Thursday, December 27, 2012
A political expert said Michigan could be “ground zero for a recall vote” against Snyder in 2013.
Could the sudden passage of the highly controversial right-to-work legislation lead to Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder's name appearing on a statewide ballot for something other than his re-election campaign? One political expert thinks it's possible. Joshua Spivak, a senior fellow at Wagner College’s Hugh L. Carey Institute for Government Reform, told Politico that Michigan could be “ground zero for a recall vote” against Snyder in 2013. “There doesn’t seem to be a specific goal of going after state legislatures or state governors in any significant way, though that might change in Michigan because of right-to-work (legislation),” Spivak said in the Politico story. Local recall elections, such as the one voters recently approved against Troy …
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Voters will decide on 1.25-mill, 14-year building and site sinking fund proposal in special election.
The 2013 election picture got a little clearer at the West Bloomfield School Board meeting Monday with the approval of a building site and sinking fund millage proposal. The district will ask voters to pass a 14-year, 1.25-mill ($1.25 per $1,000 of taxable valuation, or $125/year for taxpayers in a home with a taxable value of $100,000) proposal in a special election May 7. The first levy will, if approved, take place on July 1, 2013. The millage is expected to raise $30.25 million if approved for the district to use primarily on upgrades or repairs. The district's school enrollment and facilities committee identified $23.1 million in needed repairs, including $4.1 million of work at the high school, $9 million at the district's two …
42.566225
-83.361809
West Bloomfield High School
4925 Orchard Lake Rd, West Bloomfield, MI
/articles/west-bloomfield-schools-millage-proposal-approved-for-may-2013-ballot
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Monday, November 12, 2012
The Oakland County executive proved he's a stand-up guy during an Election Night appearance in Royal Oak.
As Democrats celebrated election victories Tuesday in Michigan and across the country, the mood at the Emagine Royal Oak theater complex, where more than 200 Oakland County Republicans gathered, was a mixed bag. That is, until L. Brooks Patterson, 73, changed the energy of room. “He gave some remarks and then he told us he had a surprise for us – and then he stood up on his own,” said former Royal Oak Mayor Dennis Cowan. “Everyone burst into applause.” Patterson, elected to his sixth term as Oakland County Executive on Nov. 6, was injured in a crash in August that left him hospitalized at McLaren Oakland Hospital in Pontiac for five weeks after suffering almost a dozen broken bones. He returned to work in October using a wheelchair and …
Saturday, November 10, 2012
The 'emergency manager law' was the only one of six statewide ballot proposals which West Bloomfield voters supported Nov. 6.
Could the Greater West Bloomfield area be considered a new election bellwether? Seventy-four percent of registered residents voted in the majority on five of six statewide ballot proposals, among other votes presaging winners. West Bloomfield residents turned out at a total rate of 74.66 percent, including 37,866 ballots cast from 50,721 registered voters. Most of those physically went to the polls on election day: 22,251 voters visited a precinct, while 15,615 turned in absentee ballots. Most supported proposal 1, to allow the approval of the Emergency Manager Law in Michigan. Victories for the Democratic Party possibly establishing West Bloomfield voters as trendsetters included incumbent President Barack Obama over Gov. Mitt Romney (56-…
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Tuesday's 'no' vote puts district in a 'less proactive position' to make improvements to buildings, said Superintendent Gerald Hill.
Edited: 1:55 p.m., Dec. 17 to remove information regarding building and site sinking fund The West Bloomfield School District administration could be faced with difficult decisions regarding the value of making improvements to buildings versus continuing general fund expenditures at an acceptable rate in coming years, according to Superintendent Gerald Hill. Hill said that the failure of the West Bloomfield Schools' building and site sinking fund millage proposal at the polls Tuesday could be a result of voters having never seen the measure discussed in the media or at community events. The 1.5-mill levy proposal ($1.50 per $1,000 of taxable valuation) would have reportedly generated an estimated $2.4 million annually for the district to …
42.54324
-83.34972
Ealy Elementary School
5475 W Maple Rd, West Bloomfield, MI
/articles/could-west-bloomfield-schools-millage-proposal-return-to-the-ballot
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/locations/8403063
42.58971
-83.39831
West Bloomfield Schools Administrative and Community Services Building
5810 Commerce Rd, West Bloomfield, MI
/articles/could-west-bloomfield-schools-millage-proposal-return-to-the-ballot
717738
/locations/8403064
Precinct 8, which votes at the Scotch Elementary School, had the highest voter turnout in West Bloomfield at 80.82 percent.
