Dear Editor:
I understand your paper will be able to print the results of Tuesday’s election but I feel I must write this before I know the results. Your reporter, Andrew DuPont, used last week’s edition to predict the winners and Laura Colvin wrote some excellent articles about the issues and candidates. I would like to add my opinion on the issues and some information for those who are victorious. I would also like to thank all those who ran for office and participated in the democratic process. Please continue to do so.
First of all, I would like to note a couple of corrections to last week’s articles. Theresa Coventry, who was a write-in candidate for Clarkston City Council, has one daughter, two sons and two grandchildren. I do not see how the reporting of three daughters and three grandchildren will change anyone’s vote but I suppose her family might want the record set straight. Next, Sharon Catallo has only been Mayor for 14 years as there has only been a Mayor since 1992 when we became a City. Prior to that I believe she was the Village President and a Council Member since first elected in 1984. A long and impressive life in public service no matter how it is presented.
As for last weeks articles and the election, I would like to clarify some issues with regards to the Clarkston Police and budget as these seem to have become the predominant local election issues. I drafted the resolution for forming a police services committee so that we could find out what our residents want from their police. As the author of that resolution, I am pretty confident in stating that it was not intended to be a referendum on local police versus sheriff, even if many seem to think so. We cannot decide who will provide police services, how it is provided, or how much we will pay, until we know what services we want. My intent was to have a diverse, non-political, non-elected committee to research just that. I am confident that can still happen, regardless of the election results, and we already have many very qualified applicants. After this committee reports their findings, the City Council will then need to decide what to do with that information. As for the budget, it is very interesting that the election seems to have focused on this issue, and related it to the police, as the budget is established by the City Manager and approved by the entire Council. It is not created or approved solely by the Mayor. In fact the Mayor has no more say about this than any other Council member and unless the Mayor has at least three other Council members who agree, the Mayor cannot make any changes to our budget, or to anything else. This is the way City of the Village of Clarkston government operates and this election will not change that process. Just to let the public know, the Mayor does preside over Council meetings, can marry people and is the Chief Executive Officer of the City. The Mayor also has the power to suppress riot and disorder and if you find any snake known to be deadly poisonous you are to report it to the Mayor (formerly the Village President). I hope our Mayor will never need to participate in these last two activities.
I think it will be an exciting year and I am sure we can all work together productively for the good of Clarkston and the surrounding communities.
Cory Johnston
Clarkston City Council Member