Introduction:
Though public comments can sometimes irritate the city council, there is value to both the council and the public in hearing them. While they can’t eliminate public comments entirely without violating the Open Meetings Act, your city council has decided not to acknowledge public comments during a city council meeting unless the person submitting the comments also appears at the meeting (in-person or electronically) to personally read them, but this is a rule that they occasionally adhere to (or not). Mayor Eric Haven has also cut people off for exceeding the city council’s arbitrary three-minute time limit (it’s arbitrary because no time limits are required by the Open Meetings Act), another rule that they occasionally adhere to (or not).
If your public comments were submitted to the council but not read, or if you tried to make public comments but your comments were cut short by the mayor, please email them to clarkstonsunshine@gmail.com and I will include them in my informal meeting summaries either under public comments or under the specific agenda item that you want to speak to.
Links to the video recording and the council packet can be found at the bottom of this post. Please note any errors or omissions in the comments. Anything noted between brackets was inserted by Clarkston Sunshine.
Agenda Item #1, Call to Order
There was no formal call to order. Haven said good evening and noted that it was 7:00.
Agenda Item #2, Pledge of Allegiance (Video time mark 0:00:02):
Pledge said.
Agenda Item #3, Roll Call (Video time mark 0:00:20):
Haven asked DeLorge to please take the roll.
Laura Rodgers, Eric Haven, Gary Casey, and Mark Lamphier were present.
Bruce Fuller, Amanda Forte, and Sue Wylie were absent.
Haven said they have a quorum tonight which means they have to be unanimous in whatever decisions they make if they want them to carry.
Agenda Item #4, Approval of Agenda (Video time mark 0:00:57):
Haven said he would entertain a motion to approve the agenda as it has been given to them, however, he would like to make an amendment or two here for purposes of, he guesses, expedience.
They have two resolutions under 10, 10a and b, that they need to postpone again, if that’s the right term, because they do need more council presence for those two. That’s the Friends of Depot Park’s resolution to name the playground the Optimist Playground and a resolution relative to that to put Optimist Playground on the new sign, that we, we’ll be placing a new wayfinding sign out and by Depot Road. And they are also, Haven asked Karen [DeLorge, clerk] if there’s anything else, he thinks they added Clarkston Arts, they added, so that’s on here already. DeLorge agreed. Haven said that’s a recent addition, but nevertheless, it’s on here.
Haven said so those two items, those two resolutions, are the only adjustments he has. Haven asked if anyone else had any amendments to the agenda.
No comments.
Haven said hearing none, he would move that they adopt the agenda as amended, and he asked if someone would like to second that. Second Rodgers.
Haven asked if there was any discussion.
No discussion.
Motion to approve agenda passed by unanimous voice vote.
Haven said motion carries, so the agenda is adopted, amended.
Agenda Item #5, Public Comments (Video time mark 0:02:30):
Haven read the rules for public comments.
Haven asked if anyone would like to address council.
Haven said he thinks they have one, maybe online, he didn’t know.
(Jonathan Smith, city manager, made an unintelligible comment.)
Haven said OK, if not, he can read his. Haven said that Chet Pardee has written to them and so Haven will read his public comment.
Haven read Pardee’s public comments as follows:
Good evening. Thank you, Mayor Haven, for reading my March 13th public comments in the last council meeting.
Thank you, Johnathan [Smith] for targeting the second finance committee meeting for April 11th or 12th. In the past, there’s been a schedule for finance committee meetings so that the mayor [Haven corrected the word “mayor” to “members”] could plan for their attendance and participate. The initial finance committee meeting occurred on March 8th to develop the 2023-2024 budget. The May council meeting for public hearing is less than two months away. Mark [Lamphier] was the only council member present at the March 8th meeting; Eric [Haven] and Bruce [Fuller] did not attend.
