Elections Report - Livingston County 2013

I didn't follow out county closely, so I'll just mention the winners of those. 

South Lyon Millage Renewal passed easily.

Webberville School millage renewal passed easily.

Byron Schools proposal failed.

Mott Community College Bond passed (lost in Livingston)

Fenton Schools Headlee Override passed.

The other elections went as follows:

Howell Mayor - Phil Campbell was unopposed.

Howell City Council Member (Top 3 win)
Daria W. Devantier 183
Richard Grimes 241
Jeff Hansen 378 
Nikolas Hertrich 264
Scott Niblock 437 
Nick Proctor 384 
Write-in Votes 4

Both incumbents win, along with Nick Proctor who ran probably the most active campaign of the challengers. 

Howell City Board of Review (Top 2 win)
William J. Flattery 378 
Bob Parker 309
David Teggerdine 529 
Write-in Votes 2

Incumbents win there as well. 

Brighton City Council Member  (Top 4 win)
Ricci Bandkau 795 
Shawn Pipoly 791 
Kristoffer L. Tobbe 811 
Susan L. Walters-Steinaker 469
Shanda Willis 738
Write-in Votes 10

Both incumbents win there, along with newcomers Tobbe and Willis. Willis is a democrat (replacing another dem) so we'll have to keep an eye out there if she wants to run for another office in the future. I'd rather not deal with another Tipton situation.

Brighton City Proposal 13-01
Shall the City of Brighton, for the purpose of improvement, repair and maintenance of public streets, public sidewalks and public storm drainage facilities, levy up to 1.2500 mills ($1.2500 per thousand dollars of taxable value on all real and personal property) for a period of ten (10) years, 2014-2023, inclusive?  If this new millage is approved and levied in December 2013, the estimated amount of revenue that would be collected in the first year would be approximately $487,061.21.

YES 541
NO 736

Brighton City Proposal 13-02
Shall the City of Brighton, for the purpose of purchasing and maintaining public safety equipment, which may include patrol vehicles, body armor, weapons and law enforcement-related technology, levy up to 0.3800 mills ($0.3800 per thousand dollars of taxable value on all real and personal property) for a period of ten (10) years, 2014-2023, inclusive?  If this new millage is approved and levied in December 2013, the estimated amount of revenue that would be collected in the first year would be approximately $148,066.61.
YES 690
NO 590

Brighton City Proposal 13-03

Shall the City of Brighton, for the purpose of improvement, repair and maintenance of public buildings and public parks, levy up to 0.3700 mills ($0.3700 per thousand dollars of taxable value on all real and personal property) for a period of ten (10) years, 2014-2023, inclusive?  If this new millage is approved and levied in December 2013, the estimated amount of revenue that would be collected in the first year would be approximately $144,170.12.

YES 452
NO 825

Brighton City Proposal 13-04
Shall the City of Brighton, for the purpose of replacing the existing residential rubbish collection fee, levy up to 1.1580 mills ($1.1580 per thousand dollars of taxable value on all real and personal property) for a period of ten (10) years, 2014-2023, inclusive?  If this new millage is approved and levied in December 2013, the estimated amount of revenue that would be collected in the first year would be approximately $451,213.51.
YES 562
NO 708

Lastly, the Genoa Township Millage. Protect Genoa Township Neighborhoods has the whole run down there. Here's the results.

	Turnout	Yes	No	Total	Yes%	No%
Genoa 1 & 9	17.71%	186	378	564	32.98%	67.02%
Genoa 2 & 10	16.82%	117	249	366	31.97%	68.03%
Genoa 3 & 11	19.58%	92	374	466	19.74%	80.26%
Genoa 4 & 8	33.91%	181	698	879	20.59%	79.41%
Genoa 5 & 12	31.62%	161	417	578	27.85%	72.15%
Genoa 6 & 7	36.14%	291	778	1069	27.22%	72.78%
Total	25.93%	1028	2894	3922	26.21%	73.79%

I got involved in this for family reasons. I didn't ask the GOP to get involved in this partly because of family, and partly because I didn't want to be a distraction and didn't want this to turn into R vs D, especially as County Dems aren't the problem with this turkey of a proposal and its master plan. I was a consultant and the blogger. I was not and am not the face of the group. Others can wear that hat better than I can there. .  Protect Genoa Township Neighborhoods had support from Republicans, Democrats, Independents, non-political, establishments, tea parties, and all those in between. The 73.79% results with higher turnout than an August primary election showed that.

