06-07 Novi City Budget Approved

May 11, 2006

On March 31, 2006, Interim City Manager Clay Pearson presented Mayor Dave Landry and the members of City Council with his Fiscal Year 2006/07 Budget Message.  In it he spoke of the “Virtuous Circle” in which he spoke about Novi’s high quality education, great location and sound infrastructure, excellent public safety, power retail magnet, dynamic high tech and office opportunities, welcoming to residents of all ages and backgrounds and green community boasting parklands, wetlands and woodlands.  The budget Clay presented to City Council for consideration included $32 million dollars in expenditures and no increase in the overall millage rate of 10.5416.  The budget was very sup portative of his vision and understanding of the Virtuous Circle. 

During several budget sessions, City Council members had an opportunity to shape the budget to their liking and to discuss the current and future fiscal status of the City.  The discussion was extremely cordial and provided some necessary tweaks to many different areas of the budget proposal. 

On May 8, 2006, shortly after 9:30 pm, City Council, on a 5-2, approved a budget that retained many of the most important elements of the original budget proposal including: 

·    Retaining a fund balance of nearly 15%, well above the recommended levels for our City;

·    Making a $1,000,000 contribution to the Retiree Health Care Fund.

·    Forgiving a nearly $694,000 debt that has been carried in the General Fund for the Ice Arena.  This move will allow the Ice Arena to use future earnings to pay for capital costs that would have been paid from the General Fund.

·    Extensive investment in neighborhood road improvements and sidewalk connections.

·    Various improvements to City facilities, especially to City Hall.

·    Significant capital improvements to our park facilities, including a storage/maintenance facility at Community Sports Park, a $342,000 renovation of Powers Park facility and various other capital improvements. 

There were several areas of disagreement and discussion during the final budget deliberations.  I will comment on some of them in future columns. 

·    Cost of Living Adjustments for Retirees.

·    Maintaining a budget within the limits proposed by the City Manager.

·    Expenditures for the City’s cable production needs.

·    Funding for an Economic Development position.

·    Use of Drug Forfeiture Funds for General Fund expenditures for police vehicles.

·    Segregating a portion of Tree Fund dollars for future maintenance expenses. 

During the discussion regarding the COLA, several Council Members challenged the right of Council Member Bobby Gatt, a retired Novi Police Officer, to participate in the deliberations.  Citing a Michigan Supreme Court ruling, they felt that a conflict of interest existed and that he should recuse himself from discussing or voting on this budget issue.  City Attorney Tom Schultz clearly and patiently explained several times that the Michigan Supreme Court ruling was very narrow in scope and did not apply in this situation.  In the end, Bob Gatt asked to be removed from the list of City retirees who would receive the one time payment of $1,000 and the $61,000 expenditure was finally approved as part of the budget. 

In closing, City Council did an outstanding job of balancing their desires and the community’s needs in passing this budget.  Next year there will be extensive challenges related to major road improvements (most notably Beck Road), potential reductions in revenue resulting from Headlee and continuing growth requiring additional investments in public safety, sewer and water and infrastructure.  Things never get any easier for a growing City… but these are good problems to have.  Clay Pearson and his staff did an excellent job putting this budget together.  At some point in his career, Clay will be a City Manager.  It is ironic that one of his proudest moments in Novi might very well be one of his last.  From my viewpoint, that would truly be a shame.

I completely agree with Novi resident and State Senator Nancy Cassis’s comment on Oakland County's dismal voter turnout at last week's school election “That is pitiful”.  Novi's dismal turnout of 2,352 (slightly more than 7% of the nearly 33,000 registered voters) was near the bottom.  Annual expenditures of the Novi School District exceed $65,000,000.  This is a perfect illustration of the apathy and disinterest of the majority of residents in our City.  Perhaps it is time for the state legislature to require that all elections occur in November, including school board elections.

City Council began the process of interviewing candidates for the City Manager position this past weekend.  The three candidates each had an hour to present their credentials, answer questions and to give City Council members a sense of their personalities and management philosophies.  Three additional candidates will be interviewed on Thursday evening, May 11. 

It was interesting that none of the individuals interviewed on Saturday morning is currently employed.  Each of the candidates left their previous positions under political pressure.  This is not unusual and should not be automatically viewed as a negative.  In a recent conversation with several City Managers, including Royal Oak City Manager Tom Hoover and Ferndale City Manager Tom Barwin, about 85 City Managers are unemployed and are seeking positions nationally at any one time.

As I am writing this commentary, the list of candidates to interview the following evening has not yet been posted on the Novi City website.  In reviewing several other openings around Michigan, candidate’s names are often announced very early in the process.  I am not sure what the reluctance is to announce the candidates and why our community has taken a different tact than other Michigan communities. 

I am looking forward to the three additional interviews and the next steps to be taken by our City Council.  I have great confidence that they will select a highly qualified individual of great character.  Our City deserves nothing less.
 

Last week it was announced that a new organization, called the Greater Novi Chamber of Commerce, was been formed to compete with the existing 500 member Novi Chamber of Commerce. 

One of the founding members and formed Novi Chamber Board member, Gina Kozlowski of Livonia, said in the Novi News, "For several years now many community members have wanted a new chamber formed.  We wanted to go in a more positive, more professional direction."

Recent bylaw changes and the expulsion of Novi News Editor Cal Stone from the Board of Directors prompted a group of area business people to make the move to form a new organization. 

It is my sincere hope that as the Chief Operating Officer of a Novi business and current member of the Novi Chamber of Commerce, that creating another Chamber does not result in pitting business owners against each other.  I will keep an open mind and will speak further on this issue in a future column. 

Full Disclosure:  For the record, my employer, Art Johnson, is President Elect of the Novi Chamber of Commerce.  I also represent the Novi Parks Foundation as a member of the Novi Chamber of Commerce.

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- Well done is better than well said.

Benjamin Franklin US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, & printer (1706 - 1790)

In the tradition of Ben Franklin, the Novi Post provides informed political commentary on current events in Novi, Oakland County and all of Michigan.