Coffee with Clawson Candidates
Have a cup of coffee with candidates for elected offices in Clawson, Michigan, this fall 2025. Clawson resident and former Clawson City Charter Commission member BT Irwin sits down for friendly and relaxed conversations with all 14 candidates, asking them questions that shine the light on their Clawson stories, their character, and what they imagine and plan for Clawson (and how they will bring it about if they get into office). These interviews reveal the candidates as they really are (and not as they appear to be in campaign literature and soundbites).
Coffee with Clawson Candidates
Alec Speshock, candidate for Clawson City Council
Alex Speshock is familiar to many in the Clawson business community, as he serves as a board member on the Clawson Downtown Development Authority and is executive director of the Clawson Chamber of Commerce. Speshock is running for one of four Clawson City Council seats up for election this fall.
For your hometown Clawson real estate needs, get KW Domain certified Realtor Erin Redmond at eredrealestate@gmail.com or call (586) 242-8419.
Expecting and new parents, certified postpartum doula and pediatric sleep coach Lynn Eads can help you and your new baby settle into your life together. Learn more at learnwithlynne.com.
Get out and vote, Clawson! Learn all about how, when, and where to vote by clicking here or call (248) 435-4500x118.
Friends, hello, I'm B.T. Irwin, your neighbor in Clausen for 13 years now. Welcome to Coffee with Clausen Candidates, a limited podcast series that gives each candidate for Clausen City Council and Mayor their own episode. These are in-depth, but relaxed conversations in which all 14 candidates reveal their hearts, minds, and personalities. More on that in a minute or two. First, please know that the information you're hearing in this introduction is the same for all 14 episodes. So if you already heard it when listening to another episode, you don't have to listen to it again. Just skip straight to the interview. If this is your first episode of Coffee with Clausen candidates, I think the information I'm about to share with you in this introduction will help you understand the election coming up in Clausen this fall and how this podcast can help you choose who will get your votes. Before we get to that, you may want to know who is hosting this show and whether he's fit for your time and trust. Now, I'm not a professional journalist, but I do have a lot of experience interviewing public figures for the Christian News Organization where I work part-time. More important to Clausen folks like you, however, is my unusual level of involvement in Clausen government over the last few years. It started in 2020 when I accepted an appointment to the Zoning Board of Appeals. In November 2021, I was elected to the Clausen City Charter Commission, where I served until the people of Clausen adopted the revised city charter we proposed in November 2023. Through those experiences, I've gotten to know Clausen City government and many of the people who work in it. So that's me. Now let's talk about the election happening in Clausen this fall, 2025. This is your crash course. If you didn't know, this year's Clausen City election is historic for at least two reasons. First, it is the first general election to take place after the adoption of the revised city charter in November 2023. This fall, our city council is expanding from one two-year mayor and four at-large four-year members to one four-year mayor and six four-year members. Second, if the 14 candidates running for city offices in Clausen this fall are not a record, I'd like to see an election where more candidates ran. I can't imagine that we've ever had this many people running for office at the same time in Clausen. So this is a big election with lots of candidates running for more seats than Clausen has ever had on its city ballot. There are a total of six seats up for election in what will be a seven-seat city council come November 2025. I think it can get confusing, so I'm going to break it down for you. First, the office of mayor is up for election. The mayor chairs the city council and is a voting member of it. Until now, Clausen's mayor always served a two-year term. The revised charter, however, changes the mayor's term to four years to match the other members of City Council. Whoever the people of Clausen elect as their mayor this fall will serve from November 2025 to November 2029. Two candidates are running for mayor, incumbent mayor Paula Milan, who has been in office since 2021, and Clausen City Councilmember Sue Moffitt. Next, there are four at-large city council seats up for election. Two of those seats are existing seats with expiring terms. Bruce Anderson and Glenn Shepherd occupy those seats, which they won as the top two vote getters in the November 2021 election. The two existing seats are for four-year terms, running from November 2025 to November 2029. And then there are two new seats that the revised city charter adds to the city council this year. Of the 10 candidates running, the top four vote getters will take the four at-large seats. The top three vote getters will serve four-year terms, 2025 to 2029, but the fourth place vote getter will serve only two years until 2027. This will happen only once. In 2027, that seat will become a four-year term like all the others. The revised charter calls for this unusual arrangement so that the city council eventually gets on a cycle of four of its