City of Davison, Michigan

No, I am not attempting to be hip. I learned long ago that is not possible. I still do use terms like “that’s neat” and my kids laugh at me when I am mad and say “Dog gone it!”

Why I say we are chilling out for the New Year is that our heating cooling system is acting up again at the city hall complex. You have seen me blog about this before and the architectural reports show our system is long over due for replacement.

Now one of our morning rituals is defrosting our computer screens. Just kidding, but the new manager will have some things to work on when they arrive. We have a bid for repair, but that will lead to a couple of other repairs, so we are requesting that our service people look at the entire system and get an idea on how much replacement will cost.

We hope all have a Happy & Safe New Year

I hope all had a Merry Christmas and look forward to a Happy New Year!

With kids from 18 months to 18 years, the Auger house had a Merry Christmas. I love seeing the excitement of Christmas morning. Great memories.

Thought I would take a blog to hit many topics and answer some questions that I have been getting.

1. Do they have a new manager picked yet?No, the City Council has not selected yet. Actually they have narrowed the list to five and will be interviewing them at city hall on Saturday January 5th. This is open for public viewing, but don’t expect to participate in asking questions.

2. Do residents expect that the new manager will continue the blogging?That will be up to the new manager. There are not that many managers who blog (yet). But don’t hold it against the manager if he or she doesn’t blog or manages different than I do. Each manager has a different style that they bring to the community. I hope that people do not compare the next manager to me (in good or bad ways).

3. Do you get to help pick the next manager?
No, and this is good. The city hired the MML to assist in their search. The Transition committee has done a good job working with the MML and other council members and staff.

4. Will the projects and agreements keep going in Davison after you go?
Yes and no. Projects that we are working on now will be completed (e.g. downtown streetscape, Davison road resurfacing , I&I, etc…). The ones that have not been started will need the City council and staff to firm up and complete the details (e.g. Splash Park, M-15 Streetscape, Third street Parking lot redevelopment etc…). Government is always bigger than one person. Some things may change with a new manager, but the manager still works for the seven elected officials and carries out the polices set by the elected government.

5. How many hits will this blog end up with this year?
I do not know, we have an out side chance at hitting 1.5 million for 2007, but only time will tell.

Till next entry I hope all continue to have a safe holiday

Investment begets Investment is coming true in Davison. To follow up with a successful “Bricks and Mortar” campaign for the last two years downtown, the DDA was greeted with good news at last night’s Downtown development Authority (DDA) meeting.

Dr. Slezak presented a conceptual concept of building a new facility on the current Third Street parking lot. This project would not only keep Dr. Slezak’s successful business downtown, but also allow him to expand (creating more jobs) while increasing the downtown tax base.

The DDA board had many questions but was overwhelmingly supportive of the concept. Some board members encourage him to think bigger with things like closing off Third Street and making some of the rental homes into new parking for the new development and downtown.

The DDA voted to move the concept on and have staff work with Dr. Slezak to nail down details and present the concept to the city Council for their concurrence with this downtown improvement (the city owns the parking lot).

Dr. Slezak’ initial idea was to build in the parking lot then move his practice, demolish the existing house that was converted into his office, and replace the parking that was where his new facility would be. If City council agrees with this, staff would then work with Dr. Slezak to walk this through the site plan process.

This is what most communities would love to see happening in their downtowns. It is rewarding to see the foresight of the DDA paying off with such reinvestment by local successful businesses.

The Davison City Police recently partnered with other Genesee County Police and Fire agencies and Meijer Thrifty Acres to help kids with their Christmas shopping.

Meijer’s seventh annual Shop With A Hero Program was held on Tuesday, December 11, 2007 in Burton. This program teams up police officers and firefighters with area children to shop with a $100 Meijer’s gift certificate. The officers help the children spend the certificate on gifts for their family. This program is designed to help foster positive relationships between the children and public safety personnel.

Officers Paul Clolinger and Tammy Jackson were teamed up with two children from Davison and had a great time. Their partners were able to purchase presents for their family that they may not have otherwise be able to do.

After shopping, one hundred and fifty children, police officers, firefighters and parents all were surprised when Santa showed up with special presents. He brought each child a sleeping bag and tent. Additionally, each child received a box full of food for their family to enjoy this Christmas.

Thanks to Meijers and all the other sponsors who provided this opportunity to kids of our community.

You can check out some photos here.

