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
Merideth Peltonen, candidate for Clawson City Council
Meredith Peltonen is nearly a Clawson lifer and her family has a long history of elected public service around town. Now she believes it's her turn to carry on that tradition. She is running for one of four four-year terms on Clawson City Council.
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 twenty twenty five, 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 twenty twenty three, 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 candid 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 her 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. I'm sitting at the Clausen Historical Museum with Meredith Peltinen, who is running for city council. She was born and raised in Clausen. I went off to state, has lived a few different places, and came back in 2021. Y'all probably recognize her name, her last name, because her mom, Cindy, was on the school board for we figure at least 21 years. Yeah. Really long time. And now she is uh she is putting herself out there to be a public servant on your Clausen City Council. So, Meredith, thank you for visiting with us at the Clausen Historical Museum today.
SPEAKER_03:Well, thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah. Okay. So I I gave some of the high points of your your background here in Claussen, but why don't you tell us your Claussen story as you like to tell it?
SPEAKER_03:Okay, well, I have probably the best childhood anybody could have growing up in Clausen. It was back in the 80s and early 90s, back when, you know, we had the Keystone cops and would walk to the Dario. We always walked to school. We were in the Fourth of July parades, and I remember doing floats. Floats were very elaborate. Like we would go to parents' garages and just hang out for hours while the parents made flowers out of crate paper, out of plastic. And the the floats were a big part of my childhood growing up with that. But soccer was the main if I think about soccer and travel soccer indoor, but we had it was like families. We would all go to tournaments together. So for you know, it was everybody in classen that played soccer would be in Saginaw for the Saginaw tournament. But yeah, it was the everybody grew up going to the same, like I had preschool pictures with the same people I had graduation pictures with. So my class in experience was very much that of a that typical born and raised in Clausen.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So I I moved here in 2012 and we were talking before we started recording about a state championship.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:And I I don't know anything about that. So I feel like state championship ought to be something that comes up here.
SPEAKER_03:Yes. So there there have been two state championships last I checked from Clausen.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:One was the synchronized swimming in 1972.
SPEAKER_00:Come on. So synchronized swimming.
SPEAKER_03:I wasn't around the up for that, but the second one was in 2021 or 2001 for the girls' soccer team. We went we went undefeated that year. Yeah, it was the captain. I did the flip throw so people would recognize me from that a lot. Wow. But yeah, we were 21-0 and three. I think it was Pigeon Hill or something that we beat, but we had buses of fans, fan buses going to our games.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Following it was, I mean, it was huge. And I and I think I think the football team might have gone defeated that year. I think they might not have won a game. So it was kind of extra, extra. Everybody was just all aboard the class in soccer.
SPEAKER_01:All right. Bunch of people, I bet, remember that right now. They're like, oh, I remember her now. Okay.
SPEAKER_03:There's a banner in the gym. And yeah, it was my dentist, Dr. Hunter, made a big sign and had that out that like he printed up a banner that said, congratulations to the state champs.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Oh, I bet there are. Of course. I bet there are a lot of good memories. And about five seconds after people cherish those memories, they're like, wait, we had a synchronized swimming team.
SPEAKER_02:Exactly. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:That's that's going to be the big conversation. So I just uh what is your your day job? I uh everybody when they think of our elected officials, it occurred to me a couple years ago, we think of them as just elected officials that are on city council, but it's essentially a volunteer role. Right. And so people are doing other things during the day. And what is your what is your career like?
SPEAKER_03:What's your so what's your I was thinking, well, I guess it depends on the day.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:So right now I um focus on finishing my undergraduate degree at Michigan State. So a huge part of moving. I'm a bartender by trade. I've been a bartender for 20 years. So I've had the best interactions with all t all sorts of people. It has it's really taught me a lot of how to how to get along with everybody and find some sort of thing to agree on. So that's a that's great. So I bartend a few nights a week right now at Boodles in Madison Heights.
SPEAKER_00:Did you meet Gordon Ramsay?