seats being up for election every four years, and three of its seats being up for election every four years on a rotating basis. So in review, there are four at-large city council seats up for election this fall 2025, two of them existing and two of them new. The top three vote getters will serve four-year terms, and the fourth place vote getter will serve a two-year term. The ten candidates running for those four seats are incumbents Bruce Anderson and Glenn Shepherd, and challengers George Georges, Scott Manning, Meredith Peltinen, Billy Rinshaw, Heather Rinkovich, Laura Slewinsky, Alex Speeshock, and Scott Tinlin. Are you keeping score? We're up to five seats on the ballot. I said there are six, so here's the last one. Back in the spring, Councilmember Matt Benkowski resigned his seat because he was moving out of the city. Benkowski won his four-year term in November 2023, so he was to fill his seat until November 2027. When a city council member leaves office during her or his term, the revised city charter calls for city council to appoint a replacement who will serve until the next regular city election, at which time the public will elect someone to finish out the full term. Not long after Benkowski resigned, City Council appointed Richard Scott to fill the seat until the November 2025 election. On your ballot, this city council seat will be listed apart from the other four. Whichever candidate gets the most votes for this seat will serve out the rest of Binkowski's term that runs through November 2027. Scott is running to retain the seat for the next two years. Aiden O'Rourke is running to challenge him for it. So now that you know what is up for election in Clausen this fall and who is running, let's get to how this podcast might help you decide who gets your votes. I interviewed all 14 candidates, one episode for each one. I wanted to do something different from the other candidate interviews that are out there. Not to say that those other interviews are not helpful. I think they are quite helpful and I follow them myself. But I find that the usual candidate interview format to be too narrow or too short to really get to know the candidates as people. I like to know where candidates stand on the quote unquote issues, yes, but I really want to know what they know, how and what they think, what makes them tick, who they are as human beings. So I designed these podcast interviews to be friendly and relaxed and full of open-ended questions. I wanted the candidates to feel like they could open up and just talk about what they think is important and why. I also wanted them to be able to talk about themselves without the pressure of needing to react to questions about issues and one-minute sound bites. I can say that I enjoyed every one of the 14 conversations as I sat across from candidates at places like the Clausen Historical Museum, Blair Memorial Public Library, and Cave Cafe in downtown Clausen. Even interviewed one candidate on a front porch. And I learned a lot from just about every candidate who opened up to me. So I hope you learn a lot too, and that in learning about the candidates, you'll fill out your ballot with confidence and even, dare I say it, joy. So without further ado, please enjoy this episode of Coffee with Clausen Candidates. We are sitting once again in the Clausen Historical Museum in Clausen, and I'm sitting across from Alec Spiesock, who is a candidate for Clausen City Council this fall 2025. I'm gonna say, for his benefit, I haven't done this for anybody else, but I've learned my lesson at this point because we've done a few of these. Alec is sitting in a rocking chair in a historical museum. So it's an old rocking chair. Everything in this house creaks, and so you may hear the creaking sound of a rock chair, he's he's he said, I'm gonna try not to rock in this rocking chair, but when you're sitting in a rocking chair, man, you gotta rock. So that creaking sound you hear is just the quaint sound of the Clausen Historical Museum. Alec has been a resident here in Clausen for about four years, and you you may know him because he's been quite involved around town. He was appointed to the DDA board in February of 2025. He's the executive director of the Clausen Chamber of Commerce. That is his public service experience here in Claussen. But I just learned a few minutes ago that when he was in high school, he was appointed to the tree board in the city of Berkeley. So his public service experience goes all the way back to when he was 17 years old. He's hoping to be your public servant on the Clausen City Council here. Alec, thank you for being on the show today.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, thank you for having me. I am very excited to sit here, very excited to talk about the opportunity that I have ahead of me. It's been a fun race so far, and I just look forward to continuing that fun race and talking to as many people as possible. There's a lot of things that I've done in my life when it comes to public service. Even prior to the tree board, I was on student body, student body president, my junior year, student body vice president, my senior year. You know, so I I've I've really enjoyed the political side. There's a little chunk in my life where I sort of went away from that and went in more into work and just sort of focused on growing my career. But I'm excited to have the opportunity to get back into it and really work for the city.
SPEAKER_00:Awesome. Well, tell us your Clausen story.