This was an old school grass roots campaign. It didn't have a lot of money, but enough for a campaign if it wasn't wasted and smart decisions were made. The committee knew if people had the facts and saw through the company line horse manure that this would lose. The postcards came out, as did the stories in the Argus, Brighton Patch, and WHMI. Word of mouth and old fashion small town and neighborhood politics did the rest and the people went out to vote. The Southern half of the township (South of Crooked Lake) all had 30%+ turnout. They all not only were impacted by taxes, but by the roads to be widened and paved. They didn't want to pay for it. They didn't want the property tax increase, increased assessments (and more taxes), reduced property from the widening of the roads, trees cut down, infringement of rural character, more speeding cars, and the waste of tax money.

If there's a massive projects plan, it would be more prudent to run these by the people in those neighborhoods long before putting this on the ballot and then claiming public support based on a survey of 450 people. If you claim that Mountain, and Prairie View want to widen and pave Cunningham Lake, you better be damn sure that's the case. That was either a bad read or an outright lie, I don't know which. Precincts 7 and 8 sure didn't support this or even run close to 50-50. A couple of outspoken individuals does not make a majority.

This goes beyond Cunningham Lake as well. Most didn't want southern Bauer, Beck, Conrad or Herbst roads widened and paved either. Crooked Lake was mixed, but a lot of people didn't want that widened and paved either. There was also jurisdictional issues between the road commission and the township. The roundabout wasn't popular either. Most important of all, this millage didn't fix the main roads.
 
This roads millage was bad all around, and the results showed that. Other things are in the works as well, but that's down the road. 

No sale on the Genoa Township Road Millage

There's plenty of coverage on the millage in today's Argus over the Genoa Twp Millage. You can find in depth comments on this at the Protect Genoa Township Neighborhoods blog. Here I'll comment on Mike Archinal's guest column. Needless to say, I disagree with it. On this blog, I'll speak for myself and not the group, so I'll be a little more blunt here.

On Nov. 5, Genoa Township residents will have a choice to make about the condition of roads in their community. They can vote yes on the Genoa Township road proposal to fund a 15-year, 1.5-mill increase to fund projects throughout the township or they can vote no. It’s that simple.
Anyone who drives in Livingston County — or in Michigan, for that matter — knows the condition of our roads is poor. That’s a hard fact to argue. Livingston County residents have been negatively impacted by a system that is tied to lane miles and vehicle-registration fees, making our county roads the lowest-funded in the state on a per-capita basis.
Without additional revenue, much-needed improvements will not occur. We, as Genoa Township residents, can fix our roads. We have control over what happens here.
That is why our Board of Trustees has decided to give residents a chance Nov. 5 to vote on a proposal to improve roads in our township.
The Genoa Township road proposal goes to voters Nov. 5. They will decide the fate of a 15-year, 1.5-mill increase to fund a number of road improvements throughout the township.
If the proposal is approved, a home with a market value of $200,000 and a state-equalized value (SEV) of $100,000 would pay $150 per year. The first bill would appear on the 2013 winter tax.
The proposed road projects affect all areas of the township and would be completed over the next three years beginning in 2014:

It's a $3000 tax for a $200,000 home as this is a 15 year millage. For many homes in the township, it would be closer to $6000 and in some cases like Pine Creek, $10000. Most I know would consider a millage, if it actually fixed the roads. As the PGTN postcard says - "Does not fix Brighton Rd, Grand River, and Chilson." It also doesn't fix other main roads like Hacker, most of Challis (the heavily traveled part), Coon Lake, Dorr, or the paved portion of Bauer.  Those are the main roads people expect to be fixed. If the millage passes, improvements on those roads will not occcur. This is wasting $22 million dollars if I trust the township's numbers regarding costs (I don't). In addition, how much will it cost to maintain these paved roads, as the paved roads right now aren't well maintained to begin with. This created more costs, with limited benefits (and in some cases detriments).