Following the March 8th meeting, Pardee provided a format to help understand the general obligation bond millage amounts, revenue amounts, and expiration dates. Pardee believes this will help all understand how the millage was reduced, and taxpayer’s bills reduced, effectively July 1, 2022, with the expiration of the first general obligation bond. It is clear the city has revenue issues with no planned solutions. As Pardee has suggested several times, replacement of millage is a solution that should be painless for taxpayers, replace the general obligation millage, bond millage, that has expired and replace the millage for the general obligation bond soon to expire when it does expire. This would not increase the millage beyond what has been in effect. Replacement millage should be on the November ballot with the millage to be in effect as soon as possible for the expired general obligation bond and for the soon-to-expire general obligation bond when it does expire. This would result in no millage increase for homeowners and provide needed revenue for the city’s infrastructure repairs.
Too little has been made of the feedback Jonathan [Smith] received when MDOT [Michigan Department of Transportation] rejected the city’s West Miller Road grant request. Pardee recalls the message was the taxable value of the city’s real estate is too high to merit a grant from MDOT. Jonathan included this information in a past weekly newsletter, but there has been no discussion by city officials of what this means. If taxable value of real estate is a basis for approval or denial of a grant request, how likely is that any grant request from the city will be approved?
Haven noted that the comments were signed by Pardee and included his address.
Haven thanked Chet and Peggy as well, his wife for those public comments.
Haven asked if there were any other comments tonight that anyone would like to make to council.
No additional comments.
Agenda Item #6, FYI (Video time mark 0:06:00):
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- Flyer, Spencer Real Estate, 3rd Annual Egg Hunt, April 1, 2023, at Kensington Church (page 3/28 of the council packet)
Haven said the next item on the agenda was For Your Information. They have a couple of items here.
One is Spencer Real Estate will be celebrating their 3rd Annual Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday, April 1st at 10:00 a.m. in Depot Park. This ought to be a lot of fun. For your free tickets, go to spencersold.com/events online.
Haven said he guesses that’s the only one, isn’t it. They have moved the other item down to later in the agenda. So, that one then is the only one for For Your Information unless anyone else has an informative message for – (interrupting Haven), Casey asked how that will be publicized. Haven said it’s up them, it’s their own publishing responsibility, it’s not a city activity, it’s just a use of the park activity but a welcome one.
Haven asked if anyone else had For Your Information items.
No additional comments.
Agenda Item #7, City Manager Report (Video time mark 0:06:58; page 4/28 of the council packet):
Haven said they would move on to the city manager’s report. It’s a relatively short one.
Smith reported on signage repairs on Clarkston Road. This was the wayfinding, or the entrance signs have been completed and the sign was reinstalled this week.
Additionally, the East Washington sign was installed at the corner of Main this week to help distinguish between East and West Washington streets.
Haven said that he and Smith had talked about the damaged Wompole sign. Is it MDOT, no, it’s the county – Smith said DTE. Haven said DTE is going replace. Smith said the DTE tree trimming contractor dropped a branch on it so he paid for it, so it’s on the way.
Haven said good, OK, that’s three sign updates.
Haven said and then the LRIP [the Oakland County’s Local Road Improvement Program] grant funds and asked Smith to explain it. Smith said so, the local road improvement is an annual program that they give funds for if we do it, the work within the city (unintelligible). It’s a simple process to apply, and so, this year, as Smith was getting ready to prepare the 2023 grant application and submit our invoice for 2022, it was determined that we still hadn’t been paid for ’17 and ’18. So, we did some reconciliation with the county and so, the good news is that we are all caught up, so we got a check for about $7,700 this week for local road improvement grants from previous years.
Haven said, so these are just reimbursements, so it’s just money in and money out, or money in. Smith said it’s reimbursement, yes, but it’s otherwise money that would just come out of our pocket.
Haven asked if they had any comments about our arrears situation. Smith said no, it’s just that there was some mix-up on the invoicing, that we didn’t send them an invoice, or we didn’t get it, so they said they didn’t receive invoices for those years. So, we just resubmitted the invoices.
Haven said OK. So, those two are the only ones on there. He asked Smith if he wanted to add anything to it at this juncture. Smith said no, he doesn’t think so. Haven said OK.
Haven asked if anyone had any questions or comments for Smith about those two items. Lamphier asked if that amount was for the three years. Smith said three years. Haven said total, yes. Smith said it’s usually $2,200-$2,700, something like that, a year. It’s a good program, easy to obtain. Haven said OK.
