Berkley council member deployed for next year in Army Reserve

BERKLEY — One of Berkley’s City Council members has been deployed overseas for potentially the next year, but as of now will remain on the council.

Clarence Black, a member of the Army Reserve for 15 years, was deployed to the Middle East this month, where he will serve for between 10 months and a year. Black’s deployment comes 1 1/2 years into his first term on the Berkley City Council.

Speaking to the Woodward Talk on June 11, one day before he was deployed, Black said the timing is rough as he has two daughters who will be seniors at Berkley High School, and he will miss about 80% of their senior year, as well as holidays and his birthday with his family.

The good news for him is that his children are old enough to understand why he’s leaving.

“We’re a military family,” he said. “I’m always honored to serve. There’s never such a thing as a right time. There is no right time. This is a horrible time because, obviously, I’m a sitting council member, I’ve got business stuff, I’ve got my kids’ personal stuff, I’ve got, again, two daughters that are going to be seniors, one daughter who starts Michigan in the fall who I don’t get to move into her dorm. So, you know, those things are tough.”

As of now, the plan is for Black to continue serving on the Berkley City Council virtually from the Middle East, which he hopes to make work.

Black said he had thoughts about resigning and was 50/50 on whether to do so, but he decided to remain on council for now.

“Being the first African American to serve the city, I didn’t want to resign,” he said. “I thought about resigning because I also know that this is going to be an intense deployment that’s going to need my full attention, but as I kind of prayed and talked to people, they said if you can be a part and you can navigate it, then try to do it because, you know, I don’t want to resign. I don’t want to give that up when I worked so hard to get it and be the first. I love serving the city and I know we’re coming into an election. We have three council members that are up for reelection, so I just want to try and maintain that stability if I can.”

Mayor Bridget Dean expressed in a statement her deepest gratitude to Black for his service to the country and to Berkley.

“He is, and will continue to be, a valued member of council,” she stated. “I know the whole Berkley community wishes him safety in his deployment and, while he will still be participating in council meetings via Zoom, we look forward to having him back in person soon.”

Black said if he feels like he’s not adequately performing the job well or can’t give it his full attention, then he will revisit his decision on whether to resign or not.

“If I don’t feel like I can do the job or if something happens to me that takes me out of the position, then that’s a conversation I’ll have to have with the mayor and city manager,” he said.