Clawson City Council to go from 5 to 7 members

CLAWSON — Clawson voters decided to affirm bumping the number of City Council members from five including the mayor to seven including the mayor during the May 6 special election.

Voters were asked to vote on two charter amendment proposals. Charter Amendment No. 1 was defeated with 63.92% of voters voting “no,” while 36.08% voted “yes.” Charter Amendment No. 2 had 63.07% who voted “no” and 36.93% who voted “yes.”

The election results mean that the provisions of the city charter adopted in 2023 will go into effect with the November election in terms of the makeup of City Council and how its members’ terms will be awarded. The city charter calls for the expansion of the City Council to seven members and for the terms of the top three vote-getters to be four years and for the fourth-most vote-getter to win a two-year term.

Jamie Gills-Takenouchi, a resident of Clawson, said that she is pleased with the results of the election. However, she is not pleased that the election occurred.

Gills-Takenouchi said that it was confusing to her and other residents that this issue was being decided again, considering the residents voted on this in 2023 as part of the updated city charter.

“I was upset that we were spending $20,000-$25,000 on a special election,” she said. The issue could have appeared on last November’s regular election ballot.

Gills-Takenouchi said that since this was put on the ballot for the special election, she spoke at meetings and talked with fellow Clawson residents about it with the goal of spreading awareness and getting as many people as possible out to the polls.

“We were informing the community what was going on, on Facebook. We did door-hangers, it was kind of a total spur of the moment, grassroots, which was kind of amazing,”  she said. “We got a ton of support. We had a huge turnout at the election; for a May election to get 26% of the electorate out was big.”

Gills-Takenouchi said that adding two more people to the council will be a benefit for the city of Clawson.

“I think our  council  has  problems, and I think a seven-person council makes more sense,” she said. “I am also just super happy and excited about the engagement of the community, because we don’t get that for May elections. So, I thought the Clawson community was pretty amazing, talking about it and getting out there and voting.”

In the event of another special election in the future, Gills-Takenouchi hopes there will be more communication and transparency.

“For a special election, I want there to be a good reason,” she said.

Councilman Bruce Anderson told the Review before the May 6 election that the vote needed to be before the November election because the November election is when the people will need to vote on the new people on the council.

“Bottom line, the document (updated city charter), it’s pretty well done. But the one element (the council’s size), I kind of wish they had left that alone, and then you know you can revise charters piece by piece over years,” he said. “It’s been done, and it would have been good if they just left that alone and then brought it up as it changed a year or two down the road.”

For more information on the city of Clawson, visit cityofclawson.com.