[Note: This article originally appeared in the April 2010 edition of Ferndale Friends]
For the third year in a row, Ace Hardware has been recognized by J. D. Power and Associates as having the highest customer satisfaction of home improvement stores. Scheer’s Ace Hardware in Oak Park on Nine Mile at Republic is certainly deserving of that award. The folks there have been doing their damnedest to help me through my home improvement ineptitude for 12-years in a row.
I also want to congratulate Wyll Lewis on a successful fundraiser to return Thunder, the mechanical horse, back to the front of American Pop! Thunder has become a better-known and loved Ferndale landmark in five years than the solar-powered 100-foot tall Viagra® advertisement erected at Woodward and Cambourne will ever become. Unlike city council, Wyll doesn’t need to compensate for anything.
If you’re like Covey, Lennon, and Galloway, you missed the first Wednesday night budget meeting in March (canceled due to lack of quorum). If you missed the second meeting (both of us showed up) you also missed what I thought was an amusing moment.
City Manager Robert Bruner had just finished telling council that the service-counter at city hall will require some remodeling so the remaining public-facing staff can move upstairs. Bruner didn’t have a cost estimate, but indicated the remodeling wouldn’t be cheap.
Galloway started (and I’m paraphrasing) “If the cost difference between remodeling the counter and renovating city hall isn’t that big, maybe we can save money by renovating city hall once instead of the counter now and the building later.”
Boy, that guy doesn’t give up, does he? In the face of a $3.5 million budget deficit this year Galloway still holds a candle in hopes we can buy a $4 million service counter (a really nice counter) and get city hall renovations thrown-in.
Not even the helpful hardware folks at Ace could pull that off.
It’s a good thing Councilwoman Kate Baker was there to suggest a new counter would likely only have three or four zeroes after the first digit, and not six.
While we are on the topic of the budget, I recommend the 14% of registered voters interested in Ferndale’s budget emergency visit the city’s website and check-out Bob Bruner’s slide show. While reading it, contemplate Bob’s graph showing how Proposal A and the Headlee Amendment will likely prohibit property tax revenues returning to last year’s record $9.2 million until 2023 or 2043.
Heck, even I could be elected to council before 2043. Or not…
Anyway, rather than holding on to the pipe-dream of a renovated city hall, or blaming senate Republicans for Ferndale’s financial woes and not repairing the garage on his vacant property, I’d rather Galloway talk more about the remedy he suggested to The Daily Tribune—a Headlee Override.
The two most interesting numbers on your assessment are your home’s State Equalized Value (SEV—roughly half your home’s estimated street value in Goeffrey Dollars) and its Taxable Value (TV—calculated by laid-off NASA scientists).
Whenever a home is sold and its taxable value adjusted up to the higher SEV (uncapping) the city gains NO EXTRA TAX REVENUE. Instead, all the nearby homes have their taxes lowered. The longer you’ve owned your home the lower your taxes will be thanks to your new neighbors paying your freight. The net result is the burden of property taxes falls on new home-buyers. The older a city’s neighborhoods, the more disproportionately its property taxes are likely to be distributed.
In older cities like Ferndale, one homeowner may be paying $9000/year in property taxes while their neighbor with a nearly identical house (as far as SEV is concerned) only pays $1200/year. The difference being the first home was purchased in 2007 and the second in 1997.
If we raised property taxes the reality may be the biggest burden is born by our newest residents, and our homes become even less attractive no matter how often the Woodward Avenue tent pole is polished.
Let’s not rush into millage increases until we examine the alternatives.
A quick story
While campaigning last year in “The Dales” I met a woman that moved to Ferndale from Detroit and for many years enjoyed her beautiful neighborhood. In the last couple years, however, more junky cars, trucks, and vans have been accumulating on the street creating an eyesore.
“All my neighbors hate it. We complain all the time. If I wanted my street to look like this I could have stayed in Detroit.”
“Have you called the city?” I asked. “I know someone that called the police for a long-parked truck near our street and it was towed a few hours later.”
“No, we haven’t called anyone,” she told me. “We just complain to each other.”
