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
Richard Scott, candidate for Clawson City Council
Richard Scott is a longtime Clawson resident who served for several years on the Clawson Planning Commission. In the summer of 2025, he accepted an appointment to fill a vacancy that opened up on Clawson City Council when a member resigned. Under the revised charter, Scott is to serve until the next regular city election this November 2025. He is running to retain the seat through the end of its term in November 2027.
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 Claussen City Charter Commission, where I served until the people of Claussen adopted the revised city charter we proposed in November 2023. Through those experiences, I've gotten to know Claussen City government and many of the people who work in it. So that's me. Now let's talk about the election happening in Claussen this fall, 2025. This is your crash course. If you didn't know, this year's Clawson 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 Clawson 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 Clawson. So this is a big election with lots of candidates running for more seats than Claussen 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, Claussen'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 Clawson 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 Clauston 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, Loris Lowinski, 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 Binkowski 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 in 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.
SPEAKER_02:I'm uh sitting in the Blair Memorial Public Library with uh Richard Scott, and we are looking out the window across Main Street to City Hall, and that is appropriate because he is running for a city council seat in the fall 2025 election. We'll talk about that in a moment. Richard's been a resident of Claussen for about 30 years. He was appointed to city council in July. Those who follow Clausen politics know Matthew Benkowski, federal love, moved out of the city, quoting him on that, and resigned to city council seat. And so uh the charter calls for city council to appoint someone. They appointed Richard to uh city council and then for the seat to go on the ballot at the next uh regular election, which is November 2025. And so Richard is running to finish that term that started in 2023 and will end in November 2027. He was on the planning commission for two and a half years before he was appointed to city council. And some of you listening to this may remember that he was your youth soccer coach uh at some time in the past. So, Richard, thank you for being with us.
SPEAKER_04:I appreciate you taking the time to be with me. You know, this is great that you're having these conversations with everyone so that people get to know us better. It's one of those things that I would really like to have more conversations with a greater number of people in Clausen, just in general. But, you know, all of us live in a certain location within Clausen, and typically we talk to our neighbors, you know, up and down the street and and that type of thing. But, you know, it and for me, it's been nice getting out and talking to people. I'd, you know, walk the streets, knock on doors, talk to people, and it and it's been wonderful.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Well, we'll just pretend like this is a conversation with everyone, because it kind of is. Yeah, sure. I think the most important question to start this conversation is what is your Klaus and story?
SPEAKER_04:Well, like you said, we we moved here about 30 years ago. We were in Berkeley. That was our our first house. Yeah. And my son was born when we were at that house in Berkeley. When he was about four years old, we we felt like we might needed to make a change because you know the house was the house there was quite small. And you know, we wanted to get a little closer to what our stomping ground was. Yeah. My wife and I both grew up in Troy. I went to Birmingham School, she went to Troy schools. And, you know, we had great memories of we even before my wife got married, I used to do this with my friends, but my wife and I used to go out to the old Thunderbird, yeah, Hunter Lanes. Yeah, and right? Yeah, yeah, and watch and watch the fireworks, Clausen fireworks from there. Is that right? Yeah, every every fourth of July. It was on the fourth, so you know, you could you could see other fireworks shows on other nights, but Clausen was on the fourth, so it was, you know, we were we tried to always make that. So we had some familiarity with Clausen. And our realtor, you know, said, Hey, I got I got this house in Claussen that you should take a look at, you know. And well, the rest is history. We we looked at the house, we we loved it. It's a you know, it's it was a ranch house, which we liked. The basement was, you know, had was partially finished, which we liked. Three bedroom, you know, it was perfect for us. So here we are. We moved to Clausen about 30 years ago, and we weren't really planning on staying in Clausen, to be honest with you. I mean, it was kind of one of those things, you know how it is, kind of a stepping stone thing. But we got here, and after a few years, we were like, you know, I don't think I don't really need or want to move. I love this community. I mean, we were, you know, my son was engaged in, you know, a whole bunch of stuff. Again, I was youth soccer coach at that time, you know. And, you know, it just just felt I just loved the community. I love the the small town feel, you know. Uh it really feels like you you took a a small little city from maybe up north and yeah, plopped it in the middle of this huge, yeah, you know, bunch of conglomerate cities, you know. And so we just we just loved it and we stuck around. We we just decided we're not gonna move. We like this house, we like this place, we like this city, and we just stayed.
