There will be plenty of choices to make when voters head to their local precincts in November. City, township and state races for boards, councils and elected officials and a long list of proposals and renewals for schools, public safety and libraries.
There are also other initiatives that some voters will be deciding on around Oakland County. Here are some of those proposals.
BEVERLY HILLS
In Beverly Hills there is a proposed charter amendment to allocate specific funding for public street and road improvements, maintenance, and construction.
The current general tax levy of 12.9 mills is divided among parks, public safety, general administration, library services and other areas. The carve out for parks done in 2020 with 69% approval.
If approved, 0.75 mills ($0.75 per $1,000 of taxable value) would be allocated to public roads and streets for three years starting in July 2027 and generate $700,000 annually.
“What we’re doing this time is we’re really just looking at another kind of internal reallocation of the existing rate. We’re not asking for more ability to tax or less, said Warren Rothe, Beverly Hills village manager. “We’re just asking residents, ‘Hey, can we shift some of these millages to what we can use them around for?’ In this case, we’re looking for 0.75 mills to be used towards road projects.”
Rothe said the public safety fund has benefited from growth in the Village’s taxable value and has accumulated reserves. The proposed amendment would reduce the public safety authorization from 9.90 mills to 9.15 mills while preserving sufficient dedicated funds for public safety purposes.
Rothe said the 12.9 mills generate around $10.5 million annually for the village.
“For us, we’re a little different. We have 10.5 million, and 75% of it must go to public safety,” he said. “So, we’re just trying to right-size this a little bit, and then there’s precedent for doing so when they did back in 2020, they carved out a new category for parks, which wasn’t in there originally, either back in 2010.”
Rothe said the new millage would be the equivalent of a 50% increase in road funding from what they are getting now from our other sources for the 4.5 square mile village.
A few major road segments projected for improvements and repairs include parts of 13 Mile Road, Evergreen Road, and Beverly Road.
“Those are some of our main thoroughfares we’d like to target, along with several local neighborhood roads,” said Rothe.
Rothe said the new millage would be the equivalent of a 50% increase in road funding from what they are getting now from our other sources for the 4.5 square mile village.
file photo
FERNDALE
After approving two charter amendments in August, the City of Ferndale has two new amendments on the ballot next month.
City Manager Colleen O’Toole explained the two proposals.
“Section 5, is about an individual needing to resign from the city council in order to run for mayor. What this change would do is strike that portion of the city charter and no longer require an individual whose term is set to expire in a future year to resign to be considered to run for mayor,” she said. “They could retain their council seat and still run for mayor, and only if they were successful in that endeavor would a replacement need to be sought.”
Currently, council members must resign to run for Mayor unless their term ends in the same election year. The council then fills the remainder of the term with an appointed member.
The second proposal would amend Chapter III of the city charter.
“Under the current charter language, if a person resigns, either their replacement serves the remainder of their term or until the next odd-year November election, whichever is sooner,” said O’Toole. “What that means is you could have an individual serving for as much as a two-year term that was a temporary appointment. Under the charter amendment language, that would be changed to the replacement would serve the vacancy until either the sooner of an even or odd-year November election. It gives us a chance every year to try and fill that vacancy.”
Currently, if a council member resigns the council temporarily appoints someone to the position. That person then serves the remainder of the term or until the next odd-year general election, whichever is sooner.
The amendments approved in August established the terms and conditions of the operation of the Ferndale Policemen and Firemen Retirement System through ordinances, and the other removed the city’s Civil Service System.
The civil service board was deemed obsolete by the city, as Ferndale’s Human Resources Department now covers much of what the board would have provided.
“The vacancy process specifically, is an issue we’ve faced multiple times over the last five or six years,” said O’Toole. “It’s not entirely uncommon for a council member to resign for any number of reasons, and filling that vacancy in a way that is more voter-centric is something that was top of mind during our most recent vacancy process.”
In their most recent appointment in May, the council voted 4-0 to appoint Nina LaSalle to succeed council member Donnie Johnson, who resigned in April due to new job requirements.
The township parks and recreation department oversees over 1,500 acres of parkland and nature areas, including Bear Creek Nature Park, Blue Heron Environmental Area, Charles Ilsley Park, Cranberry Lake Park and others.