At the request of three of my council members, I am posting this “brief” letter of thanks and gratitude that I read to the city Council at my last official Davison City Council meeting.

Yes, it is going to be a little longer than most post. Therefore, if you don’t have five minutes, you might want to go to the next site.

November 19, 2007

Dear City Council, professional employees, residents, and business partners:

I write this letter for two reasons. First, it has been a pleasure to work with and for the fine residents, businesses and staff over the past six years and I think it appropriate to briefly review the many successes we enjoyed. Secondly, one of our “watch dog” residents prompted me. I won’t utilize their name because that my skew the tone of the letter. Suffice to say this person has always taken a close look at how the City of Davison operates and spends tax dollars. In fact, it is my understanding that this person has taken the city to court and the court agreed with the citizen.

Over the past six years, I have enjoyed my conversations with this person. We have had spirited debates on legal issues, policies, and the roll of government. Even though we don’t agree on everything, I enjoyed that this person kept the ideas flowing, the communication lines open, and the willingness to hear another point of view.

In my conversation last week this person wanted to wish me luck in my next adventure, but they also wanted me to write this note and to let people know some of the good things that are happening or have happened in Davison over the past six years. They wanted me to “toot my own horn”. Well I have never been very good at that, but what I can do is “toot Davison’s horn” for the great accomplishments over the last six years. If you haven’t guessed I include City Council, professional employees, residents, and business partners with the inclusive term of Davison.

Six years ago, the City Council that hired me told me they knew the organization needed to change and knew that we had several “things” that needed to be done. A short list of these “things” could have looked like this:

• Transition. With my predecessor being here for 27 years and the long term treasurer retiring a year later, City Council was concern with keeping services moving forward without a hitch.
• Intergovernmental Relationships. The Davison community has had long-term relationships with Davison and Richfield Townships, but the relations had been strained. A key issue was recreation. Davison Township had withdrawn from a long time joint recreation venture, the City of Davison was maintaining the Parks and Recreation Department since the dissolution.
• Arsenic Removal from Water System. We needed to respond to the un-funded Federal Mandate that lowered the acceptable level of arsenic in our water system to under 10 ppb.
• Get a Handled On Inflow/Infiltration. The City of Davison has been working on this un-funded mandate since about 1970, but had not addressed the major challenge, which were individual homes that were still putting rainwater into the sanitary sewer system.

• Assist DART in Regional Park. Volunteer group Davison Area Region Trail (DART) had been working to develop a two-mile trail through the Regional Park, the group had just been turned down for funding by Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR).
• Old Senior Center. The city was sitting on the community’s former Senior Center (located downtown); the property had not been used for several years and was off the tax roll.
• Other Funding. With limited outward expansion and limited tax growth into the future, we needed alternative funding sources. Predecessor was successful in gaining three million dollars over the past twenty-seven years.
• Explore options on decaying City Hall campus. We are out of space; the building is inefficient and “tired”.
• Should we keep the DDA? A lingering question that City Council was inquiring about the benefit of this TIFA district.
• Do more with less. Look at our services and see if we can provide more or better service for less money.
• Organize future vision. With an older Master Plan in place, the Parks and Recreation Master Plan expiring it was time to have a vision for the community.

The journey started.

We started out by tweaking the City Council’s Goals and Objective workshop. A Reader’s Digest version could state that the Council focused on goals for the City of Davison being long term. What City Council wanted to see in five years or more. Staff was then able to focus on annual Objectives that would get us closer to the City Council’s goals. This process has help established about an 80% of the objectives being met on an annual basis.

Working as a team, staff started looking at every aspect of how we operated on a daily basis to save money and create efficiencies.

We worked with City Council and developed a Personnel Policy Manual for all city employees. This consolidated loosely written policies and past practices into an easily followed and defendable Policy document. Part of this process allowed us to shift employees to proper hourly wages from salaried positions as per Federal Fair Labor Standards guidelines. We also were able to increase office hours open to the public by twenty hours per month, which is equivalent to be opening for business an extra month per year.

Our unions were great partners through this process as they agreed to shift prescription co-pay that would increase the cost of health care onto employees. The initial savings of this adjusting was $36,000 to date savings add up to around $252,000. Citywide we changed our policy and offered an incentive of 1/12th premium for employees who do not need insurance because they are under someone else’s policy. The initial one-year savings of this program would be recorded at $73,500; to date savings of $367,917.