If you don’t have your own tow-truck, badge or other credentials, call the police non-emergency hotline at 248-541-3650.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
Troy Daze should return to its roots
Troy Daze's cost to the city isn't the only thing that's inflated. Troy Daze itself has inflated. If the City of Troy turned-back the clock 35 years it might rediscover both what Troy Daze used to be, and how affordable it might be.
If I can claim to have grown up anywhere it is "The City of Tomorrow... Today!" Our family moved to Troy from Livonia in 1973 when I was only eight years old. I went to Martell and Schroeder Elementary Schools, Boulan Park Middle School, and graduated from Troy High in 1983.
Our house near Wattles (17 Mile for you outsiders) and Coolidge was within easy walking distance to Boulan Park where Troy Daze was held. On the way to the park my friends and I could hunt for Garter snakes along the dirt path that has long since been replaced with another subdivision.
Boulan Park already had baseball diamonds, merry-go-rounds, teeter-totters, monkey bars, and grills for picnicking. But during the three-day festival it also had a fire engine, a police car, an ambulance, tug-of-war, pick-up softball games, and an extra few thousand people.
My favorite thing about the fair was the free (as far as I knew) Kentucky-Fried Chicken. It turned out that one of our neighbors owned a KFC franchise and he provided the chicken to promote his business and addict me to its 11 herbs and spices.
Each year the festival seemed to add something. I remember once there were helicopter rides. I couldn't afford them with my paper-route money, but I had a lot of fun watching it take off and land, and wondered how great it would be to afford the $15 ticket for a 10-minute ride.
Later years added carnival rides. I remember my brother's first ride on the salt-and-pepper shaker. I was too young to ride it myself, but watched with amazement as the ride took my brother Charlie into the air, held him upside down with his school buddies, then swung back to the ground like an upside-down metronome.
Looking back, as a kid, I was just as amazed watching the adults play softball and eating my neighbor's chicken. As I got older I looked forward more to having more freedom to go to the festival on my own, and with my friends, stay a little later, and walk home in the dark, than I was to new attractions.
The festival improved each year not because it changed, but because I changed.
Maybe the City of Tomorrow should remember the City of Yesterday, and be reminded that childhood brings its own magic to the park. It's not necessary for the city to spend Disney-sized dollars for a three-day picnic and softball game.
In an effort to out-do itself each year, Troy has finally found that it has out-done itself into suspending the event for lack of money. Perhaps the citizens of Troy could simply pack a mitt and a cooler, and take the family to the park. Would it really cost the city too much money to park a police car and fire truck and give the kids a chance to sound the siren or horn?
Sure, it may only amuse children, but surely they're the most easily and inexpensively amused.
I know I was.
If I can claim to have grown up anywhere it is "The City of Tomorrow... Today!" Our family moved to Troy from Livonia in 1973 when I was only eight years old. I went to Martell and Schroeder Elementary Schools, Boulan Park Middle School, and graduated from Troy High in 1983.
Our house near Wattles (17 Mile for you outsiders) and Coolidge was within easy walking distance to Boulan Park where Troy Daze was held. On the way to the park my friends and I could hunt for Garter snakes along the dirt path that has long since been replaced with another subdivision.
Boulan Park already had baseball diamonds, merry-go-rounds, teeter-totters, monkey bars, and grills for picnicking. But during the three-day festival it also had a fire engine, a police car, an ambulance, tug-of-war, pick-up softball games, and an extra few thousand people.
My favorite thing about the fair was the free (as far as I knew) Kentucky-Fried Chicken. It turned out that one of our neighbors owned a KFC franchise and he provided the chicken to promote his business and addict me to its 11 herbs and spices.
Each year the festival seemed to add something. I remember once there were helicopter rides. I couldn't afford them with my paper-route money, but I had a lot of fun watching it take off and land, and wondered how great it would be to afford the $15 ticket for a 10-minute ride.
Later years added carnival rides. I remember my brother's first ride on the salt-and-pepper shaker. I was too young to ride it myself, but watched with amazement as the ride took my brother Charlie into the air, held him upside down with his school buddies, then swung back to the ground like an upside-down metronome.
Looking back, as a kid, I was just as amazed watching the adults play softball and eating my neighbor's chicken. As I got older I looked forward more to having more freedom to go to the festival on my own, and with my friends, stay a little later, and walk home in the dark, than I was to new attractions.
The festival improved each year not because it changed, but because I changed.