SPEAKER_02:And here you are.
SPEAKER_04:And here I am.
SPEAKER_02:So one of the things that uh we've talked about with other candidates is city council is not a full-time job, and you know, you get paid a couple bucks to to go to meetings. Uh, everybody that serves in the elected government here in Clausen has a day job. So, what's your day job?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, that's a great question. So, unfortunately, I am unemployed and I've been unemployed for a little over a year. Is that right? Yeah, but my background, I've I've over 30 years I've been in information technology, much of which has been in leadership positions. For example, not too long ago, about up until about four years or for eight years, and then about four years ago I left. I was the director of IT at the Detroit Institute of Arts.
SPEAKER_02:Is that right?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. So uh, which is a whole nother story, which we could take forever. We figured I could tell you about how that went. That was that was a super fun job. I that I mean, I walked in there and and the DIA was let's just say behind the times a bit. They didn't have an IT team at all. They had two contractors that were providing IT support, if you will, for the organization. And so I built an IT team. But to give you just and I don't want to get into techie stuff here, but this is something that you and and others may understand. You know, at home, our homes, we typically have something like, you know, you might have 50 megabits connection to the internet, right? Or a hundred, or maybe some people, you know, have a gig. Yeah, right. When I hit the DIA, they had one, not two, but one 10 megabit connection to the internet on copper. Uh-huh. So wow. You can imagine how slow things were for people. And you know, it was it was it was tough for them from an efficiency standpoint. So at any rate, it was a it was a fun job to to really kind of turn the DIO around digit. It's a you know, it was really, really was a digital transformation from a technology standpoint, you know, and I got involved in some wonderful projects too, with augmented reality and and you know, I I worked with uh the visitor experience folks, and they are they are incredible understanding you know what what people appreciate and really understanding what to how to present information to people. And that was that was educational to me. Yes. So I'm off on a tangent, but anyway, that's that's kind of my my background. Uh most recently I was at a consulting organization, and I was kind of served two roles there. I was the director of professional services, so all of the consultants rolled up under me. There was four different consulting groups, if you will. And then I also helped out with it, it was called director of museum products and services. So there was a product that we had built to offer to museums. And so I any any work that the company did with museums or now nonprofit organizations, I was the guy that had those discussions. Whoops. Yeah. I was the guy that had those discussions. Because I knew the, I knew the I knew that area, right? I knew what nonprofits were going through. I knew, you know, what their what their goals were and and how they operated. And having those kinds of discussions was much easier for me than it was from so for with someone from someone else who hasn't experienced that.
SPEAKER_02:So as someone who has worked my entire career in the nonprofit sector and who is married to someone who is a museum administrator, I can appreciate everything that you did.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:What do you uh what's on your bookstand? That's that's a question that means what are you reading these days? I I've shared several times on this podcast that I've been reading Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone over the last couple months. And and so I'd like to know what what are candidates.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I mean, I to be honest with you, right now I don't have a I don't have a book on the bookstand. I honestly, BT, I've been every day I require my job every day right now is to go through job boards, find opportunity opportunities that make sense for me. And you know, people who aren't in this position don't realize there's a lot of work that goes into just applying for a job, right? It's not a matter of just, oh, I'll send my resume. No, you've got to make sure that you have your resume organized in such a way and are stating the things that make the most sense for that role. And there's cover letters that have to be written specific to the requirements. So that takes up a lot of my time. And you know, so I I want to get back to reading. I'm I I'm an outdoor enthusiast. So my most of my reading has to do with outdoors. Yeah. Right. Yeah. You know, think about Call of the Wild, or I mean, those type that books along those kinds of lines are what I really get into. And they're there, I can't remember the name of the book, but there was a book by a couple that just walked away from you know, pretty good paying jobs and ended up living in the wilderness. And I cannot remember the name of the book. I've got to find it again. But it was a fascinating book. But those are the types of books that I look for.
