(These comments are from the June 27 Clarkston City Council meeting.)
The Finance Committee met on June 8 with two members absent and decided to postpone the November ballot issue for increased city revenue for street and sidewalk repair to November 2023. The Friends of Streets and Sidewalks (FOSAS) are disappointed, but the mayor’s campaign committee is relieved.
The city manager called a Finance Committee meeting for June 8 and invited the city’s auditor and city attorney. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss alternatives for revenue for city sidewalk and street repairs, including consideration for a November 2022 ballot issue.
The Finance Committee, with two members absent, decided to “kick the can down the road.” Now who will tell council members and Clarkston citizens there was insufficient time to craft the 300 word MAXIMUM ballot wording, required for AUGUST approval by the governor and Michigan’s attorney general?
The Finance Committee decided to prepare for such submission for the November 2023 election. If approved, the first additional revenue would be available in July 2024, two years from now.
No minutes are taken so there is no record of the decision made affecting every resident of the City of the Village of Clarkston. No communication was made in the June 13 council meeting. Three Fridays have passed and nothing was included in the city manager’s weekly report. Are city officials waiting for Clarkston Secrets to report the news?
Paid parking provides revenue for street, sidewalk and parking lot maintenance. The 2022-23 budget contains no actual street or sidewalk repairs. The $18,000 “sidewalk repairs” and $68,000 “resurfacing of roads” are in actuality the repair of the seven paver aprons on Main Street which are really covered by the one-time federal ARPA funds of $98,000.
Chet Pardee
Clarkston