If you’ve been following my posts here and on my old Facebook page, you’ll know that I’ve been thoroughly disgusted with city council for a long time now. With the notable exception of council member Sue Wylie (the only one who actually gives a damn about you), the city council consists of people who are colloquially referred to around town as the “old guard.”
Generally speaking, the old guard maintains an only-we-know-what’s-best-for-you attitude. They produce meeting minutes that have only the minimum amount of legally required information, deliberately keeping you in the dark about what they’re doing unless you personally attend a meeting – because they know that most people don’t have the time for that. This allows them to hide details until they get close to a decision when it’s too late for you to have any input. They appoint the people they like to city council vacancies – which is how the two newest council members running for election were selected. They make sure that people appointed to committees and commissions share their viewpoint, and these appointments often include people who’ve supported them politically. At one point, one well-known Clarkston family had a family member on the city council, the zoning board of appeals, the planning commission, and the historic district commission – as well as lots of friends peppered throughout city government. I’m sure it’s entirely a coincidence that everything they want seems to be readily approved while potential competitors always seem to be met with a lot of government resistance and red tape, if they’re allowed to compete at all. 🙄
Here is a sampling of what you can expect of our current government under Mayor Eric Haven’s leadership:
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- Ask too many questions or be perceived as causing too much trouble, and you will mysteriously find yourself in the middle of a lot of administrative roadblocks.
- Have to do some needed repairs to your home? You might just get a stop work order even though you haven’t violated any city ordinance.
- Complain about conflicts of interest? You’ll be ignored and personally attacked.
- Care about political speech? The United States Supreme Court has held that content-based political sign ordinances like Clarkston’s violate the First Amendment to the US Constitution, yet our city manager has put you on notice that you must comply with the city’s unconstitutional ordinance (and if sued, they will lose and have to pay attorneys’ fees).
- Care about budgeting, wise money management, and following the rules that the Charter authorized by the taxpayers requires? Sorry – the city council constantly authorizes unapproved spending and moves things around after the fact.
- Oh, you didn’t want to spend $400,000 (and counting) to refurbish city hall, and you wrote letters, signed a petition, and put signs on your lawn to get the message across? Too bad for you! They did it anyway (and I’ve posted an email from Mayor Haven that was sent from a non-city email account on this site in which he indicated that he was just fine spending up to $600,000 against your will on the city hall project).
- You’re going to have to pay for sewer repairs – even though the money that you already paid into the sewer fund was supposed to be used for . . . sewer repair. Why? Because the city council “borrowed” from the water and sewer fund to pay for the city hall project that you said you didn’t want.
My husband insisted that the city council follow the Open Meetings Act (OMA), and he was attacked personally and professionally – yet the city was eventually forced to admit that my husband was right and the Oakland County Prosecutor sent the city council a warning letter about their OMA violation. I had the nerve to make a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for public records, and five years later, even after a trip to the Michigan Supreme Court and numerous attacks on my character, gender, and marital status, my lawsuit still hasn’t concluded – even though I was proven right.
Many people say that they’re not happy with our awful local government, but they don’t think they can do anything about it, they (understandably) don’t want to be attacked, and/or they don’t have the time. City council members receive $25 per meeting, and the people appointed to committees and commissions aren’t paid at all, so it’s essentially all volunteer work. Those who are good at it spend quite a bit of time outside of formal meetings familiarizing themselves with the issues, time for which they are also not compensated. That leaves us with two kinds of people – people who genuinely want to serve and improve the community versus those who want to help their friends, shut down people who disagree, and maintain the status quo approved by the old guard. Unfortunately, the attackers usually wear down the people who really care until they give up – and that’s why, until recently, we had six council members (including the mayor) running unopposed in the November election.
The deadline to apply to run as a write-in candidate was October 23rd. I waited to cast my vote to see if anyone would volunteer. My plan was to vote for only Sue Wylie and to write in a candidate for mayor, though I was torn between two candidates who are eminently more qualified than current Mayor Haven – “Mickey Mouse” and “Donald Duck.” I was surprised – pleasantly so – to learn that Cory Johnston is running for mayor and Steven McLean, M.D., is running for city council as write-in candidates. They both have my vote and deserve yours, and I will explain why.
