Dear Editor, 

The Clarkston News asked Clarkston City Manager Jonathan Smith to comment on a blog post that criticized the city’s five-year litigation crusade to prevent a property owner from tearing down a house the city itself made uninhabitable by neglecting a leaking sewer line that washed away underground support.
The city manager said, “This is an active case in the Oakland County courts and, as such, we are unable to comment on any aspect of it.” (The Clarkston News, Feb. 16, 2022)
This is an evasive excuse to try to insulate the city’s conduct from public scrutiny. The city could comment if it wanted to. It is not true that the city is not “unable to comment” on an active case. Many litigants use this excuse to avoid answering questions or publicly responding to allegations in lawsuits. But nothing prohibits public comments on pending litigation unless there is a court order prohibiting public comments (which there isn’t here). So the city is not “unable to comment” about what it is doing.
Why doesn’t the city manager want to talk about the case? He wants to conceal what is going on from Clarkston citizens and avoid answering hard questions about the city’s conduct.
Questions like: Why is the Historic District Commission treating this 1950s concrete block construction house as though it has some kind of historic significance? Why does the commission insist the house cannot be torn down when the city itself critically undermined the foundation by letting a leaking sewer line go unrepaired for years? Why did the city conceal from the current owners the fact that the city paid the previous owners $80,000 for the damage the city caused to the structure? Why does the HDC insist that the owners repair the house when the cost to repair is greater than the property’s value? And why is the city continuing to spend our taxpayer dollars on this?
The city’s answer: “No comment.”
So the city’s crusade against this property and its owners will go on without any accountability.
Shame on the city manager who wants to keep what the city is doing a secret.
Shame on the city council that allows this to continue.

Sincerely,
Richard Bisio
Clarkston