Incumbent Bruce Believes Farmington Hills Needs Experienced Leadership

In these difficult economic times for the city of , Randy Bruce believes the city needs experienced leaders.

The eight-year council member is running for another four-year term Nov. 8 in a field that includes six other candidates for three open seats. Bruce said his experience in dealing with the city's past financial issues and current challenges gives him a "big-picture view."

"I think we're a wonderful community, and I want to see this a remain a wonderful place to live and work," he said. "I want to be one of the people who works to keep that."

Bruce said key issues are: the city budget, with declining property values leading to steep cuts in programs; the need to attract people and businesses to the city; and maintaining the city's fire and police services. He is in favor of , which would add 1.7 mills to property tax bills. Officials approved putting the measure on the ballot after debating over larger and smaller amounts.

A 2-mill increase would have not only maintained public safety services at current levels, but would also have kept the city's fund balance at 10 percent for a longer period of time.

"It was a good compromise, because both sides have skin in the game," Bruce said.

"It's got to be a shared sacrifice by both sides," he said, referring to the probable need to further reduce the city's budget and to find new revenue.

Bruce said his priorities in looking at the budget are maintaining police and fire protection. "People only want to live in a community where they feel safe," he said. "If response times go down, I think that will be a real negative impact."

He also wants to maintain the city's capital improvements budget, keeping up with repairs to roads and sidewalks, because "people don't want to live in a crumbling city."

Bruce said he also sees the need to continue the SMART (Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation) transit system — but as a countywide system, rather than letting individual communities opt out.

"If you want to make this an area where you attract a younger demographic, you've got to have mass transit," Bruce said, adding that he believes the question of whether the city participates has to be answered by voters.

He expects the city will continue to look at new ways to share services with surrounding communities and will "look at everything we can in terms of cutting."

However, he also said he thinks the city's "at our limit" when it comes to cutting staff without affecting service delivery.

Bruce takes pride in having a hand in balancing eight city budgets while maintaining one of the lowest tax rates in Oakland County and providing "what I think are world class services," he said. He pointed out that the council passed one of the area's first dangerous-animal ordinances, which has been used as model for other cities.

He said the residents he's heard from say they're satisfied, for the most part, with city services.

"They're concerned about the overall economic climate," he said. "I think there's a lot of worry people have about their own jobs. People are also seeing a big decrease in their property tax bills and think they're getting more of a bargain for their city services."

Bruce said the current council members have "a lot of respect for each other and each other's ideas. I think we get along great, even though we don't always agree with one another. It's too much work for too little pay to do this for any other reason than that you love your community."

A resident of Farmington Hills for more than 20 years, Bruce is director of neuropsychological services at Special Tree Rehabilitation Systems in Romulus and also has a private practice treating children and families, according to the city's website. In addition to his terms on the City Council, he served on the Zoning Board of Appeals.