SPEAKER_02:Sounds good. And I I empathize, I I left my full-time job at the end of 2024. I had a health scare last fall, and I was afraid I was gonna die if I didn't make a change. And so I quit that job rather abruptly for health reasons, and then I spent I started my full-time job that I have now two weeks ago. So I spent most of this year looking for jobs. So that the daily looking resumes, cover letters, and it gets exhausting, you know.
SPEAKER_04:It it really is exhausting.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_04:Because you know that you know what you're capable of, you know. The the big thing is you you really just need to talk to somebody. I mean, that was that's kind of my thing. I thank God, I've got a couple of interviews coming up, you know, and at least I'm talking to somebody. Yes, there's been a few of those. Um, but on the other hand, you know, you you go to apply for a for a role, like especially on LinkedIn, and you look at at some of the uh statistics about the the job, that is how many people applied. Yes, some of them are like 900. Yes, yes, 900 people. Yeah. And it can get a little bit like, oh, yeah. You know, how are you gonna stand out uh when there's 900 people that apply? And when a robot is reading your exactly your now we have AI that you know, don't don't get me started on that. Um, AI is fine for some things, but when you, you know, hiring people, right, there's a lot of nuance that, or there should be. And I fear that a lot of organizations are relying on AI to surface any resume that they look at. They won't even look at a resume unless AI says it should. That's that's giving control to AI rather than you know doing your own due diligence because there are there are some precious things that AI will not find. Yeah, you know. Anyhow. So yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I could go down this rabbit hole with you, but I suppose we'll say that for another interview. So the here here in Clausen, we've got several thousand people that could be running for office. 14 have raised their hands and said, I will run, and you are one of those 14. Why you and why now?
SPEAKER_04:Uh I I laughed with my wife about that. I said, Because I'm a glutton for punishment. But 14's a lot, don't you think?
SPEAKER_02:I mean, really. It has to be historic. I mean, I mean where you'd go to find out if you had more people running.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, it's just it, I mean, that's that seems like a lot to me. I mean, we're we're I know that we have what six, seven thousand people in the city, right? But the thousand three hundred and sixty-five. Is that the peak population voters is okay? That's the number I was trying to look at. But you know, that's a that's a relatively small population to have 14 people running for office. So I think that's a that's quite a large number, actually. But me, honestly, you know, what was it? Yeah, three years ago or so. You know, there were a number of my neighbors that you know, Rich, you should run. This was years ago that they said that. And I'm like, no, no, I'm really busy. I don't, you know, just from conversations and getting together with neighbors, oh, you should run for office. I'm like, no. But three years ago, I'm like, you know, I'm you know, getting further along in my career, and I, you know, feel like I really haven't done everything that I could to give back, you know, to the city. And I love this city. So I said, you know what, I'll raise my hand and see if they need any help, you know. And, you know, I spoke to some of the folks on planning at the time. I spoke to the mayor and a couple of council members, you know, and just told them, you know, I hey, uh, you know, I'm interested in here. Yes, you know, and ultimately that ended up with me being on, you know, appointed to planning commission. So that was great. I mean, I learned I learned so much on planning. Yes. So much. Just, you know, because I'm one of those kind of guys, I'm a little bit anal about preparation. So I, you know, I mean, I read every word of those packets. Yes. And sometimes some areas more than once and make sure that, you know, I I asked the right questions where I don't understand something. You know, I in my career I I read an awful lot of contracts, right? It's different from that, right? Obviously. But and side note, I was also a custom cat foreman of a cabinet shop for years while I was going to college. But so I do have some experience reading plans. Yes. Right. But you know, I felt like I needed to be prepared. And I have learned a ton about our ordinances and how our ordinances control the buy-right work that a developer can do. And and just being involved in, you know, like the master plan update and the discussion around short-term rentals, but I mean that was a two-year process, yes, to quite frankly. It's just a lot. And I've learned so much. I just felt like when Mr. Binkowski resigned, you know, I said, Well, I'm I I'd love to to help out there. Yeah, you know. I've only been on council for a short time, but I felt like I felt like I was a I you know that it there's more being accomplished on planning, really, than there is on council so far. Right.
