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Royal Oak Civic & Political Affairs |
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Recent and past news and comment provide context for evaluating current events.
Those lousy city workers I walked out to tease the workers that I would help push the tree completely over, but the crew leader from the third vehicle in the convoy was already on the phone calling "Forestry" I think I heard. Less than 10 minutes later a tree shredder and another vehicle were on the scene, and a large city truck blocked off the end of the street. One worker made two cuts in the trunk and felled the tree neatly positioned in the street. He sectioned the tree. As he did so, two other workers fed the segmented logs into the shredder. It was a surprise to see and hear the rig gobble up tree trunks. One clump after another, the remaining branches were shredded. Twigs and leaves were hand-swept off the street. Before my wife and I knew it, the street was clear and the blocking truck and the shredder crew were leaving, with one worker pointing to some leftover sawdust along the curb. The two sweepers each made a pass, and that last bit of evidence was gone. From start to finish the whole episode lasted 30-40- minutes. Our house is one of those 80 or so west of Woodward and south of Lincoln in a neighborhood which most people think of as Huntington Woods. Anyway, a neighbor commented on what a great job those Royal Oak teams did.
Those lousy city workers. About compensation of
city employees
Shaw Bill asked for and Johnson occasionally volunteered clarification about this or that point. About one issue, too complex to summarize here, Johnson said Shaw was wrong. Bill disagreed. They agreed to disagree, and the forum continued. Attendees Wouldn't it help fund the police department if they were permitted to provide security purposes for private sector facilities and events? . . . Maybe, but where it has been tried there have been problems with city liability and police brutality. . . . There are many EMS runs to Barton Towers every month. Why aren't the patient or the owners or the managers charged? . . . Downtown bars and their customers require more police enforcement than anyone else. Why aren't bar owners or the property owners charged for that police work? There were a few slightly emotional exchanges among the attendees re the different perspectives of labor and management, especially pertaining to Police and Fire, but the exchanges remained adversarial, and never became hostile. Both Capello, a retired private sector executive, said that cities for decades learned from the policies and practices of successful companies. "It took time to get here, and it's going to take time as we determine which private sector changes we should follow now; we have to take it slow." . . . Johnson went further, suggesting there are some long-time practices we simply have to live with. . . . Shaw disagreed with both and insists that if residents become re-engaged about demanding transparency and holding government accountable, reform can begin and gain momentum. Shaw' occupational résumé made it obvious that his international professional experience qualifies him to know which details and documents are needed to meet meaningful transparency requests, however irritating those requests may be for governmental bodies. It remains to be seen whether Shaw's proposed Citizens for Accountability, Sustainability, and Transparency (CAST) becomes a force, but chatting with some residents when the M&M event was over, I concluded that Shaw has at least gained a cadre of converts.
‘It only takes four’ They use that sentence like a slogan or mantra to explain/justify their reluctance to question even unreasonable requests for service from elected officials. In the vernacular, they offer, “Piss-off one or two of them and they only have to reach four votes to can you.” That same unease prevents city employees from reminding those officials that the City Charter specifies that requests for service which requires hours of staff-time must be made through their boss, the city manager.* That rule seems to have been ignored so many times for so long that it may be considered “past practice,” a term which is used, especially in collective bargaining, when an activity that clearly violates specific contract language has been tolerated a long time is considered to have been consensually accepted by the parties to the contract. True, in most cases, we hear, the department heads notify their boss of the request, and we can hope that occasionally, an inappropriate request is denied -- although I suspect the "It only takes four" concern applies here, too. This is certainly something which the pending Rules Committee should address, especially in these days of reduced staffs.*Chapter Three, Section 8: Except for the purpose of inquiry, the Commission and each of its members shall deal with the Administrative branch of the Government solely through the Manager, except in the department of Law, and neither the Commission nor any member thereof shall give any order or direction either publicly or privately, to any of the subordinates of the Manager.To me it seems there have always been, and are, some commissioners who make a rather loose interpretation of "for the purpose of inquiry." -- FJV
