Melissa Carruth

EA 748
Summer 2014
Community Meeting
Novi City Council Meeting
On May 19th, I attended a regular city council meeting at the Novi Civic
Center. Meeting was at 7 pm. and there were six members present. There were
about 15 people in attendance. The city is run using parliamentary procedure and
follows the following order: Call to order, Pledge of Allegiance, Roll Call, Approval of
Agenda, Public Hearings, Presentations, Reports, Audience Comment, Consent
Agenda Removals and Approvals, Matters for Council Action, Audience Comment,
Mayor and Council Issues, Consent Agenda Removals for Council Acton,
Communications, Consent Agenda, and Adjournment. The City Council was very
formal with their procedures and stuck firm to the parliamentary format, especially
when community comments exceeded five minutes.
The meeting commenced with a happy tone recognizing individuals and
groups in the City of Novi and proclaiming that this week in May was Public Works
week. After, was the reports and community comments. About 10 people spoke out
against Petland Store at 12 Oaks Mall. Patrons believed that it finds their pets
through puppy mills. Once that portion was finished, then those people left. It
moved to the approval sections of agendas and budgets. They were extremely
pleased that the year ended with a fund balance of 24.8% and that they now have a
multi-year budget. After that, it went to 2 items of new discussion. One was
construction of the Rose Senior Living Center to be built on the Providence Hospital
property. The concern was taking down over 600 trees and having a violation of the
Woodland Preservation. The motion passed 4-2. Finally, it led into the issue of not
allowing parking on both sides of Taft Road. The excessive parking typically occurs
during sporting events at the high school. This motion passed 5-1. The meeting
was adjourned and the duration was a little over an hour.
As for connections to the school, I was first taken aback that the parking issue
was a direct impact to the high school and the community. I was floored that there
were no representatives from the school district represented and when the issue
was discussed by city council, they loosely quoted the school district, but no official
statements, concerns or comments were presented. The motion passed and the
impact will go into effect by the fall. After seeing this issue pass and after going to
the Library Board Meeting and investigating on the other city committees on the
website, I saw that there were student representatives from the community on all
committees, but not city council. I can't help, but wonder why. Also when looking at
recognitions section, they recognized Public Works Week for a job well done over
the winter. It would have been so impactful if a School Board Member or the
Superintendent would be there to say thank you for all they did to help schools this
winter and that they were thankful to them for having such a safe winter. In sum, a
student representative and having a board member sit on the city council or having
our Director of Community Education or Superintendent to be present would be a
great avenue to bridge the district and the city together.
Also, adding to the agenda should be a report from the schools. Just in this
May meeting, if they had a representative, they could have thanked the city for

their support of the passing of the May 6th bond, they could have discussed how
schools are working with the library for summer reading programs, discussed
graduation rates and scholarship dollars, and mention enrollment projections for the
fall. All of this information would be important information for the City Council to be
aware of and should be recognized for the community, especially with the meetings
so transparent to the community. I hope this extension of inviting the schools or
student representatives to sit on City Council will happen in the future.