'Whose dumb idea was
this?'
Questions about and objections to proposed
splash pool
"Almost half a million dollars for a splash pool
when the city is broke?" . . . "Oh, it's not
city money; it's a federal block grant." . . .
"And there's nothing more useful or necessary to
spend it on?" . . . "There are federal
limitations on what it can be used for." . . .
"But aren't block grants supposed to be directed
to helping the poor?" . . . "You're just mad
because the city is finally doing something for
the South End." . . . "Wonderful. Can't wait for
all those non-Royal Oak South Enders to visit."
Even some
kid-lovers are complaining that this decision
came on too fast, best stated as, "Isn't there
some city committee which votes on this stuff?"
The desirability of the pool aside, we're left
with uneasiness about the political process.
I'll discuss it
more next week.
Courtesy Royal Oak Historical
Society Museum |
Courtesy Royal Oak Patch.com |
Then & Now: At right: What
a new Splash Pool might look like.
At left: Whittier Elementary School Splash Pool
in the 1930s.
A city
cannot operate like a business, but . . .
More about Royal Oak's long-range planning report
34 "Objectives?
With the longest deadline being 18
months, the shortest deadline 3 weeks, the mode
being "within 5 months"?
The city attempted to accomplish in 9
hours what the private sector would schedule a 4-day
Retreat for -- something a municipality can't
justify. In
a Retreat, that first day's work would be a
brainstorming session during which every wish-thought and
wise-thought would be recorded. Then comes the work to establish priorities,
discard (or at least put aside) all but 4 priorities.
In 2010, the event took 10 hours spread over 2 days.
But 34 objectives?
That's not long-range planning.
It's no wonder that reaction to
the city's report so far is mixed and confused. The
list of objectives and who proposed them (all of
them elected officials, no department heads,
apparently) can be
found on the
City's Website. Here, some observations based on my decades of conducting
scores of group meetings and Retreats.
Immediately off-putting are Goals which sound
like mission statements:
►
To perform all city operations as efficiently
and effectively as possible.
►
To protect all persons and property in Royal Oak
by providing the highest quality public services
possible in the most efficient manner.
►
To sustain, replace and enhance Royal Oak's
infrastructure to promote efficient delivery of
beneficial services.
►
To preserve Royal Oak as a safe and healthy
community through sound fiscal polity, strategic
planning, prompt decisive actions and effective
management of taxpayers' assets.
Some
Objectives are better identified as Goals:
□ Implement a uniform marketing and
branding campaign for the entire City.
□ Review ways to renovate/update City parks
(w/in 18 months).
□ DDA to update the City Commission on the
696 property status and relay DDA's vision
related to the property (w/in 5 months).
□ Provide opportunity for online payments
of most fees, charges and taxes.
The best parts of
the report are those Objectives which I would label
Action Items, agree with them or not:
● Prepare an analysis and recommendation for
moving to a fixed water meter reading system
(w/in 12 months).
● Explore additional fire and police grant
opportunities.
● Conduct a revenue strategy meeting (February
6).
● Obtain a legal opinion on whether we can levy a
hotel/motel tax. If affirmative perform a
hotel/motel tax revenue study.
● Establish a list of current commission
approvals that can be performed solely by the
administration in an effort to streamline
commission overload.
● Rejuvenate the crime prevention council to
revive the neighborhood watch program and work
wit the neighborhood associations (w/in 6
months).
● Evaluate and repackage ROSCO to include making
it more prominent on the City's website.
The private sector
would pick 2 or 3 of those action items to start
working to address, then pick others
one-at-a-time as work is completed or measurably on
its way to completion. Unless some
major new issue arises, two of the remaining action items
would be the agenda for the next year's planning
session.
For a municipality,
the solution might be to survey elected and
appointed officials the month before a planning
session, provide the list to all participants the
week before the meeting, then open the session with
a secret ballot to choose two for the day's agenda.
By the way, the
longest timeline above is 18 months. That's hardly
long-term. I served multi-nationals and mom-and-pop
businesses by defining three time periods for
strategic planning: immediately =1 year,
mid-term = 4 years, and long-term = more
than 4 years. Placing goals or objectives into
time-slots helps establish priorities. Everything
from establishing task teams to scheduling a
half-day progress-report session three times a year
can be used to follow up.
Why no names in this report?
Because individuals aren't the issue. Format and
substance are. Affection for or dislike of
individuals distorts focus.
Besides, the source for each quotation is available
in the report attached to
the agenda for the 23 January CITCOM meeting.
Income Tax, anyone?
Millage chatter always stay the same
An excerpt from
2010 millage talk sounds familiar.
I can summarize the core-mindsets which long have been obvious
to city hall observers and which will become equally obvious to those coming
late to the party. No matter the details, the debate will have
to deal with the following mindsets.
-
Strong distrust of government.
The distrust is selective. Some distrust City Manager Don Johnson and
his crew. Others distrust the city commission. Still others distrust and
disrespect the Police and Fire departments (Department Heads or Unions or
both). There is tiny minority which goes beyond libertarianism to anarchy,
distrusting all government. They admit, "Don't know how we could make it
work."
-
That selective distrust combines with personal preference to
generate statements like, "We don't need as many cops as we have" and "Come
on now. You're going to tell me that a private EMS company which sends out
one vehicle per run won't cost less that sending three vehicles when there's
no fire?"
-
Questions about the reality of any crisis.
That distrust leads to responsible residents and a couple of past elected officials
questioning whether things are as bad as they are described. "They're just
trying to scare us." A surprising number of residents -- faced so far with
nothing more serious than taller grass in some parks and inconvenient
service hours at city hall -- say they won't buy the crisis until the lack
of services really hurts.
-
The pros and cons of a dedicated millage.
