Dear Editor,

I served as a city council member for the City of the Village of Clarkston for eight years, and during that time, I learned some disturbing things about how the Historic District Commission (HDC) conducts their business in this city only to find out it continues today.
It seems the HDC approach to dealing with people is that if they disagree with their opinion, the HDC digs their heels in the sand and declares war.
Every day, I look at the property at 61 South Holcomb, knowing how happy and excited these homeowners, Chris and Lianne Moore, were about the improvements they were making to their property only to have the HDC dislike their plans and hold up their project for five months now because of that.
The HDC representatives then act with disbelief that someone would actually challenge or question them and then that turns to anger, belligerence and what can only be described as bullying.
It seems the HDC considers themselves the ultimate authority, so they feel they are entitled to act like they do to residents/property owners in this city.
Unfortunately, the council, with the mayor’s encouragement, supports that belief. I guess it does not matter to them what this is costing this family and other families who have had to go through this same scenario, both emotionally and financially to sit on a project like this for five months because of the HDC’s actions.
In addition, the amount of the cost to the taxpayers of this village to have the city attorney pursue and defend this commission and their actions instead of trying to resolve these disputes by compromise and conversation rather than negativism and litigation is out of control and unnecessary.
We need some new people with forward-thinking ideas protecting us and our fellow residents/taxpayers, people who care how residents are treated and addressed by those commissions: the HDC, the ZBA, the Planning Commission and the City Council (who are elected by us) in the services that are supposed to be available to us.
We have three new members of your city that are interested in serving as our council members. They care how things are enforced in this village and how people are treated.
Christopher Moore, who is a write-in candidate, Paul Angelini and Steven McLean are the type of people willing to move us forward with respect and responsibility in their roles as council members.
Please vote!

Sincerely,
Peg Roth
Clarkston