The Dexter Leader
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
MML helps update village on cityhood
By Sean Dalton, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: May 15, 2008
Members of the Michigan Municipal League came to Dexter this week to shed some light on just what it means to become a city.
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The village voted to begin the lengthy process of attaining cityhood status last year. The village formed a City Study Committee two years ago that compiled information for the village council previously.
Not much has changed between then and Sue Jeffers' and Mary Charles' presentation at the work session last Monday, although a lot of fresh discussion was generated during that meeting.
"In Michigan there are only two primary units of government, a city and a township," Jeffers explained. "Your primary units of government can do three things, assess property as a basis for taxes, collect the taxes for counties and schools, and conduct county, state and national elections.
"When you're thinking whether or not the village of Dexter should become a city, you will take on these responsibilities and only these responsibilities."
Jeffers also explained that Dexter would be responsible for its own roads, in terms of construction, maintenance and repairs.
"When you see growth in population, which you have, (and) as density increases in an area there is generally a cry for more services ... more water, sewer services and control of streets," Jeffers said.
She also highlighted the tax situation in Dexter, pointing out that the village was formed prior to 1909, when the Home Rule Village Act was adopted. Villages formed after that date must be a home rule village, rather than a general law village. A general law village, such as Dexter, remains a part of the township and participates in township elections and pays township taxes. Jeffers added that the village has greater flexibility in its current form of government.
††††††††††††††† "I truly believe that (assessing) is a source of the purse strings that many people believe they should control, rather than having townships make the assessments for villages," she said. "The only way to assess is to become a city."
The village would have to write a charter and pass it by a referendum vote if it became a city, since there is no state statute that a city can adopt as a charter, according to Jeffers.
"When you do have these densely populated areas of government, they find they need greater flexibility and autonomy, rather than being hindered by a charter that is written by the state legislature," she said.
She also explained some of the pluses of being a village from a governance standpoint.
††††††††††††††† "You can hire a manager, (place) tax levies, but most significantly, you have expanded ability to govern ... you can reduce the number of trustees, make someone a treasurer without a vote and assign duties from the treasurer to the assessor if you want," Jeffers explained.
††††††††††††††† As a city, Dexter would also be able to levy up to 20 mills on residents for general operations and, if it so chooses, collect a city income tax.
††††††††††††††† "There is no greater red flag for someone opposing cityhood than this issue," she said. "But very few cities actually have an income tax."
††††††††††††††† Oddly enough, Jeffers said that in addition to the tax concern being a big one that she hears on this topic, there is a big concern about gangs too. Other than that "you won't look any different than you do now," she said during the presentation.
††††††††††††††† Scio Township resident William Bulley, who was one of the more than two dozen people in attendance during the presentation, took the MML presenters to task immediately.
††††††††††††††† "Why didn't you have a slide of advantages of being a village over a city?" he asked, despite Jeffers talking about some of the governance and political pros of being a village earlier.
††††††††††††††† "I would claim you're biased in favor of cityhood, ma'am," he shouted at Jeffers and Charles.
††††††††††††††† Charles told him that a cap could be set on taxes and that being a city just provided "more choices," before concluded the exchange. "We're not going to argue with you because we're not going to get anywhere."
††††††††††††††† Trustee Ray Tell pushed for more advantages of being remaining a village and Charles said that the only one they hadn't covered was "the inherent difference of staying a village."
††††††††††††††† Former Village President John Coy, who more recently chaired the City Study Committee, said "as a village grows up and provides more and more services for its citizens, it is its responsibility to take control of all of the goings on (within its borders).
††††††††††††††† "I think by not doing that we do a disservice to the citizens."
††††††††††††††† Jeffers said that there are three chances for residents to vote the change down.
††††††††††††††† The village later approved a resolution to hire engineering firm Orchard, Hiltz & McCliment to complete the final two stages of a boundary survey, which is the next step in the cityhood process.
††††††††††††††† Tell said that he thought it was important to get the boundaries defined before proceeding any further.
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