Agenda Item #8 – Motion: Acceptance of the Consent Agenda as Presented (Video time mark 0:09:46):
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- 03-13-2023 Draft Minutes (page 5/28 of the council packet)
- 02-27-2023 Final Minutes (page 8/28 of the council packet)
- 03-27-2023 Treasurer’s Report (page 11/28 of the council packet)
- 03-20-2023 Revenue and Expenditure Report for the Period Ending 02-28-2023 (page 12/28 of the council packet)
Haven said the next item on the agenda, number eight, is a motion to accept the consent agenda. The consent agenda will be a combination of the draft minutes for March 13th and the final minutes for February 27th and the treasurer’s report of March 27th. We consolidate these so they are easy to dispatch in the meeting.
Haven said he would entertain a motion to accept the consent agenda as it’s presented to them or make any requests to remove anything for a side discussion; we can do that too. If you have any questions about it, we can (unintelligible) those.
Motion by Rodgers; second Casey.
Haven asked if there was any discussion.
No discussion.
Motion to accept the consent agenda as presented passed by unanimous voice vote.
Haven said the motion carries.
Agenda Item #9, Old Business
Item 10a – Motion: Recommendation from the Parking Advisory Committee for a June 1st Launch for Depot Road Parking Lot (Video time mark 0:10:40):
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- Motion – Parking Advisory Committee Recommendation (page 21/28 of the council packet)
Haven said they have sort of a report on a recommendation from the parking advisory committee for a June 1st launch of the Depot Road parking lot. There was a meeting held, and the resolution is in his packet here somewhere, here it is.
Haven said he would read it because it’s interesting and some of the members are in the room. Thank you for coming.
(Haven read from the resolution.) Haven noted that Kevin Harrison was present. (Haven directed a comment to Erich Lines, who was apparently in the room but made no audible response.)
Haven said he would make the motion to adopt this because he was there and can do that. Second Lamphier.
Haven said there was a motion and second and asked if there was any discussion at this juncture.
No discussion from city council.
Haven asked if there was any discussion from the audience because he knows some of them are here on the committee.
Haven said hearing none, he guessed it was time to take the roll. Haven asked DeLorge to take the roll. They put it in roll call form.
Haven recognized Smith. Smith said it’s just a motion, so you don’t have to do a roll call. Haven said it’s a good idea. Sure, let’s just do it.
Casey, Rodgers, Lamphier, and Haven voted yes.
DeLorge said so, the motion is adopted. Haven repeated that the motion is adopted. It is.
Haven said that’s the only item under old business.
Agenda Item #10, New Business
Item 10a – Resolution: Recommendation from the Friends of Depot Park to name the Depot Park Playground “Optimist Playground” (Video time mark 0:13:40):
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- Resolution – Depot Park Playground (page 22/28 of the council packet)
- Optimist Contributions Scrapbook Since 2006 (page 23/28 of the council packet)
Haven said they removed the resolution for the naming of the Optimist Playground.
Item 10b – Resolution – New Depot Park Wayfinding Sign for Depot Park, Village Hall and Optimist Playground (Video time mark 0:13:45):
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- Resolution – City Hall Signage (page 24/28 of the council packet)
- Sign Photographs (page 25/28 of the council packet)
- Quote from ASI Signage Innovations (page 27/28 of the council packet)
Haven said they removed the resolution for the sign.
Item 10c – Request: From Clarkston Arts – to waive the Depot Park rental fee for their August 2nd Harmony in the Park event (Video time mark 0:13:48)
Haven said present here is Carol Eberhardt and said “hi, Carol.” A familiar face around here.
Haven said it’s a request from Clarkston Arts to waive the Depot Park rental fee for their August 2nd Harmony in the Park event. Haven asked Eberhardt if she would like to tell us about that just a little bit.
(Eberhardt stepped up to the podium.)
