I have some breaking news, at least in the Bisio household.
As you may know, there are three open positions for city council and one open position for mayor this November. Erica Jones isn’t running again, Sue Wylie and Al Avery decided to switch places with Wylie running for council and Avery running for mayor, and Amanda Forte is running for re-election to her council seat. Since all three are unopposed, they’ll be reelected.
That leaves an open seat on council that will be unfilled if there are no write-ins. When that happens, the council appoints a replacement until the next election, and that can bring out some political knives as different council members push one candidate over another. I recall one mayor who convinced the others that the candidates should be voted on in alphabetical order rather than voting on all candidates to see who got the most votes. Voting stopped after the first candidate, who just so happened to not only have a last name from the beginning of the alphabet but also was the mayor’s favorite. Why the fuss? It’s because favorites tend to vote the way their sponsors want.
Anyway. My husband has been thinking about running as a write-in for the open spot for a while. Since we confirmed the city offices were closed on Friday (which is the deadline for filing), he filed his paperwork yesterday. Neither the city manager nor our deputy clerk knew what to do with the filing and suggested he file with the county clerk. Had he followed that advice, his filing would have been rejected because the proper place to file is at the local clerk’s office. In the end, they called the clerk who explained to them that yes, they needed to accept his filing. And the rest is history.
I realize it’s late in the game, but if you haven’t voted already and would like to cast a vote for Richard, he’d appreciate it. Some of you may remember that he served a couple of terms as a council member many years ago, and his first term began after he ran as a write-in. So, we’ve come full circle.
If you’re interested in someone who might actually be in favor of cost-cutting and not rubber stamping every request, you should consider his candidacy.
Voting for a write-in is a little different because his name won’t appear on the ballot. So, you need to blacken the square on the left AND write his name on the blank line like so:
Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
We are different people and have our own opinions. If you read this website, you already know mine. If you’d like to reach out directly to Richard to discuss his positions on things, you can email him at bisiorichard1@gmail.com. I’m sure he’d also be delighted to chat with you if you’d like to go beyond email (313/402-8306).
Now, if you haven’t voted yet, GO VOTE! 🇺🇸
That should be fun for everyone. It should eliminate Alot of legal fees if that happens. It should eliminate a lot of money and time that’s being spent on foias at least.
Go Richard. Appreciate your bravery to address the task at hand. Hope our residents realize what you are willing to do on their behalf.
We don’t know if Richard will have the opportunity to serve. There could be other write-ins.
I think it’s cute: a. That you believe my husband tells me what to do, b. That this will stop the pending campaign finance lawsuits or prevent another given the city’s refusal to take me up on my offer to correct the record and stop misleading people about the “public safety” millage ballot proposal; and c. That you are unaware that even public officials in larger municipalities utilize FOIA to get information from foot-dragging staff who’d rather delay responding to any questions when there isn’t a statutory penalty warming their backsides.
If the city wants to avoid FOIAs and lawsuits, it could follow the law, be transparent, and perform competently. Given the misleading presentations on the millage proposal, I’m not hopeful. And if it weren’t for my FOIAs, we wouldn’t have discovered the negligent overpayments for police, fire, and EMS for 14 years; the negligent underpayments for police services for the last year; or the recent discovery that the city manager entered into an agreement with the chamber for city services and a dollar cap regarding the Taste of Clarkston without council’s knowledge or approval, something that is outside of his authority and unenforceable based on his signature alone. The chamber agreement is on Monday’s agenda for approval, even though it’s a ratification, and only because I discovered it through a FOIA; otherwise, no one would have known about it. And those are just three examples.