SPEAKER_01:So my Clausen story, Clausen has been a part of my life for a long time. I grew up in Berkeley, Michigan. I am I was a major fan of Berkeley. It reminds me a lot of Clausen, not to compare Clausen because Clausen is its own special place. But Berkeley was one of those places where you knew everybody, you got to know everybody, and it it it was very family, small town feel. And sort of Clausen provides that same thing. So growing up, I used to be here a lot. We used to go to Ambassador Skate Rink all the time. Caesar land was one of my favorite places of all time.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:You know, I still enjoy going over there. You can't smell Caesar Land anymore, but you're inside Billings or you know, the salon that's over there. Uh, still great businesses, but Caesar Land was a great place. But Dario, we used to go to the Burger King that is no longer there. Hopefully we'll see some development there soon. But it's always sort of been a part of my life. My grandmother uh is over off of or was over off of 13 and Rochester. So it was always the direct place, the downtown that we were always hanging out in. So it was a big part of my life. And when my wife and I were looking for a home, Clausen was high up on our list. Berkeley was on our list as well at that point during the market in 2021. We sort of priced out of there. And so we looked at a lot of homes in Clausen, Madison Heights, sort of surrounding area. And there was sort of a moment where we got very lucky. We were looking at a house, we were doing an inspection in Madison Heights. It was a very bad inspection. Inspector basically was like, you're gonna have to re-deck the entire roof. You're looking at 30,000 plus, all these sort of bad things. And all of a sudden, we got a call and said, Hey, you're this property you looked at that you put an offer in on, the person who originally got it decided to not go forward with the product, you know, with the property. Would you like to come see it, do an inspection that the owners would like to sell to you? And it was sort of like one of those things where my wife and I looked at each other and it was like one of those meant-to-be moments.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Sort of something that fell into our lap. We went the very next day, did the inspection, got the same inspector, which, you know, we absolutely loved her. She was very kind for first-time home buyers. And we ended up turning it around, signing in. I think we were in there by August 9th of 2021. So uh it just sort of fell into our lap. And I absolutely love our home. We're on Batchwana, not to blow up my wife would yell at me giving the exact address. But we're on Batswana, we're on a dead end. We back up to the Jaff at school. It's a very quiet neighborhood. We have fantastic neighbors, and that's an another thing that drew me to Clausen was the people like when we moved in, people were coming over and introducing themselves. Hey, we should, you know, hang out. My name's, you know, Jason or Brian or Bonnie, all the amazing neighbors that I have down my street. It just sort of made it feel more like home. So it was that's that's my Clausen story in a nutshell. I guess I I should add that I lived in Clausen sort of peacefully for about two years until I really started to dive into getting involved in Clausen. Uh, in 2023, I joined the Clausen Chamber Board and I sort of worked my way up all the way to president. And then this year they were like, hey, you're basically doing a job that we should pay you for. Why shouldn't we pay you? And I ended up being offered the executive director position and just being involved. I'm a Klausman lion, a Knight of Columbus. I I work very deeply within Clausen. Any opportunity I get to be a part of the community, it just makes me ex exceptionally happy.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So that's my that's my Klauson story.
SPEAKER_00:It's a good Klaus and story. And Bachawana is one of the funnest street names.
SPEAKER_01:It is ever. Nobody can ever pronounce it properly. Somebody will throw like extra letters in there, but it's it's Batch Wana.
SPEAKER_00:Bachawana. Bachiwana. I I've told my wife for years there's certain streets I would not live on just because of their name. And then there are streets, I'd be like, I would live there just because of the name. Because the name is street. Bachwana is one of those chocolate.
SPEAKER_01:Chocolate is fantastic.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah, that's a fantastic. We got some fantastic street names here in Clausen. Well, you are the executive director of the Chamber of Commerce. I've asked every candidate who's been on this show about their day job. Everybody knows what you do, but tell them how you do your job and what your job is like.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, of course. So my day job has sort of become like a dream job for me. Something that I've always loved in my entire life is helping foster the growth of business. Throughout any of my sort of careers in my tenure, I've been able to grow, find ways to help that business that I've been with grow. And with the chamber, that's what I get to do. So I manage all the members that are a part of the chamber. So a lot of your local amazing Clausen businesses are a part of the chamber from Dario to Grand River to Whiskey Taco Foxtrot. We have a lot of those businesses that help us grow as well. So we get out there and we focus on ways that we can market out to businesses, ways we can provide a voice for those businesses to those people. We've added a lot of things within the last year to really try to increase those opportunities, whether it's in an event space for sponsorships, we brought back our golf outing. We have a lot of a lot of ways for businesses to put their names out there. But then in turn, we provide a lot of services for businesses that they might not be able to have access to. We partner with Oakland Thrive a lot. They're an Oakland County-based nonprofit that really helps with Oakland County businesses. That's it. If you're got a business on the McComb side or the Wade side, you know, they will try to direct you to somebody that can help them, but that's their number one job. So we partner with them a lot. We also started something called Grow Clausen, which is an educational series that we're still sort of working through currently this month. We have one with Michigan Works, which handles a lot of job searches, opportunities for people to work. They're presenting their Going Pro Fund, which is something where they get grants from the state of Michigan to help businesses train people. So we try to provide a lot of those opportunities for businesses to come sit, learn, listen to help foster and continue to grow their businesses. So that's sort of my day job in a nutshell.
SPEAKER_00:I have to clear something up here because when you announced your candidacy, I heard from some people who said, can he run for city council because he's the executive director at the Chamber of Commerce? So our charter, you know, if you work for the DPW, for example, you can't run for city council.
SPEAKER_02:Correct.
SPEAKER_00:The Chamber of Commerce is not a city organization. It's not part of the city. So for those who are like, hey, but is he supposed to be able to run? He doesn't work for the city of Clausen. He works for the Clausen Chamber of Commerce. Separate thing. Correct. And therefore you're eligible to be on the ballot this November.
SPEAKER_02:Correct.
SPEAKER_00:I'm just curious, like, what do you listen to and read every day or every week? Describe where you're getting most of your ideas and information these days.
