calling Civil Right’s Crisis Response Hotline to report a hate crime or bias incident may also leave a message, although they are encouraged to contact local law enforcement for immediate assistance.

COMMUNITY HEALTH: A number of operations within the Department of Community Health will be maintained to ensure that the health of our citizens is protected. State mental health facilities will remain open with reduced staffing, though involuntary, non-court admissions will be suspended. Critical laboratory services will operate to ensure newborn screenings are completed in a timely manner, and threats of immediate
harm can be addressed. Limited Medicaid support will be available to approve emergency medical prior-authorizations and review exception requests for medications and medical procedures. The DCH also will maintain the toll-free number to register nursing home complaints of a serious nature.

CORRECTIONS: Department of Corrections functions will continue as needed to protect the safety of Michigan citizens. The state’s prisons, prison camps, and parole/probation monitoring will continue to operate, though at a reduced staffing level. Administrative operations outside of the prisons will shut down.

EDUCATION: All Department of Education operations will shut down, except for the Michigan School for the Deaf. If Department of Education employees have not returned to work by mid-October, the state school aid payment due on October 22 will not be made.

ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY: The Department of Environmental Quality will maintain only limited staff during the shutdown period to meet U.S. Department of Homeland Security air- monitoring requirements and process critical drinking water samples to address the most immediate public health concerns. All other department functions will shut down. This
means no permits (air quality, surface water discharge, wetlands, dredging, etc.) will be processed and no environmental complaints will be received or investigated. The Pollution Emergency Alerting System will be operational, but the department will have extremely limited ability to respond to emergencies reported through that system.

HISTORY, ARTS & LIBRARIES: All Department of History, Arts and Libraries operations will shut down except security and emergency monitoring services at the Mackinac Island Airport and public areas. The Library of Michigan, the Michigan Historical Museum, and historic sites around Michigan will be closed. Mackinac Island paid admission sites will close and garbage and manure pick-up and road maintenance will cease.

HUMAN SERVICES: Critical Department of Human Services’ operations will be maintained to protect the safety of children, families, and vulnerable adults. Most local offices will remain open with a small percentage of field staff on the job to respond to child protective services and adult protective services emergencies; make emergency foster care placements; and process emergency payments for evictions, lack of utilities, lack of food, etc. Cash assistance, food assistance, child day care, adoption subsidies, and foster care payments will continue, but no new applications will be processed (except for
emergencies as described above). Child support payments received from non-custodial parents will be sent to families; and the state’s juvenile justice facilities will operate and will be staffed to protect the safety of residents.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: A limited number of Department of Information Technology personnel will be needed to maintain state operating systems and to provide technical support for those services that will continue.

LABOR & ECONOMIC GROWTH: The majority of Department of Labor & Economic Growth operations will be shut down. Most of the unemployment insurance agencies will be closed, however, unemployment checks will continue to be processed and new applications can be made over the phone or via the Internet. In addition, the Michigan Career & Technical Institute in
Plainwell and the Michigan Commission for the Blind Training Center in Kalamazoo will continue to provide education and training for disabled individuals.

LOTTERY & GAMING: Lottery sales will end at the close of business on September 30, 2007. Players will not be able to purchase or redeem winning tickets. Minimal staff will maintain drawings due to the advance sale of tickets. State gaming inspectors will be idled as well, forcing the state-licensed casinos in Detroit to close.

MANAGEMENT & BUDGET: A limited number of Department of Management and Budget personnel will maintain state-owned buildings.

MICHIGAN STATE HOUSING DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY: The Michigan State Housing Development Authority will be closed during shutdown and all operations will stop.

MILITARY & VETERANS AFFAIRS: The MVA State Finance and State Human Resource offices will be closed. The state’s two veterans’ homes in Grand Rapids and Marquette will continue operating with reduced staffing but will maintain the minimum staffing as required by law. The Youth Challenge Program will also remain operational but with minimum staff. Feeding and education will be provided by the Battle Creek Public
Schools, an established partner of the Challenge Program. The state’s 44 National Guard armories, six National Guard training sites, and National Guard administrative offices are federally funded and will remain open.

NATURAL RESOURCES: All DNR operations will be shut down, except a minimal crew to maintain the state’s six fish hatcheries and a small contingent of forest firefighters needed to continue containment operations at the Sleeper Lakes fire in the Upper Peninsula and to respond to other fire emergencies. Shutdown will require that all state parks, recreation areas, DNR visitor centers and state forest campgrounds be closed, including day use areas. Citizens with camping reservations at a state park or recreation area during the duration of the shutdown will be eligible for a refund. The sale of hunting and fishing licenses may be delayed if technical problems with the state server prevent processing, and gated boat access sites will not be
accessible. In addition, timber will not be marked for sale or sold. The archery deer season set to open on October 1 will proceed, however, deer check stations will not be operating.

