Well, our elected fiefdom, the Lake Orion Village Council, and their appointed board, the DDA, have now sued a village resident for executing and completing a petition to eliminate the Tax Increment Financing Ordinance!
This is the second time that a petition to effect this change has been thwarted by our elected officials.
Last year, I initiated and completed a similar petition only to have our elected officials receive and file it. This year the originator of the petition is being sued so that the petition question could be removed from the November ballot. In both cases the petitions were signed by over 15 percent of registered voters, the required amount.
I believe that petitions are a fundamental element of our democracy and are a way of the citizenry to pose a question to the general registered population.
There are technicalities involved in this situation that I won’t expand upon, but through the use of two attorneys and closed sessions of the village council and another by the DDA board, apparently this suit is the answer.
In the spirit of openness and transparency it would seem that this should have had some discussion or authorization in public.
I am willing to accept resistance to a legitimate question, but to sue a citizen to accomplish this seems excessive.

Harry Stephen
Lake Orion