I’ll bet you thought that it was safe to focus on finalizing your year-end work projects, getting those Christmas cards out, taking care of your last minute shopping list, and wrapping presents to put under the tree. But alas, you would be wrong. Your city government has something for your Christmas stocking, but it’s not a present (think – lump of coal).
Every year or so, certain Clarkston officials bring up the idea of an expensive expansion of DPW and City Hall, and this latest push comes at the end of the year when most people aren’t paying attention. It’s not clear what the sales pitch will be this time, but we have heard all kinds of arguments in the past – we should store equipment that may only be rarely used in a place that is attached to City Hall, and gosh, it’s really annoying for employees to have to move things around to get to something parked near the back; we should keep all records in City Hall (even if we never use them); we must create private offices for special staff members; we need a bigger meeting area; we ought to have nice bathrooms for the park patrons, etc. To borrow a phrase from my mom, these folks “have a champagne appetite and a beer budget.”
The people pushing this project never seem to stop and consider any lesser alternative, as they would if they were spending their own money. For example, rather than spending a fortune on more space for equipment, perhaps it would be more cost effective to sell something we hardly ever use and rent on the rare occasions we need it. Or perhaps we could offer to share the equipment with another municipality in exchange for storing it on that city’s property. We’ve been told that some city officials need private offices to discuss top secret things, but why? Can’t they talk quietly? It’s been suggested that visitors to our small park simply can’t be satisfied with temporary bathrooms, though there never is any discussion about the expense to maintain bathrooms, the cost of repair when the inevitable vandalism occurs, or the fact that trees won’t be trimmed because our DPW employees will be cleaning toilets.
The argument that is my personal favorite (and one discussed on Monday) is that the owners of the place where the city’s records are currently stored might decide we can’t rent space from them “someday.” Are we to believe that there are simply no other places to store city records? Really? Perhaps the better plan going forward is to destroy the records that we are allowed to destroy per our record retention schedule, to digitize the rest, and to eliminate paper records as they are created now. The city actually may be taking some steps toward that goal, which was also discussed at Monday’s meeting. To the extent those efforts actually amount to anything, the city should be complimented. (Digitization and destruction efforts cut against the argument that we need to spend a fortune for more record storage space, however.)
As for the need for extra meeting space – on Monday, our city manager (Jonathan Smith) announced that he has made arrangements with the Clarkston United Methodist Church to use one of their larger meeting rooms for next year’s city council meetings. How much will this cost? Nothing, except for an agreement that we will shovel their sidewalk snow occasionally (if needed). I would like to extend my sincere and heartfelt appreciation to Mr. Smith for being a good steward of our tax dollars and finding a solution that meets our needs. The people in our government who want to spend our tax dollars like drunken sailors would do well to follow his good example.
But they aren’t. Rather than doing needed repairs to City Hall, such as fixing the roof and repairing a wall, the proponents of the DPW/City Hall expansion project haven’t focused on the work that we actually need done. Since repairs get more costly as time goes on, why have they been waiting? Because they have been using the need for these maintenance-type repairs as an excuse to include an unnecessary DPW/City Hall expansion. After all, if we have to do some repairs anyway, why not add a couple hundred thousand to the bill? It’s only money. (Yours.)
The city council is having a special meeting on Monday, December 17, to discuss this project – again. But hey everyone, this time it’s different! We’ve been told that “there is a group with ties to the community” who want to work with the city on the latest iteration of this project, which was described as “a slight expansion” and “redeployment” of the current building. We aren’t permitted to know who they are just yet. All we are told is that it’s a “community effort,” and no information will be provided before the meeting. Council was also told that they really should think about accepting this time-sensitive offer right away because construction schedules are filling up, and the mystery group wants to proceed with construction drawings. But, in order to finish those drawings, council will be asked to give the mystery people a small, undisclosed amount of money that is “well under” $10,000. The whole thing reminds me of an infomercial running at 2:00 in the morning – if you want to take advantage of the special deal, you have to act fast!
Is this a joke?