I have never met Steven McLean, but I know that just like my husband and me, the McLeans have been attacked by the machinery of Clarkston government. The McLeans wanted to move to the City of the Village of Clarkston and build a new house on an empty Main Street lot but ended up spending months debating with the planning commission, zoning board of appeals, and the historic district commission about what could be built. They were eventually denied permission by the historic district commission because the people on the historic district commission did not like their design. Still desiring a home in the Village, the McLeans bought an existing house on a large lot at the north end of Main Street. After allowing the city to use their property for a new public sidewalk, they added a fence to keep their dogs in the yard and provide some privacy from pedestrians using the new sidewalk. The historic district commission did not like the fence for what some might argue are very arbitrary reasons. Now Clarkston and the McLeans are in what could be a lengthy and perhaps expensive legal battle about property rights and safety versus arbitrary aesthetic opinions. Can you even imagine what this kind of treatment feels like?
We need more people like Steven who have been on the receiving end of our nasty local government so that others don’t have to share their experiences. It’s unbelievable that a city that only 918 people call home is infested with so much bureaucracy, and it all begins with individual appointments made by the mayor and city council. The mayor and city council are always telling us how they want Clarkston to be a place that people want to visit and live yet they completely ignore how badly people are treated once they get here. I wish more of the legions of the oppressed would run for council because only they will bring about the change we need by appointing people who realize that government serves the citizens, not the other way around.
And now a few words about Cory Johnston (and please know that I’ve said all of these things to him directly).
When we first moved here, we were unknowingly indoctrinated by the “old guard,” so of course we perceived Cory as some sort of a nattering nabob of negativism. There was the “Positively Clarkston” Facebook page, and it sure seemed as though Cory was running the “Negatively Clarkston” Facebook page because it often contained a lot of criticism of local government. I even heard that Cory once said that he hated Clarkston, so I was kind of puzzled that anyone would listen to the things he had to say. I also wondered why he didn’t just move somewhere else if he really thought Clarkston was so bad.
Over the years, I’ve gotten to know Cory, and I’ve come to realize that my initial perceptions – fed by those around me – were entirely wrong. He doesn’t hate Clarkston at all – but he does despise incompetent government (as do I). Cory has done a lot for the city, but I’ll leave it to him to toot his own horn because he doesn’t make a habit of bragging about it. Cory has always made a lot of excellent points about following state law and the Charter, even though those points may sometimes be lost because they are combined with a well-founded and justifiable frustration with our awful city government. Cory is very concerned about wild, unbudgeted spending. He believes in open government, and he steadfastly supported my husband and me while we were viciously attacked for half a decade as we fought for transparency.
Our country was founded by people like Cory who dared to criticize government. It’s something that is as American as apple pie. Yet, our city council was so sensitive to criticism that they tried to extract an “explanation” from Cory about his criticisms before they would even consider appointing him for a volunteer committee position, a loyalty test that no other person was asked to undergo. He wouldn’t do it – nor should he ever have been asked to explain the exercise of his constitutional right to speak against our local government.
I recently read a comment on Cory’s Village of Clarkston Facebook page from someone who said that he would not vote for Cory because he doesn’t agree with Cory’s broader political beliefs. FYI, I will be cancelling out every single one of Cory’s votes in the upcoming state and national election because our broader political beliefs could not possibly be more opposite of each other. And yet, I can still like him as a person and support him wholeheartedly for mayor – because local politics are not partisan, and there is a lot of common ground for everyone to stand on here. I can assure you that Cory and I are absolutely on the same page when it comes to a belief that our local government is in desperate need of change. So yes, I can affirm that I am 100% behind Cory Johnston’s bid for mayor even though our political views could not be more different.
On the other hand, current Mayor Eric Haven:
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- doesn’t understand budgeting
- doesn’t care if the city goes into debt provided that it’s in support of his pet projects (or the pet projects of people he likes)
- wields the authority provided by the Charter for the mayor to chair city council meetings as a weapon to control what goes on the agenda (and what doesn’t) as well as who gets to speak (and who doesn’t)
- regularly attacks people who aren’t part of the old guard, delivering those attacks in a smooth voice that belies the venom underneath
- supported Sharron Catallo’s ability to vote on parking issues that benefited her son’s businesses in the city – even though Sharron was a corporate officer for two of her son’s corporations at the time, and even though Haven hadn’t disclosed his own conflict of interest due to his ownership of a commercial building in town that requires parking
Current Mayor Eric Haven also clearly prefers secret government. He:
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- supported the city during my husband’s Open Meeting Act lawsuit (and even voted to unlawfully close the meeting that was the subject of the lawsuit)
- believed that I should not be allowed to get the public records that I asked for in my FOIA lawsuit and supported a continued fight even after I won in the Michigan Supreme Court
- wanted to know if the city could force me to pay fees to the city if the Court ruled against me as a way to financially punish me for pursuing the FOIA lawsuit (even though the city’s attorneys’ fees have always been paid by the city’s insurance carrier and Clarkston owed no attorneys’ fees)
- has regularly communicated with other council members using personal email that can’t be tracked
- suggested that my husband had violated Clarkston’s ethics ordinance for posting public documents on his constituent Facebook page while my husband was a city council member
- ran a “secret” campaign for mayor in violation of the Charter, and rather than committing to behave in a transparent manner going forward, Haven’s solution was to appoint a committee of his friends to propose changes to the Charter that that will allow for secret campaigns in the future
After spending 21 years as a salesman, Haven works for a local church as a pastor, and he makes sure to let everyone know that. His email signature block asks you to “prayerfully consider” his church as “a beneficiary of your will, trust & life insurance.” I would urge you to look at what he has done and disregard any preconceived notions that you may have about how pastors are supposed to act. (I’d also urge you to keep grandma away from him before he puts that sales experience to good use and gets her to sign over her life insurance policy.)
