BY MATT MACKINDER
Clarkston News Editor

Online buzz and chatter in recent weeks has surrounded the City of the Village of Clarkston government.
There has been an active lawsuit involving a residence in the city’s Historic District, accusations of violating the Open Meetings Act, and a ruling on short-term rentals in the city.
The vast majority of these issues have been covered at length on Clarkston resident Susan Bisio’s website, ClarkstonSecrets.com.
When asked to respond to Bisio’s website and in-depth critique regarding the city’s operations, Clarkston City Manager Jonathan Smith responded.
“As a matter of policy, the city does not respond to comments made on social media, which may or may not be factually based,” Smith said.
The ongoing lawsuit stems from the home at 42 West Washington Street (pictured).
The case is Lehman Investment Company LLC versus City of the Village of Clarkston and its Historic District Commission. According to Bisio, the litigation involves the owners’ desire to demolish the house at 42 West Washington.
“The house sits within the historic district, but it wasn’t considered important enough to add to the historic home inventory when that inventory was done years ago,” Bisio wrote. “It is a 1950s concrete block construction, unlike most of the houses in the Historic District that were built in the 1800s. In other words, no one thought that it was very important at the time.”
Bisio goes on in more detail.
In its motion, Lehman Investment Company says that Clarkston and the Historic District Commission hid information from Lehman during the administrative proceedings involving this property.
Specifically, Lehman shows that the city paid $80,000 to the previous property owners for damage caused by a collapsed storm drain that ran next to the house, something that Lehman says it only became aware of after filing several FOIA requests with Clarkston to get the information.
“And it simply lacks credibility when Lehman says that it let the city inspect the house and see the internal damage and the city answers that it is ‘without sufficient information to form a belief as to the inspection by the city,’” Bisio said. “Really? The city doesn’t know if it inspected the property? This is just another example of the city’s penchant for concealing things. Either it inspected the property, or it didn’t. A simple yes or no response would be appropriate. But the city apparently just doesn’t know what it did.”
Smith was asked about the case, saying, “This is an active case in the Oakland County courts and, as such, we are unable to comment on any aspect of it.”
Back on November 8, 2021, the Clarkston City Council meeting went into a closed session to discuss pending litigation, reportedly with no vote being taken by the council.
Smith said that is simply not the case.
“While the Independence Television video recording ended in the November 8 council meeting prior to the council voting to close the open session and enter a closed session for purposes of discussing pending litigation, the fact of the matter is that council did vote in favor of closing the open session and then opened the closed session,” said Smith.
As far as short-term rentals in the city, after holding a public hearing on the topic in 2021, Smith said the city’s planning commission submitted an ordinance modification recommendation to city council to only allow short-term rentals in commercially-zoned properties. After two readings, council voted unanimously on January 10, 2022 to approve the ordinance.  The effective date of the revised ordinance change was Tuesday, February 8, 2022, after a posting period in The Clarkston News. Existing short-term rental properties in non-commercial districts will have 12 months (until February 8, 2023) to cease operations.
Smith was asked about the Mill Pond Inn, located at 155 North Main Street, and he answered, saying, “With regards to the Mill Pond Inn, because they are a bed and breakfast with a separate agreement with the city, they will not be impacted by the ordinance change.”

Photo courtesy ClarkstonSecrets.com