For those of you who have been paying attention, we’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars on similar plans over the last several years on proposed expansion ideas. How many sidewalks and streets could have been repaired for this? We also learned from the city manager that it’s understood by everyone that an acceptable cost for this project is somewhere around $300,000. Would it be too cynical of me to think that the cost for the project from the mystery people will come in just under $300,000 (that is, before cost overruns)? No worries though – the mystery people will bring picture boards to the meeting so everyone can learn all about it. Ah, but everyone won’t learn all about it, because special meetings aren’t usually recorded by Independence Township. If our Clerk records the meeting, you can ask her for a copy of the audio recording, but you won’t see the pretty boards to help you understand what the mystery people are talking about as they make a pitch to spend your money if you can’t physically attend the meeting.
Most of us live in an adult world. In our world, there aren’t money fairies, and loans have real interest costs. For example, borrowing $300,000 on a 20 year loan at 4.25% interest means that the ACTUAL cost of the loan is $445,848.82. The monthly payment would be $1,857.70. What are we going to give up every month to pay that amount? Since the city’s income from all sources is approximately $700,000 per year, it’s a safe bet that the city would definitely break its promise to you regarding the library millage because the money to pay for this must be found somewhere. (Click on the post titled “What’s Behind the ‘Raising Taxes’ Claim?” if you want to know how they’ll pull that one off.)
We should think long and hard about what $300,000 – really, $445.848.82 with interest – could buy. Have you ever been to city hall except to vote? Does an expansion of this building have any value to you? Do you think that the city should spend what little money it has on more practical things that benefit the community more directly, such as sidewalk and street repair? We’ve been told that we’re so strapped for cash that we had to add paid parking to financially deal with the stress that two new restaurants caused – restaurants whose owners had zero concern for where their patrons would park and how that would affect the people who live here. And we are now asked to pay close to half a million dollars for a DPW/City Hall expansion when interest is added in?
When elected officials ignore the will of the taxpayers, they can be removed from office. Before we get to that discussion, let’s wait to see if they do the right thing.
I’ve included some historical information from 2016 below, which was the last time that the biggest push for this boondoggle was attempted. I’ve also provided a link to the 12/10/18 city council meeting so that you can watch the discussion for yourself. (It starts at 1:19:00.)
http://216.11.46.126/CablecastPublicSite/show/2505?channel=2
You may remember the two “Clarkston Neighbors” letters from 2016 that were published in the Clarkston News and sent throughout the city. They provided quite a bit of history about the project at that time.
Here is letter #1:
20160120 – Clarkston Neighbors 1
Here is letter #2:
20160203 – Clarkston Neighbors 2
Many residents emailed their city council members to protest the expansion. A petition, signed by citizens protesting the expansion, was provided to city council. By my count, ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTEEN people signed it. Here is the text from the petition – I think it’s pretty darned clear, don’t you?
Here is a photo of one of the many signs that popped up around town protesting the expansion before the city council wisely voted not to proceed:
I also have an email from Eric Haven speaking as a council member in 2016. I’m including it to give you a window into his thinking – he appears to find it acceptable to spend UP TO $600,000(!) for this project.
Space will be limited at the meeting on Monday at 7:00 at City Hall, but if you can’t attend, you can still email your council members and let them know how you feel about the city borrowing $300,000 (before interest) to expand DPW and City Hall. They won’t know if you don’t tell them.
Here are their email addresses:
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- Reynolds, Scott – reynoldss@villageofclarkston.org
- Kneisc, Jason – kneiscj@villageofclarkston.org
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Avery, Al – averya@villageofclarkston.org
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Haven, Eric – havene@villageofclarkston.org
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Marsh, David – marshd@villageofclarkston.org
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Detkowski, Rick – detkowskir@villageofclarkston.org
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Wylie, Sue – wylies@villageofclarkston.org
UPDATED on 12/16/18 TO ADD – I understand that a request has been made for Independence Television to make a video record of the meeting. If you can’t attend in person, please make sure that you watch the recording and make your feelings known about whether you want your tax dollars spent this way!