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
Scott Manning, candidate for Clawson City Council
In this episode, you meet Rev. Scott Manning of Clawson United Methodist Church. Even though he's a more recent resident of Clawson, he offers years of experience in elected office on two school boards in other parts of the state. He's running for one of four Clawson City Council seats this fall.
For your hometown Clawson real estate needs, get KW Domain certified Realtor Erin Redmond at eredrealestate@gmail.com or call (586) 242-8419.
Expecting and new parents, certified postpartum doula and pediatric sleep coach Lynn Eads can help you and your new baby settle into your life together. Learn more at learnwithlynne.com.
Get out and vote, Clawson! Learn all about how, when, and where to vote by clicking here or call (248) 435-4500x118.
Friends, hello, I'm B.T. Irwin, your neighbor in Clausen for 13 years now. Welcome to Coffee with Clausen Candidates, a limited podcast series that gives each candidate for Clausen City Council and Mayor their own episode. These are in-depth, but relaxed conversations in which all 14 candidates reveal their hearts, minds, and personalities. More on that in a minute or two. First, please know that the information you're hearing in this introduction is the same for all 14 episodes. So if you already heard it when listening to another episode, you don't have to listen to it again. Just skip straight to the interview. If this is your first episode of Coffee with Clausen candidates, I think the information I'm about to share with you in this introduction will help you understand the election coming up in Clausen this fall and how this podcast can help you choose who will get your votes. Before we get to that, you may want to know who is hosting this show and whether he's fit for your time and trust. Now, I'm not a professional journalist, but I do have a lot of experience interviewing public figures for the Christian News Organization where I work part-time. More important to Clausen folks like you, however, is my unusual level of involvement in Clausen government over the last few years. It started in 2020 when I accepted an appointment to the Zoning Board of Appeals. In November 2021, I was elected to the Clausen City Charter Commission, where I served until the people of Clausen adopted the revised city charter we proposed in November 2023. Through those experiences, I've gotten to know Clausen City government and many of the people who work in it. So that's me. Now let's talk about the election happening in Clausen this fall, 2025. This is your crash course. If you didn't know, this year's Clausen City election is historic for at least two reasons. First, it is the first general election to take place after the adoption of the revised city charter in November 2023. This fall, our city council is expanding from one two-year mayor and four at large four-year members to one four-year mayor and six four-year members. Second, if the 14 candidates running for city offices in Clausen this fall are not a record, I'd like to see an election where more candidates ran. I can't imagine that we've ever had this many people running for office at the same time in Clausen. So this is a big election with lots of candidates running for more seats than Clausen has ever had on its city ballot. There are a total of six seats up for election in what will be a seven-seat city council come November 2025. I think it can get confusing, so I'm going to break it down for you. First, the office of mayor is up for election. The mayor chairs the city council and is a voting member of it. Until now, Clausen's mayor always served a two-year term. The revised charter, however, changes the mayor's term to four years to match the other members of City Council. Whoever the people of Clausen elect as their mayor this fall will serve from November 2025 to November 2029. Two candidates are running for mayor, incumbent mayor Paula Milan, who has been in office since 2021, and Clausen City Council member Sue Moffat. 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 2023, so he was to fill his seat until November 2027. When a city council member leaves office during her or his term, the revised city charter calls for city council to appoint a replacement who will serve until the next regular city election, at which time the public will elect someone to finish out the full term. Not long after Benkowski resigned, City Council appointed Richard Scott to fill the seat until the November 2025 election. On your ballot, this city council seat will be listed apart from the other four. Whichever candidate gets the most votes for this seat will serve out the rest of Binkowski's term that runs through November 2027. Scott is running to retain the seat for the next two years. Aiden O'Rourke is running to challenge him for it. So now that you know what is up for election in Clausen this fall and who is running, let's get to how this podcast might help you decide who gets your votes. I interviewed all 14 candidates, one episode for each one. I wanted to do something different from the other candidate interviews that are out there. Not to say that those other interviews are not helpful. I think they are quite helpful and I follow them myself. But I find that the usual candidate interview format to be too narrow or too short to really get to know the candidates as people. I like to know where candidates stand on the quote unquote issues, yes, but I really want to know what they know, how and what they think, what makes them tick, who they are as human beings. So I designed these podcast interviews to be friendly and relaxed and full of open-ended questions. I wanted the candidates to feel like they could open up and just talk about what they think is important and why. I also wanted them to be able to talk about themselves without the pressure of needing to react to questions about issues and one-minute sound bites. I can say that I enjoyed every one of the 14 conversations as I sat across from candidates at places like the Clausen Historical Museum, Blair Memorial Public Library, and Cave Cafe in downtown Clausen. Even interviewed one candidate on 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. We're sitting here at the Clausen Historical Museum with the Reverend Scott Manning. He's the pastor at Clausen United Methodist Church. He's been a resident here in Clausen for about three years. He has public service background. He's served a combined nine years on boards of education in Montebello, Michigan, and Constantine, Michigan. And now he is running for one of the open city council seats here in Clausen in our fall 2025 election. Pastor Scott, thanks for being with us today.