SPEAKER_01:So I I enjoy perusing a lot of different things. I so something that I've run into since you know meeting my wife and marrying her and living a wonderful life with her. She likes to fall asleep to podcasts. So that's something that I've sort of enjoyed as well. Yeah. She prefers more of like murder mystery, stuff like that. But I enjoy listening to, you know, anywhere from a political side of things to there's a YouTube channel, and I believe they also have a podcast as well. It's called Real Life Lore. And it sort of focuses on not obviously not Clausen as a whole, but the world as a whole. So they take a certain, you know, issue or problem or victory in the world, and they really dive down into it and talk about what's going on, whether it's the you know, conflict that happened earlier in this year in Iran with the Houthi Strait or anything like that. And they sort of break it down granularly and very easy for people to understand because sometimes you look at one of those big problems of the world and you're like, I understand it, but they utilize a lot of whether it's big words or things that are not in everyday life for people. This breaks it down to make it as easy as understandable as possible. So I like to listen to a lot of things like that. I listen to for my day job, I listen to some marketing podcasts and like marketing minds. My buddy Walter Hooper has done that before. It's a, you know, it's it's sort of a way to help me grow and continue. But on the colossus scale, I really focus on making sure that I'm either in attendance for city council meetings or planning commission meetings. And if I can't be in attendance, I make sure that I watch those to keep it updated. And it sort of helps, you know, helps me being able to work within the city, even though it's not directly with the city. It helps me sort of understand on a ground level because I talk to a lot of the businesses that are coming in right off the fresh start. We, you know, we just spoke with Los Galos today to, you know, talk with them to join the chamber and do a nice ribbon cutting for them. By the way, if you haven't been there, fantastic food, highly recommend. I miss Sozai, but they were a very good addition to Clausen. So we have a lot of those, a lot of those opportunities, or at least for me, to grab that ground level information on what helps me fuel the way I try to work for the city and for the citizens of Clausen.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, good stuff. It was did you call it real world lore?
SPEAKER_01:Is that real life lore? Real life lore. That's the podcast. I recommend it. It's I don't they have a YouTube channel, and that's normally where I watch it. Yeah. And it's they do some animation, they do some real life stuff, but I highly recommend it. It's very good.
SPEAKER_00:Got it. So there are a few thousand people who are eligible to run for office in Clausen. Only 14 have said, I'll raise my hand, you know, and and go for it. And they're on the ballot this uh fall 2025. You're one of those 14. Why you and why now?
SPEAKER_01:So I feel like there's a there's a good opportunity. I I'd probably start with the why now. I feel like we're really opening into an opportunity to really take a look at what is happening in our city and continue to move it in the direction that the citizens want to see, that we, me personally, you know, wants to see it move in. And I feel like that sort of gave me the opportunity with the larger number of seats, the expansion of the council to provide me with a better opportunity to run. Obviously, this is one of the largest, you know, groups of candidates that we've had. So I'm so excited to be able to run with so many wonderful people. And it's it I think what sort of drew me to be able to run was seeing people feel like they didn't have a voice or didn't have an opportunity to have their voices heard. And a lot of things that happened over the last year, two years that we saw. And I always want to be somebody who is that advocate for anybody. So they want to come forward, they want to talk to me, they want to sit down. I'm very big on providing opportunities for town halls, for open door policy to be able to have those conversations and talk with the citizens so I can have the best idea, so I can have the best possible information to bring to everybody in Clausen. So if there's something that's up for a vote, or if there's something that's important, I want to hear people, I want people to reach out to me. That's something I've been very open and honest in my candidacy and my run is reach out to me. I've got Facebook, I've got Instagram, I've got my cell phone number out there, my email. Feel free to text me. If I don't pick up right away, I will have an answer for you within 24 hours. That's my goal. I want to be able to be there for the people because I think that's what that's what the job entails. I'm not here for the money, you know, the whole better the massive, the massive stipend that we get. No, it's not massive, by the way. But I'm just saying it's my goal is to be here for the citizens because I love Closman and I want to be here for a long time. I've already told my wife I'm not moving anymore. This is this is my end home. This is where I want to be. And I'm I'm excited to be able to, you know, hopefully raise my kids here one day, see them go through the Klaus and Public Schools and continue to work within Clausen.
SPEAKER_00:And just so everybody knows, you get paid basically a cup of coffee per council meeting. Literally a cup of coffee. That was a bad joke. That's your compensation. Could you name one or two people after whom you would most like to resemble how you go about the work of being an elected public official? What about their habits and style appeal to you?
SPEAKER_01:One or two people. That's a good question. I I wouldn't really put anybody out there specifically if I had to go after somebody that is famous or who is out there. You know, I know a lot of people are not a there's a lot of people who are a fan of him and a lot of people that aren't, but I I like how Bernie Bernie Sanders approaches a lot of things. Not specifically everything about him, but the way that he talks to people. You know, he's a man of the people, he sort of is there for the people. So I feel like that would be that would be somebody that I would really not compare myself to, but somebody that I would like to be able to have those conversations with people and be willing to sit down and willing to understand and fight for what I believe is right.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. All right. So let's get down to the business of governing Klaus and now. What is what is one thing about how the city works that the public ought to know, but most folks don't seem to know, and how might we change that?