SPEAKER_01:But my short of action at planning. Yeah. People don't know that. No, they don't. There's a lot of action at planning.
SPEAKER_04:And that uh that's gonna come up later in some of your questions, but you know, I I really I I really would hope that more people in the city would pay attention to plan to the planning commission and what's going on there. At least read the the packet. You know, maybe you don't have maybe you know, you don't want to attend the meeting. Okay, read read the packet. It's only every other week. Yeah. Read the packet, and it gives you some indication of what's of what's going on. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And yeah. So that's why. I mean, I just felt like, well, I'm on planning. I've done this for two and a half years. I feel qualified and competent based on my background. You know, I mean, I was responsible again. This I don't want to get into all of my career, but you know, at the DIA I had, you know, a little smaller budget, as you can imagine. But prior to that, I had large budgets that I was responsible for. And familiar with the budgeting process, again, familiar with reviewing contracts and making sure that there's no fine language in there that's going to put us in a bad position. So I kind of see myself as a second set of eyes. You know, so I mean, I felt that I could I could be of service in that way.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So do you do you have any, let's say you get a elected to serve out the rest of the two-year term and you're gonna stay on city council. I mean, do you have any role models that you look to in public service and say that's the kind of elected official I want to be?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. Not really in public service. I think they're all you know, I'm not speaking about our little city here, in in really not local so much, but you know, when you get into more grandiose roles in politics. I mean, I they they those people I don't think none, I don't care which side you're talking about, I just don't think they're always honest. Okay. So I have a hard time thinking of them as role models. Yes, sir, yes, sir. But I but I'll can tell you who is my role model, my father. He he's past now. But a little bit of background for me. So I am this is gonna sound crazy. I'm one of ten kids. Wow, the youngest in the family. I I have I have a half brother and a half sister. My half brother is past. I have four stepsisters and three, you know, full sisters. So, you know, used to joke that when my dad read in the Bible, go out and multiply, he took that seriously.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, but it is the first command in the Bible, by the way.
SPEAKER_04:So, right?
SPEAKER_02:Yep.
SPEAKER_04:Oh. But so I was the youngest in the family. My mom passed away when I was 12. So before she died, you know, I was I was just a kid, right? She said, You gotta get closer with your dad. I mean, my dad worked every day and worked hard, and you know, he'd come home and you know, we you know, we maybe play catch and stuff in the summer, we'd go to baseball games. I mean, no, don't get me wrong, he was involved. Yeah, but you know, the the day-to-day parenting really was my mom, yeah, right. And my grandmother, my mom's mom, my maternal grandmother, was living with us at the time. And you know, she said, Yeah, your your grandmother will be here, you know, but but you really have to get closer with your father because I knew she I knew she was gonna die. So that I I had to set that up because that's how my dad and I really became close. I have a completely different relationship with my father than the rest of my siblings. You know, from from 12 on, it was just my dad, really. I mean, my grandmother passed away when I was a senior in high school. So my dad was a World War II vet. He's he was a tail gunner bombardier navigator in the Naval Air Corps on Navy Avengers. And he was he he just he was very he was strict, but he was fair. And and you know, when I was younger, of course, I didn't like the strictness as much as I came to appreciate when I got old. Yes. But he he was funny, he was absolutely supportive. I could tell you stories about that. You know, I I told my wife, I'm like, man, you know, she's heard me say this. I'd love to be more like my father. I I'll never be like my dad, you know. I I'll never be, I don't think I'll ever be that good of a man, right? He was just he was my hero, you know. And so, you know, here I I am. I try to be like him. I mean, he was funny, he'd tell jokes and everything. I don't do nearly as good a job. I really don't. But, you know, I try to emulate him, you know, to the extent that I can. So when you talk about a role model, and I know people don't have, you know, sometimes have bad relationships with their fathers and that kind of stuff. I you know, it it's just the way it was. I mean, I I became very close to my dad and and he became, grew into truly my role model before he passed.