Eberhardt said for those of you who don’t know her, she’s Carol Eberhardt, the new president of the Clarkston Arts group. A little history. The Clarkston Arts group was founded or launched by the city back in 2016, not to have an organization that the city would run, but to develop an organization that would bring art and culture into the city. So, it’s autonomous from the city, it’s a not-for-profit, it’s a 501(c)(3), and they were functioning, really COVID was the demise of the organization. When COVID hit, things came to a screeching halt, members drifted away, still with a core group of people who felt pretty strongly that they needed to do something as far as bringing more art here into the city. So, Eberhardt stepped in as president the first of the year, and one of the events that has been ongoing since 2016 is a program called Art in the Park, and it’s geared toward elementary kids. It’s a free event. On a Wednesday morning, they are asking use of the park from 9:00 to noon. The event actually runs from 10:00 to 11:00.
Eberhardt said the entertainment is provided by Janet and Mark (unintelligible) McCarthy who run the Children’s Theater of Michigan. If you’re not familiar with them, they do the big event at Somerset. They do the Christmas event, the Easter event at Somerset, we are very, very lucky to have them be Clarkston residents, and they have been involved with the Arts Council from the very beginning.
Eberhardt said they are asking, it’s a free event for the city, so they are asking for the city to waive the park fee for them. Haven said OK. Eberhard said it’s a simple request. Kids make instruments, and then they sing and do their thing with Mark and Janet. A simple event. No cost to the city.
Haven said so, our practice has been in the past for waiving expenses, basically DPW [Department of Public Work] expenses for that kind of thing, we do that for nonprofits, basically, that’s the idea, OK. So, that’s good precedent and a good thing to continue.
Eberhardt said no questions.
Haven told Eberhard that he’s thrilled about this, frankly. He’s glad they’re back in the saddle again. He said that Eberhardt actually founded this organization back in the day whenever it was.
Rodgers said it sounds like a fun project. Eberhardt said that there are a lot of fun things that are going to happen.
Haven said there’s a lot of collusion, a lot of cooperation he thinks we can do together. Eberhardt said yes, they are looking into working with the village. They’d like to bring some art to the park, some permanent art to the park, some music downtown on weekends. (Haven made an unintelligible comment.) Eberhardt said a lot of interesting things going on.
Rodgers said she thinks that it, since it’s free, like that just brings kids in with, you know, with no problem. Parents will – (interrupting Rodgers), Eberhardt said typically the event draws between 200 and 300 kids. Rodgers said that’s awesome. Eberhardt said it’s a pretty well-attended event. Rodgers said that’s one of the things with the Christmas Market that she heard over and over again – (interrupting Rodgers), Eberhardt said you’ll see it with the pictures of the art in the Old Tierra Arts Building, the Arts Council puts that there, those rotate through. They’ve developed a website to help artists get themselves known to the community, and then they are working on some other pretty cool stuff.
Haven said Eberhardt brought, the council brought to Clarkston for several years in a row the Inside Out program from the DIA [Detroit Institute of Arts] – Eberhard said right – (continuing), Haven said which was really quite notable art – Eberhardt said right – (continuing), Haven said in a well-preserved, weatherable form which stayed here all summer and in many municipalities as well.
Haven said so, he’s thrilled about this. Also, Eberhardt may not know, part of our Master Plan is to support the arts here in Clarkston and also charitable funding of the arts, to pursue charitable funding. Those are a couple of line items in the Master Plan. So, Eberhardt is very much in keeping with – (interrupting Haven), Eberhardt said she’s been communicating with the finance committee. Haven said that’s right, yes, and planning and so on. Eberhardt agreed. Haven said they sort of sit atop the Master Plan.
Haven said so, this is here as a request, which is an interesting way to put it. It really needs to be a motion, doesn’t it, a resolution to waive expenses. City attorney Tom Ryan agreed. Haven said it needs to be a resolution.
Haven asked if they needed to vote first to make it a resolution. Smith said he should, yes, he should make a motion.
Haven said he would move to make this a resolution and asked for a second. Second Rodgers.
Haven asked if there was any discussion about that.
No discussion.
Haven asked all in favor, say aye.
Ryan said it’s a resolution so they need to take a roll call.
Haven said it’s a motion to make it a resolution.
DeLorge took the roll call.
Rodgers, Lampier, Haven, and Casey voted yes.