We have recently continued this trend with our retires when we changed our healthcare package but reimbursed retirees for differences in co-pays. The initial savings is about $26,000 per year.

In looking at day-to-day operations staff was able to ascertain that we were paying approximately $7,200 per year for computer hardware support that was not needed. By cutting those items out of our contract, we have seen a savings of about $54,600. Our team also looked at other operational issues. We were able to reorganize departments by function and operations. A restructure of departments occurred gaining efficiency and cost savings. Estimated savings approximately $56,000 per year. With City Council’s encouragement, we created more of a team environment at city hall. This is an environment where office employees are now cross-trained which increased efficiencies, checks and balances, and eliminated scheduling conflicts.

Our staff was able to upgrade and modernize complete hardware and software systems. We replaced an obsolete computer operating system to improve office efficiency and operational connectivity. The city also started utilizing internet for more of a 24/7 information operation system. We started the process to have more information obtainable off our website, including parcel information with pictures.

In a continuing effort to improve communications, we developed a city Web Log to tell more of what is going on in the City of Davison. Davison was a leader in the State of Michigan with this venture of having one of the first city managers in the State to use a web log to add to our communication outreach program. We average approximately 340 visitors per day and already over 1.3 million hits in 2007. I have been told that his is going to be featured in American City & County Magazine and I was honored to have been asked to moderate a forum at an annual Michigan Local Government Managers Association (MLGMA) conference on technology use by government managers.

In the police department we changed the vehicle procurement policy. This change in the police vehicle replacement schedule has shown savings of over $130,000.

We used our talented staff to perform task that they were capable of instead of paying an outside agency. The in-house work on the City’s Master Plan allowed existing staff to gather information the city had, instead of consultant saved us $20,000. The Department of Public Works (DPW) was able to build a pedestrian bridge over Black Creek on Dayton Street and saved us $23,000 and this is just one more example.

The City of Davison became compliant with Governmental Accounting Standards Board rule 34 and continues to adapt to the changing financial rules that govern governmental accounting.

We also created Community Service Program with our District Court. We use the non-violent offender program for community service labor program. The estimated contribution to our labor force if we had to pay minimum wage would be around $150,000.

We also reviewed and re-worked contracted services that included a Solid Waste Hauler Contract, Workers Compensation Insurance, General Liability Insurance, and Janitorial Services. By placing these services out for competitive bid, we have saved around $335,000.

The City Council and Planning Commission have also worked very hard. In just under a two-year period, we were able to work with our legal team and update fifty-two ordinances that were outdated or ineffective. The Planning Commission was able to develop design standards and rework zoning ordinances to bring us up to the 21st century.

In 2003 we reached the City Council goal of restructuring our Parks and Recreation programming which included a new venture with some of our local partners, Davison Township and the Davison area Schools (Richfield Township was offered the opportunity to partner with us but decided not to, although Richfield Township was apart of the process of forming DCER). Four years later the Davison Community Enrichment and Recreation Department is under the School’s jurisdiction with input and financial support from the City of Davison and Davison Township. This joint cooperative venture has seen a growth in our recreation and enrichment programs, in both opportunities offered and people participating. Financially this has saved the City of Davison about $600,000 from how we use to operate.

In 2003 we started construction of the Skellenger Water Treatment Plant in response to the un-funded Federal mandate that changed the potable water standards. At this time we also improved our water delivery system by completing the southern twelve-inch main and replacing a fifty-year-old section of water main that ran under State Street. Due to our creativity and holistic approach to this project, we ranked as one of the best projects in the State of Michigan and were rewarded with Drinking Water Revolving Funds (affectionately referred to as DWRF) to fund this project. This DWRF funding status saved the City of Davison over 1.7 million dollars over the life of the bond. An additional savings was incurred when staff stepped up to the plate and took on the on site construction oversight. This saved us about $80,000 in engineering fees and the project came in at $25,000 under the construction contract.

Other long-term cost savings were reached during this project. At City Council’s direction staff worked with TetraTech MPS and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) to find a better solution to discharging the backwash from the Water Treatment Plant. Backwash is the water used to clean the filters, which happens every seven to ten days. Our position was that seventy-five percent of this backwash was clean water that needed no treatment and twenty-five percent needed to be sent to the Waste Water Treatment Plant. Most communities put this entire backwash into the sanitary sewer system. To do this the city would have to buy extra capacity in the Genesee County interceptor at a cost of about $400,000. To make a long story shorter, after many conversations and visits to Lansing the MDEQ agreed with our position and saved us the $400,000 buy in fee and addition $100,000 per year that we would have been charge to treat the clean water at the Waste Water Treatment Plant.