SPEAKER_01:It's good to be here. And I'll I'll correct the Montebello. That's the name of the school. The community is Blanchard.
SPEAKER_00:Blanchard. Blanchard, Michigan. Got it. Thank you. All right. So let's hear your Clausen story. Tell us, tell us how you came to Clausen and what your background is in this community and and what is what is Clausen all about for you?
SPEAKER_01:Sure. My first experience with Clausen is before I moved here. As a friend of mine was pastor for a short amount of time at the Clausen United Methodist Church, the Reverend Harris Dunn, who comes from Liberia.
SPEAKER_02:Oh.
SPEAKER_01:And then I've been serving the Rochester Hills United Methodist Church since 2016. And we added a second church into the mix. United Methodists speak, we would say at two-point charge. That brings me to Clausen in 2022 to serve both churches, and Clausen owns a house. So moving into the parsonage, as we call it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And what is your uh tell us a little bit about, tell us a little bit about. I've asked all the candidates, tell us about your day job. And because a lot of folks around town may not know what candidates and office holders do during the day, your title kind of gives it away. So you've been pastor at Clausen United Methodist for about three years now. Tell us about your day job.
SPEAKER_01:So my day job is to be a clergy in the United Methodist Church, which means I am the pastor, the preacher, the teacher, the with the two churches I serve, also a landlord as we rent out space to other churches. My job also relates to property care and management for the entire state of Michigan for United Methodists, as I'm a member of the Board of Trustees for our conference. Wow. So to be a pastor is more than one hour a week. No joke.
SPEAKER_00:As a minister myself from a long line of ministers, I appreciate you for saying that for everyone to hear. We don't just work on Sundays. So one of the things I I've been asking all the candidates is what do you listen to and read every day or every week? Describe where most ideas and information information that into your mind comes from these days. Sure.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I'm a political junkie, so I will listen to politics, a religious junkie, so it's the Bible and some of my favorite authors, modern authors, as well as looking at uh historical information. I love the History Channel, CNN, ABC, sometimes Fox, but to hear hear uh the news from a variety of sources, BBC and NPR, also to hear from people in community, in the church, through a variety of social uh media apparatuses where people from the community can interact, participating in community events such as the Fourth of July Committee, which I serve on for Clausen, which has been a great experience, but not one source. I'm not a not a one-trick pony when it comes to gathering information. Yeah. It's got to come from a variety of sources and a variety of uh angles or views. What's the last really good book you read? Well, it's not the last book I read, but the best book I read is by Ellie Vazell, which was called Night. The experience that he had as a child in the Holocaust. And that really has impacted a lot of things that I do in ministry and in community service. And the fact that you can go through such torment, torture, and hell here, yeah, and still find a way to have a major impact on the world and to bring about and to call for good.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I'd say night is must-read. It's it's a must-read. Required reading. Everybody go get it right now and read it. Good choice there. I there are a few thousand people who live in Clausen who are eligible to run for office, but only 14 said, Yeah, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna run. You're one of those fourteen. Why you and why now?
SPEAKER_01:We're at a pivotal moment in Clausen where we have an opportunity. Almost the entire council is open for election. The city residents, myself included, voted to expand the council. And we have an opportunity to help set the vision both short-term and long-term for Clausen. My experience in public service, my background, I have a bachelor's in public administration, as well as my master's of divinity, which is religious administration.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And that that compassion, that care, that understanding of how government works, I believe is at this point in time something that may be useful for the council and for the community.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So as it let's say you get elected, and you have been elected to two school boards, so you've got nine years experience. Let's say you get elected to Clawson City Council, you're going to serve a term or two. Who are your favorite role models for public service? Like who do you look to as I want to serve on city council the way that person does public service wherever?
