Originally Posted by
gazhekwe
There will be four council members elected, and I do favor the incumbents running, as they have served us well. I think Sid Lantz, the elder you refer to, is probably going to outlive us all just to prove a point. The South Oakland Eccentric endorsed Janna Garrison with a nod to Salathea Jackson. I've looked over all the other candidates as well.
I think Chris Terry is a good man, but I don't like the fiscal priorities he favors. He wants to seek out defense contracts for the City of Southfield, which seems highly unrealistic. We have an office base here, and no real room for manufacturing facilities. I guess if there are contracts requiring office space, we do need to fill up those offices. He wants to concentrate on downtown development for shopping. I like that, but not right now. He would be my second to last choice.
Angie Waller would be last, lovely lady with her heart in the right place, but she doesn't seem to have any idea what a council person does.
Salathea Jackson is basically an auditor who wants to keep everything on the up and up. I like that, but not necessarily as the only issue. Fortunately, she has some really good ideas to deal with the growing property issues we have. She wants to concentrate on street lighting to deter crime. I don't like that idea, not here, not now. Street lighting is not a priority for our time or tax dollars. She has some interesting property tax ideas for incentives to encourage people to stay in their homes or to come here and look at buying the beautiful homes we have awaiting buyers.
Stephon Johnson seems pretty forceful on the idea of working with the property issues, and has some great ideas, but that seems to be the main thing he has studied.
Janna Garrison is also very strong on maintaining safe and secure housing. She wants to work on getting youth involved and provide incentives for community policing and crime prevention. She wants to redevelop Northland and make it viable. I think she provides less detail in her presentation than the others.
Salathea Jackson and Janna Garrison have lived here the longest. I haven't noted any of the candidates being really active in the community prior to running for office.
So, my choices in order of preference:
Salathea Jackson
Stephon Johnson -- Janna Garrison [[a tossup)
Chris Terry
Angie Waller
Janna Garrison and Salathea Jackson have lived here the longest.
As for the Treasurer's race, which you did not bring up, what is with these two promising to do something about taxes? It drives me crazy to hear them campaigning away about taxes, when their only role is to collect them. They have no voice in how much the taxes are. A lot of the taxes they collect are county taxes. Lowenberg did it last time too, so I was ready to vote against him because he didn't keep his stupid promise to lower taxes, and here comes Taylor campaigning the same exact thing. What's a voter to do?