SPEAKER_03:I did not, but something tells me he's gonna be doing a follow-up. I don't know. We'll see. But I I go to Michigan State and East Lancing twice a week on Mondays and Wednesdays to finish at school because it's awesome being there. So, and then I'm an aunt. I have three nibblings, and uh Wenny, the youngest, is not in school on Fridays, so we spend Friday mornings with her. So it's every day is kind of different, but the top focus right now is school.
SPEAKER_01:What's your what are you pursuing at state?
SPEAKER_03:So I started with political science as my major, and then I changed it up to criminal justice when I was there, and then had a little uh identity crisis and was thinking maybe I don't want to do law, maybe I want to do interior design. So I changed to interior design, and that was not really what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. So then I uh I finally landed on what is called interdisciplinary studies and uh uh of political science and social science with an emphasis on it's law, justice, and public policy. So it's essentially a hodgepodge of political science and criminal justice. Wow. So hoping to go to law school after this.
SPEAKER_01:I'm a big fan of interdisciplinary studies.
SPEAKER_03:It gets a bad rap, but I think that's if you're a renaissance person, people just don't know what it is yet. It sounds like nothing, but it's the best.
SPEAKER_01:I think I feel like it's good to be well-rounded. You know, you go to college not so much just to learn one thing, but to learn a lot of things. So your experience changing majors a few times. I feel like, first of all, everybody does that. You kind of have to figure out who you are. Yes. And uh like my sister went, she majored in criminal justice and got a full ride to Pepperdine and was like, Yeah, I don't want it. She's like, I don't want to do this. You know, I put four years into it and she's like, I want to do something else. And now she's a nurse practitioner. So I love that. Yeah, yeah, that's how it goes. And the the bartending thing, I I may get in trouble for this because I'm a Church of Christ minister and we're teetotalers, but I thought being a bartender might be some of the best pastoral education there could possibly be.
SPEAKER_03:I can see that.
SPEAKER_01:You know, in 20 years of doing that, I I'd say, oh, fellow minister here. I can only imagine we could just stop the interview right now and let you tell stories about the the people you've met attending bar, and we'd be very entertained.
SPEAKER_03:Right. Well, and the different places because I've been in the East Lansing and Lansing area, yeah, and have always, always been very interested in politics and public service. So I have gotten to meet I bet to meet and serve people, some pretty fascinating people in the Lansing area, and then I've been in the Birmingham, Troy, Royal Oak area. So it's just such a melting pot of just, I mean, especially being I was at Grand Tavern in Troy for a long time, and that's like Birmingham and Troy and Royal Oak and Closter. And you just get every different perspective and yeah, it's it's a very, very cool position to get insight.
SPEAKER_01:I've got an idea for another podcast series where it's just Meredith's stories about the people that she's served in bars.
SPEAKER_03:Next pastor Scott.
SPEAKER_01:For for those listening, Scott does have an episode, but we haven't recorded it yet as of right now.
SPEAKER_03:You guys will have some good conversations as well as it's like. Okay, well thanks.
SPEAKER_01:I'm looking forward to that. You just gave a little plug for his episode. What do you what do you read? What are you taking into your mind these days? You know, we're overwhelmed by so many choices of where to get our information. And uh, I've gone back to like reading books lately, just because it's like I need to kind of put the other stuff aside and read some books. And so, like, where what are you reading these days? What are you taking in to inform your mind?
SPEAKER_03:So to inform, because I do so much driving, NPR is a lot of where I get a lot of my news, like the more in-depth, detailed information. But I watched a half an hour news program, either ABC or NBC Nightly News, just to get the main rundown of current events. But other than that, I've been trying to take more of a journey of what I can actually have control over. And so my favorite class to date, and I hope all my other professors aren't listening, but was this political politics and ethics class, and it was about Aristotle. It was Aristotle's ethics, and I bought an extra copy so that I could highlight it and give it to friends because it's he was a very smart guy.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:It's so Aristotle has kind of been my go-to guy for now. It's just he's all about the middle, middle road, and how everything pretty much is good in moderation. You just have to know exactly how much and when you ought to care and what you ought to do about it. And he's very fascinating.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Aristotle, all right. Is it is it called Ethics?
