Farmington Council Wrap-Up: Cable, Cooperation, CDBG

After a at Monday night's city council special meeting, officials turned to a review of their work plan for the current fiscal year. Here's a brief recap of their discussion:

Bring back a cable show?

City council member JoAnne McShane would like to see the return of a cable access show that featured officials talking about city issues. In the past, a round-table discussion was filmed at the (SWOCC) studio.

"When people hear the council actually talking, I think they can hear more what's being said," McShane commented.

Council member David Wright wondered whether officials could do a show before or after a televised council meeting, because cameras and operators would already be in place. City manager Vince Pastue said he would contact SWOCC executive director Caren Collins to see what could be done.

Help from Oakland County

In February, officials met with Joseph Martin, a community specialist with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), to talk about the possibility of using Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds – currently allocated to senior programs through the City of Farmington Hills – for downtown redevelopment.

CDBG funds come through the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, to benefit low and moderate income residents. Farmington is one of 51 communities that participate with the county, because they are not eligible for the funds on their own.

While breaking away from the county program would allow the city to devote funds to economic redevelopment, Pastue learned last week that it would bar homeowners from participating in helpful programs.

For instance, Pastue said, when the city rehabs sewer lines in the Floral Park subdivision this year, residents may also want to replace their old sewer "leads" or connections with the system. The county has a program to help residents with the costs. "We would lose that," Pastue said.

He added that, after some discussion, county officials have agreed to look into adding economic development projects as an option within their CDBG program. Wright also suggested the city could time its withdrawal from the program so that residents could take advantage of the assistance.

Shared services reporting

Wright also asked for some clarification in reporting on services shared with the .

"It seems to me that when we've had this discussion in the past, the question comes up, what are we getting and what does it cost us," he said. "It would be helpful to get that information ... I think it would get us all on the same page as to whether what we've done in the past makes economic sense."

McShane said a past review showed 22 shared services. She asked for an update as well, not only for services shared with Farmington Hills, but also with the county and state.

Pastue said the city has to present a shared services report, requested by Gov. Rick Snyder of all Michigan cities. Snyder has proposed eliminating the statutory portion of state shared revenues – a portion of sales tax collections distributed to local governments since the 1970s – and replacing it with a system of incentives for sharing services and implementing "best practices".

He said part of his analysis will include what services the city contracts through private firms, to reduce costs. Examples include a contract with DTE Energy for street lights and contracting with a private firm for on-call engineering services, rather than hiring a city engineer.

"We've been doing that for a long time," council member Mike Wiggins said. "I think we forget about it."

Pastue said former assistant city manager Bill Richards once noted the city also doesn't get credit for internal consolidation – the cross-training of fire and police in the public safety department, for instance. Pastue said he plans to work that information into the analysis.

"You hope you'd get some credit for that," he said.