Maybe the City of Tomorrow should remember the City of Yesterday, and be reminded that childhood brings its own magic to the park. It's not necessary for the city to spend Disney-sized dollars for a three-day picnic and softball game.
In an effort to out-do itself each year, Troy has finally found that it has out-done itself into suspending the event for lack of money. Perhaps the citizens of Troy could simply pack a mitt and a cooler, and take the family to the park. Would it really cost the city too much money to park a police car and fire truck and give the kids a chance to sound the siren or horn?
Sure, it may only amuse children, but surely they're the most easily and inexpensively amused.
I know I was.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
What is government for?
[Note: This article originally appeared in the February 2010 edition of Ferndale Friends]
What’s government for if not public safety?
On January 25th, hundreds of villagers armed with torches and pitchforks stormed council chambers to demand council stop their evil plans to layoff police officers and pull the plug on an $8 million city-hall- monster.
I tried doing that last November but fell 79 villagers short.
Sorry. I couldn’t resist.
The truth is, there was nothing on the agenda regarding layoffs, police or otherwise. But eventually $3 million will need to come from somewhere and according to city manager Bob Bruner, public safety is half of the city’s budget.
In the heat of the moment someone suggested, and was applauded no less, a special public safety millage they would gladly pay to protect our police and fire departments from budget cuts. Not being the excitable chap I was in my youth, I was dumbfounded. If public safety isn’t one of the essential responsibilities of government what is? Why shouldn’t government attend to its primary responsibilities first then the discretionary? Maybe an essential government responsibility should consume half the budget. Maybe the public safety budget should be thought of as less a percentage of the budget and more as an expense proportional to the size and demographics of the city.
If cutting public safety 20% is reasonable, then so should shortening our streets 20%, or turning away one of five cars coming into the city, or responding to only four-of-five 911 calls for medical or fire emergencies.
Rather than propose a special millage for public safety I would rather (though reluctantly) consider a temporary millage for non-essential services. When I write temporary, I mean the millage for discretionary (though popular) services like leaf pick-up must be renewed every year or two. This would give citizens a direct vote to fund (or not) projects and services similar to how they were given an opportunity to vote for a new library.
If city council wants to protect discretionary items then they need to find a way to pay for them until the general fund can afford them.
How about an out-of-the-box idea? And I mean REALLY out-of-the-box idea.
Little cities need to stop thinking big and start acting big. The 38 square miles made up by Berkley, Clawson, Ferndale, Hazel Park, Huntington Woods, Madison Heights, Oak Park , Pleasant Ridge, Royal Oak, and Royal Oak Township pack ten governments and nine police and fire departments into an area the size of Livonia.
According to a July 2007 article in The Detroit Free Press, Zachary Gorchow and John Wisely wrote:
Imagine the resources our schools might have if they weren’t half-full—but that’s another article.
Of all those cities, Ferndale may be financially better off than some, but is our nose so big we’re willing to cut-off 20% of our police and fire to spite our safety?
I think not. I’d prefer our city council and manager start camping at other city’s council meetings, calling them out, in public, on cable, and even in print, to pressure them to agree to more regionalized services.
Lots of regionalized services.
We don’t need to erase our borders, but it may be time to blur them. How bad are the 10 governments willing to let it get? Maybe it’s just not as bad as they tell us.
A quick story.
Crystal Proxmire, writer and editor of Ferndale115.com, moved in across the street from me so I gave her a ride home from the council meeting. She told me she’d heard a rumor that I was responsible for the anonymous flyers about the police layoffs that caused the raucous.
What’s government for if not public safety?
On January 25th, hundreds of villagers armed with torches and pitchforks stormed council chambers to demand council stop their evil plans to layoff police officers and pull the plug on an $8 million city-hall- monster.
I tried doing that last November but fell 79 villagers short.
Sorry. I couldn’t resist.
The truth is, there was nothing on the agenda regarding layoffs, police or otherwise. But eventually $3 million will need to come from somewhere and according to city manager Bob Bruner, public safety is half of the city’s budget.