SPEAKER_02:So that's a good one. You're not the only person to say they're dad. And you know, my dad died three years ago, and I say a lot of the same things about him. Yeah. And uh anytime I do anything, I think, how would dad do this? Yeah, how would dad approach this? Yeah, you know.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So I think a lot of people are with you on that.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, that's good. That's good.
SPEAKER_02:Let's uh let's talk about the nitty-gritty of governing the city of Colossus. Sure. Um what is one thing about how the city works that the public ought to know, but most folks don't know. And how might we change that?
SPEAKER_04:That I think is really easy. Of course, you know, I haven't gone out and done a poll or anything, right? But I don't think people really understand that the mayor and council do not run the city. The city administration runs the city. The mayor and council are overseers, advisors, if you will, the voice of the public to the city administration, right? But the city administration runs the city. We have what's called a strong city administration, weak council form of government in the city. And I don't think people I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_02:that uh that the majority of people really understand that you know yeah and i and i i wish they would i mean you know i think that if they did you know you know bt there's some people can be very vitriolic right and i think there would be less of that if they understood that look we talked to we we even you know in planning is one thing but now council too you know after meetings there's only been a couple people that have pulled me aside to say anything right and this I'm not gonna go too far because this gets us to another question that you have in there that I'm gonna talk about later but I really wish that more people would get involved and have discussions I mean it doesn't it should not be painful to just have a discussion and it really helps to understand where people are at what what they're thinking right you know remember I said earlier read the packets right yeah have a discussion I I think that's I mean that's what it's all about to me you know it's just there's not enough of that you know it's I don't think that it I'm bleeding over into this other question but you know coming and having the public speak to council the council that's not a conversation you can't have a conversation in that situation that's right if you want to have a conversation it has to be outside of those meetings and and that's perfectly fine there's you can the way the way it will be after this November election we'll have nine people on council you could literally have a discussion with four of them without violing violating any OMA rules about city about the city right but you know I think that a lot of people they they just you know they want the city is just works right and if the city just works is from their you know point of view then they don't want to get involved right but I I wish they would yeah you know I'm sure we will talk about that a little more in a second with some of these questions coming up I I want you to pick what you think is one of the biggest most consequential challenges facing us here in Closum and tell us why that challenge is so big and consequential and then pretend you're a teacher for a minute and give us a 101 on the challenge. How did it emerge? What's feeding into it and how might we as a community and city government working together meet that challenge over the next term or two?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah I mean you know out talking to people and I I felt this way already without talking to people frankly but you know what's on everyone's mind is infrastructure you know I hear it all the time do you have any idea when our road is going to get done yeah you know you know and we we passed that millage which was was badly needed part of your question was you know how did we get here right look there there's been some years in the not too distant past that you know the there was some struggle economically it throughout the country right class was no different yeah there's that where money was was tight and thin right so investment was light and probably lighter than it should have been not sure frankly whether or not all the grants that might have been available at that time were pursued properly I or not during those years. But the fact is we got here because of not doing all of the updates and improvements that we should be doing I'm not talking about maintenance I'm talking about you know keeping up with you know it's kind of like a a rolling update right because you get you get done with with imagine just this isn't how it works but imagine you start at the south you work to the north when you get done with the north you start back at the south and you go through it again. I mean that's kind of what we have that's what we have to get into this rhythmic you know continual update of our infrastructure not just roads but you know sewers and water frankly water water hasn't been updated you know in quite a while and those those those water lines some of them are quite old you know we've seen a lot of water breaks in the city we have right around around my house I don't know where you live but I've had them yeah down this street this way down the street this way you know so we we've got to we've got to get those corrected but again there's a main there's a a replacement schedule for anything that you put in the ground right and you you've got to plan to that yeah right and and some of that wasn't able to be done I'm not