SPEAKER_01:I think something that people ought to know is how things are set up truly within the charter. I think something that everybody should have with them is a copy of the charter. I think that it's a smart thing for a citizen to understand how things work within the city. I'm I currently have one at my house. You know, it's something that I generally, you know, have access to if I need to take a look at it, because that's our governing law. That's something that we need to follow to the T. And I think something that we see we don't see a lot in Clausen, but I I feel like we can have an improvement on people being able to understand how it works and how it's upheld because people see whether it's city council or it's a city official or somebody like that, and they say, Well, you're in charge, you should be able to fix it. There are rules and regulations that we have to follow. There are things that take time. Something that I think is major currently that people are frustrated with, obviously, is the infrastructure. We've seen a lot of, I mean, since I've been here, and I've only been here in you know for four years, the infrastructure is is rough, especially for a city that has such a high tax base. We are currently dealing with stuff constantly. You see it on Facebook, you see it on the updates, uh, water main break, or you see this, or you see that. And we're finally at the point with the infrastructure bond being passed. But the way that things need to go is we need to do the scoping and the hydro jetting of the sewers to be able to understand where we need to start. We need to understand where the needs are for people. So I think that for me, it's having people understand the charter is definitely a major thing, but also understanding that not everything can be fixed right away. But but also providing that it's not a it's not a oh, I get an email from a citizen, I can't handle it, so I'm not gonna respond. It's providing those responses to the citizens saying, hey, this is our update, this is where we're at, providing that transparency and conversation with everybody who reaches out, I think is the most important thing. So it was sort of a there's sort of spattering of a couple of different things that I focused on there.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So let's uh give you your own episode of real life lore now. Okay, we're gonna pick a challenge uh that you think is one of the biggest, most consequential challenges that we face here in Clausen. And then tell us why that challenge is so big and consequential. And then here's your real life lore part. Give us the 101 on that challenge. How did it emerge? What is feeding into it? And how might we as a community do something about it with our city government?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So for our biggest challenge, I feel like we run into. I I hate to go back and say it, but I feel like it goes back into the infrastructure. I mean, there are updates that we should have done back in the 70s and 80s that are now being just handled in 2025. Yeah. So when we break it down, there have been people who have been in council that have kicked things down the road. It's the old adage that, you know, kick the can down the road. And if I'm still there, then I gotta deal with it. If I'm not, then it's somebody else's problem. Something that I really want to focus on is obviously I'm not gonna be able to fix everything right away. But something that I want to focus on is stopping the opportunity for people to just kick the can down the road. I think that being able to have those conversations and work within what we can, you know, we have a bond that it passed. We have money that we are going to be able to use to focus on those infrastructure plans and making sure that we're hitting the most important things. So, you know, per the last update in city council, we're 84% done with scoping. Once we, you know, it looks like about four more weeks of scoping. We've been getting about four percent a week. Once we get the rest of the major scoping done, that gives an outline of what we need to start with. Yeah. That gives us an outline of how we can get that down. So from there, we focus on finding ways to continue to maintain it and continue to draw revenue for the city to be able to continue to fix those problems. Because we may have a large infrastructure bond, but that large infrastructure bond is not going to fix every problem under the sun.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And obviously, the number one thing that people don't want, because that's just everywhere, is we don't want to continue to continue to raise the taxes, to continue to push those things. We already see property taxes increase, you know, for inflation X percent each year. We don't want to continue to continue to raise those, but we also need to find other revenue drivers to do that. So being able to talk with different municipalities that we share property lines with or different grants or different things that we can go after, that's something that we need to be able to focus on to be able to help the community continue to develop in the proper way. So being able to go after those grants, being able to find those opportunities as a regular citizen, something that you want to do is you want to continue to have those conversations with your city council members. So whether it's the current city council or the candidates or people that you know will be on in November, continue to have those open and honest conversations with people and also remember that things will be will continue to get better, but it's not always an overnight fix.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:It's governmental, it's red tape, it's going through. You know, to me, as a normal person, prior to understanding the different sides of things, I would go in and I would say, Well, this road looks awful. Let's fix it. But in reality, if you're gonna fix the road, if you're gonna dig down into the road, you're gonna want to make sure and see if the sewer's okay. Yeah. If the sewer's not, or if there's a lead-leading pipe, let's replace the lead leading pipe. We don't want to continue to have those issues. So there's a lot of deeper granular to look at it. And I think that's something that I really would urge everybody to do is just to continue to talk, continue to have the open conversation and focus on ways that we can continue to work together.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Let's flip the coin. So I asked about a big challenge. What would you say is maybe one of the biggest opportunities ahead of us here in Claus? And again, real life lore, explain that opportunity, why it's such a big opportunity, and what can city government and the residents of our community do together over the next term or two to Capitalize on that opportunity.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, uh, I think that there's a lot of opportunity. I think in Oakland County as a whole, we continue to grow as a county. I mean, at one point we were one of the richest counties, you know, in the nation. Yeah. You know, we we're definitely still up there, but it's not, you know, it's not top tier. But what we can continue to do is continue to work with the opportunities that are hand. So I was in a meeting, this might have been a couple of months ago, but we have a lot of opportunities that we can play on in bringing people in. So one of the biggest ones that's coming up is I believe in 2027, we are gonna hold the final four here. I believe. I could be right. It's something within a major college school. In Clausen? We're doing it in Clausen. At the new high school gym. Not the new high school gym. Sorry, sorry. Not in fact to it. Let me preface that in Detroit. So it'll be downtown Detroit. But as a city, what we can do is you are going to draw, you know, Metro Detroit is going to draw in, you know, thousands, tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people to come and represent. It's something like we had with the draft. So something that a lot of the Chamber of Commerce were talking about in the area was providing opportunity for people to draw business into Clausen, finding ways to draw people into Clausen. Whether it's over in Birmingham, they do a guided bus tour that goes around the city, finding ways to capitalize on opportunity to bring in more revenue for the city. I would say being able to work with those different massive events that are coming into the Metro Detroit area and pushing people into our city, into our businesses to experience what Clausen is all about. And then also continuing to support small businesses. That's sort of the other flip of the coin, is as a citizen yourself, I know it can be tough when you live in a world where taxes are high and we're not quite sure what's going on in the world. Stock market is up and down and up and down. And when you're on a fixed income, it's tough. But when you can go out of your way to shop small and support those businesses, I think it's massive because then that helps fluctuate more tax revenue into the city. It helps fluctuate more money into the city by supporting those small businesses. And that also helps us continue to thrive as Clausen, where you see opportunities of buildings not being sitting empty or land not sitting empty. It's growth. And and I think that it works in a in a good light, in a good way, but you also can still focus on that small town feel, the little city with the big heart.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I can imagine some people listening to this will be like, ah, Alec, you know, your Chamber of Commerce, DDA, that sounds like what can city council really do about any of that? So what do you what do you role do you foresee for city council in that vision that you just pictured for us?
SPEAKER_01:I think it's capitalizing and working with the correct departments. So working with DDA, working with those third-party entities, whether it is the Clausen Chamber of Commerce or it is a you know club or somebody like that, you know, people that want to bring it into the opportunity, you know, to the city and bring those opportunities here. And I think that it's really being able to support those people that want to do that. So if there's a draw that the city can bring in more revenue or, you know, more for an event, you know, make it a make it a big deal. Say it is the final four that's coming in 2027. Then, you know, you say, hey, you're going to watch a game down in Detroit, make sure to stop by your local Clausen bar 20 minutes up the road to enjoy whatever specific thing that we can, you know, come up with to draw those people in. And it it not only helps the businesses, but it helps the citizens because the citizens can continue to enjoy the beautiful downtown. They can continue to enjoy the beautiful parks and beautiful things that we have in the city. It it I think that it's I think that if we can all work together, it really draws a good outcome for the future of Claus.
SPEAKER_00:So, what is one thing you think would improve how city council functions in service to the people of Clausen? And I mean, apart from how personalities manifest on the council, which you cannot control, what changes might make city council better at representing the desires and needs of the people and better at deliberating and deciding on the people's business?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I think making it making an opportunity. Well, one for me, something that I really like to do is attend events, be a part of events, be able to provide myself, whether I am a city council candidate or am on the city council in November. Just as a person of Klausman who wants to see Klausman continue to succeed, I like to be able to be at events, understand what's going on, listening, whether it's a football game for homecoming or it's cinema in the streets or it's the Klausan Auto Show or anything that comes from this, you know, the city or the local entities that are here, being able to be participant in those, it helps me draw, drive, and learn what I can do better. And on top of that, I think that as a city council, we can do better providing opportunities for people to speak, whether it's increasing opportunities for town halls or whether it's increasing visibility for different boards and opportunities that are available, because the more people that get involved, the more that it can continue to improve our city. Not a lot of people understand that there are openings on boards. There are, you know, if I'm lucky enough in November to be elected, there's gonna be an opening on the DDA. Yeah. You know, if Aiden, you know, is voted in in November, there's gonna be an opening on the ZBA board. There's there's a lot of opportunity for people to get involved in the community, and it doesn't really take a lot of time to do that. Most boards meet once, maybe twice a month, and sprinkle in a couple of things in there. I know we're busy humans, but if you really do care and want to be able to give back to the community, that's one of the best ways. And it helps your voice be heard at higher at a higher pace, a faster pace in front of people who might be able to make those changes. So I think that's that's something that I would really focus on for people and and the opportunity for those town halls for people to say there's like there are people who will come up to the city council meetings and they'll come and they'll talk. But the best way to do that is to provide a more comfortable and open forum. Some people are terrified to get up and speak in front of the house. That's right. I'm sitting here and I am speaking to you. I my wife will say this all the time. I like to hear the sound of my own voice, so I'm great at speaking, but not everybody can do that. Not everybody has that voice, but they do have a voice that they want heard, they just can't, or they or they won't. So providing those town halls or those opportunities for people to come and sit and talk and listen to amazing ideas, because not every idea is going to be a home run, but there are some out there that could really benefit the city that I might not know, and that other council candidates might not know, or current city council members might not know. And if I can't continue to grow by people helping me, I think that that's a disjustice to the citizens of Clausen.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. You reminded me, I speak in front of groups all the time. So I'm fairly comfortable with it. And I've spoken before city council a few times, and just the arrangement of the room, it used to be a judge's change. It used to be a courtroom. I don't know how many people realized that, but when Clausen had its own court, our city council chambers were a courtroom. So when you stand up to address city council, you're looking up at these people that are kind of circled around you, looking down on you from this from this dais. And uh I, with all my experience being in front of people, I got up there and I kind of lost my words. You know, I stuttered and stumbled to what I wanted to say. So it is really hard, even for an experienced public speaker, to in that room, in that environment, to get up and say their piece. I've been the exact same way.
