Henderson's 9/16/13 Troy City Council Updates

Image via Troy Patch

Troy City Councilman Dave Henderson gave me an ongoing "OK" to post his Tuesdays with Dave Facebook reports. It looks like he's changed the name to Council Updates with Dave (you'll see why when you read his post below).

As a public service for those of you not on Facebook, here's Council Updates with Dave for 9/16/13.

Alright we all know by this time that counting on me to actually get this blog out by the next day isn’t likely to happen. So I suppose I’ll just change the name and go about this a little differently. Moving forward, this is going to be a periodic update on things I’m involved in on city council. By all means, if you have any specific questions about anything that takes place in a meeting, I will answer more rapidly than I would if I rehash each meeting for you.

So here goes…

Last meeting we were recognized by SEMCOG as a sustainable community. Our Assistant City Manager spearheaded this initiative by looking into the requirements for such recognition, and there were very few additional requirements necessary to receive this recognition. Again Troy leads local communities in another category. Congrats.

State Rep Martin Howrylak gave us a legislative update. He also awarded officer Melinda Weingart the MADD 2013 Michigan Lifesavers award. Melinda has won this award 9 previous times. Way to go.

Tom Kaszubski gave a short presentation about Troy Family Daze. I attended the event each day , and saw good crowds, nice weather, watched the grandkiddos have a blast, ate an elephant ear, and filmed the Dane & Dave show on location. Stay tuned… should be some good footage to view.

There has been lots of discussion on the general fund balance at council and outside of council meetings. The fund balance has been in excess of the council mandate since before I became elected. The argument has been whether the council mandate was realistic, and or whether that amount was going to be used up in a matter of a few years simply due to declining taxable values to run the day to day functions of the city. Well I’ve had a wait and see approach to the fund balance since elected. If the previous management was right, the city would be broke in about three more years… if forecasts were too conservative (and yes there can be such a thing), and if real estate prices rebounded (and they are), then there will be excess fund balance and not the doom and gloom forecasted a couple years ago. It appears things are looking up and there is and will (hopefully) be better news moving forward. The question is, what do we do with the extra fund balance if it is not going to be needed to run the store day to day? There are a lot of options, I’d like to hear what you have to say about it, and know that much conversation will be forthcoming before any decisions are made by council. Anyone care to comment?

We also talked a bit in a study session about sidewalk snow removal. Since the cuts to service were made a few years ago, there are a few areas where sidewalks behind a home (primarily on main streets) may have been maintained by the city, but now are not. The responsibility now falls on the homeowner to clear the walks in front and behind their homes. There are apparent difficulties with this process, just imagine if your lot was 200’ deep, and 8 homes in, from the nearest corner, or thick landscaping that blocks the road noise from your home… how do you get your snowblower back there to clear the walks? We talked through the process at length the other night, and are searching out a good resolution. More conversation to come on plowing and sidewalks in general to come. We should have something knocked out before the first snow flies.

Other business…

In addition to council meetings, this month so far I’ve toured the old stone school house at the N W corner of Troy, Attended and cooked for the Troy Employee Picnic, Attended the retirement board meeting, picked Jr. up from the airport after his 5 month deployment in Afghanistan, Attended the Chamber of Commerce new office opening, Attended the Festa de San Marino annual dinner, attended 4 days at the Troy Family Daze shooting the Dane & Dave Show, and this week I’m attending the Michigan Municipal League convention in Detroit, and attending the Troy Rotary Clubs wine tasting event. Next week are the Firefighter awards and the area hospitality committee meeting. Whew… another full plate for this councilman.

If there’s something I missed and or you have questions… feel free to comment below.

See you next time

Dave