Crowd condemns Woods tax increase, but the measure passes, 6-1

No one waved a teabag, but that might have been the only dramatic gesture missing at Monday night's packed Grosse Pointe Woods city council meeting. There were tears, displays of anger, testy exchanges and charges of embezzlement. But in the end, the council approved an increase in property taxes, voting along the same 6-1 lines that approved the measure in a budgetary session the previous month.

Council members Arthur Bryant, Allen Dickerson, Vicki Granger, Joseph Sucher, Pete Waldmeir and Mayor Robert Novitke voted for the millage increase. Lisa Pinkos Howle opposed it.

The vote came after 90 minutes of public comment both for and against the increase, but mostly against it. Nearly every seat in in the council chamber was filled, with many residents holding a flyer that was distributed anonymously throughout the city, urging attendance at the meeting in contemporary parlance: JOIN OUR TEA PARTY.

City Administrator Mark Wollenweber laid out the situation: With falling property values and related tax receipts, the Woods faces shortfalls in the coming fiscal year and beyond, even with $800,000 in spending cuts. A 1.75-mill increase is needed to support current spending and partially replenish cash reserves, he said, especially with tax revenues projected to continue their fall into the next fiscal year.

"We're trying to preserve our fiscal integrity while maintaining the high level of services residents expect," he said. "It would be irresponsible not to raise millage."

Wollenweber was followed by six speakers expressing support for the proposal. Resident George McMullan said he attends all city council meetings and said that "with deep regret, there is no other option" to address the shortfall. And then Novitke asked if anyone wanted to speak against it.

First to rise was Patricia Kukula-Chylinski, a former council member who ran unsuccessfully against Novitke in the 2005 election. She read a lengthy jeremiad against city officials and council members, who, she claimed, have squandered cash reserves and spent irresponsibly on such items as entertainment, travel, unnecessary legal services and staff positions. She aimed her most withering criticism at City Clerk Lisa Hathaway, whom she described as overpaid and underqualified.

"The current city clerk has only been city clerk since December of 2006 and is now (paid) about $1,000 more than the former clerk's top salary of $67,000. Why does the current clerk, after only less than three years (on the job), make more than the 32-year veteran former clerk?" she asked.

The proposed increase, Kukula-Chylinski said, would give the Woods the highest tax rate in the Pointes, in support of a city government that cannot be trusted to spend the public's money wisely.

Kukula-Chylinski was followed by an amen chorus, many of whom said that with Michigan's dismal economic climate, reflected in job losses and foreclosures in the Woods, now is not the time to balance the budget with tax increases. "Every single business in the country" is cutting spending, said resident Glenn Brown. "You learn to live within your means. We the people are tired of this."

The tone of the comments escalated. One woman fought back tears and said she wouldn't have known about the proposal were it not for the anonymous flyer. "If even some of this is true," she said of the accusations made in the document, which echoed Kukula-Chylinski's, "then there needs to be a look at the budget in this city."

Another resident spoke of a $1.7-million accounting error, which city officials blamed on a formula mistake in a spreadsheet. "Where did this money go?" she demanded. "Did any of you embezzle it?"

The anger reached a crescendo when Eric Steiner, another former council member, said, "you can cut a million bucks out of this budget in a heartbeat" and told councilman Dickerson to take note of business vacancies on Mack Avenue "when you're going to your house in Port Huron."

Public comment was closed shortly afterward, and city officials responded. The $1.7 million was "clearly a mathematical error," said Treasurer/Comptroller Dee Ann Irby. "There was never any ($1.7 million) in the first place." Irby and Wollenweber reiterated that the city has worked hard to make budget cuts, curtailing city cars, keeping equipment longer, holding salaries at current levels and using other measures.

Councilman Sucher said that the difficult economic climate did not justify a dismantling of the services residents have come to expect, which help sell the Woods to potential new residents. "We could destroy this city in two years, and become just another suburb," he said. "I want to maintain Grosse Pointe Woods as Grosse Pointe Woods as long as we can."

Dickerson denounced the flyer as "half truths and distortions. ...It was meant to be inflammatory, and it worked." Even with the millage increase, he pointed out, many residents are seeing their assessments fall far enough that they will see a net decrease in taxes. (Later, Dickerson answered Steiner's charge: "I have a summer cottage north of Port Huron. I live in Grosse Pointe Woods.")

After the vote and adjournment, Kukula-Chylinski told residents, "Find candidates who will run against these people." Dickerson, Granger, Waldmeir and Novitke are up for re-election this fall. As for whether she was up for a rematch, Kukula-Chylinski said, "I haven't decided."

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly spelled the names of council members Allen Dickerson and Pete Waldmeir.

E-mail Nancy Nall Derringer

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