To put it simply, Mayor Haven is bad news for Clarkston.
I really hope that you will consider casting a vote for only Sue Wylie (the one council member who has consistently shown that she truly has your interests at heart), Cory Johnston for mayor, and Dr. Steven McLean for a two-year city council term. It’s unfortunate that most of the other city council candidates will win anyway because they have no opponent, but a low vote count sends a message too – so I encourage you to leave their squares blank.
OK, you’ve convinced me – so how do I vote for a write in candidate?
Glad you asked! It’s easier than you think. Write-in candidates can and do win – just ask my husband. He won his first election for city council as a write-in candidate.
Your ballot will have three sections for the city, and only the incumbent names will be printed on the ballot as follows:
Mayor (vote for not more than 1)
Eric Haven is the only name that will be printed.
Council Member (vote for not more than 3)
Only three names will be printed: Al Avery, Joe Luginski, and Sue Wylie.
Council Member – Term Ending 11/08/2021 (vote for not more than 2) (these are the people who were appointed by the city council to fill the vacancies left by Scott Reynolds and David Marsh)
Only two names will be printed: Eduard Bonser and Gary Casey
Underneath each of these three sections, you will see an empty box with a blank line next to it. You just need to fill in the rectangle and clearly write in the full name of the person that you prefer.
So, in the Mayor section of the ballot, you would fill in the box and print “Cory Johnston” under Eric Haven’s name, just like this:
Mayor (vote for not more than 1):
Eric Haven
Cory Johnston_______________________
In the Council Member section of the ballot (the one with three names printed on the ballot), I urge you to vote for Sue Wylie and also fill in the box and print “Steven McLean” in the blank line under the other names, just like this:
Al Avery
Joe Luginski
Sue Wylie
Steven McLean______________________
It’s really that easy.
But I’ve already voted before I knew about the write-in candidates – can I change my vote?
Yes, you can! Here is a cut and paste from the State of Michigan’s website telling you how to do that:
If a voter has already voted absentee and wishes to change their vote (because the candidate has dropped out of the race, or for any other reason), a voter can spoil their ballot by submitting a written request to their city or township clerk.
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- The voter must sign the request and state if they would like a new absentee ballot mailed to them or if they will pick it up in person at the clerk’s office.
- This request must be received by 5 p.m. the Friday before the election if received by mail. An absentee ballot that has been returned to the clerk may be spoiled in person at the clerk’s office until 10 a.m. the Monday prior to the election. An absentee ballot that has not been returned to the clerk may be spoiled in person at the clerk’s office until 4 p.m. the Monday prior to the election.
- If a voter has not returned his or her ballot, the voter can surrender the ballot or sign a statement stating that the ballot was lost or destroyed and vote at the polls. There is no option on Election Day to spoil an absentee ballot that has been received by the clerk.
(https://mvic.sos.state.mi.us/Home/VoteAtHome/#change-vote)
Here is the information for contacting Jennifer Speagle, the Clarkston Clerk, if you want to change your vote:
Mailing address:
City Hall
375 Depot Rd
Clarkston, Michigan 48346
Phone: (248) 625-1559
Fax: (248) 625-3770
Email: speaglej@villageofclarkston.org
Business hours:
Mon. 9am-5pm
Tue. 9am-5pm
Wed. 9am-5pm
Thu. 9am-5pm
In addition to these regular business hours, the clerk’s office will also be open Friday October 23, from 9am to 4pm, Friday October 30, 9am to 4pm, and Saturday October 31 from 9am to 4pm.
Thanks for listening, and I really hope that a majority of us cast our votes for good government and elect Cory Johnston as our mayor, Dr. Steven McLean as our newest city council member, and that we re-elect Sue Wylie to the city council.