Grosse Pointe City voters elect incumbents, newcomer

GROSSE POINTE CITY — Voters faced contested mayoral and City Council races in Grosse Pointe City.

By a vote of 63.87%, voters returned incumbent Mayor Sheila Tomkowiak to her seat; this will mark her fourth two-year term as mayor. Tomkowiak defeated challenger Christopher Boettcher, a business owner; he received 35.93% of the vote, according to unofficial vote counts available at press time.

“I am delighted that the residents of this city have shown faith in me and my council members,” Tomkowiak said after results came in. “We are a strong, united team that is dedicated to working for the best interests of our residents. That’s not to say that we don’t ever disagree, but it’s cordial and respectful. … This is not a one-man show — this is about leadership and team building.”

In the race for council, incumbents Maureen Juip and Chris Walsh were reelected to four-year terms, with Juip being the top council vote-getter with 1,419 and Walsh receiving the second-highest vote count with 1,371 ballots in his favor. They’ll be joined at the council table by newcomer David Calcaterra, who defeated incumbent Dave Fries by a vote of 1,086 to 965. Fries had served one term on the council. Walsh has the longest tenure of anyone on the council currently, with 20 years of service.

At least in the case of the mayoral contest, voters might have experienced a bit of déjà vu, as this wasn’t the first time Tomkowiak and Boettcher squared off against one another at the ballot box. Tomkowiak has served as mayor or a council member since she was appointed to fill a vacancy in 2016. She was elected to the council in 2017 and was elected mayor for the first time in 2019, when she bested Boettcher, who had served one term as mayor and had been on the council for eight years prior to that.

On Election Day, Boettcher said he decided to run again “to finish everything I didn’t finish” before. He said he wanted to “polish the star” — The Village — and also place an emphasis on the other business districts, on Kercheval Road and Mack Avenue, along with “getting things fixed, cleaning things up.”

Tomkowiak blasted Boettcher for what she called a “manufactured crisis” when she alleges officials couldn’t get the nonprofit Grosse Pointe City Foundation — of which Boettcher is the vice president — to pay to fix the clock on the arch in The Village. Tomkowiak said the foundation offered to pay $24,000 for new lights on the arch — the current lights have passed their lifespan and some don’t work — but when city officials asked if they could fix the clock first — a $30,000 job — “all talks stopped” between the city and the foundation.

“If it were as simple as sending one of our DPW guys (to fix it), we’d have done that by now,” Tomkowiak said. “I can’t see (spending) taxpayer money to fix a clock (where) one side works and the other doesn’t.”

She said she believes this is a project that could be best achieved through philanthropy.

Boettcher disputes that account.

“She never came (to the foundation) asking us to fix the clock,” Boettcher said.

He said the foundation asked the city for a list of projects this year they’d like to see done but never received anything in writing.

“They never came to us with a list … and we came up with a project to replace the goofy colored lights under the (Village clock) arch,” Boettcher said.

He said the City asked only the foundation about clock repair after the election, which will be a topic of discussion at the Grosse Pointe City Foundation Board’s next meeting Nov. 12 — after the Nov. 13 edition of the Grosse Pointe Times went to press.

Calcaterra said he’s “very excited” to join the council and learn from other officials. At 35, Calcaterra said he is looking forward to bringing the perspective of a younger person to the table, and to making the community he loves even better.

“I have lived in (Grosse Pointe) City my whole life and I have a daughter on the way (in December), so I kind of want to preserve the traditions and the memories,” Calcaterra said.

He said he was a member of the city’s swim team, the Norbs, starting at age 9, as were his childhood friends, who are all now in the process of moving back home.

The loss was disappointing to Fries, but he said he’ll remain active in the community.

“I wish I could have had four more years, but we have a young man that’s going to take over and he’s going to do a good job for the community,” Fries said of Calcaterra. “Mayor Sheila Tomkowiak has won reelection and we’re going to stay the course and continue the projects we’ve been working on.”

Tomkowiak stressed the importance of collaboration.

“I am looking forward to continuing to work with the (other Grosse Pointe) mayors on sharing services wherever possible,” Tomkowiak said. “There is a lot of serious work to do.”

Boettcher said he’s not disappointed by the election results because several issues he campaigned on, such as planting trees, cleaning up the business district and taking better care of small businesses, have come to fruition since he raised them.

“I didn’t win the battle, but I’m going to win the war,” Boettcher said.

Tomkowiak said the city had already planned on tree planting to take place in the fall, as recommended by their arborist.

Boettcher has been involved with the Grosse Pointe City Foundation for more than a decade, having first become engaged with the nonprofit as the liaison from City Council. He plans to stay active with the foundation, but don’t expect to see his name on the ballot again.

“I’m not going to run again,” Boettcher said.

Voter turnout for municipal elections tends to be low, but City voters came out in numbers exceeding state and local averages, with 41.32% of the city’s 4,968 registered voters — or 2,053 — casting ballots. A little over half of those voters cast absentee ballots.

“We’ve been busy all day long,” said Kara Hardenbrook, general chair for the precincts. “The turnout’s been fantastic.”

That included a couple of first-time voters, at least one of whom only recently turned 18.

“That’s always exciting,” Hardenbrook said. “That’s something to celebrate.”

She noted that more people seemed to be voting on Election Day because there was no early voting for this election, unlike larger elections such as the presidential contest last year.

This was the first time City voters were casting ballots at the Neighborhood Club, after years of voting at Maire Elementary just a few blocks away.

“Last year, (Grosse Pointe Public School System) administration advised us to seek an alternate location,” Grosse Pointe City Clerk/Assistant City Manager Christopher Hardenbrook said. “They more or less informed us Maire would no longer be an option (for holding elections), citing student safety and security issues.”

Lacking adequate parking caused administrators to rule out Grosse Pointe City Hall as an option, and after considering other potential locations, officials decided the Neighborhood Club was their best option.

“For the most part, it’s been great,” Christopher Hardenbrook said. “It’s good to have a large turnout.”