Charter – City Manager form of government
By charter, we have a city manager form of government. The concept is that you hire experts not politicians to implement the vision of the elected officials (City Council). The previous council hired the current City Manager just 9 months ago. In that time, he is one of the few that have gone public with the dire situation described by Brooks Patterson as the ‘worst situation since the great depresion and for local government mangement the most challenging in their lifetime’. West Bloomfield is raising 1.3 mils from 11.2, Sterling Heights will raise their millage without needing voter approval. Grand Rapids just laid off 125 this month. Within 5 years, the city will need to re-invent itself with totally out of the box funding and service delivery systems because long term even the 1.9 mils can not sustain the business as usual. Hypothetically don’t be surprised to see the Troy/AT&T library and other forms of public / private partnerships. If progress is not made quickly, then we need to pressure council to change leadership, and if that does not work then we need to vote out the appropriate elected officials. That is how it has worked to get us to being the best value (services for tax rate) in southeast Michigan.
