The Dexter Leader
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
June 19 a big day in leap to cityhood
By Sean Dalton, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: May 29, 2008
June 19 is going to be a pivotal day. That's the day Village Council members will look to when deciding whether Dexter Village will make the full leap to "City of Dexter."
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The village has hired a firm to conduct a boundary survey, which is a key requirement in the transition process.
The Michigan Municipal League gave a presentation May 12 on what it would mean for Dexter to become a city, and most who attended said that not much had changed since village officials formed the Dexter City Study Committee to look into the possibility.
Cityhood has been a point of public discussion since Paul Bishop's tenure as village president in the 1980s.
As a city, Dexter would be responsible for its own property assessment, collection of county and school district taxes, and local, county, state and national elections.
It would also be responsible for its own roads and its own charter.
Village Council Trustee Jim Carson hopes to see a full house June 19 when the meeting convenes at 7 p.m. at the Dexter Senior Center.
"I think that this is important enough that I would like to see that room filled up three times over," he said.
Carson is a big proponent of cityhood, however; he was not one of the originators of the idea.
"I think it's important to point out that I believed in this when I first heard it two years ago, and I still believe in it now," he said.
Carson says he is most interested in seeing the village gain control of assessing responsibilities, partly due to what that would mean for village residents, but also because the village already functions largely as if it were a city already.
"Right now with the exception of elections and assessing, we do everything else that a potential 'City of Dexter' would do," he said. "And I don't care who runs the election, but I would like to have control over my assessing."
Carson believes Dexter would be in a better position with an internal assessor handling that duty. As it stands now, township assessors are responsible for that duty.
Moving to cityhood would reduce the amount of millage that village residents who pay Scio Township taxes by 1 mill. Those who pay both village and Webster Township taxes would drop 2.5 mills, according to Carson.
"In today's economy, it is especially important for our residents living in newer subdivisions in later phases, meaning those residents who bought their houses when the market was up and they paid the most for their houses," Carson said. "They're paying more than their fair share of our taxes in the village."
Dexter Citizens for Responsible Government member Charles Van Heck doesn't exactly see eye-to-eye with Carson and others on the council who wish to continue the move toward cityhood.
"There are more pressing issues, such as attracting start-up businesses in the high-tech, energy, medical, transportation, and information sectors of the economy," Van Heck said, adding that he believes the village shouldn't be using time and resources on cityhood at all.
"These businesses would provide both badly needed employment and expanding revenues for the village and county," he said.
Van Heck also said that he doesn't feel he has heard much discussion outside of autonomy. "Are the taxpayers willing to pay for it?" he asked.
He agrees with Carson that not much would change, but most of what Van Heck has to say on the matter boils down to the lack of differences in what the existing villagedoes and what the hypothetical city wiould do, and he also sees it as a matter of image.
"The cityhood vs. village debate is about a vision for the future," Van Heck said. "What type of future do we envision for our children and grandchildren? How do we balance our historical past with the future?"
Carson doesn't disagree with at least part of Van Heck's statement.
"We need to be doing everything we can to attract businesses, but I also believe that cityhood is important, We need more businesses paying taxes in our community, which will keep our taxes down, but at the same time the residents living in our community right now, they deserve a reduction in taxes."
Village Trustee Donna Fisher said that she isn't as convinced as her council counterpart. She would like to go beyond the overview that the Village Council has seen on paper, which has been largely positive toward the financial benefits the proposed city would enjoy, she said.
"There has been some strong, compelling reasons to do it and we've never really discussed the reasons not to do it," Fisher said. "What are the negatives and downsides to it? It felt like we kept rubbing our hands together and saying, 'Here comes the money.'"
Fisher also voiced concerns over the political ramifications of cityhood, specifically the loss of residents' ability to vote in township elections, particularly Scio.
"They're going to give up control at the township level," Fisher said.
"When I got this cityhood report it was heavily weighted to the pluses, but there are some pieces to it that we have never discussed, such as not being able to vote at township level, at a time when we're talking more and more about regional efforts."
Carson rebutted the idea of "no negatives."
"The fact that people are concerned about there being no negatives to this,seems to imply that we're hiding the negatives, and I don't think that's the case," Carson said. "I don't feel that there are any negatives to becoming a city."
Both he and Fisher are looking for different things from residents who attend the forum.
In Fisher's case, she would like to fix the "weak link" in village operations: communication with residents.
Carson says he has an open mind to hearing what residents see as negatives to cityhood and addressing them.
'I love the idea that we put ourselves out there in front of the community," Fisher said. "We should be held accountable for our actions. We should be able to say why we have taken a stand that we have taken."
DCRG member and village resident Mary Fialkowski implored fellow residents to start paying attention to news reports and attending the forums.
"Cityhood is an issue of great importance to the present and future residents of Dexter," she said. "Most of us moved here because Dexter is a quaint village.
"Many residents have been sitting back, often without reading the newspaper with limited knowledge of who the village's elected officials are," she added.
"On June 19 the residents will have an opportunity to learn about the implications of becoming a city. They will also be able to meet the council trustees and will be able to ask them questions on the subject of cityhood."
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