Residents to decide whether to be city

1. Residents to decide whether to be city CHRISTINA HALL • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • February 17, 2008 http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080217/NEWS02/802170645/1004/NEWS02

2. Where is it?

3. A Village or a City? • It's been talked about privately the last 20 years. • Now, it's going to a public vote. • Residents in the village of Grosse Pointe Shores will decide whether they want to become the last of the Pointes to become a city during a May 6 special election. That's also when they will elect nine people to serve on a commission that would change the 77-year-old village charter. • Twelve people have thrown their hats into the ring to serve on the charter commission -- an election that could be a moot point if residents give a thumbs-down to the city idea. • "We've got layers of government. If we become a city, we can streamline that," Village President James Cooper said. "We can consolidate services, and ultimately that will reduce expenses."

4. Why? • Grosse Pointe Shores encompasses two townships -- Lake in Macomb County and Grosse Pointe in Wayne County. Eighty people live in Lake Township, with their children attending the South Lake School District. There are 3,213 residents in Grosse Pointe Township, with their children going to Grosse Pointe Public Schools. • The 97-year-old village provides services for the townships, such as public safety, and manages their books. But townships do what villages can't -- assess and collect property taxes and run most elections, said Mark McInerney, village attorney. • Village officials started the city discussion last year after talk in Lansing of communities finding ways to be more efficient and reduce layers of government. A bill was introduced that would have reassigned township duties to counties, but the idea didn't go anywhere, McInerney said. But it got village officials thinking. • "We really don't want, nor do our residents want, the townships to be abolished and taken over by the counties," Cooper said. "This is about local control.”

5. What Could Happen? • Cooper, who also is a Grosse Pointe Township trustee, sent a Dec. 19 letter to village residents about incorporation. He said he has talked with some township officials and plans to be at the Lake Township meeting in March. He said becoming a city won't affect the services residents receive. No one in village administration would lose their jobs, but elected township board positions would be eliminated. • Residents have raised concerns about changes in their taxes, especially if the city would choose to be situated in one county and have one school district. Also, some residents said they want to keep the word "village" in the name of the new city. Cooper said officials will work on how to incorporate "village" into the city name. • In his letter, Cooper wrote that he expects the impact on residents' property taxes "could only be favorable." McInerney said a city is permitted to adopt an income tax, but it requires a vote of the people and he "would be stunned" if the proposal would ever be raised. He said the law allows a city straddling two counties a choice to be in one county or the other -- but it doesn't have to. And, from what he can tell, changing the county line would not necessarily change a school district line.

6. Villages v. Cities • In Michigan, villages function much like cities, but differ in that villages are not completely politically independent of the township in which they reside, reducing their home rule powers. • Villages are required to share some of the responsibilities to their citizenry with the township in which they reside that cities do not. As of 2007, there are 259 villages in Michigan, of which 48 are designated home rule villages, and 211 designated as general law villages. • However, under the Michigan Constitution of 1963, any village has the authority to modify its charter, whether granted as a home rule charter or enacted as a general law charter.[ • In Michigan, a city is one of 2 types of incorporated municipalities, the other being villages. Cities and villages, along with townships,are the 3 main forms of local government in Michigan. • Of the 3 types of organization, cities are the most autonomous, with the responsibility of providing most all services to its residents. As of 2007, there are 274 incorporated, home rule cities in Michigan. • Most cities in Michigan are incorporated under home rule charters, although there are a few that were incorporated before the Home Rule Cities Act was enacted in 1909, and continue to operate under an older city charter. • Cities have a choice to be governed under the mayor-council form of government, which also includes the city commission form of government as a variant, or a council manager form of government.