Updated: 3:17 p.m. Nov. 8, with information from precinct four which was previously unavailable The 2012 election is over and the final votes have been tallied. We finally know who the big winner is — that is to say, the precincts in the Greater West Bloomfield area with the highest voter turnout. In total, 50,721 West Bloomfield Township residents are registered to vote and 37,866 ballots were cast. That makes for a 74.66 voter turnout rate, dwarfing the Aug. 7 primary election rate (33.12 percent). Orchard Lake Village had a 73.73 percent voter turnout rate at one precinct, while Sylvan Lake had a 77.91 percent voter turnout rate at one precinct. Keego Harbor had a 59.89 percent voter turnout rate at one precinct. Compared to the rest of…
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
"We're convinced this will be the fastest Election Night reporting for a presidential election in Oakland County history," Clerk Bill Bullard said Tuesday.
Oakland County on Tuesday was set to become the second county in the United States to tap wireless technology to transmit election results more quickly after the polls close. The analog modems on vote tabulator and absentee ballot counting board machines throughout Oakland County have been upgraded with wireless cellular modems that will allow unofficial results to be transmitted from communities to the county as soon as the polls close at 8 p.m., Oakland County Clerk Bill Bullard said Tuesday. Previously, the memory card in each vote tabulator at each precinct had to be removed manually after election workers finished their paperwork, then taken to Town Hall for the results to be uploaded and transmitted to the county, West Bloomfield …
Commerce natives square off with Kesto winning a two-year term.
In August, Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Klint Kesto survived a Republican primary vote over multiple opponents in precincts stretching across many communities. On Tuesday, the experience paid off in spades after he beat his Democrat opponent, Pam Jackson, to win the 39th District state representative seat. Kesto won with 24,382 total votes, while Jackson finished with 21,405. The well-publicized race for the two-year term, which was frequently played out on television commercials, saw Kesto run on a platform of support for performance-based teaching and support for the pro-life movement. Kesto saw perhaps his biggest draw of support come from the Commerce community, where he won in 13 of the 15 precincts in that district. Results are…
Former state representative draws on support from hometown of West Bloomfield.
Updated: 11:34 a.m. Nov. 8, with more accurate information In one of the more-surprising results from Tuesday's election in Oakland County, Democrat Lisa Brown of West Bloomfield soundly defeated the incumbent, Republican Clerk/Register of Deeds Bill Bullard. With all 522 precincts reporting, Brown finished with 313,391 total votes, or 53.28 percent of the total. Bullard, a former chairman of the Oakland County Board of Commissioners who was appointed clerk in 2010, accumulated 272,592 total votes, or 46.35. The mudslinging in the county race started early and continued often after Brown announced her candidacy in April. While running on a platform of changing "the county culture of party politics trumping good government," Brown had …
Incumbent defeats independent candidate David Flaisher by about a 2-to-1 margin.
Greater West Bloomfield area voters have spoken and through their Tuesday ballots, have indicated that current leadership is doing a good job. Incumbent Supervisor Michele Economou Ureste topped challenger and former Supervisor David Flaisher by a wide margin, with 19,576 total votes (67.43 percent) to Flaisher's 9,310 total (32.07 percent). In August 2008, Economou Ureste defeated then-incumbent Flaisher by similar numbers in the Democratic primary, 64.5-35.5 percent. This time, Flaisher ran as an independent candidate, to no avail. Neither Economou Ureste nor Flaisher could be reached for comment Tuesday night. Incumbent Clerk Cathy Shaughnessy and Treasurer Teri Weingarden ran unopposed, collecting 98 percent and 97.94 percent of the …
42.558062
-83.373003
West Bloomfield Town Hall
4550 Walnut Lake Rd, West Bloomfield, MI
/articles/local-governmental-results-economou-ureste-remains-west-bloomfield-supervisor
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/locations/8112018
Phyllis Burton
10:29 am on Friday, December 28, 2012
Governor Snyder and his lame duck legislature remind me of Hitler and the Brown Shirts. They have disregarded the will of the people for their own personal benefit and the benefit of their cronies. The public voted down the financial managers and yet he and his posse overturned that and reinstated the financial managers and did it in such a way that it may not be repealed by a vote of the people… more ›