gonna place blame on past administrations but it will I don't think it was able to be done whether it was poor planning or just economics just forbade it right so we got to a point that the problem was much larger than what it otherwise would have done. And you know we ended up having to go to the residence of Plaws and I say we I wasn't on council at that time but the the city council and the administration really had to go to the citizenry and and ask and say hey we'd love to do the infrastructure updates that we need to do in this city but we we don't have the funding to do it. You know will you support this? Yes and the people said yes I think now you know we need to we need to to keep an eye on I'm not on the infrastructure committee there's two council members that are so I I I look forward to their report outs of course and the administration's report outs but all of us as citizens of Clausen need to pay attention to to what's happening with those infrastructure developments. I mean Elmwood is getting started that's great. Anyone who's exited the city or came on come into the city on Elmwood going to Myers or coming from Myers or whatever have you right know that Elmwood alone could cause you some some cost from a suspension standpoint. Yes so it needs to be done but you know again it it's keeping an eye on what's going on right in making sure that all of that work makes sense the dollars and cents make sense the contracts look good the the the the vendors that we're using are appropriate and reasonable you know so keeping an eye on that and then beyond that taking a look at okay we get Elmwood done how long can we expect that section of Elmwood to last yeah and kind of marking that on a calendar if you will yeah and and stepping back from that saying okay we're gonna have to replace Elmwood again here step back from that however many months you know maybe a year probably and say okay we've got Elmwood coming we need to make sure we either get the grants you know to to fund the replacement of Elmwood because we know it has to be replaced out here right we need to do we need to make sure that we kind of put that process in place as we're as we're doing this right so that so that at least even if we're under you know economic stress you know out there at that point we'll know what what it is we have coming and we can we can talk to our citizenry about hey we know this is coming we're having trouble getting money you know talk to people about what they think what they think yeah we should do yeah that's what's important.
SPEAKER_02:It's really no different from you know in our own households you you know you're never done working on your house. Right. You know yeah there's never a time you're like okay we're done there's all you fix something something breaks right you you know you pay off this year car breaks down and so we in our everyday lives we expect there's just this rolling rolling repairs and upgrades that have to be done to our homes and our cars and we got to save for it we got to plan for it. And so what I hear you saying is you know this is one big two square mile house right where we all live together and we need to expect that we're gonna have to constantly be working on something here. It's gonna cost money to do it.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah and the the the thing that's a little bit different though is that you know we get what I call free money and being in the nonprofit space I'm sure you're familiar as well right I was part of grant teams at the DIA many times grants aren't guaranteed right you know but you ought to pursue them when you have something that topically matches what the grant is for at every opportunity. And you better do a really good job in your application for that grant. And I'll even add another one to that it's not just about the application for the grant especially in the case of a locality like this you've got to have you know again citizenry being involved right sending sending letters to to your representatives at Oakland County sending letters to your representatives at the state yes letting them know that hey hello raise my hand hello we need help here in clauses and residents can do that it doesn't cost anything and you know they they they should be supportive of those types of opportunities that the city is pursuing you know and even if the city isn't pursuing it you know just notifying Alban County letting letting your voice be heard at the county and at the state level to your representatives that you know we could use some support from the county or the state that that's wonderful that's very helpful.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah that's a great idea that's a really good idea so that's a challenge let's flip the coin over what's what's one of the biggest opportunities ahead of us here in Klosson and same as with the challenge question teach us why you think that's such a great opportunity and what might we do over the next term or two to capitalize on it.