What does a City Attorney do?
The most frequent contact which the City Attorney's office has with taxpayers has to do with issues about which the office is not permitted to aid taxpayers. "We can't fix traffic tickets or get involved in landlord-tenant disputes or advise on deed restrictions," were examples offered by City Attorney Dave Gillam during the latest monthly Neighborhood Leaders meeting arranged by City Manager Tom Hoover.  "We can do things like refer residents to Legal Aid or to the County Bar," Gillam explained.

Introduced by Hoover as "one city employee who doesn't work for me," Gillam explained the duties and limitations of a city attorney's office to neighborhood leaders attending the last of this "school year's" (September - May) series of monthly meetings Hoover schedules to introduce department heads and their functions to taxpayers. His jocular comment about Gillam's employment status refers to the fact that by City Charter the city attorney and city clerk, for example, are among a handful of positions which are hired by and report directly to the city commission. (Until a voter-approved Charter Amendment a couple of years ago, the finance director also reported directly to the commission. Among the amendments being proposed this year by the Charter Review Committee is to have the City Treasurer be appointed by and report to the City Manager.)

Gillam, whose professional experience includes extensive service to municipalities, including a stint as deputy city attorney for Royal Oak, described the typical duties of a city attorney and engaged in conversation with the attendees:

• City attorneys deal with issues involving ordinances, resolutions, human resources matters, (some) contract issues.

• One practical example is advising the police that they have the authority to ticket drivers who do not yield to pedestrians at crosswalks, even if the crosswalks are not at an intersection with a traffic light.

• City attorneys may be assigned to or be on-call for various city agencies and panels, like the City Commission, the Charter Review Committee, the several ordinance-established historical committees and commissions, the 44th District Court.

• Current staffing is city attorney, a deputy city attorney, two assistant city attorneys, and a paralegal administrative assistant.

• Outside counsel is used, either on retainer or hourly, where specialized knowledge is needed, as in collective bargaining.

• Royal Oak, along with many municipalities, belongs to a quasi-governmental risk management (liability insurance) authority, which protects the city. To keep the insurance premiums reasonable, the city agrees to pay a specified deductible.

Both Gillam and Hoover, citing legal and conventional collective-bargaining confidentiality, chose not to provide details about two ongoing situations: 1) the unfair bargaining grievance filed by the Teamsters who represent city attorney office staff, except Gillam, and 2) the suit in Federal Court by Assistant Attorney James charging discrimination under the American with Disabilities Act.

As he always does in these meetings, Hoover then opened the dialogue to include whatever was on the minds of the neighborhood leaders, whether or not related to the speaker of the day. There were questions about such matters as the proposed temporary drop in the solid waste millage, and this or that attendee complained about neighborhood-specific matters involving the Police Department or the DPS or both.

About the parking kiosk being tested at the parking lot across Second Street from the Post Office, Hoover acknowledged that most of the communication from the public has been negative. -- 16 May 2007

City Engineer Danielson covers everything
from sewers to traffic lights & signs
§ The City of Royal Oak spends an average of $6-8 million per year on construction of all sorts. The work is variously funded: federal, water & sewer fund, grants.
§ "Feel-good" traffic signs often do more harm than good.
Those were among the messages the audience received from City Engineer Elden Danielson's presentation at the March 2007 Neighborhood Leaders meeting, one of the monthly meetings with department heads scheduled by City Manager Tom Hoover.

Neighborhood Leaders hear pluses and minuses re Royal Oak's budget
Forget the dollars-discussions for a split second: Have Royal Oak residents felt any adverse impact from the reduction in city employees, from 416 in 2004-05 to 360 in 2006-07?

Yes, petty crime has increased and is visible daily in her neighborhood, said one woman. No, everything seems normal was another answer. Those replies at the February Neighborhood Leaders meeting reflect the comments one hears in conversations in supermarkets, service clubs, churches, business gatherings. Frankly, even among my fellow civic activists (Democrat or Republican!), the overwhelming majority response is that things haven't become bad yet -- despite, for example, recognition that the understaffed DPS is having visible difficulty fulfilling its duties as rapidly as it used to. I suppose that is good news or bad news, depending on where one sits at the moment.

Finance Director Don Johnson was the presenter in this latest of monthly meetings set up by City Manager Tom Hoover, who sees the gatherings as an effective way to communicate with the communicators and who brings a different department head to each session. Johnson gave essentially the same Power Point show he had previously presented to the City Commission. Being the only item on the agenda and avoiding the use of eye-glazing spreadsheets, Johnson was able to interact with his attentive audience when he had to throw numbers around: $1.5 million here, $6.4 million there; $500,000 elsewhere. Such numbers helped show where progress has been made and what still needs to be done. Almost all of the budget information available to CITCOM can be seen on the City of Royal Oak  website. At the home page, click on "Finance Department" under the Administration heading.