Another long-term project is the Inflow and Infiltration program. The City of Davison had been aware of this issue of too much rainwater being placed into the sanitary sewer system, and attempted several times for voluntary remedies. The DPW also tried to get a handle on any cross connections between storm drains and sanitary sewer drains. It has been common knowledge that we have a rainwater issue. The City of Davison normally pays around $17,000 per month to treat sewage. In a rainy month, we have paid in excess of $80,000 for a sewer bill.

We are currently in the middle of a two-year Inflow and Infiltration project that disconnects private home weep tiles from the sanitary sewer system. Again, the staff and our consulting engineers (ROWE, Inc.) searched for all funding sources available. We were able to qualify retroactively for a State of Michigan S-2 grant. This covered the engineering cost leading up to the disconnection program and totaled $156,000. The city also applied for and received unique funding from the MDEQ called SQWIF. This is a low interest loan at 1.67%. By utilizing this funding source, we save over a million dollars in finance cost that we would have been charged if we were to finance the same project on the open market. An additional note: When we were funded, we were only the second city to receive this unique funding source, the other city being Ann Arbor.

There have been countless other funding sources; I have shared this list with the City Council. Most of this funding the City of Davison had never received before. All of this came as the State of Michigan cut the City of Davison’s State Shared Revenue annual payment by $150,000 per year. I am very glad to have worked for so many city councils that exercised leadership and thought outside the box. I am also proud and in awe of our staff who answered the call and did the heavy lifting. The totals over the last six years are amazing. To date, your staff has responded to city councils to become more efficient. The combined total of savings is $6,610,810.84. This is from a community whose annual General Fund Budget just reached $3.4 million this year.

The outside funding has reached a total of $11, 085,920. Moreover, the city tax rate is lower than it was in 2001 when we started this chapter of Davison’s history.

I would be remiss if I did not mention this has not been an easy accomplishment for City Council(s) or staff. During a one-year period, we lost two crucial team members in the prime of their life. Our DPW Director and Assistant Fire Chief Scott Yaklin left us with out notice in a fatal motorcycle accident. Scott had worked for the City of Davison since he was 16 years old. Our City Clerk, Cindy Payton also left us after her several year battle with cancer. I think she helped us learn about courage and each of our individual mortality. If you add another year to this time span, you could also add the loss of two council members, Gary Hale and Pat Connelly.

To have these losses of leadership in any community would be devastating, but maybe as a tribute to their community dedication, city staffs rose to the occasion, completed many of the ongoing projects, and still to this day provide great services to the community.

One of the items that I mentioned in my interview with the then city council, over six years ago, was we needed to set a goal to be the best city in the State of Michigan. I will admit that some council members, at that time, snickered at the comment, but agreed in concept that it was a great goal to set.

We are very proud of the fact that we have been recognized as one of the best cities in the State of Michigan. We have been awarded the best Well Head Protection Program in the State of Michigan (the first unanimous decision in the awards history). We are being considered for the best Well Head Protection Program in the nation this summer and my faith in our staff and the product they produce I would not be surprised at all, if we won the national recognition in June or July. We were chosen as the Best Water Utility in the State of Michigan for communities under 15,000 in population. Our employees have been honored with Water Operator of the Year and Woman of the Year from Michigan Rural Water Association. Employees from all over the city sit on different Statewide Boards to help develop and maintain Michigan’s local communities. We have employees who facilitate and teach in their areas of expertise and department heads that are sought out for their innovation and ways to manage in these challenging economic times.

If we look back at the initial list of Goal City Council had six years ago, I have to take my hat off to those elected officials, to all the city employees and to the citizens who took part in making Davison one of the best cities in the State of Michigan.

With all sincerity, it truly has been an honor to be part of such a successful team. I wish the City of Davison all the success its citizens, businesses and employees deserve.

Respectfully, yours in public service,

Peter E. Auger
City Manager

Grants and other Funding

Miscellaneous grants, discounted loans, gifts etc… (This funding equals over eleven million dollars).

• Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Trust Fund
o Non Motorized Trail Way through our Regional Park

• United Way
o Parks & Recreation

• Michigan Blue Cross
o Bicycle Helmet Program

• Wall Mart
o Therapeutic Recreation

• Sam’s Club
o Police Department Equipment
o Fire Department Equipment

• Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC)
• Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA)
o MEDC & MSHDA combined for Michigan Downtown Blueprints Program.

• Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT)
o M-15 Heritage Route
o M-15/Flint Streetscape

• Community Development Block Grant (CDBG)
o Two Sidewalk Improvement and construction projects.

• Michigan Department of Environmental Quality
o 2 Drinking Water Revolving Fund Projects
o 4 Well Head Protection Grants
o 2 SQWIF Projects

• Genesee County Sheriff’s Department
o Cost for District Court Security

• ATT Wireless
o Cellular antenna lease

• Ruth Mott Foundation
o Funding for Boardwalk
o Funding for Plantings

• Department of Homeland Security
o Replacement Radios for Police Department
o Replacement Radios for Fire Department
o Security cameras for Water Treatment Plant

• Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR)
o Forestry Grant

• Davison Area Chamber of Commerce
o Police Equipment

• Oxford Bank
o Police Equipment

• Greater Flint Community Foundation
o Downtown Façade Program

My wife, Jennifer’s grandma had a heart attack about a month ago, and when she fell, she broke her hip. She told us at one of our visits that it was time for her to go and she was ready. This was not a negative thing, but she said she has lived a full life and asked us not to be sad. This was typical of this strong independent woman.

I wish I knew her longer.

You want a picture of this woman let me try to describe. Close your eyes, no wait, don’t do that you won’t be able to read this then. A short, strong Polish matriarch of the family. At 88 years still living on her own. Grandchildren swear that she was the best cook ever to walk the earth as they repeat stories about home made drop noodles, city chicken and grandma famous breaded pork chops. Don’t even get the family taking about crêpes cooked in real bacon grease, or the lard that was kept next to the stove that made some authentic Polish dish mouth watering.

To see Grandma Rose beam with a radiant smile anytime one of her great-grandchildren entered was to know family love that spans generations. To hear my daughter Tessia’s name role out of her mouth with the Polish pronunciation and I see that same radiant beam from my wife’s eyes.

Jen idolized her grandma and she has lived a remarkable life. Here is just a brief section of her history as I understand it:
• Her family fled Poland to the U.S. during WWI
• After the Great war the family returned to Poland
• WWII arrives in Poland and their farm is taken over by the Nazi’s
• Jen’s dad is born in an upstairs of the farm house with Nazi soldiers downstairs threatening to kill them all if they don’t shut up grandma as she gives birth to Jen’s Dad.
• Separated from her husband (who was sent off to a “work camp”) and pregnant with her second child, she is sent off to a woman’s work camp.
• Rumors about people never returning or being seen again after being placed in rail cars are going around these concentration camps.
• Jen’s grandpa is planning an escape. Two days prior to the escape, he is told he will be reunited with his wife in Portugal.
• Grandma Rose is told similar story.
• Relying on faith, both get on separate rail cars.
• They are reunited in Portugal in a citizen swap between countries.
• They are put on a ship for the United States.
• July 4, 1942 they arrived at Ellis Island, NYC.

That is just the story to 1942. Grandma Rose was 88. She will be laid to rest Tuesday.

We all have people who inspire us. Grandma Rose is one of those people. Some people ask me how I can sit through public meeting, or read stories about people who say not so pleasant things about me and how I can keep a positive out look on life. Well, truth be told, in those moments I think of people like Grandma Rose (and there are others) who have or have to deal with a lot worse than I do.

Have you ever wondered about some statistical car crash information?

You can now do your own searches thanks to the Michigan State Police crash information web site.

What is interesting is deer crashes are down 7% in the past 10 years, but there were still over 60,000 car deer crashes in Michigan in 2006.

This site lets you search by almost any focus. From gender to age, from type of vehicle to severity by month.

I don’t know who, besides us who try to improve safety would be interested in this site, but there is a lot of information there.

Davison is not alone. This was a headline of a story out of San Antonio, Texas. Performance of a manger is sometimes hard to judge. Finances are often looked at, but the job entails much more than that.

Davison’s team has been very active in the financial arena over the last six years. Like San Antonio, but on a much smaller scale, City Council has made sound financial decisions to help insure a fiscally sound future for the city.