Some board members mention that Brighton Rd among others will receive federal funds for improvements. If so, why have the millage in the first place?

Archinal then describes the projects.

2014

• Crooked Lake Road would be paved from Chilson Road to the end of the pavement near Spring Hill Road. The paved roadway west of Lakewood Shores Drive will be crushed and shaped to provide a uniform, consistent cross-section.
• Latson Road from Aster Boulevard north past Conover Court will have a consistent three-lane cross-section with a center left-turn lane. Acceleration and deceleration lanes will be provided for all of the residential developments within the project limits. This project will also include a traffic signal at the intersection of Latson and Hampton Ridge Boulevard.

 Latson I understand, but widening and paving this? 

2015

• The intersection of Challis and Bauer roads will be improved with the installation of a roundabout. Other road-alignment changes will include the abandonment of Bauer Road between the staggered legs of Challis and the connection to existing Challis to the west. Challis Road will be paved east toward the railroad tracks.
• Beck Road would be paved from Chilson to Nixon Road. (Nixon Road will become Latson Road after the interchange is opened).
• Conrad and Challis roads will be repaved from Dorr Road to Clifford. This project involves significant grade and right-of-way issues.

Beck Rd. Interestingly, Laurex Real Estate just had a development sale for duplexes off Beck Rd. What's Laurex? It's a company run by two of Genoa Township's board members including the supervisor.  Gary McCririe and Todd Smith.

Why Conrad? Is that so Gary McCririe can have a shortcut to Dorr Rd and not have his car dirty? That's not a repave, but widening and paving. Challis is dirt from Dorr to Conrad. That's not the part of Challis traveled heavily. As far as the roundabout goes, people love them or hate them. I think they are a waste of money.

 

2016

• Herbst Road will be improved along its entire length. On the western end, from Dorr Road to Acre Hill Street, the existing roadway will be crushed, shaped and repaved. On the eastern end, Acre Hill to Grand River Avenue, the gravel portion of the Herbst will be paved.
• Cunningham Lake and Bauer roads will be paved. Cunningham Lake will be improved from Sundance Trail to Bauer Road then north on Bauer Road from Cunningham Lake to the end of the pavement south of River Ridge. The existing paved portion of Bauer, from River Ridge to Brighton Road, will be crushed, shaped and repaved. Finally, the gravel portion of Bauer will be paved to the Township limit.
• Hughes Road will be repaved. The southern section from Grand River to Cherokee Bend will be milled and overlaid. The area north of Cherokee Bend to Golf Club Drive will be crushed shaped and paved.

For reference.

Hughes I support.  Herbst doesn't need to be widened and paved. Cunningham Lake residents made the opinions well known. Bauer doesn't need to be paved to the township line. There's only two homes on the Hamburg side. Do you think Hamburg's going to pave in the Brighton Recreational area along Ore Creek? I doubt it. 

 He closes to say:

If you have questions regarding the road projects, please attend our third Road Information Open House from 3-5 p.m. Tuesday at Township Hall, 2911 Dorr Road, Brighton.
I have given you the facts surrounding the Nov. 5 Genoa Township Road Proposal. It is now up to you — the residents — to decide. If you agree, vote yes. If you do not agree, vote no.
Whatever is decided, we will continue working to make Genoa Township the best place it can be for our residents.

I encourage all residents to attend the meeting. Protect Genoa Township Neighborhoods didn't need to spin anything. If our residents know the facts, the results will be in our favor.  That said, this is an all or nothing proposal. That was made clear by the manager.  I'd support Hughes and Latson (near Grand River), but the other projects make this unworthy of support from a fiscal responsibility standpoint, as well as one from a protecting our rural character standpoint.

That's why we all encourage a no vote, so the township can come back with something reasonable.