Accomplishments
When serving on a public body, it takes a group of people and staff to make things happen. I want to recognize and embrace that. However, there are a couple of things this that I can comfortably say would not have happened without my participation. Here’s a couple of them.
Senior Procession
This has been one of the most satisfying things I’ve helped with. I want to make it clear that I did not help organize the event; that credit belongs to dedicated parents. I helped connect these parents with City staff and other officials to help speed along the process. We first talked on a Thursday and they were able to get approval for the event at the Council meeting the following Tuesday (Monday was a holiday), which is record speed!
I am so happy that this event has continued.
Student Representatives
As an urban planner, I always try include as many perspectives and voices in the decision making process. It’s one of the main reasons why I first ran for office. I pushed to include student representatives on our City bodies and am proud that we now have students serving (as non-voting members) on the City Council, Planning Commission, Arts, Culture, and Heritage Committee, and Parks and Recreation Commission. Their participation has provided great new perspectives.
Housing Task Force
When I first ran for Council, I was the only member who had the challenge of buying a house in Dexter within the past 15 years. I pushed for the City to establish a Housing Task Force to better understand the housing issues in our community. While follow up on these initial efforts have been slowed down by Covid World, we have a great start in addressing housing affordability and housing variety, and I look forward to continuing work in these areas.
Roundabout Landscaping
I like to joke with my wife that the most visible impact I’ve made on our community is the landscaping in the Baker Road roundabouts. When we first received plans for this project, they called for the center of the roundabouts to be fully paved in concrete, like the one at Wagner and Scio Church. As an urban planner, I felt it was very important for the main gateway to our community to have some curb appeal, and pushed to see if we could install landscaping in the center.
Conflict of Interest/Ethic Ordinance
One night while reading our City Charter, I stumbled across Section 5.06 which states that City Council shall adopt a conflict of interest ordinance to prohibit the use of public office for private gain. I thought that sounded interesting and tried to find the ordinance on the City’s municode site. It wasn’t there, so I emailed City staff, who told me the City had not adopted such an ordinance. This was more than six years after the Charter was adopted! I am happy to report that we have since adopted one.
Videos of Meetings
It is important for our citizens to see what they heck their City Council is doing. Before the pandemic, a private citizen recorded most of the meetings and posted them on YouTube. During the pandemic, we started holding Zoom meetings. Council member Griffin and I both pushed to have these meetings recorded and posted to the City’s website. Now, our citizens have another opportunity to participate and see what’s happening.
City Manager Managing City Staff
When I first arrived on Council, all of the new staff hires were approved by City Council. All of them. Although that may have been the practice while we were a village, the Charter clearly states that most staff management issues are to be handled by the City Manager. Because I read the Charter, I either voted no or abstained on a number of hiring votes until I was able to get the rest of Council’s attention.