Haven said now, then, he will make a motion that they waive the cost of this event, that would normally be assessed to the event. Second Casey. Haven thanked Casey.
Haven asked if there was any discussion.
No discussion.
Haven said OK, this is a resolution for money and he asked DeLorge to take the roll.
Haven, Lamphier, Rodgers, and Casey voted yes.
Haven said the resolution is adopted. That was easy. (Laughter.)
Haven thanked Eberhardt for bringing this opportunity.
Agenda Item #12, Adjourn (Video time mark 0:19:47):
Haven said that is the last item on their agenda, folks. The sun has not set yet in the west, so he would entertain a motion to adjourn.
Motion by Rodgers; second Lampier.
Haven asked if there was any discussion.
No discussion.
Motion to adjourn by unanimous voice vote.
Haven said twenty minutes. Is that a record? (Laughter.) Haven said they’ll take it.
Resources:
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- Link to video recording:
http://216.11.46.126/CablecastPublicSite/show/4083?site=1 - 03-27-2023 – city council packet
- Link to video recording:
And just like that, the members of your city council who were present (Haven, Rodgers, Lamphier, and Casey) unanimously approved the most biased parking “advisory” committee that we’ve ever had, given that it is overly packed with greedy business owners who want to take advantage of “free” parking courtesy of the taxpayers. Depending on what they come up with, that will be good enough reason to argue against any recommendation that favors business owners over residents. Given that there are five business owners to two non-business owner residents (and only one of them even lives on a residential side street), it’s like a pack of wolves asking a couple of sheep what’s for dinner. But your city council is apparently A-OK with that.
Mr. Pardee continues to be hellbent on raising our taxes. Not only does he think the city should take back the slight decrease in taxes that you realized when one of our bond issues was retired last year, he wants to “replace” the millage for the second bond issue that will be retired this year suggesting it will be a “painless” tax increase. FYI, if no action is taken by the city, your taxes will decrease before the November election. This is because we will have finally paid off the money that the city borrowed years and years ago for street and water improvements.
Mr. Pardee suggests that adding a new tax in an amount equal to the decrease that you received last year and will receive this year means that you will have no new taxes. I disagree and think that’s kind of bizarre math. Of course it’s a tax increase, and you’ll definitely notice it. I’m sure that you can put your own money to better use than the city can (maybe you can even buy a pricey couple dozen eggs and a pound of butter with the money LOL).
The city receives enough money in taxes and wastes what it does get on pet projects. Paying more taxes would reward the city council for being spendthrifts and allow them to continue spending without focusing on infrastructure (because you’ll have covered that with a tax increase). I would be surprised if the city council wants to push for new taxes in the middle of difficult financial times, but hey, they can be rather tone deaf sometimes.
It appeared that Mr. Pardee was also suggesting that raising (or not raising) taxes would make the city eligible (or ineligible) for MDOT grants in connection with his “let’s raise everyone’s taxes” argument. I think that Mr. Pardee misunderstands what happened with the West Miller Road grant that the city did not receive. On November 14, 2022, in response to the same allegation from Pardee, city manager Smith explained that every grant has its own stipulations. The city’s engineer suggested that this grant might be a possibility for the city, so we applied for it. Clarkston’s application was rejected because the focus of this particular grant was uniquely on low-income communities. It had nothing to do with whether or not we would qualify to receive other grants with different stipulations. The unavailability of this particular grant adds nothing to buttress Pardee’s continuing argument that we all should pay more taxes.
With regards the parking issue, it seems the council is still confused about motions, resolutions, and documenting exactly whatever it is they think they are voting on.
The draft minutes say only, “Motion: Establishment of a Parking Advisory Committee” and then states, “Recommendation from the Parking Advisory Committee for a June 1st launch for Depot Rd Parking Lot.”
Was the motion to establish a Parking Advisory Committee or to state when the paid parking would start? If it is to start, what are the policies, costs, and use criteria? If those don’t exist, does the city really want to start the paid parking with no policy?
There was a Motion in the meeting information, and it can only be assumed that it is what was adopted since the minutes do not say. That motion states, “…that a comprehensive recommendation will be brought to the Council prior to this date” but it appears the council neither discussed or acted on this.