Say "dedicated millage," and the discussion can become heated. Depending on
which governmental entity is mistrusted most, we have "Give the city more
General Fund money, and they'll spend it everywhere except on Public Safety,
so I'd only vote for a Police Fire millage." Opposed, "You think the
unions are hard-nosed now? Imagine what would happen if they had their own
fund."
-
About the need for more taxes.
At the Farmers Market, I was told:
(1) "Until the Fire Marshall's pay is cut from $190,000 and the average
Firefighter's pay becomes less that $100,000, I will never vote for a
millage." "Some of us in the private sector have taken a 10% cut to
keep our job."
(2) "We're already there. The City has to begin now explaining how much of
an increase we need and why."
(3) "I'm just now beginning to pay attention. At this moment, I think I need
more documentation before I'd vote for a millage."
(4) "Think how many times the city has had to cut in the past. Doesn't that
suggest that government always over-expands when times are good?"
Somewhere on the page Terry
Drinkwine suggested an Income Tax. And as early
as 1967, the feasibility of an income tax was
explored.
READERS SAY
Except
for those spontaneous comments, above, about the
proposed splash pool, my readers were quiet last
week.
Police Department's latest
weekly report shows 34 arrests. Last week the number was 25.
Fire Department's latest weekly report shows 1 Fire, 3 for
the year; and 62 EMS runs, 197 for the year.
COUNTY/STATE
Area Briefs
& Headlines
□ Dems go after Patterson Mail -- Exec
posts communication between himself and the governor
on county website: other county officials included
in request
□ County clerk makes PSA [Public Service
Announcement] for voters about Feb 28 primary
□ Gov. Snyder doesn't deliver any specifics
□ Bills would raise gas, vehicle registration
costs {to maintain and replace roads
□ Bain delivered Domino's turnaround
□ Protesters rally against DTE shutoffs
□ Cranbrook, DPS announce deal [weekly visits
from Detroit Public Schools]
□ Levin attacks Romney over offshore bank
accounts
NATION/WORLD
UN urges Israel to halt demolition of Palestinian
homes
 United
Nations humanitarian coordinator says Israel as
"occupying Power" has responsibility to protect
Palestinians in W. Bank; comments follow visit to
Arab village Anata, where homes were recently
destroyed.
A
senior United Nations official on Friday called
upon Israel to immediately halt the demolition
of Palestinian homes in the West Bank.
“Israel, as the occupying Power, has a
fundamental responsibility to protect the
Palestinian civilian population under its
control and to ensure their dignity and
well-being,” said Maxwell Gaylard, the UN
humanitarian coordinator in the Palestinian
territories and Deputy Special Coordinator for
the Middle East Peace Process. -- Jerusalem
Post.com
SCIENCE, ENVIRONMENT/TECHNOLOGY.
Optical Wi-Fi coming?
AMONG the many new gadgets unveiled at the recent
Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was a pair of
smartphones able to exchange data using light. These
phones, as yet only prototypes from Casio, a
Japanese firm, transmit digital signals by varying
the intensity of the light given off from their
screens. The flickering is so slight that it is
imperceptible to the human eye, but the camera on
another phone can detect it at a distance of up to
ten metres. In an age of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth,
flashing lights might seem like going back to
sending messages with an Aldis lamp. In fact, they
are the beginning of a fast and cheap
wireless-communication system that some have
labelled Li-Fi.-- The Economist.com
The world is
coming to an end -- again
Was this where Hitler got his Master Race concept?
The Last Word re Global Warming?
Ancient
climate change link to CO2?
|
CITCOM Meetings for current 6
months
CITCOM Meetings since 2004
How to watch a commission meeting
Split Votes
Do televised CITCOM meetings last longer?
Tone of City Commission meetings
Limit Public Comment Speakers
to 3 Minutes
Public Comment speakers should be
limited to 3 minutes, rather than 5, whatever
the topic.
First, with rare exceptions the speaker's basic thought is understood within
the first minute or two. All the rest is
repetition of the basic thought -- sometimes
rambling, sometimes in exactly the same words.
Second, watch the speakers watch the digital
clock. They feel compelled to keep talking
until they have used up their 5 minutes.
Civics 101
Essay on local government
Micromanagement in Government
Royal Oak Politics
2009 CITCOM Campaign
2009 Royal Oak Politics
What can we expect from CITCOM in 2009?
City Hall
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Local Streets classified by traffic count
Police Department
Royal Oak Officials Over The Years
Sitting In: Occasional reports from city/civic meetings
Who serves on Committees & Boards
Zoning Board of Appeals
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Commissioners on Committees
Ask City Hall
Late posting of meeting agendas
Driving south on Main to Lincoln
How real estate assessments are made
Re Municipal Bonds
How recalled city commissioners are replaced
Who creates the city commission's Consent Agenda?
Snow Removal & Angle Parking
Conditional Zoning and How It Works
Main Street widening seems successful
How
does movie-making help the city?
Citizens for Property Rights (CPR)
Ongoing Discussions
Debate about some matters never ends. New thoughts are seldom introduced, but new people present them, sometimes using fresh language.
Micromanaging vs. Oversight
Tax Credits for Movie-makers?
The Revolution Cometh
Health Care Debate
Legalize Drugs
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It's the End of the World, again
Budget Talks never end
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Overview of issues, candidates, and results
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2011 Election
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Book Reviews
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You know: Dollars & Sense
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List of conversations with noteworthy civic and political figures
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Mostly information about the Administration
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Probably the city's most controversial panel
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Concepts re curriculum and funding.
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For those needing more than a couple of paragraphs to make their point in
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From global warming to molecules
World Affairs
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Versagi Vanity
Hey, it's my website!
CPR: Citizens for Property Rights
Monitoring the threat of mandated historic designation of private
property
Useful websites
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