SPEAKER_03:Um Nicomachean Ethics is the name of the one book that has really got me. I need to go back and read it some more.
SPEAKER_01:Now that you're asking about reading, I need to go back and if Amazon notices an uptick in sales of that title in Klaus and 48017.
SPEAKER_02:Now we know why.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, I'm cheating right here. I'm looking across at the questions. So for everybody, everybody who wonders why I'm stumbling here, I forgot to bring the questions with me today because my mom was staying with us and we were getting her out the door, and I don't have a memorized. Yes, there it is. Thank you. This is funny. Meredith actually has to show me my own questions. So, Meredith, there are several thousand people who are qualified to run for office here in Clausen. Only 14 have decided to run, and you're one of those 14. So why you and why now?
SPEAKER_03:Well, the why me, because why not me? The the average, I looked up right away like the demographics of Clausen, just what is the average, and it's 41 years old. And I was like, Oh, I'm 41 years old.
SPEAKER_01:Is that the median age in Clawson? 41?
SPEAKER_03:At least according to a quick internet search.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:But it's it was interesting to then look at everybody else up there and think, well, if we're just adding two seats, we could just add the next generation to stepping up. So that the timing is why now, because when we all voted on May 6th, I remember talking to a lot of my neighbors and friends. And my sister and her wife live just a few blocks away, and they have three school age children. So they talk to a lot of people that I don't get the opportunity to talk to. And everybody was saying, like, okay, we we have two more seats. Now, now who's gonna do it? And they're all saying, like, well, I don't have time, I don't have the I don't blah blah blah blah. And there, my sister and or we all were like, Well, I could, I mean, I could do it. And so I did ask my mom. I said, Well, before I, you know, say anything, are you are you planning to run? And she said, No, I'm done. You you go, it's your turn. And so, yeah, when I talked to my sister, she uh I think about it a lot because I think of it like a joking, but she might not have been joking at all when she said your slogan could be, I'm running so you don't have to. And I was right, because I was like, well, that's really funny. But then I thought that does make sense, like because that's what this job is, is to be like, I'll do it, I'll go up there, I'll put my name out there, I'll you know, have the tough skin and have people call me names that I don't know because as a bartender, I can handle that and know that it's not personal. Yeah, because it can't be because if you don't know me personally, the insults can't be personal.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:But yeah, I can it's like I'll go, I'll go do it, and you guys can tell me what you think. And so yeah, I'm running so they don't have to, but also because I have the time and energy.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. I I've thought a lot about if I've compared it to when you live in a house, you have to have house rules, right? Even people that love each other and just think the world of each other, if they're gonna live together, they've still got to make some rules, otherwise it's impossible. So you got 11,365 people that live in two square miles. You know, you gotta have some, you gotta organize yourselves and make decisions. But you can't put everybody in the high school gym and talk it out. And so you gotta send a few people to the table to represent you. And that's what I call city council. Is yeah, so we can't all do it. Someone's gotta do it, and you're saying, hey, it's my time. So this may be a lead into your next question. Like, who are your who would you pick as a role model in public service? Like, who do you want to most be like if you win election to city council?
SPEAKER_03:So it was a perfect leading because I what I was picturing is I was thinking, well, yeah, also in my neighborhood alone, you know, a lot of these people have already served. Like not just my mom, but I have other school board, former school board members and teachers and board committee members, all neighbors that have, you know, have given good guidance or examples, or a lot of the people that had served on school board with my mom or on city council are still around.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:And so I I do still have contact, but the person that I would want to more emulate is my mom, the way she ran the race, the way she was that like political figure or person for my whole life growing up that could have possibly been kind of annoying being at, you know, going to farmer jam real quick and not being able to get out. Yeah, somebody just saw my mom and just walks up to her and just starts talking. And it's like that when I look back, is thinking, well, that's what a public servant is. You just go to Farmer Jack and somebody comes up and starts talking, and she would just get so invested right then and there. And it would, and it, you know, the siblings and I would just be like, Oh, okay, here we go. Yeah, we're gonna be here a while. But now looking back, it it's because some she was available, she was approachable, and yes, she could change her mind, she could say she was wrong, and those are the kinds of things that I do really look.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I I was a I was a preacher's kid, and so kind of small town, kind of the same thing. We'd go out, and my dad knew everybody, everybody knew my dad, and he was the kind of because he was a minister, he was in the at the drop of a hat, he was off to help somebody. And there were times we kind of resented that a little bit. But one of the neat things about it is I got to see my dad's habits and the way that he thought and the way that he conducted his life behind the scenes in a way that people in the church and the community didn't see. So I could kind of see the the roots under the ground. Everybody else could see the tree, but I could see what was happening behind the scenes, yeah, for better or worse. And that really influenced me as a person. So when you there are all these people that know your mom, because she was in public service for years, but like, could you take us behind the scenes a bit? Something you saw about your mom that other people maybe didn't know about the way she conducted herself as a public servant that you would like to apply to you.
SPEAKER_03:That is funny because yeah, Rebecca, my sister, was just bringing this up about you know, technology makes everything so accessible, but you do kind of have to go out and get it. But we remember growing up and the packet delivery, the board packet.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:And so it became this culture of I feel like it might have been Thursday nights because then the meetings were Mondays, but it was the packet delivery. And so it would be my mom would get the packet and then spend it, could be one night or it could be two days, but going over all these details of this packet and just it was this the board packet was always such a big special, like the packet. And now after watching meetings of both the city council and planning and attending stuff and being able to just go on my phone and see the packet, I see how it would be like, Oh, and now I have it right here. But what I want to do is much more like what she did and examine it as soon as it is available and through every page and every detail. And she would it was almost like you know, trying well, not almost, it was a hundred percent trying to find as many questions as you could ahead of time so that you would be prepared. And so I mean, that was something that I didn't realize there were ways to not do it like that, but that is something I will definitely I I like to know everything and be as prepared as possible. Yeah, and so yeah, it's the way it was funny, it was just we were talking about the packet.
SPEAKER_00:That's right.
SPEAKER_03:And it's like, well, it should be treated like that. It's this, it's information, and should be so grateful to have all this information.
SPEAKER_01:Continue the family tradition.
SPEAKER_03:I mean, yeah, learning stuff.
SPEAKER_01:Did you ever watch The Crown?
SPEAKER_03:I didn't, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I I won't get there in the very early episodes when when Queen Elizabeth is not yet queen, but then she becomes queen, there's this red box that's put on the monarch's desk every morning with like everything in it. Oh you know, it's like it there's a whole episode about it, and you see it come up several times throughout the the episode. You were you're talking about the board packet coming to your mom. It was almost like the red box. Okay, here it is, everything stops, and we got to open it up and and look at it. So, speaking of that, what is something that most of the folks who live here in Clausen don't know about their city government and how it works that you really wish they would know. They ought to know and you wish they know about. And how might we change that? How might we make it so that more folks know, okay, this is how our government operates?
SPEAKER_03:Well, I think a lot of people probably well, I know. I I know for certain that the special election, May 6th, are uh a lot more people in Clawson became involved in our local level politics. And that for multiple reasons, but I think that's such an incredible thing. And I am one of those included because I remember seeing, you know, just something that said like, if you're not outraged, you're not paying attention. And I thought, well, I have no idea what's going on. Yeah. Like just right here with this one little thing. And so then I started paying very close attention long before May 6th.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:But I mean, not long before, but in, you know, when a lot of people started looking into stuff. But what I have found is that the planning commission is a very, very important um commission. Yeah, I think a lot of people that are also in that figuring out how the city politics work. And people think that the city council and the mayor make all these decisions and do all this stuff, but there we we really have a lot of different boards and commissions. And I think a lot of a lot of big decisions and big things that I hear people actually complain about are the planning commissions. And so I think getting people more involved with going to those meetings and or at least watching those meetings or applying to be on those types of commissions. But getting involved with any board is great. But the planning, I think, is the one that's sort of people are not as aware.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I'm keyed on on that because I was on the zoning board of appeals and we were having a meeting. I was on, and we were having a meeting one night about a particular request that somebody was building, and they were asking the zoning board of appeals to allow them an exception to the zoning ordinance so they could put up a bunch of extra lighting and stuff. And several residents showed up at the ZBA meeting, which was weird because up to that point, I don't know that any residents ever came to any of the ZBA meetings. But this night some residents showed up and they got up to make public comment and they talked about how this how this lighting was gonna be a problem for them. And I remember the chair at the time informed them that they were kind of they were kind of late, that they really needed to go to the planning commission because the planning commission had already approved the project and it was gonna happen. Even if the zoning board of appeals, no matter which direction we ruled on it, it was still gonna happen. And so that night it occurred to me, and some of those people were my neighbors, and they came up to me afterwards and said, Oh, we didn't know you were on this zoning board of appeals thing. And and they were really sad, and they're like, Yeah, what what's the planning commission? And I was like, Well, apparently that's where you needed to be. So, yeah, that the planning commission is is super important if you care about what's being built next to your house. But a lot of people don't know that they can go and and be heard.
SPEAKER_03:Well, and they were even just at one of the meetings that I was watching, they were talking about the patios and patio season and when restaurants can have their patios open. Yeah. Like planning, planning would be a great commission for people to get involved with, and yeah, the meetings to go to.
SPEAKER_01:And if you're curious about, because my wife's always like, hey, what's going in at that place there? You know, or what's you know, and I'm like, hey, you know what? It's all online. Or you can watch the planning commission online, or you can go in person, and then you know, hey, we're getting a new coffee house, you know, or they're building such and such there, and look at the site plans for the Shalm site or whatever.
SPEAKER_03:That's all I'm saying that they're requiring a certain amount of green space in different areas. Like yeah, just get getting informed.
SPEAKER_01:That's a planning commission. That's a loud motorcycle. So let's talk about the nitty-gritty of government here, starting with this. What is a challenge that you think we're facing here in Klaus and a really consequential challenge to us? And could you could you kind of just put on your teacher hat for a minute and give us a 101 on that challenge? Like what are the root causes of it? What's feeding into it? And what might we, as a community, city government and residents working together, uh, what might we do to confront that challenge over the next term or two of city council?
SPEAKER_03:Well, one thing I think it's really hard to uh it it's people seem very eager to shut down any ideas that they don't feel comes from their side. And what I think Clausen is just so much more of a circle inside instead of all these sides. It's like when we had an informational meeting just to how to run for office, I was not the only one that was saying, oh, why did you want to get involved with local politics? Well, because the national world, world news, international news, world like events, everything is a lot to handle right now. And if you're trying to carry on with your daily life, but still feel like you're making a difference, you really should just enter local politics, start paying attention. And but what I've noticed still being going to meetings, getting involved for the last few months, watching everything, it seems like people are almost silently, well, who said who suggested that? And it's and it's thinking, well, none of this is partisan stuff. We're not talking about any of these national issues. So I think just what I hear a lot is people have negative feelings toward people on council or mayors that they're not even willing to listen to what they're saying. It seems more just an automatic judgment, jump to conclusions. And so I'm not exactly sure how we would guarantee that people don't jump to conclusions so much, but having more open dialogue, I think, is what would probably help to have open dialogue. And I was thinking what I don't know if this is jumping around or it's your interview, you can jump wherever you want to jump. Well, because I was thinking when people say transparency or having open dialogue, and I'm thinking, well, what does that mean? What like how would you do that? And so one of the things since watching the meetings is if somebody, if a resident wants to come up and, you know, make a mention of a concern or something they have, I don't really hear that being addressed later, which doesn't mean it hasn't been resolved. And it probably has very easily been resolved via email or you know, whatever that the person comes up, says, I have this concern, and then we never hear about it again. And I was thinking, well, I don't I don't know if the flooding on the house from Bywood is still going on because we don't hear anything back from it. So I was I pictured these the city council meetings as being more of like the town halls you see in a Disney movie, like the hocus poca style. It's like everybody's always just coming to the city hall and like because that's where we can have discussions and people can just be there. It's so easy to watch on YouTube because you can cook dinner and watch the meeting. But if you're there, yeah, you really are paying attention, but that's where we can talk to each other, yeah. And so making the meetings and the discussions more happen, happen there. We're there every Tuesday night. Well, or I've been going to stuff because the planning vehicles are the opposite Tuesdays. And I did pay attention, I did notice the fifth Tuesday of the month, there's no meetings going on at City Hall.
