By SUE SUCHYTA
Sunday Times Newspapers
RIVERVIEW – Four challengers, one incumbent and a past council member are running for three council seats: Nicole Clark, incumbent Suzanne O’Neil, David Pray, Heather Smiley, former Councilmember Elmer Trombley and Brian Webb.
Each were asked to explain why residents should elect them to the city council and what they feel is their top priority. O’Neil and Trombley did not respond.
Nicole Clark
I have lived in Riverview for 16 years and have been actively involved on several commissions for two terms: Parks and Recreation, Economic Development Corp/Brownfield Redevelopment Authority, the local Officers Compensation Board, and I just assisted in getting the Senior Recreation Commission started again after a 10-year absence. I am invested in our city and want to be a part of the growth and revitalization that we need. We are at a turning point in our city’s future and now is the time for new ideas, new outlooks, and connecting with our residents to find out what their priorities are. Even if not elected to the City Council, I will continue to serve our city in any way that I can.
I have many priorities for Riverview. My two most pressing are bringing new and prosperous businesses and attractions to Riverview and making progress on the Arkema site cleanup.
We need as many new businesses as possible to assist in making Riverview a “Downriver destination.” New attractions are sorely needed to replace the empty storefronts that so many people just drive by on their way through Riverview.
The Arkema site has sat for decades, potentially polluting the areas where runoff is possible, which could cause harm to pets and people alike.
My greatest priority for the city council as a whole is bringing transparency and teamwork to our city.
David Pray
I believe the residents should elect me to the council because of my love for the city and the passion I will bring to making the best changes possible for the city. For too long we have watched state reps like Debbie Dingell make promises during election times, take photo opportunities at dinners and summer fest while ignoring real issues like Arkema. This city deserves someone who isn’t afraid of a fight and is ready to make things happen.
It’s time for fresh ideals like the Walk of Lights plan and redevelopment of the Arkema project that need to be on the forefront of this city’s future. It’s time Riverview is brought out of the 1980’s and plan for its future.
My greatest priority for the city is to pick up allies in our state reps and start fights with every politician who isn’t on board with getting the Arkema land cleaned up, made safe for our residents and then redevelop that land so it can begin producing revenue for the city of Riverview. This is property that for 30-plus years has been allowed to languish with dangerous chemicals in the ground and no progress from Arkema or the EPA. Every plan they’ve had gets pushed back to a later date and we have allowed this to continue for far too long. The residents deserve someone who will fight back and not allow the state to ignore our demands of having a clean and safe Riverview.
For too many years the consent agreement between the EPA and Arkema has resulted in zero progress. My plan is to have our residents take a stand and fight back until we get the results we deserve.
Heather Smiley
Although there are quite a few good candidates in this election cycle, I believe that I’m the only candidate that has a professional background and experience in business transformation, strategy, planning and using analytics to make data-driven decisions, forecast and account for future challenges (such as inflation, increasing operating costs, interest rates, revenue retention and growth, etc.), and measure performance to targeted objectives over time.
Unfortunately, Riverview currently has problems that have been decades in the making (like the imminent landfill closure, retention and growth of commercial/light industrial businesses, undeveloped and contaminated land), and a methodical now/near/far approach to resolving them is needed.
I am a proven creative problem solver with extensive experience working on, and leading multi-million-dollar transformation initiatives involving best-in-class benchmarking, delivering phased value/revenue over time, working “smarter” and proactively partnering with diverse groups of people to develop and implement solutions that all stakeholders can embrace.
Riverview is currently in dire financial health, and desperately needs creative solutions to resolve them. As a candidate for city council, my priority is to partner with the city’s leadership team and develop a multi-year business plan that focuses on tactical solutions that can more immediately be implemented to mitigate near-term gaps, develop plans for viable revenue-generating solutions enabling sustained growth in the mid-term, and protect for financial health and solvency over time. There are ample opportunities to benchmark other municipalities to gain lessons-learned (that is, don’t re-invent) and accelerate forward progress. After developing preliminary plans, the city can socialize them with the residents and business owners (current and prospective) to get feedback, and subsequently refine and implement the plans.
Like everyone else, I also want low taxes, a strong sense of community, excellent city services and programming, thriving businesses, great schools, a safe and clean environment, emergency preparedness, operational and financial transparency, etc., but financial health is the common and biggest factor to enable it all to come to fruition.
Brian Webb
It has become increasingly more apparent that some of the most challenging times that the city has ever faced are upon us now and that times are only going to become more challenging when the landfill closes. Riverview needs a post-landfill vision and leaders dedicated to bringing it to the residents. I will dedicate myself to helping Riverview achieve the residents’ post-landfill vision.
For the first time since the landfill opened in 1968, we started paying for rubbish collection when council voted in 1.74 mills. Council recently looked at asking residents to vote on four mills for a public safety millage. I imagine there will also soon be talk of millage increases or bonds for the library, our roads and other infrastructure improvements.
It has been said that our taxes will need to be increased to replace the revenue that the landfill was transferring to our general fund. Past mayors, council members and city managers decided that our city’s revenue was dependent on the revenue from rubbish collection but did not do enough to plan for how the revenue would be replaced when the landfill closes. It is projected to close in around 10 years, which is not a lot of time to prepare, especially when new developments take a long time and are delayed even further by how slowly government makes progress.
Pressure to find new revenue has increased since City Manager Jeff Dobek has to stop revenue transfers to the general fund from the landfill revenue in 2025 and decreasing the amount of money transferred between now and then. We must start finding new revenue starting today.
If I have your trust and your vote for council, you can rest assured that I will work on your behalf to achieve our post-landfill vision, find ways to replace the landfill revenue that we have relied on for so many decades and work to limit millage increases.