Photo courtesy OTPR
OAKLAND TOWNSHIP
Oakland Township will also have two millage renewals for consideration – a parks and recreation millage and a safety path millage.
The parks and recreation millage renewal is for up to 0.68-mills for 10 years beginning December 2027 and would raise $1.46 million in its first year.
The township parks and recreation department oversees over 1,500 acres of parkland and nature areas, including Bear Creek Nature Park, Blue Heron Environmental Area, Charles Ilsley Park, Cranberry Lake Park, Draper Twin Lake Park, Gallagher Creek Park, Lost Lake Nature Park, Marsh View Park, and Mill Race Trail.
Millage funding pays for supplemental maintenance, facility improvements and repairs to trails, park amenities, the Nature Center, playing fields and basketball court, community events and year-round recreation programming.
If approved, one of the main projects on the horizon is the scheduled 15-year limestone surface replacement on Oakland Township’s 5.3-mile corridor.
“It takes a lot of maintenance to upkeep the trails and the parking lots and paying for all of that in general. So that’s mainly what this is for,” said Emily Barkham, chairperson of the township Parks and Recreation Commission. “There are some parks that need parking lots for residents too, so they can go and visit the parks or trails and things like that.”
According to a department newsletter, if the millage is not renewed, funds currently used for the maintenance and improvement of Oakland Township Parks and the Paint Creek Trail and for the support of Parks and Recreation staff and Paint Creek Trail staff/security patrols would no longer be available. The township may not be able to find alternative sources of funding for those programs and improvements.
Major funding comes from the Oakland Township Safety Paths and Trails millage, voted in 2006 at a tax rate of .25 cents per $1000 of property value and renewed in 2016 at a tax rate of .17 cents per $1000 of property value.
The renewal on the ballot next month will remain at .17-mills for 10 years and raise $351,302 in its first year.
The funding can cover 100% of costs for land for paths and trails, plus construct and maintain the township-wide network of paths and trails.
Paths and trails in the township are built and managed by the Oakland Township Parks and Recreation Commission department and overseen by the safety path and trails committee.
“They (the committee) do so much important work in the area of connecting parks to safety paths and the amount of work that they have to look at and do to connect properties and make it safe for residents to walk is unbelievable,” said Barkham. “It is complicated, it is a lot of work, because you have to make sure it meshes with what the road commission might want, or what the township board might want, or the residents.”
The millage renewal in 2016 passed with 76% approval.
ROYAL OAK
Royal Oak voters will decide on renewals for two millages.
The first is to renew the .70 mills per year for five years, to provide funds for parks, recreation and playgrounds, including animal shelters.
According to Royal Oak Parks and Recreation Director Nicole McEachern, the millage was first approved in 2022.
“If they vote yes, this would continue the authorization without increasing the (millage) rate and the rate would continue to remain in place subject to future Headlee rollbacks” said McEachern. “It’s not a rate increase.”
The millage would raise approximately $2.9 million in its first year in 2027.
The city’s parks system comprises 50 parks covering 350 acres.
“We have parks in every neighborhood, walkable to all ages to help people stay healthy in Royal Oak. The millage supports the taking care of those parks including, grounds maintenance, mowing and field athletic field preparation when we want to have sports programming on our athletic fields,” said McEachern. “It helps us take care of our playgrounds; we have 49 playgrounds in our parks,as well as doing some major capital improvements in our parks.”
She said the millage passed in 2022 with 71% approval helped create a new playground at Run Run Park and if passed, the new millage would fund replacement of the playground at Lions Club Park.
“Anybody can access that on the city website if they want to see some of the projects down the road that we’ve tentatively put down for millage-funded projects,” said the director.
A small portion of the overall millage – less than 10% – goes toward funding the Royal Oak Animal Shelter, including operations and personnel. The remainder of shelter funding typically comes from donations.
The second proposal is for renewal of the senior services millage.
The rate would remain at 0.20 mills for five years and take in $835,664 next year.
Funding would be provided for senior services, which include activities, senior center, transportation, and community outreach through the Mahany/Meininger Senior Community Center.
“This facility is something that many of our seniors rely heavily on on a daily basis. They go there for exercise, social occasions and they go there for nutritious meals and support groups,” said McEachern. “There’s really something for everybody at the senior center; it’s a very active place. Last year we served over 34,000 people through the senior center.”
The same proposal was passed in 2022 with 61% approval.