SPEAKER_01:City Hall needs a break.
SPEAKER_03:But yeah, that makes sense. But yeah, I think more people going, like when I say people, residents, I think knowing that you can be casual and just come on in, but I think they should be kind of bigger events.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I want to touch on that in a second. I will say this. Uh a couple neighbors in my, you know, I'm walking my dog around the neighborhood all the time. And last year during the national election in 2024, there were two neighbors that were having what I would call a yard sale or a yard sign war. It started out with one one person had a Trump sign, and then the person next door had a Harris sign. And then the sign they started adding more signs. And then they were like, it was like they were having this passive aggressive battle where they, you know, they would like have a sign that dug at the other person. And it got crazy until their sign, their yards were covered with these signs. I'm like, have these people, do they actually talk to each other or do they just like put out these catty signs? So here's what I'm getting at is that I've noticed, because I've lived with those folks in my neighborhood for years, when an issue comes up on the ballot or local politics season comes around, sometimes their signs agree. Right? So there have been times where I see like a national politics sign on their yard, I'm like, hmm, yeah, that's I'm not down with that. But then I'll see a local, a local issue sign on their yard and I'm like, oh yeah, good job. Yes. Here's my point is that these neighbors, I I really hope that they talk to each other and they're friendly, but they're if they allowed their national affiliations to affect how they act here in Clausen on local things, they would be they would be at odds. They would you know be mortal enemies, I guess. But they seem to have these agreements. I notice they have these agreements on local things. And so I feel like that's the point you're making, is that is that somebody walks in the room and says, I I think this or I want this or this is something I observe, is that we need to filter that through a neighborly, you know, we're 11,000 people living in two square miles. We're a big, we're a big family in a big house. And rather than thinking when we meet someone, oh, are they a Democrat or a Republican? You know, what national, you know, what presidential candidate did I see on their lawn? So they must be conspiring against me. You're saying we ought we we all live so close together, we need to give each other the benefit of the doubt. And so that circles me back to where I I was kind of setting things up because I I asked how could we address this challenge? I do not like conflict. I my skin crawls. I I just I ugh, you know, if anybody knows I have the cringe factor on even watching a TV show when people fight. So going to a city council meeting feels a little bit like a bunny hopping into, you know, hopping into a meadow with you know a bunch of wolves. I it's it's I'm like, there's gonna be so much cringe if I go to the city council. So many people are gonna, and I wonder how many other folks stay away because they don't like the acrimony. You know what I mean? So if that's a challenge, that look, we need more people to go to the town hall, right? And sit there and listen to each other and speak up, but people who don't like conflict stay away because they they're like, oh, that's that's cringe. What can we do about that?
SPEAKER_03:Right. Well, I I I'm glad you did mention that because I was thinking, yes, it it is. If anybody has seen me speak at any of my things so far, it it's very hard for me.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:But I'm thinking people go, you don't have to get up to the podium and speak directly, speaking to each other, speaking to your neighbors, just hearing different, different ideas. So because I I think one of the things I keep going back to is I really believe people are good and and they have good intentions with just sometimes bad outcomes, bad results. And then it's hard to admit if you're wrong, if your intentions were good, because you don't feel like you were ever wrong. And it's, I mean, I think it it is hard to look at people as believing that they all had the right idea or they had their heart in the right place, but that's how I that's how I do. When somebody is flying by me on the highway, I think I do, I see them go by and I think like, I hope they make it, like I hope they get to whatever emergency that they are going, because that is something very important because they're just flying by. Like I just really think like I hope people like I mean it could be naive, but I think I think usually the idea is is there. Yeah, and a lot of things get lost in translation.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:One thing as a bartender, I've noticed just at the bar from people to another, oh, somebody said this. Somebody said they can't be trusted, or something along those lines. And I say, What were the actual words? What were the exact words? Well, they said, and it's turns out well, that's nothing what they meant. So it's it's loss in translation. Yeah. And I think a lot of that comes with when they're if you don't go to places, if you're if you don't show up, then it's oh, I saw them at this event, so and so said this. It's like the game of telephone. Like if you like just show up, and it's a lot less scary than I think going online saying stuff can be scary because that's people can be vicious. But if you show up and you don't, like I said, you don't have to speak just going to stuff, getting ideas flowing.
SPEAKER_01:There was a guy who I didn't know personally here in town, and everything I'd heard about him was bad from people that didn't like him. And then I ran into him, and we had a con we had about an hour-long conversation about something that he had some particular points of view that some other friends of mine found distasteful, but it kind of got personal the way they described him, and and so I didn't know him, and we ended up having a really good conversation. We didn't agree at the end, but I didn't feel like he was a bad guy after having the conversation, you know, with some nefarious scheme cooking. We just we we saw things different, but we parted, you know, laughing and being friends. And so I thought, well, that was a really good thing that I happened to just run into him, because otherwise my mind was clouded by everything that I've been told about him, but I didn't actually know because I didn't meet him in person. So, other side of this coin here: big challenge, big opportunity. What do you think is one of the biggest opportunities ahead of us here in Clausen? And uh, what might we do to realize that opportunity for for now and for our future generations that are gonna come after us?
SPEAKER_03:This is gonna be the coolest thing when Clausen has golf carts all for school pickup. So my sister and her wife, and they live on the Kenwood side, which is you know just up the 14 mile. And so they've been having so my the two niblings, they take a bus that drops them off at the former Kenwood spot, and so they don't have to cross those streets. So they've gotten to avoid so far the pick lines. But so, yeah, since they moved all the schools to one campus, there have been a lot of already complex school just started, and it is not easy with all the cars there. And so the more the more we thought about it, really, it was starting with that 4th of July saying, Oh, it'd be really cool to rent a golf cart just to get around it. It's so much better than these huge pickup trucks and fans and that we have that were the ones driving these. We said, Well, we just want it to be able to go from here to there. And then we saw this Facebook post saying, no golf carts, just a reminder. And we thought, well, I didn't know there was even a rule against against this. So started looking into it and I started thinking more about it. If we did get an ordinance that allows golf carts and they're all street legal, you have to be 16 like there are all sorts of rules that you would still have, but you have to stay in the city limits. So that would be great for restaurants for our stores because you have to stay in Clausen. So you're not gonna go just down the road to Royal Oak because you can only keep your golf cart in Clausen. It takes up way less parking space, true, way fewer emissions. We can fit people in the pickup lines, but then way cheaper. You can you can have a really nice golf cart and you can take it from soccer practice to school to the Dario, you know, wherever. And then the cross, you can't take them on the main roads. But we recently put in those crosswalks, yeah. Those could be converted to big actual crosswalks that would be like where the golf carts can cross. But I really do like it, it's like a vision, yeah. And that's the kind of thing that I'm thinking when people suggest stuff, don't just knock it just because you don't know where it's coming from, or you don't agree on other stuff, like start thinking about it.
SPEAKER_01:So the interesting thing is you said there's an ordinance currently there's an ordinance on the books, apparently, that you cannot drive a golf cart on city streets in Clausen, apparently.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, that's yeah, I guess I just saw it on the face.