New business association in town? So VersagiVoice arranged to meet with David Baldwin, who by the time we met had visited almost all those groups. Also by the time we met, I had communicated with individuals who had either spoken with Baldwin or who had spoken to those whom he had visited. During our preliminary small talk, we briefly exchanged family information and touched on everything from how Northern newcomers are treated in the South, to the bad vibes permeating Royal Oak's civic/political dialogue. Sad, but doesn't deserve to be considered a high scandal, he agrees. I conveyed to David the impressions he is leaving around town. Summarized: "He's a nice guy, but he's not made clear what he's trying to accomplish." He is variously perceived as an event planner, a management consultant, a marketing development guy. "I'm a bit fuzzy about his focus," was one comment. To me, David Baldwin comes across as a young man (40-ish?) with a vision* of providing a new path on which businesses, mostly small, can improve their chances of surviving these trying times. Through a combination of joining his association and obtaining individual guidance as one of his clients, organizations can be helped with everything from increasing sales to dealing with government, he suggests. His literature stresses networking and "partnering" with businesses, the community, government. He mentioned a related association also under his management, BD Group. In effect, the Royal Oak Business Association strikes me as more like a business than a non-profit organization. It serves as a marketing tool to promote his services while offering some group benefits of membership. Confusion about the distinction between a Chamber-like organization and a company has been the primary cause of (1) the more than usual interest in the activities of a newcomer, and (2) the varied impressions about David which one hears in street talk. VersagiVoice readers who want more information about Baldwin's efforts can go to: www.royaloakbusiness.com and www.bdgrouponline.com. * I asked David to provide a brief mission statement outlining his vision. His response:
Dale
Carnegie sandwich -- In my days as an industry journalist, when I reached about 90,000 readers worldwide each week, the letters were longer and more pointed than today's emails but had the same "Dear Sir, you cur . . . " flavor. Then, as now, 95% of the missives were signed. Unsigned correspondence was/is almost always more emotional than rational. Anonymous comments to VersagiVoice display a subtler range of tone, probably because most of the writers know me personally, and most of them address issues, not personality. One unidentified reply to my suggestions about resolving Royal Oak's budget problems, for example, states simply, "Your plan for Royal Oak is not defensible." Personal criticism need not descend to personal abuse. It would be unreasonable of me, for example, to take offense when someone characterizes me as opinionated or assertive. I am both. Similarly it is not abuse when I chide this or that city commissioner about his or her debating style. Neither public officials nor publishers of vanity websites can function well if they have a thin skin. And it goes without saying that everyone should be free to disagree about issues, about the judgments and opinions of colleagues, citizens, fellow club members, elected officials, city employees. Yes,
Virginia, Royal Oak once had a deputy city manager And, yes, Virginia, Royal Oak has had at least one deputy city manager. Bruce Love, who replaced Shafter and served 1961-1965, was "assistant city manager" from 1956-1961. This information appears as notations on the back of old photographs being catalogued by the Royal Oak Historical Society. The society also found the 1949 Financial Report from which VersagiVoice is extracting interesting bits of history. [See] -- August 2005 Not in Royal Oak Given that Royal Oak is apparently named after a tree in merry old England, it is fun to read that a so-called "Anti-Social Behaviour Act in Great Britain enables "neighbours to involve their local council in disputes over the height of a hedge." People there plant fast-growing hedges as fences; the hedges provide a high green wall in little time. But because such a hedge can block a neighbor's view or cast shadows, chainsaws have been used, surreptitiously, to "correct" the problem. People have been fined or jailed. Now, hedge-owners will be fined up to $1,850 if their hedge is more than 2 meters tall; that's about 6˝ feet. I thought "green is good!" -- FJV 16 June 2005 Schools matter more than city government? Talk of possible millages, dedicated or not, of income taxes, of sales of city parks, and sales of golf courses, has redirected attention, however, and now there are rumblings about "How did we get into this mess?" and "Isn't there some legal recourse against that so-called Finance Committee which messed up the water fund/general fund balance?" In between are questions like, "If they are talking about dedicated millage for 'essential services,' doesn't that mean that we are currently paying for 'unessential' services?" Irritation or resentment is intense enough that presumed members of that now-dissolved Finance Committee are being openly named and discussed: Cowan, Eva, Kondek, Doyle, respectively Royal Oak's former Mayor, Finance Director, Treasurer, and City Manager. The first two of several budget meetings have been held, and the real decision-making process is just beginning. Three important points have emerged so far:
Although several readers have told me that they have contacted city officials about this or that budget matter, VersagiVoice has not yet identified any focused support for or opposition to individual commissioners or other officials or to their proposals. Let's hope that residents are wisely avoiding early nit-picking and are willing to give our elected and appointed city officials the time and mental space they need to address these complex issues. -- FJV 26 May 05 |
Related Links Dale
Carnegie Sandwich: On Royal Oak, good fences do not good neighbors make. Schools matter more than city government? Downtown Development Authority news Civics 101
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curb
in front of my house. The lead-sweeper's sideview mirror became entrapped in the
branches of a leaning tree. The tree was partially uprooted when the driver
backed off to disengage from those overhanging braches.
Shaw
presented the talking points, complete with projected visuals, and he
gets a B for maintaining control of an event which became a
2-hour physical, not virtual, blog -- in the sense that the group frequently went
off-focus and the conversational "threads" got tangled now and then. One or two
residents insisted on directing questions to City
Manager Don Johnson, who Bill repeatedly reminded his
fellow-residents was a "guest" at the meeting.
Through it all, Bill cracked jokes and poked fun at the 5-minute
limit for Public Comment speakers at CITCOM meeting, to break
occasional tension and he left the majority of the attendees
satisfied with having spent two hours with him. Here's a taste of what
went on at the M&M Senior Center: