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Grosse Pointe Shores Council Passes Budget 4 to 3
Following a couple hours of comments by about a dozen residents, Shores passes the budget with a 1.25 millage increase.
The Grosse Pointe Shores Council approved the 2011-2012 fiscal year budget in a 4-to-3 vote Monday following more than an hour's worth of residents' comments. The budget includes a 1.25 millage increase.
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Following a litany of comments from Grosse Pointe Shores residents—both for and against the millage increase—the council passed the 2011-2012 fiscal year budget in a 4-to-3 vote.
City Manager Brian Vick prefaced the public comment portion of the public hearing with background about how the proposed $5.4 million general fund budget was reached. Vick said council members had 11 meetings leading up to Monday and he detailed the considerations discussed by council.
Vick highlighted that with his proposal of a 1.25 millage increase that the majority of residents would not actually see an increase in their tax bills but still pay less than this year. The increase in the millage leads to lower tax bills because of dropping home values--a point emphasized by some of the residents.
About a dozen residents spoke, of whom many were familiar faces. John Booth, Kay Felt and several others spoke against the budget and tax increase. Jim Anderson and a few others spoke in favor.
One resident who addressed the council, Pauline Lessnau, told council it was her first time attending a meeting. She reminded the council that the city of Grosse Pointe Shores does not exist to employ people but to provide services to meet the needs of the residents.
Lessnau said she works two jobs and the repeated tax increases are detrimental to her family, even telling council that she may have to move from the Shores if it continues. She also said she's aware of the political divide but believes the council should take a closer look to make more cuts.
She also noted that she paid $500 for the first time for her children to participate in the Shores swim team—one of the changes implemented as part of the budget talks to ensure the program pays for itself. Lessnau said she's willing to do her part as a resident and urged the council to look at other organizations or cities similar to the Shores for ideas, specifically related to employee contributions to health care/retiree benefits.
Before voting, the council shared their comments, many of which became heated and drew scoffs, yelling and even profanity by those in attendance.
Councilman Ted Kedzierski said he would still like to see multiple-year budget planning to prevent the annual crunch the council finds itself in. He also questioned how the council will ever be able to balance a budget if the legacy costs are not addressed.
Councilman Robert Graziani accused Kedzierski of "political showboating," explaining everyone on the council had their opportunity to suggest cuts. The audience was quieted by Mayor James Cooper several times during Graziani's comments.
Councilman David Galbenski said he believes the actions of the council members should speak louder than words. He said he believes there have been inconsistencies by some council members and that he is far from being inconsistent.
Councilman Dan Schulte said he thinks more changes could have been made, such as condensing the financial manager and city manager positions from two to one, noting the Shores does not have a business district and combining such jobs would make sense for a community like the Shores.
Mayor Cooper said he believes the originally discussed 1.75 millage increase would be "the right decision" but the community is unlikely to accept it. Meanwhile, the 1.25 millage increase recommended by Vick fills the budget gap of about $354,000 although it does not allow for savings or financial planning, he said.
Cooper also commented about employees leaving the Shores, saying they are leaving to seek stability not because for any other reason. Keeping quality employees has been a focus for Geraghty, who says making more cuts will only lead those valuable to seek employment elsewhere.
During the council's most recent committee of the whole meetings, there was discussion of a 1.75 millage increase with 1.25 going to the general fund, 0.25 going to the vehicle replacement fund, and the other 0.25 going to the roadway funds for upkeep and paving. Vick said at the beginning of Monday's meeting he was simply recommending the 1.25 millage increase.
The vote did not follow its usual split: Galbenski, Kedzierski and Schulte voted against the budget while councilwoman Victoria Boyce, Cooper, Graziani and Geraghty voted in support.
Much of the crowd in the standing-only room stood and walked out of the room, many sharing their frustrations with each other following the vote.
Afterward, Lessnau said she chose to attend Monday's meeting as her first because she is trying to be a better citizen and she believes there is a lot of talk by the council members about change but not much action to affect change. She is worried about the fiscal stability of the Shores, she said.
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gloria anton
9:17 am on Wednesday, June 15, 2011
The GPShores council lived up to the slogan of "never equalled, never surpassed" when they increased the taxes on residents last night.
Robert Lee
12:48 pm on Thursday, June 16, 2011
If Councilman Galbenski is so consistent, why didn't he vote for a tax increase, after just giving a long and pompous argument about why it a 1.75 mil increase was the right thing to based on the priorities that the finance committee had set? My guess is that Cooper and his cronies already knew that they had 4 votes to get the vote on raising taxes through. So they decided to give somebody a free pass so that he could go into the 2011 fall elections saying that he did not vote to raise taxes.
The whole meeting was rife with hypocrisy. Especially the council's repeated criticism of Mayor Pro-tem Ted Kedzierksi, who provided the council in April with a well thought out document that outlined a number of cost saving measures that the Cooper slate refused to adopt. They criticized Ted for not having solid numbers to go with his cost cutting proposals. Shouldn't that be the job of the city manager and finance director to crunch the numbers when an official comes forth with constructive suggestions on how to lower expenses?
I encourage residents to call Shores city hall and get a copy of the meeting DVD to watch at their leisure. It's worth watching just to hear the impassioned comments of Pauline Lessnau as noted above. She's is right on with her observation that good government should function with the interests of the citizens in mind, not for the benefit of the civic employees! Kay Felts comments on the bullying she witnessed at the finance committee are also worth a view!
Chris K
11:27 pm on Thursday, June 16, 2011
"It's time to end all the name calling and divisive insults. "
Great idea Mr. Kurtz what are you waiting for?
gloria anton
11:27 am on Friday, June 17, 2011
Awwwww, Mr. Kurtz, semantics doesn't change the intent or effect. Speaking of hypocrisy, try this one.
When two council members tried to schedule a Town Hall meeting at city hall, the mayor and four of his council members reacted by voting to place a moratorium on public use of the building. Then, just a week later, the mayor and his fabulous four scheduled a town hall meeting for themselves. Isn't that a great example of hypocrisy?
I completely agree that we have many good employees but, as one resident stated, the purpose of a city is not to provide employment but to serve the citizens.
Since you are so interested in this community, why haven't you run for council? You seem to have all the answers. Perhaps you would rather be the man behind the curtain.
Robert Lee
1:52 pm on Sunday, June 19, 2011
Kurtz claims "93% of GP Shores residents will actually still pay less out of pocket for their total tax bill than last year." It brings to mind the dictum: "figures don't lie, but liars do figure".
An undisputed fact of this matter is 100% of Shores taxpayers will pay more for taxes this year than they would have because of how the Cooper administration handled things. The proper threshold for comparison is not your 2010 tax burden, but what you would have paid for taxes this year, before Mayor Cooper and Mr. Vick unilaterally intervened when Wayne County was ready to drop Shores property assessments 10.78%. Thanks to this meddling, property owners only got a 7.8% drop in assessments. Don't forget the Shores action also raised your taxes to all other civic entities using property value to calculate taxes!
To add insult to injury, Cooper & cronies then raised Shores taxes another 8% with their 1.25 mil increase. It's easy to go to the GPS assessor's page, get the data for your home, use these figures & see how as your home value plunged, the Cooper cronies worked hard to deny you the relief state law is supposed to afford. Doing the calculations on my home, Cooper's interventions took back about about half of the $1140 break the county gave before the Shores filed their appeal.
Don't be mislead by the phony logic espoused by Shores city officials year after year. And what ever happened to the significant cost savings that were supposed to accrue by converting to a city?
Sara Eaton Martin
11:33 am on Friday, June 24, 2011
This is a friendly reminder that Patch welcomes conversation and healthy debate about issues and community stories. Please keep your thoughts focused on the topic/issue at hand.
Harry Kurtz
10:37 pm on Friday, September 23, 2011
GP Shores leadership successfully recruited a Blue Ribbon Financial Advisory Committee, comprised of several highly regarded residents, including Business Owners, CPAs, Doctors, Lawyers, Managers and even one of the harshest, longtime critics of our council, who was personally invited to participate by Mayor Cooper.
Most on the committee worked diligently, along with City Manager, Brian Vick and Council Liaison, David Galbenski, for many months and came up with a list of specific ideas to address long term Legacy Costs. The June 2nd GP News lead story confirmed the prudent actions being implemented, pursuant to the "unanimous" approval of the Shores Council.
Our auditors say the books are in order so, where's the smoking gun, the big investigation or news expose', that surely should have resulted, from all the unfounded allegations of the naysayers these past two years?
Instead, we hear nothing but positive news, in addressing the same difficulties all cities have, as a direct result of the devastating recession, especially here in Metro Detroit.
In fact, according to the 2010 census, the Shores is the only one of the Pointes with a population "increase". That's a key financial indicator. All this success, despite a never ending litany of name calling and unsubstantiated allegations, by a small, politically motivated, same old news, sky is falling group, that offers no encouragement, no solutions and nothing positive, other than to proclaim "they can do better"?