SPEAKER_01:That's a good question. I I don't have a specific person in mind who's living today, but John Lewis, who who was a a giant for for justice. Desmond Tutu, not an American, but Desmond Tutu after a apartheid fell in South Africa, instead of revenge politics, sought a mechanism for healing. Though those are the two giants for me. Otherwise, it's local politicians that folks in Oakland County would would never know who they are because they come from rural central Michigan area where I grew up.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Can you pick one and talk about that person? Someone we ought to know here in Oakland County, because they're they're so good at public service. Today's the day we all find out.
SPEAKER_01:Well, Doris Patch, who was the township clerk. Doris took the time to know the residents of the township. I grew up in a township called Belvedere Township. She took the time to know people. She took time to care for people. If people were not voting and she knew they had a track record for voting, she would reach out to them to make sure they were okay. Wow. So it was more than just a job. And so she was she was uh a great, a great impact.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Sounds like she was a pastor in her own way. She was. Yeah, and good name. Both of my grandmothers are named Doris. So good name there. Let's get down to the nitty-gritty of governing in the city of Clausen. What's one thing about how the city works that the public ought to know, but most folks don't seem to know. How might we change that?
SPEAKER_01:Well, the the community is getting to know that we have a relational problem amongst groups within in the city. And so the communication's not always civil and productive.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Government is supposed to represent all the people in a variety of constituencies. And we use Robert's rules of orders and other governing procedures to help make sure that people's voices are heard. At the end of the day, we cannot govern well if we don't represent all the constituencies of the community. The community needs to know that does not mean that you get your way on everything. Because government just does not work that way. There are times in government, and my example would be on a school board. My desire to represent the voters was not always the first priority of the law. The first priority of the law in education, as a board of education member, is to represent the needs of students, of children. That conflicted a couple of times with the desires of the voters. We have to recognize that our government leaders often are put in that quandary. We know the public wants one thing, but the law demands something else. Now, how do you communicate that with people in a respectful way?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:That's the challenge.
SPEAKER_00:Is there a story there? Like how can you can you tell us a little bit about that situation you were in and how you handled it?
SPEAKER_01:I can tell you the most painful situation was when I served on the Montebello Board of Education before proposal A, which governs the way we do property taxes now and financing for schools. We did not have the millage that was required to maintain the educational program that we had. Which meant we cut almost a quarter of our budget.
SPEAKER_02:Wow.
SPEAKER_01:Unlike Clausen, which is a walking district, Montebella is 155 square miles. So the most painful decision as a board of education member was to protect the classroom educational experience. Door-to-door busing was lost until the voters approved Millage for that. It was the hardest decision I ever had to make, and I was the chair of the finance committee and had a state police escort after the meeting. It was a painful decision. But the law required that the classroom be priority. And so as an elected official, it was my responsibility to put those students and their education first so that they met at least the minimum standard of education that we could provide.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So sometimes governing is not an easy task, but it's how you continue to communicate with people afterwards and accept that their laments are going to come at you in a harsh way on occasion. That does not mean they hate you.
SPEAKER_00:Good point. I'm glad you brought that up because you know I I keep track of what goes on in Claus and there have been some some pretty heated city council meetings. I've been in some of those. I've heard stories about those that I didn't attend. And so that that meeting of the school board where you had to cut the bus funding and you said you had a state police escort. That situation, I imagine people listening to this have been in some pretty tense city council meetings, and maybe haven't liked the way that people sitting up there have responded to voters. How did you communicate with the parents that were so upset with you about that decision?
SPEAKER_01:Well, the the aftermath of that was to continue to communicate with folks and understanding what we were up against and also to work with the citizens, with the parents, with the citizens who don't have children in the school to understand what is the ramification of not having the financing. We came back to the voters with a modified proposal, which helped to restore busing. It didn't get it back door to door, yeah, but it brought busing back.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Otherwise, it was a real challenging where if you lived in the north end of the district and had a child in kindergarten through second grade, a 25, 30 mile drive. Yeah. So it was really a painful decision.
SPEAKER_00:Can't imagine. That's 85 times bigger than Clausen for those keeping score at home. So I want you to pick what you think is one of the biggest, most consequential challenges facing us in Clausen right now. Tell us why that challenge is so big and consequential, and then put on your teacher hat, because you've got an MDEV, so you know how to teach. And give us a one-on-one on that challenge. How did it emerge? What's feeding into it? And how might we as a community in city government working together do something about it?
SPEAKER_01:Well, city government has begun to do work on the most challenging, but we have to do a better job of communicating and looking at the situation. And that is the infrastructure. The water sewer line infrastructure in this city is not in a great shape. The future of Clausen requires us to deal with that. Because you you cannot have the housing expansion, the business expansion, and a long-term success for the residences and businesses that are already here if we have a failed infrastructure. When it rains hard, and homes and businesses and my church location have dirty water coming in, and insurance doesn't kick in, and the city's not kicking in, that's a challenge for all of us. And there are a number of neighborhoods where that is a problem. So the infrastructure for the roads and for what's underneath the road, in my view, is priority one because we cannot fulfill a strategic plan for business development, for affordable housing, or for any kind of expansion of housing and business and recreation without that infrastructure dealing with water and sewer and water runoff.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So that that to me would be the number one priority. The council has to be involved. It's not just DPW's job. The council, the city manager, the leadership of the city have to be involved and have to take a proactive stance of keeping it in front of the community so the community knows yes, we approved a bond proposal, an infrastructure. Here's where we are. Here's the next step. We understand the challenges. We are moving forward with it.
SPEAKER_00:I'll ask a follow-up to that because you know, we did pass the bond. I've heard some people say they're not satisfied with what that's gonna get. And one of the things that maybe some recent folks that moved to Clausen don't know is that flooding's been a problem around here for as long as Clausen has been a village and a city. It's not a new problem, it's it's a pretty old problem. So beyond the bond that we passed and the repairs that makes, we're gonna have to get creative and find some new solutions long term. I mean, do you have any ideas for what council might pursue to that end?
SPEAKER_01:For me, one of the issues still remains. We have to divide the runoff water from the sewer. It's an integrated system right now. And that's that's a huge problem for flooding at homes. The last big flood at the church cost us five thousand dollars to clean up with no insurance money kicking in. Our insurance is higher than that, our threshold. And I know that's a struggle for a lot of residents where their insurance is not going to keep kicking in or will not kick in at all. We we have to deal with that. It's not an easy fix, but it's one that we have to look at. We have to look at strategic planning. And in strategic planning, it's not just a pretty picture of what's the business focus of the community or what happy slogan do we want to move into the future? With strategic planning, you have to get down to the the nitty-gritty issues. How are we going to deal with environmental issues? How are we going to deal with flooding issues? How are we going to deal with a very large rat population? Yeah. You know, it that's a challenge when part of a city is built in wetland areas.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Not funny.
SPEAKER_00:No. No. Now that you mention it, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I've I I lived in Washington, D.C. for four years. Yeah. And in the four years I lived in Washington, DC, I saw three rats. A dozen or so raccoons. I see more rats than that in a month here in Glossy.
SPEAKER_00:Wow. Wow. I'll tell you a story that brings the two things together. I was we have a storm drain in front of our house, and when it rains really hard, our street turns into a retention basin. We have about a foot of water on the street. And this is soon after we moved into the house. And so I, you know, I went out there to clear the drain. You're actually not supposed to do that. You're supposed to let DPW, but I didn't know. So I went out there to clear the drain. It was about midnight, and my garage was open, and I was with a rake, and I was, you know, I would sweep some stuff off the drain until more stuff clogged, and I'd sweep some more. And I saw this stick floating across the water. And as I watched this stick, you know, there's a lot of debris like floating toward the drain, but this stick was going like side to side, straight for the edge of the pond that was my street. And by the time I realized what it was, it was already scurrying up my driveway. So it was this rat, I don't know where it came from, swam out of the water on my street, shot straight up my driveway, and might have gone into my garage. And I ran after it with the rake, you know, and we were leaving on vacation the next day. And our garage looks like a lot of people's garages. There's just a ton of stuff in there. And I thought, there's a rat in my garage. It's got it's hiding from me at this point, and we're leaving on vacation tomorrow. And I don't want to leave with a rat in my garage. So we never found it. I don't think it went in there, but that that story brings together stormwater and rats in in in one story right there.
SPEAKER_01:And and learning that we create a greater flood problem when we try to fast clear the storm drains. And I think that's a challenge a lot of people do not understand. When when you clear that drain out, the water rolls in fast, and then it ends up in a number of people's basements.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's why you don't do it. We live at the top, in terms of Clausen's topography, we live at the top of the town, and so all that water goes downhill, and our neighbors downhill end up with it in their basements, as you say.
