By Jim Newell

Review Editor

It’s a topic that’s been broached before but now Village of Lake Orion councilmembers are in the early stages of exploring the possibly turning the village into the City of Lake Orion.

Councilmember Teresa Rutt made a presentation on the steps toward cityhood – if the council ultimately decides to pursue that route – during a special village council meeting on Oct. 14.

Village Manage Joe Young said the council and administration would likely continue its exploration of cityhood in upcoming meetings.

In its fiscal year 2019-2020 goals and objectives, the council has stated as one of its objectives the possible transition to cityhood:

“Investigate and initiate the process of transitioning from a village to a city to maintain, preserve, and protect the unique and individual identity, charm, quaintness, and historic character of our small community while eliminating unnecessary township taxes. Appoint a Cityhood Study Committee to provide a recommendation to the Village Council by July 2019 to allow a ballot vote to be placed on the November 2020 election,” the objective states.

The timeline for a vote has altered from the originally stated goal, with a new, possible timeline of August 2022 as a more feasible timeframe for a proposed city charter to be approved by voters, according to village transition documents.

Questions to consider if the village pursues cityhood would be: Who will champion this effort? What are the differences? and Why do you want to become a city? Rutt said.

A transition to cityhood could be initiated by the citizens or championed by the village council.

“Council can drive it, but then there’s this public perception of ‘What’s the motivation of council?’” Rutt said.

A third alternative would be a hybrid approach, with a citizens committee nominated by the council exploring the options and transition and advising council. This would involve both government and citizens in the process, creating a partnership, Rutt said.

“The question is, is it a good benefit for the community, or not,” said council President Ken Van Portfliet.

“And that’s why the question of why do you want to do this is so important,” Rutt said, adding that the citizen advisory is important in helping determining that question. “Because it’s not just coming from us…it’s from an advisory committee that is independent of local government that has looked at the numbers too, and has said, ‘Yes, this makes sense, or no, this doesn’t make sense for us as a community.’”

“I would not want to go forward until I had a good cost-benefit analysis,” said Councilmember Ray Hammond. “In my opinion, it’s expensive to live here. If we don’t do something to make it less expensive by becoming a city, what’s the point? There’s a statement in our mission statement about making it more feasible for seniors to age in place in the village; if this doesn’t lend itself to that, what’s the point?”

Rutt also cautioned councilmembers that they would need to manage their expectations if the village became a city.

“Sometimes I think, ‘Oh, if we become a city it will solve all of our problems.’ It won’t solve everything,” she said. “So, managing citizens expectations and ours as well, especially when drafting the city charter because that’s a process. Especially when citizens have never looked at a charter before.”

Some of the advantages to becoming a city, presented in the meeting, could include sharing the township’s parks and recreation millage and safety path millage, village officials said.

“Resolving that political control disputes and who is in the decision-making position. (The village) would be in the decision-making position,” Rutt said. “(A) city would control local millage levies. We’d have our own millages.

“It allows residents to deal with only one local government instead of two. And I think this is a big plus that you’re not having to go to the township and the village and figure out which one you have to go to for different things,” Rutt said.

“We would want to take over our own building permit inspections. Right now, the township does it for us,” Young said.

A newly-created city would also have to create an assessor position, appointed by the council.

“Because we’d be collecting for the school, the county, the college. We would have to bill (residents) and collect it,” Young said.

“It eliminates dual taxation. So, city residents don’t pay township taxes. That doesn’t mean that our tax bill is going to dramatically drop in half…but it will cause a small reduction,” Rutt said. “It eliminates confusion over township and county and all that kind of stuff. It eliminates potential duplication of services.”

“Assuming that we would keep the fire millage and the library millage because we want to retain those services,” Young said.

Other advantages listed included financial flexibility and a city would retain its own voter records. Currently, Orion Township conducts elections for the village, so a City of Lake Orion would have to maintain its own records and hold elections. A city could also spend all of its tax revenue on its own projects while maintain contractual relationships, like with the Orion Township Fire Department for services, councilmembers said.

“We can adopt a city income tax. I don’t know that we would,” Rutt said. “But we can set limits on the property taxes as well.”

The council also identified “a few disadvantages”: hiring an assessor, creating a board of review, spending more time collecting taxes and distributing them and the additional manpower and expense of holding elections.

Young said the village would likely have to hire a fulltime treasurer if it became a city.

The process of becoming a city is also lengthy, legally detailed, possibly costly and possibly politically painful, according to the presentation.

The Process

The first step, Rutt said, would be to establish a committee or task force of residents to conduct surveys, hold public forums and discuss with residents if they would like to incorporate into a city.

“And then they tell us, at the end of their time, they say, ‘Yes, we want to go forward, or no, we don’t,’” Rutt said, adding that hiring a consulting firm and legal counsel could be helpful, based on reviewing the case of another village, Dexter, that went through the cityhood transition process.

The village would also have to hire a surveyor to survey the proposed city boundary and submit it to the state boundary commission. Dexter paid $35,000 for their survey, the council said.

If the village chose to continue pursuing cityhood at this point, it would also have to circulate a petition and get at least 150 signatures to proceed. There would be review and public comment periods as well.

If the state boundary commission declares the petition legally sufficient and recommends to LARA (MI Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs) to approve the petition and the proposed boundaries, there would be a 45-day referendum period when residents could circulate and file a petition to force a vote on the proposed incorporation into a city.

If there isn’t a referendum vote, or such a vote fails, charter commissioners would be elected, after which they would begin drafting a proposed city charter.

“After that, they submit it to the governor – the office of the attorney general actually does the review – and then it’s published and then you have it on your ballot for the election (for approval),” Rutt said, adding that candidates for city office are chosen in the same election.

If the charter isn’t approved, it could be presented for a vote three more times within three years.

If the charter is approved, “you file it with the state and then you’re done (with the cityhood process),” Rutt said.

Rutt added that post-cityhood implications could include hiring new personnel, changing signage, purchasing election equipment, notify vendors and state departments of the name change and re-codifying ordinances to remove references to the village.