On January 25, 2008 American Legion Unit #172 sponsored an event honoring selected members of the Rochester, Rochester Hills and Oakland Township police and fire departments. At this event, the American Legion presented these officers with the American Legion Americanism Award.

As part of that event, two Rochester public safety officers were honored for their achievements.

On Monday and Tuesday of this week the city council met for about seven hours as part of the yearly goals and objectives process. Although this was my first goals meeting as a sitting councilperson, I have attended several of these meetings in the past few years and have a fairly good understanding about how the process has played out in the past.

In reality, the meeting is a pre-budget discussion in which department heads present their requests for funding for the new fiscal year, as well as an overview of some of their 2-5 year goals. Based on the input from the city council, this series of meetings should help the city manager and finance director (at the moment, one and the same person) develop a budget for the 2008-2009 fiscal year.

In past years, this meeting was generally dominated by the city manager, with brief input from the department heads themselves. As a matter of routine, these meetings were essentially rubber stamp sessions in which the city council moved quickly through the process and approved whatever was being asked for.

It’s official. I was appointed to the Rochester city council on January 14, 2008 to fill the vacancy left by a councilperson who resigned last November.

Once again, I am humbled by the political process. It is an honor to be chosen by the six current council members. My particular thanks to Councilperson Kim Russell, who nominated me for the position. Further thanks to Councilperson Jeff Matis for supporting the nomination. The kind words expressed by both of you, as well as the other councilpersons, was truly appreciated.

I intend to update this website on a regular basis. It may take me a while to get back into the habit of doing so, but please bear with me.

Thanks again to everyone who supported me during the campaign and who continues to support me today. I will do my best to live up to your expectations.