The Dexter Village Council un-circled the wagons for a night, let down their hair and had a casual conversation with residents in the same venue that formal meetings are held.
"(This is) a little closer, a little less formal, a little friendlier," said Village President Sean Keough, as residents signed in for the meeting and took pink suggestion and evaluation slips.
Attendance could have been stronger, with between 15 and 20 residents showing up.
Several members of the council and audience noted that the tables at which the council sits, which are usually turned inward so the board members can talk among themselves, were facing the audience for practical and symbolic reasons.
"We want to be able to contact those that come out so we can continue the discussion and encourage participation in future meetings," which the council intends to hold roughly every four months, Keough said.
According to some of the longer-serving members of the council, town hall meetings have been held in the past, but not recently.
"I'm not sure if it's the first town hall meeting, but it's certainly the first for our group," Keough said.
The town halls came about after the Dexter Citizens for Responsible Government arose out of a petition by resident Mary Fialkowski.
The petition, which quickly collected more than 600 signatures, was a response to the proposed Sloan-Kingsley development of 575 living units and light commercial property.
One of the most serious allegations the group made was a lack of communication and transparency on the council's part.
These town hall meetings are designed with "no strict or rigid format," Keough said, and encourage "audience participation, which is essential and invited."
The first question residents had involved the sale of property for the Mill Creek Terrace development proposed by Ann Arbor-based Schulz Development & Consulting.
Residents asked for details, since the notice of sale had been posted after the village smoothed out the details with the developer.
Previously, the land transaction and a proposal for village office space had been "too tangled," according to certain council members.
The 6,100 square feet of property would complete the developer's existing parcel, allowing land for both the building and necessary parking.
"There is no official agreement yet, but we have intentions to buy it," Keough said. "We have to go through notices and have to change ordinances to sell the property."
Residents asked if the property sale will be open to the public, but the council clarified that announcing the property as a private sale is prohibited by ordinance, while at the same time allowing the village to accept a negotiated bid from the developer.
DCRG member Charles Vanheck raised the issue of whether there is enough parking for new developments during the construction phase.
Councilmember Jim Carson pointed out that parking downtown is ample, particularly after businesses close.
Keough said that was an example of one of the functions of the town halls - to make sure that everyone is "on the same page."
Councilmember Paul Cousins replied to concerns that the village was getting a good price for the parcel being sold to Schultz Development.
"We looked at other properties that had been sold, and we're getting $10 more per square foot," he said.
Keough said the 6,000-square-foot parcel will be put to good use providing parking for the proposed 27,000-square-foot structure.
"Keep in mind that the Monument Park building is 25,000 square feet," said Keough, who used the comparison to reinforce the significance of Mill Creek Terrace to the downtown.
"The developer already has interest from one client already," he said.
Another issue was the implication of the village becoming a tenant, to which some members of the council were receptive and others were not.
"I wouldn't (want to move village office and meeting space to Mill Creek Terrace) ... it looks out of Dexter towards Chelsea," Council Trustee Donna Fisher said.
She would prefer a location more central and inward-facing in the downtown.
Several members of the audience brought up the topic of commercial/industrial development versus residential development.
In particular, Vanheck wondered if the village had contacted Ann Arbor SPARK and the Washtenaw Development Council.
Village officials said that the little communication they had with those organizations had always been slight and had fallen by the wayside in recent years.
There seemed to be some interest in revisiting that topic.
"We need to get businesses to come into the village and pay wages so people can afford to live here," Carson said. "But just because you belong to SPARK, doesn't mean they look out for you."
There was talk of replicating the success of the industrial park on Bishop Circle and bringing more of that development to the area.
Mark Roberts was there to represent more than 100 of his neighbors in Bates Farms, who have feared annexation.
The 1981 Promulgation Agreement was brought up and Roberts requested a resolution not to annex, but the council reiterated the point that it had made in the past: by state law a sitting governing body cannot bind the hands of a future governing body through a resolution or ordinance.
One of two planned meetings branched off from the village's first town hall.
The council plans to meet with Robert's neighbors to address their concerns, in addition to having another meeting to look at the village's pursuit of cityhood.
The Bates Farm meeting was set at Monday's regular council meeting, which Roberts also attended.
It is targeted for March or April, when the snow clears so senior residents have an easier time attending.
"I'm cautiously optimistic," Roberts said. "We'll have to meet and see what happens."
Another topic of discussion was the cityhood study committee.
Several members of the audience thought the report was unrealistically positive.
"How does it benefit this community?" one woman who did not identify herself asked from the audience.
Cousins pointed out that one benefit would be not having to pay 1.5 mills to Scio Township and that some people won't have to pay public safety fees to Webster Township.
"We do everything that a city does," Carson pointed out. "We provide police, fire, sidewalks, events ... except two things - we don't run our own elections or do property assessing."
Carson said it is every village resident's right to have their own assessment, independent of the trends in Scio, to which village property is subject.
The council did point out a lack of community attendance when the committee met. Several members hoped to correct that in the future and get more of the community involved.
Planning Commission member Tom Philips applauded the council's effort to reach out, at the end of the meeting.
He said that transparency was already there, but town halls are a good step.
"To be any more transparent we would have to go around and read these things to residents individually," he said.
"I think the Web site here is really exceptional (in terms of providing information)."
In retrospect, Keough concluded the meeting a success and looked forward to larger attendance and a honed format in the future.
"I was very pleased with the questions and the participation that we had," he said. "I thought it was a healthy discussion. I thought there was good interaction.
"Everyone got a chance to say something. I just hope the audience got as much out of it as we did."
According to Keough, future meetings will probably be kept to a tighter, two-hour time limit, whereas the first meeting did not have one specified.
"One person said that we didn't necessarily have to give as detailed an answer as we did to questions," Keough said.
Vanheck said he expects attendance to be better at future meetings and mentioned that he had talked to several interested parties who could not make it due to the weather.
"I think this is important and I'm pleased that we had this meeting," he said. "I was a little surprised that Jim Carson and I agreed on the need for economic development."
Vanheck wasn't so sure that topic would have come out in a regular meeting.
"I really think that the council is trying very hard to establish lines of communication with people in the village," he said.
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