Rochester Hills Council Endorses Proposed City Charter Amendment

The Rochester Hills City Council voted 4-3 Monday evening to endorse a designed to protect city parks and open spaces.

The changes in the proposed charter amendment would prevent city parks from being sold, leased, transferred or converted to any use other than "park and open space purposes" without an approving vote from a majority of citizens.

Rochester Hills resident Peggy Fisher of SPACE, Saving Parks and City Environment, along with several other residents, requested the council not vote on whether or not to put the issue on November’s ballot as scheduled, but to endorse the identical language of their petition, which may lead to a public vote.

Dee Hilbert, Rochester Hills resident, said she already has six pages of signatures from residents supporting the initiative.

"Overwhelmingly, people state to use the parks for recreation or keep them green," Hilbert said.

That means that if petitioners collect 3,000 signatures, the signatures are verified by the city and the signatures are turned in by the Aug. 10 deadline and rubber-stamped by the governor, then Rochester Hills residents will be able to amend the city charter.

Still, counselors who voted against the endorsement critiqued the language and the timing of the petition, despite a recent revision to the language by a group made of city officials and residents. Counselor Nathan Klomp said some language is misleading and may amount to political posturing.

In one section, the ordinance outlines that all green spaces and outdoor features preserved and funded from a 2005 mileage vote should remain permanently preserved. Klomp pointed out that the proposed ordinance would not further help preserve these areas at all, as the original millage already completely ensures these areas be preserved.

Klomp said this is misleading because it attracts voters by making a claim that is completely redundant.

Beyond the issue of language, Counselor Martin Brennan said he opposes the ordinance for fundamentally altering a democratic decision-making process he said works.

Brennan said the reason for the amendment – the city council’s on designated park land in Rochester Hills – was a valid action taken by the governing body in looking at the option of using the reservoirs to save on water cost.

"The water rates are just astronomical, so we had public hearing and we had debate," he said. "At the end of the day, it got voted down. That is how democracy works."

Counselor James Rosen had a different take on the issue. He said that this will allow voters who may have previously approved funding for parks the option to alter their original decision.

“It is simply giving the voters an option to change their mind,” he said.

In addition to acting on the proposed parks ordinance, the city council also approved a request to pay CivicPlus of Manhattan, KS, $35,000 for website design and hosting and nominated fifteen young residents to the Rochester Hills Youth Governing Council.