Dearborn Council to Hold Budget Hearing May 13
The Dearborn City Council is inviting residents to attend a public hearing this Thursday to get an overview on the city’s proposed fiscal year plan.
The May 13 meeting will take place at 6:30 p.m. in the council chambers at City Hall.
The administration is expected to present an overview of the proposed budget and members of the public will have a chance to provide input.
The adoption of the budget is scheduled to take place at 6:30 p.m. Monday, May 17 in the Council Chambers.
May 11th, 2010 at 5:00 am
I know this is a little off subject but I am curious about the woman who wanted a permit to keep chickens. Did our city council address this issue? What was the result?
May 11th, 2010 at 6:47 am
Henny Penny – from what I heard the council said that they ‘didn’t want to touch this’. I’ll send them an email and see what they have to say.
May 11th, 2010 at 10:34 am
I hope the counsel quits wasting money on Washington D.C. law firms trying to get the approach path for airplanes landing at Metro changed.
May 11th, 2010 at 4:49 pm
Diogenes – I totally agree with you. It is an absolute waste of money and the only thing that it is accomplishing is making money for the law firms. Maybe, they could waste some more money trying to get the train tracks moved too. There are much better uses for that money.
May 11th, 2010 at 10:04 pm
See you all at the meeting. Deep, how about a time. Thanks.
May 11th, 2010 at 10:12 pm
This is where the rubber meets the road. The administration and council needs to manage everyone’s expectations – there is nothing but pain coming our way. Property values & taxes are down, revenue sharing way down, stimulus money drying up. City has fixed (including legacy) costs that will scare you when you read the budget, and no way to raise the lost revenue. So that’s a problem.
The only reductions available are in current/future expenditures – a fixed cost is a fixed cost. Just like everyone else, I don’t have any good answers, only some priorities. What comes to mind are police, fire, trash, water/sewage, roads. Beyond that, I think we have to look at everything, including my beloved libraries and parks (yes, pools).
Someone wise used to say, “Good night and good luck.” Let’s hope so.
May 12th, 2010 at 6:21 am
Kay: sorry about that. Meeting begins at 6:30 p.m.
May 12th, 2010 at 6:22 am
kay – it says 6:30 pm.
May 12th, 2010 at 8:46 am
Thanks Deep. I was watching the news last night and saw West Bloomfield’s budget meeting with their citizens. I find it funny/peculiar/disturbing that the first thing every city seems to talk about cutting is police and fire. Why? Is it to intimidate the taxpayers? Why in God’s name would any city in this day and age of desperation for so many, cut back on their police and fire? I think it’s a ridiculous proposal and certainly hope our city does not try to pull the same thing. We have full time locksmith who spends half his day at home, the mayor has a full time assistant (Mark Guido)..who knows why? There are several more money sucking positions at the city that surely would be less detrimental to the city to do without than cutting police and fire. We have a police chief who is tying the hands of our officers as it is. I hope to God they don’t try and pull that card out of the deck.
May 12th, 2010 at 9:33 am
kay, when Jack had a meeting with the children at Whitmore Bolles he mentioned to them that there was a posssibility of laying off Police and Firemen (this was when he told the kids that there was also a possiblity of closing some of the pools). When the school board is in trouble what is the first thing they talk about – laying off teachers.
May 12th, 2010 at 10:36 am
Donna, Yes, I heard the he told them about closing the pools but I had not heard of him saying the other. What a jerk. Why not tell the elementary kids that there is no Santa Claus too? Honest to God, I’m sick to death of these people who get a little power and think they own the world. He will be in for a big fight, I will tell you that much. He has little or no support nor does that useless chief he appointed. The appointed people need to take a walk. Did you hear about the appointed judge (Wygonick) who let a guy who assaulted one of our cops at an accident out on $200 (approx) on the very day that cop in Detroit was killed. And who appointed Wygonick? Granholm. These people are ruining this city and state and county. We need to start asking for these judge’s ruling records and be sure they are distributed well before the next election. All too often we, and I’m guilty of this too, do not research the judges, etc. No more, I have had enough!!
May 13th, 2010 at 6:35 am
I hope people begin making as much noise about libraries as they did about pools. Dropping children’s programming at all branches other than Centennial is another way of robbing our children of their future.
May 13th, 2010 at 7:33 am
No offense Kay, but you sure didn’t do enough research on this judge. Yes, he was appointed by Granholm, but he later ran and won re-election. I, for one, would like to find out more about the alleged assault, because Wygonik has always had strong police and fire support and vice versa, so I think we need a fact check here. Like maybe we should be looking at others (elected and appointed!) whose behavior has cost us alot in lawsuits? Here are some examples: the overblown legal department (most cities except Dearborn and Detroit hire out their matters for much lower cost, btw) which has consistently given questionable counsel (so lets give her a raise?!), a police chief who doesn’t live in the city (and probably never will) so he has no connection to the citizens, a corrupt and highly politicized building department (really makes the citizens want to follow the rules, doesn’t it?), and an “assistant” to the mayor who ran the City under the previous administration and still tells this administration what to do. How about that?
Oh, and elections have consequences. Someone voted for this mayor!
May 13th, 2010 at 10:47 am
Dearbornette, With all due respect, my facts are correct. As I stated, we all need to do our research on the judges we elect, me included. Once he was appointed, a reelection was pretty much inevitable unless the voters pay more attention to who is running and what their record is. And I certainly did not imply that I had done a thorough background check and research of this judge’s record. But I do believe that this case would qualify as being a part of his record, would it not? You may disagree but it is my opinion that this ruling was not an indication of strong support for the police. It was assault on a police officer. If someone has the tenacity to assault a police officer on a busy road, in traffic, what does that tell you? Also, in previous posts I have mentioned Mark Guido and other issues within this administration, including the chief and his residency and questionable policies imposed upon the officers under his command. If you have information showing Wygonicks support of the police and fire departments I would be very interested in see that or a link to it. Regarding the Mayor and his “assistant”: Both were involved in the previous adminstration. It’s time for a change and hopefully the wake up call we have all gotten after these last elections will bring change to Dearborn as well.
May 13th, 2010 at 12:54 pm
tdogg: do you have information regarding Dearborn’s legacy costs? I’ve read the budget but don’t see a specific figure.
May 13th, 2010 at 10:23 pm
Amen, Kay, on your last point we certainly do agree! If only the voters would agree with us…
May 16th, 2010 at 5:10 pm
It is not time for a change, it is long past due. The time for change was about 4 years ago. Dump the mayoral assistant, and dump the legal department because all those folks do is tell Jack he’s doing fine. And Human Resources, my gosh what a useless department. The head ditz there should be ashamed to collect a paycheck. Two lower level clerk types in B&S were convicted of their minor crimes, and so the hunt ended. Jack declared that his house was clean. The pools are staying open, no matter how deserted they are. And on public service days, an expensive army of ordinance officers fly up and down the streets ahead of the trash man and sweeper trucks to make sure the streets get cleared and swept. We all get to travel around in Jack O’Reilly Jr.’s time machine and pretend it is still 1970 because 2010 is just too scary for a big guy with a big voice, a college education and no backbone.
May 17th, 2010 at 8:41 pm
i can tell you that this case of the police officer being assaulted and the criminal being let out on the mere $200 bond, is only one of the bafoon judges misdeeds. i can guarantee you that there is no police officer support of this judge and never has been. its only a matter of time before he lets someone go, that it will come back to haunt him. if big jack is spouting off about laying off police and fire, maybe he should read the charter, the same one that he said didnt state that the police chief had to live in the city.
May 21st, 2010 at 5:08 pm
I have been out of town for a bit so i am a little late reading these posts but i have to say that you all have hit the nail on the head.
When we someone be held accountable to enforce the “residence policy” for all of the mayors appointed figures????
Most of the Mayors staff does not live in this city but they are the ones making decisions for all of us. It must be nice to make a bad decision that ends up screwing us tax payers and then go home to Plymouth,or Canton,or Livonia or Novi and then come back to dearborn on Monday morning.
I have said this before people,votes have consequences and the next election will be the most important election in the history of dearborn and for the existence of dearborn.