Grosse Pointe Shores, Grosse Pointes

Former council candidate leads Shores recall effort

GROSSE POINTE SHORES — Pro-recall rumblings at last month’s City Council meeting have turned into a full-fledged effort to boot the mayor and four council members from office.

Dr. Robert Lee, a former candidate for what was then the Shores Village Council, is leading a charge against Mayor James Cooper and Shores City Council members Vicki Boyce, Robert Graziani, Brian Hunt and Fred Minturn. The recall effort comes in the wake of a 1-mill tax increase — approved in a split council decision June 16.

Not on the recall list are Shores City Council members Ted Kedzierski and Daniel Schulte, both of whom voted against the millage increase and the 2009-10 fiscal year budget. Schulte and Kedzierski are in their first terms in office, having been elected during the special February charter election.

Shores leaders said the millage increase would enable the city to pay for needed road repairs on Lochmoor, Moorland and Crestwood, as well as replenish the budget stabilization fund, which was diminished while the Shores transitioned from a village to a city and spent several months collecting no taxes. The tax increase is expected to generate almost $331,000 in additional revenues. Several Shores leaders have pointed out that the administration presented them with a balanced budget minus the tax hike, but most felt the increase was needed to provide the city with emergency reserves and address worn roadways.

“We can’t turn our backs on the residents of Lochmoor, Moorland and Crestwood,” Graziani told the council last month. “They are in dire need of road repair. These residents are entitled to these services. … We want to maintain and promote property values, not diminish them by cutting our services.”

Lee, however, accuses the Shores of “deficit-spending the last four to five years,” which he said depleted the city’s reserves.

“There’s been improper vigilance about where the citizens’ taxpayers’ money is going. … It’s a house of cards that are going to come tumbling down,” Lee said.

Since building and launching the Web site www.shoresrecall.com at the end of June, Lee said he’s heard back from about 40 people interested in participating in the campaign. Among the charges he levies against Shores officials are what he says are “outrageous wages” for some former and current administrators, a lack of transparency and misuse of tax dollars on an alleged campaign literature investigation by the city’s legal counsel.

“There’s been a conspiracy to keep things contained to Cooper and his inner circle,” Lee said.

Lee claims Shores leaders “conned us into voting for the new charter” — approved overwhelmingly in February — by saying that they didn’t plan to raise taxes. The new charter increased the tax cap to 20 mills, although officials repeatedly said they didn’t intend to raise taxes to that level. The new Shores tax rate, which went into effect July 1, is 15.89 mills.

Cooper spoke out against the recall effort and charges against him and fellow council incumbents earlier this week.

“This recall campaign by former candidate Lee is unfortunate,” Cooper said. “Let me assure all of our residents that I will continue to work hard for Grosse Pointe Shores and am confidant the members of our council, administration (and) all employees will do the same. Regarding pensions and other compensation for former employees, those details have already been explained at previous council meetings. The misrepresentation of these contractual obligations is wrong.”

Under state election law, officials can’t be recalled before they’ve been in office for at least six months. That’s why Lee said he intends to wait until the six-month mark — Oct. 1 — to file recall petition language with the Wayne County Clerk’s Office. He said he expects the language to pass muster, since he based it on a similar recall petition that he said was just approved against some Grosse Pointe Woods City Council members.

But even if the language is approved right away and they’re able to get the necessary number of petition signatures from registered Shores voters — about 500, Lee said — recall organizers won’t be able to get the question on the November ballot. The earliest voters could be deciding this issue would be February 2010.

The recall is the latest in an increasingly ugly battle in the Shores over wide-ranging issues, with some unhappy residents and the council newcomers on one side and more seasoned council members and their supporters on the other. In recent months, finger pointing and name-calling have led to at least one resident’s expulsion from a meeting.