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah I mean honestly in fr from my perspective in very recent years we've been doing pretty good as a city in my opinion I frankly think that the greatest opportunity is to provide some stability to this city because you know it wasn't too long ago that there was this huge I can't I forget what it was maybe you remember I'm trying to remember when we go through six city managers. It felt like 60 so yeah I know that cost the city money and it caused chaos and we got nothing done. You know again the the the city council is you know I say advisors but you know there there's got to be a symbiotic relationship between the city council and the administration I've even if you don't agree right you you should form a rapport you need to have that ability to communicate and have a discussion right and that's how you get things done. And I think we need we need to do that. We need to give this administration a chance I have when I was on planning I primarily dealt with Nick Stepnitz right Nick was great I don't I don't have to agree with everything that Nick has from an opinion standpoint but he was great in that I get the packet if I have questions I can shoot him a question in advance the meeting I can ask questions at the meeting of Joe Tenchery or whomever right I can get my questions answered there's a I've been up here at City Hall talking to Nick you know about stuff. So that you develop that rapport and at least at least that allows you to collaborate together. And similarly with Joe Raker I you know I hardly had any interaction with him when I was on planning occasionally but rarely now on council you know I he says hey pick up the phone call me on my cell anytime you know I've taken him up on that yeah you know I picked I may have called him at some bad times but you know what I not meaning to in fact I know one time I called him he was actually in a meeting with I forget who he said it was it was it he was in a meeting or something. Yes at any rate but he took my call instead of just ignoring it he took my call it means something right and I said oh I'm sorry you know we can talk about this later I gave him general I you know concept of what I was was wondering about asking about and he called me back you know I so you develop a rapport yes so that so that people will take you seriously when you're communicating with them right yes I mean again this is this is some of my dad coming through right but my dad was was uh never combative with people but he was and he he was very friendly but but he would make his point logically with people and ask them to counter that right I mean that's what that that's what what we can and should be doing and and I think we need the stability of having Joe Raker is in my opinion has not been doing a bad job is is he an angel no neither are you or I you know we make mistakes right but I I think he's he's doing a fine job for the city and he he's communicative and you know I think we just need to keep that stability in the city at least for a while yes so that we can actually make some progress on the things that we need to get done.
SPEAKER_02:Yes you know and just for people who are less Joe Raker is the city manager and Nick Stepnitz is the assistant city manager. Oh if people listening to this don't know those names that that's uh who we're talking about here what's one thing that you think would improve how city council functions in service to the people of Clawson and I mean this apart from how personalities manifest on the council you can't control that but 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 touched on that a couple of minutes ago and now we've come back around as promised.
SPEAKER_04:Exactly I was waiting for this question a little bit so again this is just me what I think right I I really would love to come up with a way to provide more encouragement for people to get involved in discussions with council members. Yes as I alluded to earlier you know you can you could have four council members and not violate OMA so and I don't this is I'm really not trying to be silly here but doing something you know you have coffee with a cop you know why not have dinner with council right why can't we do that once a month you know and have the citizenry not everyone can attend at once right but we could do this you know something I don't know find a place hunter I don't know and have have no more than you know after the election in November no more than four people four council members attend and then have people who are interested sign up right and the first however many you know get to come and then have dinner together and start and strike up conversations. I I just think that it would be a wonderful way to have a conversation in a non-threatening way so that council could understand more about what the citizens of the city feel about various different topics. Yeah I think it'd be awesome I'd love to do that.
SPEAKER_02:And there's dinner involved yes I have to correct you I don't you may have the planning commission on the brain because there are nine members of the planning commission the city council will have seven members oh sorry elections sorry so it'd be so sorry six council members and a mayor that's right but a planning commission has nine right so I have two and a half years on the planning commission you're you're you're still thinking nine but that'd be seven but that's a big jump from five which is what we have right now.
SPEAKER_04:Right so but similarly right so you you could have you can you can have three members you know that you could be the mayor too right I mean any three members of the sitting council including mayor any three members could could go to a dinner like that with however many people we deem is appropriate. And it's not a it would not be to me it should not be a formal thing. Let's have some dinner let's sit around let's m mingle and talk it's not you know it can't be where you know the council is sitting up in front or something no we'll yeah we'll just you know eat dinner with folks and have a conversation at the table and then afterwards you know I've I kind of envision it being uh just mingling and and having discussion about various different topics. Um it was just an idea I mean I I just want to get somehow encourage the residents of Clawson to get more involved.