SPEAKER_01:So and strategic planning and visioning and infrastructure design, one of the challenges for the future may be that we have to build retention ponds.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And that's a challenge here in Clausen, not having the retention ponds. So the water hasn't nowhere to go.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. It's true. I lived in Texas for a while and they don't get rain very often down there, but the streets were the retention basins there. So here they kind of are, but people think they're not down there, like the roads, they had gates that would close. So you couldn't drive on the roads because they were underwater until the water soaked in. I could talk about that all day, but we'll switch to a different question. We talked about a challenge. Now I want you to give us a crash course on one of the biggest opportunities in front of us here. What opportunity if city government and residents can come together and take action on it will be a real game changer for Clausen now and for generations to come.
SPEAKER_01:That's where I keep coming back to the strategic planning. Yeah. Strategic planning is the opportunity for different constituencies to come together. Back in the early 90s, 1990, 91, 92, somewhere in there, I served on strategic planning team for Montcalm County. Big County in that planning dealt with education, with infrastructure, with health care, with a variety of pieces: business, personal, economic. Clausen would benefit from the opportunity of the different constituencies coming together. We have challenges as a city. One of the things in the recent meetings is challenges with wrench all apartments. Should the city keep it? Should the city sell it off? Rid itself of that. That needs community involvement. That needs a plan that looks into the future, an opportunity to design what is the future for mixed-use properties, what is the future for housing and business in a really small geographical area. We have an opportunity as a community to come together to design what the future of Clausen may be. The opportunities with the downtown, the opportunities with the Outer reaches of the city. Where do we want the city to be as a community 20 years from now? Shawm Elementary gone. That piece of property. What is the strategy for the future of the community 20 years from now? And not just the city business wise, but Clausen Public Schools. Housing, affordable housing. Not everybody can afford$2,000,500 a month rent. What are we doing to make the small city the place with a big heart for people of different economic statuses, different age groups, and a place that people want to come and bring their children, bring their families, and have a much longer experience.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. I'm embarrassed to ask this. Do we have a strategic plan? I know when I was on the ZBA, the Planning Commission has a strategic plan that more or less has to do with the build-out, you know, the the physical, the physical city, what's built and where it's built, what kind of housing we'll have, what kind of businesses, that kind of thing. You can go find that. But do we have a just kind of an overall general strategic plan for the city that already exists? I I don't know that.
SPEAKER_01:I I'm not sure that there's a recent strategic plan. There is for some components. I have not delved into deep into it. And partly I believe it's time to have the fresh start and to look where do we want to be in 2040? Yeah. And engage the community so that we can really look forward. When you have big chunks of property like the Shaw, before decisions are finalized on what kind of housing, how many housing, or what's there, when you have places downtown where changes may take may take place, what is the vision for 2040? Yeah. That's what the question I would ask is what is the vision for 2040? If we do not have one, it's time to work on it.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And certainly if we do have one, it's time to share that information. People don't know about it. When I was on the Charter Commission, it was amazing how many people didn't know we had a charter. So that was one of the challenges that we had was helping people be aware that, yeah, the city has a charter. Strategic plan, I'm not sure if it's there. Doesn't mean it's not there, but I don't know about it. What's one thing that you think would improve how city council functions in service to the people of Clausen? And I mean, apart from how personalities manifest on the council, which you cannot control, what changes might make city council better at representing the desires and needs of the people and better at deliberating and deciding on the people's business.
SPEAKER_01:Part of that's going to be relaying to the community what business is being discussed. What are we looking at? Short-term, long term, where are our budget priorities? People should not get that information after a vote has taken place. Yeah. Engaging people before decisions. And this is where I come back to the Renshaw apartments because it's been front and center in discussion at the council. The council turned down city manager recommendation to sell the property. At least they turned it down for now because there needs to be engagement with the community. That engagement should have taken place before a motion was even put on the floor. Part of the engagement that should have taken place is what are the options, the opportunities, what are the challenges? Bringing the building into ADA compliance, doing maintenance on the roof and the parking lot. Are these values that citizens want to continue? It's not just those apartments, it's other areas in the community to be able to engage folks and say, this month we are going to be addressing this issue. And part of that engagement means communication. Not, oh, you can look at the city website and see what the agenda is for the meeting. It may be spotlighting an issue saying over the next 12 months, we're going to deal with these six or eight issues. Meaning some issues can be dealt in one month to get input. Other things are more complex and need more opportunities for people to speak. And to have that time for the council to hear from the people, then we can make better decisions as a council. Not saying the current council is not making good decisions. But the more the community is able to engage, the better the decisions that elected officials and hired and appointed officials can do for the city. And not have it weigh on their conscience.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:That's why I use the Ren Shaw as a as an example because it's the issue that keeps coming up at city council meetings in recent recent weeks.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah. I'll just follow, I'll follow up that question. Whenever you go to city council meetings, and I've been to a few, you tend to see a lot of the same people. So they're citizens that this is they're just engaged. But then I think the majority of citizens, they either don't know or they don't, they don't bother. And it's kind of one of those things where city government should almost be invisible.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_00:You know, the city should be humming along and people should the trash is picked up and the streets are clean until there's a problem and then it shows up and it's there. Like one of the challenges we talked about on the charter commission was how do we how do we get to the people? Right. So there are people that will always come. Right. Yeah. They're, you know, they're always active. But then how do we how do we engage the people that aren't aware or don't know that we want their input? And that's a that's a real challenge. And I I wonder if you have any thoughts on on that particular problem.