In the heat of the moment someone suggested, and was applauded no less, a special public safety millage they would gladly pay to protect our police and fire departments from budget cuts. Not being the excitable chap I was in my youth, I was dumbfounded. If public safety isn’t one of the essential responsibilities of government what is? Why shouldn’t government attend to its primary responsibilities first then the discretionary? Maybe an essential government responsibility should consume half the budget. Maybe the public safety budget should be thought of as less a percentage of the budget and more as an expense proportional to the size and demographics of the city.
If cutting public safety 20% is reasonable, then so should shortening our streets 20%, or turning away one of five cars coming into the city, or responding to only four-of-five 911 calls for medical or fire emergencies.
Rather than propose a special millage for public safety I would rather (though reluctantly) consider a temporary millage for non-essential services. When I write temporary, I mean the millage for discretionary (though popular) services like leaf pick-up must be renewed every year or two. This would give citizens a direct vote to fund (or not) projects and services similar to how they were given an opportunity to vote for a new library.
If city council wants to protect discretionary items then they need to find a way to pay for them until the general fund can afford them.
How about an out-of-the-box idea? And I mean REALLY out-of-the-box idea.
Little cities need to stop thinking big and start acting big. The 38 square miles made up by Berkley, Clawson, Ferndale, Hazel Park, Huntington Woods, Madison Heights, Oak Park , Pleasant Ridge, Royal Oak, and Royal Oak Township pack ten governments and nine police and fire departments into an area the size of Livonia.
According to a July 2007 article in The Detroit Free Press, Zachary Gorchow and John Wisely wrote:
These 10 municipalities spend more than $9 million combined on salaries and benefits so that most can have their own city manager or township supervisor, clerk, treasurer, fire chief, police chief and other department directors, according to records obtained by the Free Press.Mixed inside those hard facts are some real possibilities. How much of those cities’ budgets could be saved by sharing not just services, but department personnel and motor pools as well? How green could that community be? How much political capital might it have in Pontiac and Lansing?
It is theoretical only -- no one has proposed the idea -- but if the 10 municipalities were to become one, it would create Michigan's third-largest city at about 192,000 people, behind only Detroit and Grand Rapids.
Imagine the resources our schools might have if they weren’t half-full—but that’s another article.
Of all those cities, Ferndale may be financially better off than some, but is our nose so big we’re willing to cut-off 20% of our police and fire to spite our safety?
I think not. I’d prefer our city council and manager start camping at other city’s council meetings, calling them out, in public, on cable, and even in print, to pressure them to agree to more regionalized services.
Lots of regionalized services.
We don’t need to erase our borders, but it may be time to blur them. How bad are the 10 governments willing to let it get? Maybe it’s just not as bad as they tell us.
A quick story.
Crystal Proxmire, writer and editor of Ferndale115.com, moved in across the street from me so I gave her a ride home from the council meeting. She told me she’d heard a rumor that I was responsible for the anonymous flyers about the police layoffs that caused the raucous.
“I wouldn’t have left my name off,” I told her. “Writing lacks credibility without a signature.”Ah, thanks?
“I knew it wasn’t you,” she said. “It wasn’t wordy enough.”
Friday, February 05, 2010
More equal than others?
Just this AM on Facebook I read a friend's posting:
They don't want to be prosecuted for thought crimes any more than I do.
One of the articles I found online summed up their complaint:
The actual complaint is available online at The Thomas More Law Center.
The challenge with constitutional rights is we must protect others' rights as jealously as we guard our own--even when we disagree them. As it's been said too often before, but is worth repeating, it is easier to protect someone elses speech when you agree with it than when we do not.
Or as Mark Twain wrote, "Tis a fine thing to fight for one's own freedom; tis a far sight finer to fight for another man's."
And so it is with freedom of speech and equal protection. I don't understand the Commerce Clause argument but will keep reading.
PS Christ's teachings and Christianity's position on homosexuality is orthogonal to this issue, and has already been exhaustively argued elsewhere. To debate the merits of the complaint based on either misses the point of the law and more often exposes our ignorance of New Testament scripture than anything else.
"Three Michigan Christian pastors sue to halt federal anti-hate crimes law. They demand the right to speak hate toward GLBT people. Sheesh...have they even checked their own religion? Last I checked, Jesus didnt speak hate against anybody."From what I read online, the pastors weren't demanding, ".. the right to speak hate toward GLBT people." Instead they were suing to protect their First Amendment right to practice their religion and their Fifth Amendment right to due process.
