The objective of this lawsuit is to remove the certified petition, whose subject is the fate of the Tax Increment Financing Ordinance, from the Nov. 7 ballot. To accomplish this the Village of Lake Orion and the DDA have sued officials at the county and our citizen, Tom Patterson.
Mr. Patterson has now been served the documents of the suit.
The deep pockets of the village and DDA have had their respective attorneys moving forward on this.
I’m suggesting that we, the citizens of the village, join forces though the GoFundMe account (gofund.me/dc2f20cf) which was created by the “Committee for Equitable Tax Distribution” to pay attorney fees relating to the petition.
I feel that this suit isn’t just Mr. Patterson’s but one against all citizens, especially all of the signers of the petition.
I have personally reviewed the serving documents and feel that there are many points that need refuting. One of the most obvious is “Plaintiff respectfully request that the Honorable Court enter an Order and Judgement enjoining the Defendants from placing the Ballot before the voters in the November 23, 2023 election.”
The election this fall is Nov. 7, 2023, not the 23rd.
In the spirit of transparency I believe that an accounting of expenditures spent on this by the village and DDA, including office time, attorney’s fees and court costs, should be made to the public.

Harry Stephen
Lake Orion