SPEAKER_01:I've gotten up and spoken in there before, whether it's for the DDA chamber or any other things that I do, and I get up there and it is, yeah, I agree with you. It's it's the looking up and it's almost like talking to somebody who is not on your same level.
SPEAKER_00:It's like you're in a Senate hearing, you know. Yeah, you're like, all right, who what did I do?
SPEAKER_01:Who why am I in trouble? But being able to provide those opportunities where you can have those one-on-ones, those face-to-faces where you sit down or in a town hall setting where it's in a more comfortable setting.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Um, even if it was just something as simple as a coffee chat, where it's something that is scheduled before or after or in the morning of city council meetings to open it up to people who might not be able to attend in the evening versus the morning. But providing that opportunity to sit down and discuss and have those conversations. And I think the most important thing is to keep the conversations going. It's it's being civil, it's being able to talk, it's being able to understand that you and I are sitting across the table from each other. And Brad, you might not agree with me specifically on one thing, or I might not agree with you specifically on another, but being able to come together and have those conversations. And I think that's something that is missing a lot in not just in Clausen, but in the world. It's it's my side, your side, right? You know, whatever the case may be. It's just being able to work for the people that you're put there for. And so I think providing those opportunities are very important. And that's something that I'm very passionate about because I would love those opportunities. If if I wasn't in a position to where I could have my voice heard, I would want to be able to have those opportunities.
SPEAKER_00:I think it's crazy. I'm riffing on what you just said here, because you reminded me of another instance of my own life. We live in a 2.2 square mile, highly walkable community. And yet it's possible to never meet people face to face. There are people in Klauson that probably their only interaction with other Klaus and people around public issues is in Facebook. And as you were talking about face-to-face communication, I thought of a guy who was really strongly opposed to the charter. So everybody, I think, who's listening to this knows I was on the charter commission. We were in that phase where we were trying to explain it to the public. And this person made some, I'll call them snarky comments on Facebook. And I never met him in person. So when we eventually ran into each other by accident, we ended up having about an hour-long conversation about the charter. And I was surprised because he wasn't at all like he was on Facebook. And we I didn't change his mind, and I actually didn't try to change his mind. I just, we just had a back and forth, like playing tennis on the pros and cons, but it ended up being a really fun conversation because I'm a nerd and I like those things. And changed my opinion of him. I hope it changed his opinion of me. And it's weird that we live so close together.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:You know, we could, you know, we're always walking our dogs at night. No. And and there are so many opportunities because we're in such a small space that we could sit down and listen to each other. And that would be really, really helpful. So I think it's important.
SPEAKER_01:It's it's something that we we miss a lot in society. I think, you know, obviously COVID didn't help it. You know, it it sort of pulled more people apart versus that. I think something that draws me, especially when I'm doing something in a chamber event, is having those face-to-faces. I am so much, I am my better self when I can sit down face to face and I am talking to somebody to be able to, whether it's for my day job and sell my day job, or if it's to have a conversation with somebody or to work with a business or a citizen or whatever the case may be, I feel like I'm more my genuine self being able to sit down. Some people would, you know, that who aren't me might disagree and say, well, I sound better when I'm, you know, on Facebook or I'm on, you know, the internet. But something that I really draw myself to is being able to have those conversations. And so I urge people, if you have any questions, please reach out to me, talk to me, have those conversations with me. Because every time I talk to somebody, even like right now, when you and I are talking, Brad, it improves me as a human being. It makes me a better person because I can understand maybe one side better or I understand one side, you know, a different way, see it from a different view. Because that's what makes us great as humans. We're all different.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:We we are born with different lenses, we see things differently. But if we can work together, it it makes things so much better.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. All right. So everybody who's listened to all the episodes of this podcast by now has surely heard me talk about my my wife and I have this big idea for Clausen City Park. If this ever happens, we may be able to trace it back to this podcast.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:For years we've been like, man, wouldn't it be awesome just to put Christmas lights and all the trees at Clausen City Park at Christmas time? Just like turn it into this enchanted, magical because I we drive by there all the time at Christmas. It's dark, right? It's just it's this big, blank, dark space. Everybody would be out there walking in a winter wonderland, right? But who has the time, energy, and money to do that? You know, we we certainly don't. So that's just an idea that's been floating around in our heads for years. So taking that as your inspiration, what is if if money was not an issue, we had energy, money, and time to do one big thing that would just a fun project that would benefit all the people of Clausen. What's your craziest, funnest idea? That's a good one.