They don't want to be prosecuted for thought crimes any more than I do.
One of the articles I found online summed up their complaint:
"Robert Muise, Senior Trial Counsel for TMLC (Thomas More Law Center) who is handling the case, observed, “This new federal law promotes two Orwellian concepts. It creates a special class of persons who are ‘more equal than others’ based on nothing more than deviant, sexual behavior. And it creates ‘thought crimes’ by criminalizing certain ideas, beliefs, and opinions, and the involvement of such ideas, beliefs, and opinions in a crime will make it deserving of federal prosecution. Consequently, government officials are claiming the power to decide which thoughts are criminal under federal law and which are not."I resisted the temptation to edit-out, ".. based on nothing more than deviant, sexual behavior," for its obvious bias against gays, deciding instead to leave it as-is because it is not my responsibility to mask others' biases.
The actual complaint is available online at The Thomas More Law Center.
The challenge with constitutional rights is we must protect others' rights as jealously as we guard our own--even when we disagree them. As it's been said too often before, but is worth repeating, it is easier to protect someone elses speech when you agree with it than when we do not.
Or as Mark Twain wrote, "Tis a fine thing to fight for one's own freedom; tis a far sight finer to fight for another man's."
And so it is with freedom of speech and equal protection. I don't understand the Commerce Clause argument but will keep reading.
PS Christ's teachings and Christianity's position on homosexuality is orthogonal to this issue, and has already been exhaustively argued elsewhere. To debate the merits of the complaint based on either misses the point of the law and more often exposes our ignorance of New Testament scripture than anything else.
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
City of Ferndale Delays Municipal Building Project
I'm posting this here only because it's new and I can't find a link to it in a more respectable location.
SUBJECT: City of Ferndale Delays Municipal Building Project
Ferndale, Michigan (February 2, 2010) - In November the City received design-build proposals for the Municipal Building Project from Redstone Architects and Walbridge Aldinger; CDPA and JS Vig Construction; Wilkie & Zanley and Micco Construction; and French Associates & Neumann/Smith and The Daily Company. The Project Team reviewed the proposals in December and interviewed the design-build teams in January. The Project Team recommended the Council interview Wilkie & Zanley and Micco Construction; and French Associates & Neumann/Smith and The Daily Company in February.
The Council has spent three years carefully considering the City's facility needs and solutions to fulfill those needs. Now that the Council has arrived at the decision point regarding these design-build proposals, the City has arrived at a crossroads. Without significant cooperation from the unions, the Council will have to reduce the number of City employees by approximately 30 positions (20%) to balance the FYE 2011 Budget.
The design-build proposals are based on staffing levels the City may not be able to maintain. As a result, City Manager Robert Bruner has invited the top two design-build teams to present their proposals at the Mon 2/8/2010 Council meeting but has also asked them to extend their Guaranteed Maximum Prices (GMP) until Fri 5/7/2010, the deadline for the Council to adopt the FYE 2011 Budget. This will allow the Council to consider the FYE 2011 Budget and the Project simultaneously.
CONTACT:
Robert Bruner
City Manager, City of Ferndale
(248) 546-2360
rbruner@ferndale-mi.com
Alicia F. Washeleski
Senior Project Manager, Plante Moran CRESA
(248) 223-3811
Alicia.Washeleski@plantemoran.com
Monday, January 25, 2010
Bruner says council's not discussing police layoffs tonight
The rumors about city council discussing police department layoffs tonight are, according to Ferndale City Manager Bob Bruner, untrue.
It is not on the agenda. It is not in an attachment. He does not plan to discuss it in his comments to council. He's aware of no plans a council person will make a motion to add it to tonight's agenda.
Rumors may have started after the city manager met with members of the police officers union Friday night to update them on the city's current financial pinch. A $3 million hole needs to be filled. No plans have been made, draft or otherwise (according to Mr. Bruner) that recommend the laying-off of police officers or firemen.
During the last election all the council candidates expressed their commitment to spare our public safety departments from personnel cuts. Housefires and violent crime in public parks and sweet-16 parties don't dip because a city's income dips. I know it was my promise during the campaign (but I'm the one with a bi-monthly column and Scott and Melanie are the votes on city council).
