In a move sure to surprise no one, Farmington Hills and Farmington officials have declared the discussion of merger dead on arrival, as far as they’re concerned. And while Farmington Mayor Valerie Knol bravely asserted more sharing could still happen, her counterpart in Farmington Hills seems more bent toward the war path, than the road to collaboration.
Mayor Jerry Ellis, who can’t stop banging the drum about inequities in funding for services already shared, took a swipe at Farmington in an Observer story published Wednesday: “I don’t see how we could go to our citizens and ask them to invest in a downtown that has been neglected for years,” Ellis told Observer editor Stacy Jenkins.
Certainly, Downtown Farmington once suffered from intertia and neglect. But to ignore three years of well-publicized progress pushed forward by dedicated Main Street volunteers working toward downtown revitalization, to simply forget about the enormous volunteer effort, as well as the public and private investment in the Walter E. Sundquit Pavilion and Riley Park, feels just a little insulting. While I can’t imagine that’s what Mr. Ellis meant, his intent does seem to be a continued “arm’s length” attitude when it comes to the City of Farmington.
Of course, was I Mr. Ellis, I might be remembering the fuss Farmington officials put up when asked for a donation to support the skate park in Farmington Hills. Officials on both sides talk a lot about the huge amount of mutual cooperation, but an undercurrent of divisiveness seems ever-present. One Farmington official, in a conversation overheard at a recent public meeting, expressed the belief that Farmington Hills wants to take over Downtown Farmington. It’s part of the “kingdom building” myth, the idea that Farmington Hills officials secretly want to annex Farmington to gain… well, that’s never quite clear.
Guess we’ve nipped that idea in the bud.
Without a citizen uprising in Farmington, look for this Oakland County-funded study to become just another book sitting on a shelf collecting dust. And here’s another prediction: Within the next year or two, the City of Farmington Hills will propose some kind of equalizer with respect to senior citizen services, recreation and cultural arts, either by re-negotiating agreements or adding some kind of “user fee” for Farmington residents. Now that an independent consultant has put such a large number on the inequity - $32 per capita - Farmington Hills officials are almost duty bound to fix it.
–Joni Hubred-Golden
Michigan Woman Blogger
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