Eastpointe, MI - Committee seeks to place new building question on ballot

City Hall too costly, group says

Committee seeks to place new building question on ballot
PUBLISHED: January 25, 2007
By Mitch Hotts Macomb Daily Staff Writer

Macomb Daily photo by Craig Gaffield











Former Eastpointe city councilman James Collins, left, watches as resident Robert Landino prepares to sign a petition demanding an election for a new City Hall. Also looking on is Ken Brown, a member of the committee requesting the election.

A group of residents in Eastpointe has formed a committee to collect signatures on a petition to force a referendum election on whether the city should use $4.5 million in bonds to construct a new city hall.

The committee, Let Eastpointe Residents Be Heard, needs to gain approximately 2,300 signatures by Feb. 27 in order to conduct an election. If that happens, it would essentially stop the city from tearing down the existing City Hall on Gratiot Avenue and constructing a new municipal facility.
Organizers said the committee was launched because they felt residents in Eastpointe should be allowed to vote on the bond issue as residents in some other communities did.
"We're not talking chump change here," said Ken Brown, one of the group's organizers. "This is a very large financial commitment by the city and by the taxpayers for years to come. We want a voice in this process."
The Eastpointe City Council in November voted 4-1 to remove asbestos at City Hall, demolish the building and erect a new structure on the same property. Councilman Ron Selvidge cast the vote against the project, saying it was too expensive in an uncertain economy.
City officials say the project will not require a tax increase and will be paid off through a bond issue over 25-30 years.
The building is expected to cost $3.8 million, but the city added another $700,000 in the bond issue as a cushion against overruns.
James Collins, a former council member who is part of the committee, said the public's response so far has been supportive of the effort.
"Everybody I've talked to in the past couple of days can't believe they were not allowed to vote on something of this magnitude. I've never had this much support for an issue," Collins said.
Other committee members include Kevin Grand and Ken Brown.

They have set up an e-mail address at leteastpointeresidentsbeheard@yahoo.com.
Mount Clemens-based Partners in Architecture was hired by the city to assess the physical condition of all city-owned buildings. The firm found it would cost almost as much to renovate City Hall as it would to construct a new one.
City Council members said they conducted a number of public forums on the subject to gauge sentiment on the project and did not find overwhelming opposition.
Mayor Pro-Tem Veronica Klinefelt said the council votes by proxy for the residents on building a new structure by virtue of being elected representatives.
"We as a council have gone through all of the facilities, we've seen the deteriorating structure, we've read the paperwork on the pluses and minuses of building versus renovating. We did the homework. That's what the residents voted us to do," Klinefelt said.
Councilwoman Suzanne Pixley said she hopes the new municipal building will serve as a catalyst for private investment along Gratiot, the city's main commercial corridor.
"Just due to the fact that we're moving ahead we've had calls from people interested in some of our vacant properties on Nine Mile, on Gratiot and elsewhere," Pixley said. "Things are moving in this community."