SPEAKER_02:Yes somehow that's just one thing I was thinking about I was talking to one of the other candidates in this interview and and we were yeah I think it was maybe after we stopped recording but I'm a public speaker and speak in front of people all the time but but when I've gone before council and you kind of like walk in there and like everybody's sitting up high in the semicircle looking down on you like I I've lost what I was going to say yeah before and I'm an experienced public speaker. So we were just making the point that we your only chance to interface with with counsel is when you're standing in that room and it looks it feels like you're in a you know in a senate hearing you get tongue tied and flustered and you got the pretend limit and so being able to just engage on the same level in an informal setting people can open up more and yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah and I I mean even more so than so there's that right but then after the meeting you know the mayor has said since I've been on council and I've heard her say it many times you know we'll we'll be around after the meeting to talk and many people don't like I said only a couple of people have come out to me. Even that feels a little uncomfortable I think from a you know citizens perspective to have a discussion right I I think you need to be in a much more relaxed atmosphere you know that's why I picked out the dinner idea because hey we're just gonna have dinner together and let's chat you know what are you thinking? Yeah type thing yeah you know it's good and again dinner man yeah at the very least you doesn't want food that's right yeah all right so food and let's end with fun this is a fun question let's say a wealthy benefactor uh gives the city just you know so much money to do whatever we want to do non-infrastructure fun what's some what's your idea for something we could build or a program or we could start something that would be just for the enjoyment of the people of Clausen now and for forever more oh yeah if money's not enough honestly I'm not sure where we put it okay so I don't want to get into specificity here but I think it would be awesome to have a really really nice rec center where families could go swimming pool kid you know slides for the kids anything you know pickleball tennis courts you know whatever have you right my language now pickleball every yeah all of that available to the citizenry for free people from the outside of you know non-citizens could of course they could come but they'd have to pay right citizens for free in just a place where that's all that it's about is having some fun right there could be innumerable things that you could put in this imaginary rec center but I think that would be I think that would be huge for the population of Blossom and I think people would take advantage of it. I really do you know we're a little bit landlocked here we'd have to do some thinking even if we were given a blank check right yeah on how would that work we could use it to annex part of another we could buy bar to Troy just get Detroit yeah shh we're not doing that yeah but no I just think that that would be awesome you know something like that would be super special for Clawson residents for families to enjoy you know I think yeah sounds good sounds good well Richard Scott is running to finish out the half completed term that started in November 2023 will end in November 2027 he's on the ballot this fall 2025 here in Clausen he is your neighbor and he's been our guest today Richard thank you so much thank you I really do appreciate you having me and and I'm I'm available people you know how it is or maybe you don't but when you're when you're a candidate your email address and your your phone number is out there my my phone number and my email address come on the folks can't see this but I'm holding up my phone I see my emails and my my phone my phone calls you know right away so leave me a message I'll try and get back to you send me an email whatever right you don't have to try to contact me on the clauson email that can I think also make people feel a little weird so they can you know reach out and let me know what you think. There you go Richard wants to hear from you and if he gets elected he might even like to have dinner with you hey there we go let's do that or one we you know we're kind of a restaurant community now so we've got a lot of places that we could meet have you been to the New Mexican restaurant yet I have not yet somebody else I haven't been on the list.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah me too all right maybe maybe I'll see you there maybe everybody listening this will see you there.
SPEAKER_03:Alright take care thank you so much. Thank you for listening to this episode of Coffee with Claws and Candidates remember to check out the other 13 clots and candidates in the other 13 episodes and if you found this podcast to be valuable to you please share it with a neighbor in Clawson. Don't forget to support our local sponsors who made this podcast possible. Special thanks to Blair Memorial Public Library, Clawson Historical Museum and Cave Cafe, all in Clawston 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 Clawson 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 Clawson City elections page at cityofcloson.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 Clawson until next time grace and peace to you and all your Clawson neighbors
