Well, another election is over and done with.
Granted, it wasn’t a particularly exciting election.
Oxford’s school board race was about as thrilling as slipping into a 20-year coma while attending a chess club convention in South Dakota in the middle of January. B-O-R-I-N-G!
Other than a few Lee Barclay signs here and there, I didn’t see anybody doing much campaigning.
The election front was very quiet and usually ‘quiet? bodes well for incumbents. Not this time.
I found it peculiar that voters chose to oust incumbent school board member Anthony Giannola ? and by such a wide margin too.
Challenger Pam Phelps trounced Giannola by a whopping 561 votes.
Either Phelps is a very popular lady or Giannola is a very unpopular man. Even fellow incumbent Lee Barclay beat the stuffing out of Giannola by 748 votes.
I guess the district’s central administration will have to get by with one less Yes Man on the school board. Moving on . . .
The millage issues in Oxford and Addison didn’t arouse any passionate battles between ‘yes? and ‘no? voters. Nothing like the great millage wars of ?99.
I was surprised that Addison voters so soundly rejected (615 to 281) the proposal to raise their operating millage rate.
Then again, Addison is a very anti-tax, conservative community ? which is why I like it so much.
It looks like the Addison government will have to dig a little deeper and make some more budget cuts.
Maybe Addison should hire a cheaper attorney. After spending $271,000 in legal fees last year ? roughly a quarter of the budget ? perhaps it’s time to solicit bids for new legal counsel. Just a suggestion.
The way Addison residents voted on their school millages was also interesting. You see Addison is part of four separate school districts in three counties.
Addison residents in the Oxford and Lake Orion school districts voted against their millage proposals. Oxford’s request went down 406 to 330 in Addison while Lake Orion’s proposal failed 32 to 28.
Addison voters in the Almont (Lapeer County) and Romeo (Macomb County) school districts approved both of their millage requests. Almont’s proposal squeaked by 8 to 7 in Addison while Romeo’s was approved 62 to 26.
If you too find this stuff interesting, perhaps we should meet for a drink and discuss our boring lives.
The final tallies on Oxford’s fire proposals and school millage request held no real surprises for me.
Voters pretty much did what I expected them to.
A few months ago, I privately predicted that three out of five of the ballot proposals would pass.
I wish all four of Oxford fire proposals had passed, but I’m glad we at least have the money to maintain the existing level of fire/EMS services plus establish our own Advanced Life Support services.
Once local ALS is in place, I think we’ll all sleep a little sounder knowing an ambulance isn’t at least 16 to 18 minutes away or worse, not available at all.
As for the school millage’s approval, my only advice to officials is ? spend it wisely, we’ll be watching things very closely.
Don’t squander your first ‘yes? vote in three attempts with wasteful or irresponsible spending.