I encourage any resident that wishes to speak to council about the importance of any topic important to them to do so, especially regarding our police and fire departments. I believe it incumbent on citizens to voice their opinions more frequently than Novembers' first Tuesdays.
I also encourage them to attend city council meetings, especially when a topic near and dear to them is on the agenda.
However, I'm discouraged by attempts to manipulate the public with alarmist emails FB postings, and blogs. There's enough knee-jerking at the state and national level that we needn't imitate here in Ferndale.
Remember to check the facts before forwarding an email or trusting the guy asking you to send him money is a Nigerian prince seeking your aid to recover his family's lost $ millions.
It is not on the agenda. It is not in an attachment. He does not plan to discuss it in his comments to council. He's aware of no plans a council person will make a motion to add it to tonight's agenda.
Rumors may have started after the city manager met with members of the police officers union Friday night to update them on the city's current financial pinch. A $3 million hole needs to be filled. No plans have been made, draft or otherwise (according to Mr. Bruner) that recommend the laying-off of police officers or firemen.
During the last election all the council candidates expressed their commitment to spare our public safety departments from personnel cuts. Housefires and violent crime in public parks and sweet-16 parties don't dip because a city's income dips. I know it was my promise during the campaign (but I'm the one with a bi-monthly column and Scott and Melanie are the votes on city council).
I encourage any resident that wishes to speak to council about the importance of any topic important to them to do so, especially regarding our police and fire departments. I believe it incumbent on citizens to voice their opinions more frequently than Novembers' first Tuesdays.
I also encourage them to attend city council meetings, especially when a topic near and dear to them is on the agenda.
However, I'm discouraged by attempts to manipulate the public with alarmist emails FB postings, and blogs. There's enough knee-jerking at the state and national level that we needn't imitate here in Ferndale.
Remember to check the facts before forwarding an email or trusting the guy asking you to send him money is a Nigerian prince seeking your aid to recover his family's lost $ millions.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
My Consolation Column
[Note: This article originally appeared in the December 2009 edition of Ferndale Friends]
Welcome to my consolation column! Were I a presidential candidate I may have gotten a million dollar book deal and speaking engagements crisscrossing the country. All things being relative, after losing the Ferndale council race to incumbent T. Scott Galloway and new-comer Melanie Piana, I'm instead contributing an article to Ferndale Friends and my speaking engagements are limited to lecturing my kids.
On the plus-side of the ledger I won't have to balance a $15 million budget that's $3 million lighter than last year.
Losing does have its advantages.
This is probably the last opportunity comments on November's election can be indulged or at least forgiven. Please read-on with either one or both of those in mind.
Let me share a major difference I noticed between this year's campaign and 2007's. This year I limited the houses I visited personally to only those that voted in 2007's off-year election. When I ran in 2007 I used 2006’s gubernatorial voter list which had a couple thousand more voters. The difference between the two lists is the people I was lucky enough to speak with this year were generally more informed about local politics than the bigger list.
Believe it or not, in 2007 I had a conversation with a voter that went something like this.
If that’s how voters really felt and if those were my issues, then I should have been a shoe-in.
Well, there was certainly a shoe involved when the results were in, but not where I anticipated it.
It turns out the best predictor of 2009’s election was a gentleman I spoke to that told me he felt everything was OK. As long as he’s lived in the city taxes have always been high, council has always spent money on silly projects, and too much attention has always been paid downtown. But as none of that threatened him personally he wasn’t inclined to change anything.
Maybe that explains both the results and the low voter turnout (14%). Without pain, a mayoral contest, or a major issue on the ballot there just wasn’t much to get people to skip Desperate Housewives or Grey’s Anatomy.
A quick story.
At a meeting for the candidates held by the city clerk, Cherilynn Tallman, and city manager, Bob Bruner, we were discussing the lack of a current city map. Apparently the original map used to make copies from disappeared a couple years ago after Mayor Bob Porter left office. Greg PAW-lica suggested the map that hangs on the wall near the city council table could be used as a new original. We all went over to it to take a closer look.
While studying the map’s superior quality and imagining its potential to make dittos I couldn’t help but notice the little bit of real-estate cut-out of Ferndale’s northwest corner to make room for Pleasant Ridge.
“How many police officers does Pleasant Ridge have? Five? Six?”, I asked.