SPEAKER_01:But I've noticed a ton of like kids like riding those minibikes. Yes. Like at night, I was driving home the other night, it was dark, and there was a kid, little kid. I mean, we're talking about an elementary school age kid on a minibike, all black, wearing a helmet. He's like zooming down Elmwood. So it's interesting. Like golf carts, no, but kids on minibikes with no lights on them and you not obeying the laws of the road.
SPEAKER_03:Faster than 15 or 20 miles an hour.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, right, exactly. So I haven't told my wife this yet, but I think I've decided I want a Vespa just for just for getting around Clausen.
SPEAKER_03:Well, that's the thing. That's what they were thinking. Like four pets in a round. Yeah. Because two, I mean, the uh the other option is usually an SUV. We all drive, we don't, we're not driving little economy vehicles. So it would be, yeah, I think it would be really fun.
SPEAKER_01:I'd love to have a Vespa. Can I cheat off your again? Left my questions at home trying to get out of the house. I think I'm almost done. Uh oh no, there is one more before. It's the one about what's one thing you think would improve how city council functions and w what might we do to make city council more responsive to to the people that it represents?
SPEAKER_03:Well, that one I think I really like rules and order and just consistency and knowing what to expect. And you know, I've worked at a lot of corporate places as well. I I just like to know the or I just like to know the order and way things can be done. And and there are mini municipal classes that we can take as a council, just so we're all on the same page.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:I heard the guy who wrote Robert's rules said it's like playing baseball. You go, you know, the same rules are gonna be here as the same rules when you play baseball there. And it's just the kind of let's just get the the rules in order. The just the order, the meeting, everything can be run very smoothly there. I I kind of think the the clock and everything is just seems a bit overkill. I don't think we need to have a timer on how long people talk. I don't think people need to go up there and talk over ridiculous amount of times. But I think getting new fresh people on the council and just being responsive and getting people to come to the meetings and not be afraid to bring up something like I want to get a golf cart, or you know, the yeah, there are lots of lots of opportunity if people show up. I think is the first start to getting like we'll learn the rules, then the people show up, and then we'll take it from there.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So here's the fun question. You were like, oh yeah, this is the fun question. Yeah, I know. So we'll we'll get to the fun one now. Like, if if you had unlimited energy, money, and time, if we had un unlimited energy, money, and time here in Clausen, we could do one big thing for the people to just enjoy. So I wanna I want to qualify this. Everybody wants new roads, new sewers, all that kind of stuff, right? But I'm talking fun here. Yeah. All right, fun money for fun things for everybody here. What's your idea?
SPEAKER_03:So when I went to been doing some background research on cloth, well, just went to the high-rise to check out some of those apartments.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:I'm not that old yet, but just to see what they were offering. And one thing when I was on that side looking as like, well, where what store do they have? That's why everybody who lives here has to go to BP. And I thought, well, it'd be really cool if we just had like a sky skywalk, like the Somerset.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:So then connect that. And then I was also picturing this bridge at one of the soccer tournaments we went to. I think it's in Midland, was where there's like it was called the Tridge.
SPEAKER_01:The Tridge, yeah. Yeah. The Tridge.
SPEAKER_03:And so I was just picturing when I saw this question. I was, well, I kind of was already picturing. Wouldn't it be cool to have something like all of Fort, like between 14 and Maine, but even so, probably to where the crosswalks are, quite honestly, to where those ones where my golf cart passes.
SPEAKER_00:There you go.
SPEAKER_03:But just something built and just just up and over, so we would have the bridges and we'd kind of cut back with traffic and roads, nice crossing for animals. But yeah, picture picturing a trige or a bridge or a skywalk type.
SPEAKER_01:This question has never failed at this point so far. Every single person has given me an answer that I never ever would have dreamed ever. And you are keeping the streak alive with that one. All right. Well, Meredith Peltinen is running for city council here in Claussen this fall 2025. We have been sitting in the Clausen Historical Museum having this conversation. And thanks for making time on a Saturday morning. Share with all your neighbors. Neighbors. Neighbors, neighbors. 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, 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.