SECRETARY OF STATE: Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land has indicated that branch offices will be closed during the shutdown. Online or mail transactions will not be processed, as well.

STATE POLICE: The Michigan State Police will continue to protect Michigan citizens during shutdown. Though all MSP posts will be closed to the public, a limited number of troopers will be maintained to provide critical law enforcement services across the state. Administrative and specialized operations will be curtailed, resulting in the cessation of crime lab services, commercial vehicle enforcement, drug and criminal investigations, detective services, disaster assistance, and casino gaming oversight.

TRANSPORTATION: All road construction, routine maintenance, and administrative operations will stop. The state’s rest areas will be closed. In addition, six of the state’s lift bridges, in compliance with U.S. Coast Guard regulations, will be locked in the up position, allowing only water traffic to pass. Those bridges are located in Manistee, Bay City, St Joseph, Port Huron and Detroit. The Mackinac Bridge, the International Bridge, and Blue Water Bridge will remain operational.

TREASURY: Department of Treasury operations, including student loan disbursements and financial aid payments, the Michigan Education Trust, and the Michigan Education Savings Plan programs would cease during a shutdown. Revenue sharing payments to local units of government will be
delayed if the shutdown continues through mid-October. A limited number of staff would be maintained to process critical payments, including cash assistance, unemployment benefits, and debt service.

The City of Davison is not shutting down. City Hall will be open and you will continue to have some of the best Police and Fire protection. We will attempt to keep you posted on other issues as they come.

I often mention how much I enjoy the comments by readers of this blog. There is a reason they are not posted for everyone to read. Although I truly do enjoy the dialog and members of the public’s take on issues, projects and yes, even my personality; this blog is not about public discourse.

With new people reading all the time, I should probably remind people what we started back in July of 2007.

This blog is meant to be a look from the inside of city government. I try to highlight some of our outstanding employees, some current or upcoming projects, some legislation that is being considered and how it influences us locally. Yes, I even opine about my really neat family.

I recently received a comment from a reader and he/she seemed to question the public value of the blog. Here are some excerpts from his/her post:

While your blog is entertaining to a point, using city time and money to write for many of the topics you choose is nothing more than a personal use of government money. For example, what government purpose do you serve when you write about personal issues, family, football, or respond to letters and articles from other publications on a government financed site?? You are simply responding, probably out of true frustration, to something that hit a raw nerve. Further, the website use by the public is debatable as well.

If you go back over the past year (more actually) you will not find one comment from any reader listed on the site (copy of this letter excluded). This is the best indicator of a site not being utilized or interesting to many people.

I know the politics as well. Just understand a government financed site should have “business related information” and not “personal information and opinion”. Very many of your blogs and rants on the City Manager blog site fall out of the “business related” category and into the others. (suggestion: keep the public blog comments strictly to the business of the City of Davison and get a personal web blog site, at your expense, written on your own time…

…This would be more a appropriate use of government time and money and would free you up to do the business of government while on the job.)

I did respond to this person and we continue to have good dialog, but that got me thinking, how many others do not know the value this blog has brought to Davison?

First the blog is a primitive (as far as technology goes) form of e-communications. I spend only about 15 to 20 minutes a day working on it. Sometimes it’s at 5:30 in the morning, sometimes 10:00 p.m. the night before or anytime in between.

The blog also shows the human side of government. It has allowed people to see us (who work for local government) as humans too. Some people have commented it is their first dialog with anyone from city hall.

As far as not being interesting to people, we are about 26,000 hits from hitting a million hits in 2007. The blogs track record shows an increase in use and that just means someone is getting some public value from it. In July of 2005 we had a whopping 49 visits and 971 hits in our first month. We finished out 2005 with 78,466 hits.

In 2006 we thought we had a great year. People viewed approximately 173 pages per day with unique visitors at 100 per day. We finished 2006 with over 640,000 hits.

We have about 3 months left in 2007 and we are at over 250 visits a day with around 650 pages viewed a day and 974,601 hits for the year.

Again, I do not post all comments sent to me, but I do read them. Thanks to all who have an interest in our community. I hope we all continue to work towards its betterment.

When do you think we will reach a million?

We are still working on what the problem is.

Are you confused yet? This was how my morning started out.

County Commissioners Curtis and Gadola are spearheading an exploratory group to see if we should run a county wide Fire Authority instead of each community(s) running their own.

What the commissioners were able to hear today is most people in the room were asking what is the problem we are attempting to solve?

This is not the first time Genesee County has looked at a regional fire response system. It seems that about every ten years or so the question is raised.

Consolidation can save money in some instances. We work with Richfield and Davison Townships for fire service and provide great fire suppression for a lower than normal cost. Does that mean by expanding and taking on three more communities we will save more money? Not necessarily. We have to be open minded but cautious when looking at theses situations.

As we should learn from the state of Michigan and the Federal Government that one solution does not work all over (one shoe does not fit all).

Then, was it a wasted meeting? Is this a wasted effort? No, on both parts.

There was great conversation, ideas and troubleshooting. The group even focused on our largest public safety concern in the County, emergency ambulance coverage.

It was refreshing to see people from all over the county get together and civilly discuss issues where not everyone sees eye to eye. There was also some good dialog on how we can possibly work together to improve what we all are doing.

And last but not least, we did not allow a solution define the problem. The question was asked many times and in may ways, What is the problem we are trying to fix?

At last night Fire Authority meeting, we received the audited numbers for our last fiscal year. Don’t worry, I’m not going to give a financial analysis on the blog.

But, some people might not know how our fire department works, or how the cost are allocated. Therefore, I will take this opportunity to explain some of this unique partnership.

Our Fire Department currently covers 72 square miles. It is a partnership between the City of Davison, Davison Township and Richfield Township.

Each time the trucks roll out of the station the municipality that the trucks roll to gets an invoice for $1,552. Of that, $60 is allocated to the equipment fund; $387 is allocated to the Vehicle Fund and the $1,105 pays for labor etc…

Mutual Aid (when we help another community out) is billed out equally to all three units.

This is why we emphasize fire prevention and inspections; it helps keep our cost down. About two years ago, we did have one month in the City of Davison where we had no fire runs. That was a first. In 2006/2007, we only had 1 run in November. This is what we aim for and since we pay for our fire runs out of our General Fund Budget, it saves taxpayers dollars. In those months, the city had low runs we were running out to the townships, and we average around 400 runs per year.

I have heard this question many times in the last few days. People are starting to see a tan color being applied to the legs and underbelly.

The quick answer to is it almost done is, no.

They are still doing prep work for the painting. We are on schedule, with about 5 days of sandblasting left to do. Almost all of the inside repairs have been completed.

Our contractors have been working 7 days a week. Their plan was is to work everyday without rain and try to pre-plan for 2 days a week of rain. We haven’t had the rain during the day so things are moving well.

The color people see painted on the tower now is actually primer. After they do their final sandblasting, they prime right over it. After the primer is done, it will take approximately 3 weeks to do the finish painting.

Some have inquired when we are going to do our hydrant flushing this fall. As long as the water tower is out of service we are not scheduling any projects that require a lot of water.

We appreciate our water customer’s patience with this project. We understand the water pressure has varied from time to time, and a major water main break had some people without water for 20 minutes one day. Our DPW is working 24 hours a day to attempt to stay on top of this project. The good news is that this type of project only comes around once every ten years.

Our Clerk’s Department spent last Thursday and Friday in election training. It seems election rules are on an every changing lazy Susan of late. With each spin comes more rules or changes in how we are able to implement an election.

The biggest change our Clerk informs us is the mandatory picture Identification that will be required to cast a vote in this next election.

For most, this won’t be an issue because they drive to the polling place and they can just show their valid operator’s license. For those who walk, remember to grab that ID card so they will not have to take two trips.

In our Department Head meeting this morning someone asked, what type of ID is going to be required?

It seems that any valid picture ID will do. We already will know who is registered to vote by the voter registration information, we will just need to verify the person who says they are voting looks like the person via the ID card.

Some examples of Identification are
Michigan Driver’s License
Michigan Identification Card
U.S. Passport
School Identification Cards with photo (High School or an accredited institution)
Federal or state government-issued photo identification
Miltary Identification Card with photo
Tribal Identification Card with photo
Driver’s license or personal identification card issued by another state

An important thing to remember is that the people at the local polls do not make the rules. I know there are people who will not like this new rule. So, if you are unhappy about this change please don’t take it out on our local election workers.

And remember to get out and vote.

Our community Development Director was invited to speak at a conference this week and explain the great challenges and excitement that builds as a community invest in itself and gets others to invest in their own future.

Since Colleen was out of town, I had the opportunity to attend last nights Downtown Development Authority (DDA) meeting. One of the agenda items is very exciting. Due to the recent success of some of the DDA projects, we have received interest developing City/DDA property in the City of Davison.

Specifically, the parking lot on State Street and Third Street. We have interest in other properties but none as serious as that of the parking lot on State Street.

You can see a picture of the site here.

Due to the property being publicly held property, the best way to entertain ideas for development is the Request For Proposal (RFP) Process. Using this scenario, we are looking for conceptual site plan/development scenarios of the parcel so that anyone interested could have an equal chance at submitting ideas and or plans for development.

Since the DDA has moved up its October meeting (by a week in so that it could deal with Pumpkin Festival preparations) the DDA set a date to look at proposals for the November 28th, 2007 meeting.

This is an exciting time for our DDA as we continue our developments downtown. This fills one of the crucial roles for a DDA, to create more value and create or retain jobs. I am sure this will get even more exciting as we move this process forward.

Due to staff, city council and our other boards, committees and authorities willingness to work with and communicate with businesses, developers and residents we have seen a great deal of investment and business opportunities in the City of Davison over the past several years.

It is sometimes hard to remember the city without the expansions of Davison Karate, Davison Computers, the Rayola Complex, and Sr. Lucky’s. Then with the additions of Valley Tire, The Kroger Plaza, Sunoco, Oxford Bank and the soon to be open Walgreen’s you can tell businesses know we are a great place to do business.

What will be the next great project? Only time will tell and the first date to see is November 28th.

Ever wonder how a municipality comes up with how much water cost per gallon? How about how we charge for taking water and other waste away from your home?

Over the past several months the City of Davison along with our Water Engineers, TetraTech MPS (TTMPS), have been studying our utilities and how we price that service and product. This process is not as easy as looking at comparables.

Looking at comparable would compare our community to several others in our region and see that we are all charging similar amounts.

The work product we are working on is much more in-depth. It actually started back when we built the Skellenger Water Treatment Plant. Back then, we looked at the debt we were incurring in response to the federal mandate that changed the acceptable level of arsenic in potable drinking water. We analyzed what the cost was to produce the water utilizing the two filtered system (Greensand and Reverse Osmoses).

What we found was some of our services were subsidizing other services. In other words the separate enterprises were not paying their own way. Like most systems that have been around a long time, layers were created to respond to different issues. Some of those issues were cost related, some political, some economical etc…

Fast forward to yesterdays meeting with TTMPS and city staff. Yesterday was a day of review and verification. We had TTMPS do an independent look at our system. How much it cost, how we bill out and collect, what our tap in fees are and all the other components to our utilities department. Then they compared what we do to the last twenty years of court cases and legislation and see how we stack up.

The purpose of yesterday’s meeting was to have the staff that deals with these cost issues verify process cost and our computer billing system to ensure the numbers, assumptions, and formulas TTMPS is using are correct.

It was a very productive three hour work session. TTMPS will now wait on some additional information that will be provided by staff in order for their final report.

What’s the next step?

Well, after TTMPS completes the final report we will bring it forward to city council for their review. From the preliminary works I can see us changing a few things. How and what those changes will be is what the next step will be. Giving city council the information and options will be a combination of reports and discussion that I am sure will take more than one meeting.

Many have noticed the large “Skirt” that drapes the Davison Water Tower. This is part of our maintenance and repainted process.

We have now taken the water tower out of service. Now is the time when you may see varying water pressure. It is a lot harder to maintain water pressure without the million gallon water tower in operation.

Not to worry. We do have the water department working twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. We will attempt to keep the water utility going without any notable difference (ok maybe a little variance in pressure) to the consumer.

We have had a few water main breaks that we have been able to fix. This is normal for this type of operation. We are aware of a few leaky valves that we are now addressing. If you notice a water main Break during normal operating hours please notify us immediately at 653-6452 or 653-2191. After hours please call 911 and they will contact the DPW.

The protective skirting is to assist in the sandblasting that is occurring. We will also work to ensure limited over spray, during the painting process. During this project we will reassure the structure integrity as well as the aesthetic appeal. The City is working along with our engineers to see this project is done on time and on budget. The Davison Education Fund and the School Board have been very good to work with as they are covering some of the cost for the Cardinal emblem you will see on the final product.

So please hang in there with us as we go through this maintenance program that will help us maintain our water viability and the same award winning services that is expected from Michigan’s Water Utility of the Year.

It was pointed out by a blog reader that the Quoted recommendations do not belong to Mr. Bill Gates. As you may find at this web site.

I still think the points are valid, but I do try to be accurate with information that goes out on this blog.

It is always appreciated when people send in their comments to me. I really enjoy the questions on how or why we do certain things.

Working in government has its challenges. One of those challenges is getting information out to people that they need to know or want to know. Sometimes we in government take for granted what we do every day and can easily assume other know how their local government works.

We are not afraid of making an error, we have found those who have never made a mistake normally haven’t done much. Thanks for the heads up.