Some of the financing vehicles we have used for infrastructure projects have saved us millions of dollars in finance fees.

City Councils have encouraged staff (and staff followed through) seeking grants, gifts and creative ways to keep improving the city and its services. We have received over 11 million dollars with such endeavors. Some people are surprised to find that the city never bonded for anything over a million dollars in its previous projects.

Several years ago the Sate of Michigan Department of Treasury started a process to identify indicators which would be predictive of fiscal distress. This was in reaction to several Michigan Communities having the State intercede in the operation of the cities due to the cities being bankrupt. About a dozen other communities were close to that status as reported on in the media.

According to this tool, a low aggregate score reflects little fiscal stress and a high score reflects significant distress. There are 9 categories in the matrix. Of the nine categories Davison only had a total of 3 points. This bodes very well for the city.

The 3 points were in the following categories.

Population growth. According to the study since the year 2000, we have lost 213 residents. Any loss in residency automatically gains you a point.

General Fund Operating Deficit. In order to complete some of the projects and maintain the same level (or more) services the city has used Fund Balance in the past year to balance the annual budget. We received a point for this. This is not bad considering since 2000 the city of Davison has been shorted in State Shared Revenue (the $$$ the state had agreed to supply local communities for local services) by somewhere around a million dollars.

Prior General Fund Operating Deficits. This category looks over the past two years (as compared to one year above) to see if we utilized any of our Fund Balance to operate. We receive the third point here.

This report indicates that the city is doing well financially. We have issues that we monitor and staff keeps city council informed on financial issues and what we are doing to ensure a stable future.

Working for a local government can be very challenging. We have responded to several unfunded mandates and have been recognized regionally and around the State of Michigan for our successes.

There, I hope that is better. I took some chiding after yesterday’s blog stating It was under forty days left working for the City of Davison.

Yes, I really didn’t know how many days until the transition. I remember being a “short timer”, as my military career came to a close. There was a month count that turned into a day count, then that turned into a “single digit midget” and finally by the hour…

Not the same here. I have been waiting the slow down of work load, but it doesn’t look like it will occur. Some of the future plans have slowed down, those decisions and work product will be waiting here for the next manager.

Day to day items keep on ticking, and there are still endless meetings that the city needs to be represented at.

Due to the way the calendar falls, Monday the 10th of December will be my last City Council meeting. As the agenda is coming together, it looks like it will be a marathon rather than a sprint.

Therefore, for all those who gave me a hard time for not knowing the amount of days, it is now up to you to keep your own calendars, I have other stuff to keep track of (but thanks for caring).

I know I have not been blogging as faithfully as in the past. With less than forty days left as manager of the City of Flags, we have been attempting to get many loose ends tied up. Many projects are winding down and others are in mid swing. Throw in a transitional document so that the City Council and Department Heads know where issues/projects are, and to wind down the Department Head evaluations prior to January. One might see my plate is still full.

With the lack of blogs on a daily basis, and the lack of coverage from one of our local papers on our last council meeting there have been rumors about that make some sort of conspiracy between the new Mayor the Index and myself.

There is no conspiracy.

I have met with the new Mayor several times now. I believe he is starting to understand some of his roles as the chief elected official of Davison. This is not an easy job to learn. The major role of the Mayor is to run the City Council meetings. According to our Charter, the City Council operates on rules established by the City Council. Ours is seven pages long and even includes how the Agenda is set up.

Civil discourse is a part of our society and the local level is different because it is nonpartisan, but it is just as fascinating as watching the State or Federal Legislative branches work. The important part is you can be assured the local elected officials listen to you.

This is not to say that the local elected officials will do exactly what you (as an individual) want on every issue, but they do listen. There are as many positions as there are residents on some issues, yet the seven elected officials have to make a decision on what they think is best for all.

As far as not covering what transpired at our last meeting, I do not know and have not spoken to the Index about this. Contrary to some opinions, the City Manager does not get communicated to or consulted by the Index on a routine basis.

As far as this blog goes, I attribute a lot of what occurred at the workshop was an educational opportunity. Most of our workshops are there for everyone to be brought up to speed on projects, issues, and the future of the City of Davison. I think everyone learns from these experiences (elected officials, staff, and residents).

I will attempt to blog more in the last 40 days or so. That is the least I can do to help squelch rumors.