SPEAKER_01:I I mean I've had so many that have come across my whether it's come across my desk or come across just having conversations with people, I absolutely love the park idea. I think that would be phenomenal. Because that's you look at other cities, you know, cities that are around here. You have Rochester that puts over 350,000 lights out there and makes it a literal winter wonderland, like you said. I think something that would really if we had no issue, no money, you know, none or unlimited money, whatever the case may be, I think something that would be really big for the community. And I think a lot of people don't take advantage of the wonderful Hunter Center. It's it, you know, it's an older building, but there's a lot of wonderful people that work there. There's a lot of amazing programs that are put on there. There's a gym there that is very cheap compared to what normal gyms are. There's a lot of opportunity there. So if it was something that I mean personally, a fun project that would bring people together in the city together would be to make a fun, large-scale rec center for everybody. You know, major improvements, maybe a pool, you know, properly, you know, set up, staffed technology, all that stuff. I think that that's very important because we do have a large population of uh seniors, we have a large population of people who utilize that center for whether it's Spanish for toddlers or gym or they have yoga lessons, they have different opportunities. I was there on Monday night, Representative Sharon McDonald had a community chat there in one room, while just down the hall in the gym, there was a men's basketball pickup game. You know, I had no idea that there was a men's pickup game. I'm not fantastic at basketball, but I would love to go exercise and learn and meet people and be able to do things like that. So I think that's something that I would really if there was no, there was no issue with money. Yeah. And there was no, I think that that's something that can really bring the community together, provide a space for people to meet. It would be a good access for people if there was some kind of disaster or you know, emergency. It would provide a lot of opportunity for people in that area. Correct me if I'm wrong. They serve lunch there. They do serve lunch there for I don't know if there's an age limit. I know a lot of seniors go there in my previous life life prior to the chamber. I worked for Key Bank down the road on 14. And we have a large population of the people in the the big tower. Yeah. My brain is not working right now, what it's called the Manor, Clausen Manor. And a lot of those residents take advantage of that because it's very reasonable lunch. They have a great cook and they rotate a menu there that you know is helpful to people. Uh, it's you know, in today's world, you you you I used to have one of the residents that would come and they would draw, you know, draw like five bucks. They'd be like, that's my lunch. And I'm like, I don't even know a place like even McDonald's where you can go spend five bucks now and get an actual full lunch.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So it they provide a lot to the community, and it's a it's definitely an undervalued and overlooked resource to a lot of people. So I always recommend people if if you have time, look at the class schedules that they provide. Scott Jennix and Lisa Ball do a wonderful job. Their entire rec staff is amazing. They're very kind people, and I've gotten to work with them closely recently with the where we we merged this year the fall fest and the claws and paws. Now it's the fall claws and paws festival. It's a little wordy. Yeah. Might not be the title forever, but that's fall, claws, and paws. Fall claws and paws festival. But we, you know, we merged that together, so I got to work closely with them this year because the fall fest was a parks and rec event that they put on. So it's it's sort of cool to see what they do and the opportunities that they have. So um, that would be my that'd be my big thing.
SPEAKER_00:Alex Speech is a candidate for Clawson City Council this fall twenty twenty-five. Thanks for uh, you know what? I don't think I heard that chair creep more than twice. I've been way to control yourself. All right, we're done, so you can rock away now. Thanks for being on the show. There it is. Can you hear it? There it is. He's rocking. He's rocking. And we're gonna roll. Thanks, Alan. Thank you, man. I appreciate it. Thank you for listening to this episode of Coffee with Clausen Candidates. Remember to check out the other 13 Clausen candidates in the other 13 episodes. And if you found this podcast to be valuable to you, please share it with a neighbor in Clausen. Don't forget to support our local sponsors who made this podcast possible. Special thanks to Blair Memorial Public Library, the Clausen Historical Museum, and Cave Cafe, all in Clausen, for letting us record 13 of the 14 episodes at their locations. Make sure you go visit every one of them and tell them thank you. The Coffee with Clausen Candidates Podcast is written, directed, hosted, recorded, and edited by B.T. Irwin, and produced by James Flanagan at Podcast Your Voice Studios in Southfield. Visit the Clausen City Elections page at cityofclauson.com to learn how, when, and where to cast your ballot this fall. We'll post a link in the show notes. Get out there and vote, Clausen. Until next time, grace and peace to you and all your Clausen neighbors.