Despite Johnson's widely recognized skill in making financial data comprehensible -- a skill he again demonstrated in this meeting -- it remained easier for Johnson's listeners to identify with such almost tangible facts as "Parks & Forestry is one-third the size it was" and "Every one-percent increase in wages equals about $340,000."

That led the neighborhood leaders to ask for details about collective bargaining, a topic Johnson had named as one major factor in coming budget deliberations. Hoover and Johnson gave a brief overview of the city's proposals and the proposals of several unions, but it would be unhelpful interference in the collective bargaining process to detail those data in a public venue like VersagiVoice.

As he does at the close of each Neighborhood Leaders meeting, Hoover asked for questions or comments about items other than the night's featured topic. Nothing earth-shattering was brought up.

Attendance at these meetings has occasionally been disappointingly low, despite the fact that notices are sent ten days in advance to almost 100 "homeowner and condo associations and neighborhood watch residents whose names are provided to the city manager's office by the Police Department," according to Cathy Pinkos. (If it's not already being done, it might be helpful to see to it that the announcement is made at city commission meetings, on WROK, and on the city's website. -- FJV)

Police Chief is asked some unusual questions
Are specific police officers trained to counsel about domestic violence? . . . Is the city prepared to protect residents in case there is a chemical spill during a train derailment? . . . How are residents notified when a catastrophe occurs? . . . Does the city have a noise ordinance which covers bongo drums?

This was not your usual meeting between the police chief and residents. Usually, the questions have to do with traffic enforcement and downtown drunks. Not that Police Chief Ted Quisenberry didn't deal with traffic questions -- speed limit signs on Main, protecting pedestrians with crosswalk markers, and the like.. And he dealt with downtown problems like loitering and motorcycle noise, as he did in earlier such meetings organized by City Manager Tom Hoover. Here's some of what the police chief and the city manager told the attendees.

Chemical spills
The Fire Department takes the lead, working with HazMat support from Homeland Security, but the city is notified in advance which chemicals will be passing through the city. Both Police and Fire are trained to recognize the symbols on truck stickers, so they immediately know what the hazard is if there's an accident. Evacuation plans exist, but the city should probably do more to inform the public about all this.

Domestic violence
The questioner described how the quality of life in a condo complex changed after a couple with three kids moved it. Police had to be called repeatedly over several months. Then, one officer stayed behind and spent almost an hour with the troubled family. Since then, no problem, and the question was, "Does the Police Department train specific officers to be domestic violence counselors?"

Explaining that, "We wouldn't want domestic violence to continue several minutes longer while a counselor travels from one end of the city to the other." Every officer is trained to deal with domestic violence situations, and the training is ongoing, several times a year.

Public notification after a catastrophe
For emergency reasons, the Police Department notifies about 20 media outlets: print, radio, television. Hoover added that he will have the Fire Department address the same question at the next neighborhood leaders meeting.

Noise ordinance
The complaint was about street musicians, including bongo drum players, after hours. Quisenberry explained that rather than try to measure decibels, officers will make judgment calls, like "That sound is still too loud a block away."

Among other matters discussed

• Quisenberry praised the Downtown Development Authority for funding more police presence downtown.
• Budget-caused staff cuts mean "We can't do everything we used to do, so we have to prioritize." The front desk is always staffed (confirmed by one attendee who walked in at 1 a.m.). 9-1-1 is always on duty. There is no lapse in accessibility. One trade-off is that "there might be a longer response time to a traffic accident, say."
• The department continually seeks other than city funds for projects and equipment. One example is a digitized system, with hard drive in the building which records everything heard by the microphone an officer is wearing.
• Drug forfeiture money helps pay for the department's drug-sniffing dogs. Other cities have bomb-sniffing dopgs and the several communities supplement each other as needed.
• Angle parking on Washington has so far proved successful, with only one accident reported. More time is needed to determine whether traffic patterns are affected on nearby streets and to live through one snow-removal season.
• The Police Department's "customers" are residents and businesses and visitors -- the last who "support the city financially."
• The Sheriff's Department provides excellent support to localities, including mounted patrols and helicopters.

These meetings of neighborhood leaders with city officials were begun by Hoover soon after his arrival, as part of his dual effort of becoming acquainted with Royal Oak and of bringing the public and city hall closer together. VersagiVoice has sat in on some earlier meetings.

See Sitting In --1

Budget discussion

Police Chief