“Maybe six. Eight tops,” someone else replied.
“Hmm. And they don’t have their own fire department,” I said. “I bet if we took our 60+ police officers and fireman, along with a few allies from Oak Park we could easily invade on three fronts and take over the city. As liberal a city as it is there’s bound to be few armed residents. It should be easy.”
Melanie Piana’s mouth fell open and her face had that shocked you-can’t-possibly-be-serious look on it. Greg paw-LICA was LOL. Apparently, Melanie wasn’t familiar with my sense of humor. I mean really, who would want to annex Pleasant Ridge? Is the pool that nice?
I wonder. Maybe that could be an issue for 2011?
Welcome to my consolation column! Were I a presidential candidate I may have gotten a million dollar book deal and speaking engagements crisscrossing the country. All things being relative, after losing the Ferndale council race to incumbent T. Scott Galloway and new-comer Melanie Piana, I'm instead contributing an article to Ferndale Friends and my speaking engagements are limited to lecturing my kids.
On the plus-side of the ledger I won't have to balance a $15 million budget that's $3 million lighter than last year.
Losing does have its advantages.
This is probably the last opportunity comments on November's election can be indulged or at least forgiven. Please read-on with either one or both of those in mind.
Let me share a major difference I noticed between this year's campaign and 2007's. This year I limited the houses I visited personally to only those that voted in 2007's off-year election. When I ran in 2007 I used 2006’s gubernatorial voter list which had a couple thousand more voters. The difference between the two lists is the people I was lucky enough to speak with this year were generally more informed about local politics than the bigger list.
Believe it or not, in 2007 I had a conversation with a voter that went something like this.
"Hello, my name is Thomas Gagne. I'm running for mayor and would like to ask you a few questions."I also learned this year I can’t extrapolate election results based on the people I talk to going door-to-door. To be honest, I bet I spoke to fewer than 10% of the residents whose homes I visited. All were unanimously against spending any money on city hall and wanted council to immediately stop their Pay-Consults-For-Everything Economic Stimulus program ($65,000 and rising). Though most agreed Nine Mile and Woodward sparkles (Mayor Craig Covey’s word, not mine) many felt it was time the DDA stop baby-sitting our downtown businesses and agreed it was time to show Hilton some love.
"Mayor of what?" she said.
“Let me start with, do you have children?”
If that’s how voters really felt and if those were my issues, then I should have been a shoe-in.
Well, there was certainly a shoe involved when the results were in, but not where I anticipated it.
It turns out the best predictor of 2009’s election was a gentleman I spoke to that told me he felt everything was OK. As long as he’s lived in the city taxes have always been high, council has always spent money on silly projects, and too much attention has always been paid downtown. But as none of that threatened him personally he wasn’t inclined to change anything.
Maybe that explains both the results and the low voter turnout (14%). Without pain, a mayoral contest, or a major issue on the ballot there just wasn’t much to get people to skip Desperate Housewives or Grey’s Anatomy.
A quick story.
At a meeting for the candidates held by the city clerk, Cherilynn Tallman, and city manager, Bob Bruner, we were discussing the lack of a current city map. Apparently the original map used to make copies from disappeared a couple years ago after Mayor Bob Porter left office. Greg PAW-lica suggested the map that hangs on the wall near the city council table could be used as a new original. We all went over to it to take a closer look.
While studying the map’s superior quality and imagining its potential to make dittos I couldn’t help but notice the little bit of real-estate cut-out of Ferndale’s northwest corner to make room for Pleasant Ridge.
“How many police officers does Pleasant Ridge have? Five? Six?”, I asked.
“Maybe six. Eight tops,” someone else replied.
“Hmm. And they don’t have their own fire department,” I said. “I bet if we took our 60+ police officers and fireman, along with a few allies from Oak Park we could easily invade on three fronts and take over the city. As liberal a city as it is there’s bound to be few armed residents. It should be easy.”
Melanie Piana’s mouth fell open and her face had that shocked you-can’t-possibly-be-serious look on it. Greg paw-LICA was LOL. Apparently, Melanie wasn’t familiar with my sense of humor. I mean really, who would want to annex Pleasant Ridge? Is the pool that nice?
I wonder. Maybe that could be an issue for 2011?
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