SPEAKER_01:So the city sends out a publication. Not very often, but it sends out a publication. That's an opportunity to engage people. That's one way of doing it. They have a YouTube page, that's another way. All these community social media sites where people are arguing about different things in the city. The city has an opportunity to utilize that, not to engage in the fights, the arguments, but to share the information. Here's some things for you to know what's going on in the city. Here's some things we are considering. Let folks know about it. These are things that we can be proud of. What are some of those activities, those highlights? Without it coming across as a political campaign, I'm trying to get re-elected type thing to engage people. Each one of those different platforms is going to touch a different group. And some of them overlap. While government ought to be invisible to some extent, when it is, that lack of engagement is what causes the big blow ups. And the challenge for citizens as well, when you have a grievance with the city, when you have an issue to present at city council, there there's a dignified way of presenting that. There's a respectful way of presenting that. City government will hear the issues. And it ought not be a personal attack on somebody sitting on the dais or working for the city. If it's an issue that we want to address as citizens, we can address the issue and move beyond the personalities. So moving us forward, is there a positive outcome? And if there's a positive outcome, then the communication can be positive.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Says the man who had a state police escort at a school board meeting. All right, so I want to go crazy on the last question. I just want to say, uh, let's imagine that a wealthy benefactor gives a huge sum of money to the city of Clausen, just unreal, unprecedented amount of money to be used for a project that would benefit all the people of the city. Give us your craziest, funnest idea for what you would do if someone wrote a blank check to the people of Clausen and said, make something awesome here for everyone in the city.
SPEAKER_01:A community center where people have recreation, education, fellowship opportunities, someplace you can have a family reunion, have a wedding, have an exercise in a modern building that's not falling apart. A place that's not restricted to one group or one age or one demographic, but brings folks together. So it if it were one thing, I would say it's a community center. If they really have deep pockets, then I'd say it's a multi-use facility that has a community center and above it has some housing, including affordable housing.
SPEAKER_00:I was hoping you're gonna say pickleball courts on the roof. Well, you could we have that too?
SPEAKER_01:Well, that would be in a community center. I don't know how to play pickleball. I I in college went into the recreational facility and and hitting balls and trying to do that stuff in rooms with walls and not knowing the rules. I almost killed myself.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, you need to give pickleball a try. I'm not ashamed to say it. That's I actually took pickleball in college in the 90s. People don't even know that it existed back then. And we used wooden wooden paddles back in the 90s when I learned how to play it. So pickleball courts at the community. You get my vote, man. Promise pickleball, and it's like, yeah, sign me up. I'd be happy with a polling alley. With a polling alley, that'd be that'd be pretty cool too. Well, Reverend Scott Manning at Clawson United Methodist Church here in Clawson is a candidate for Clawson City Council this fall. Hope you've enjoyed listening to him. I've enjoyed having him here. Pastor Scott, thanks for being our guest today.
SPEAKER_01:It's a pleasure to be here to be with you.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you so much. Thank you for listening to this episode of Coffee with Clausen Candidates. Remember to check out the other 13 Clausen candidates in the other 13 episodes. And if you found this podcast to be valuable to you, please share it with a neighbor in Clausen. Don't forget to support our local sponsors who made this podcast possible. Special thanks to Blair Memorial Public Library, the Clausen Historical Museum, and Cave Cafe, all in Clausen, for letting us record 13 of the 14 episodes at their locations. Make sure you go visit every one of them and tell them thank you. The Coffee with Clausen Candidates Podcast is written, directed, hosted, recorded, and edited by B.T. Irwin, and produced by James Flanagan at Podcast Your Boy 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.
