Council Candidates Introduce Themselves to the Community

The eight candidates running in the August 6 City Council primary election recently introduced themselves to the community at the St. Clair Shores Women's Civic League Meet the Candidates town hall.

Below are the candidate biographies provided to the Women's Civic League of St. Clair Shores, and their video introductions are attached to the story:

Peter Accica
Age: 54
Years living in St. Clair Shores: 54
Occupation: Organizer field representative for the Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Local 1
Incumbent: No
Previously held elected office: None
Education: 12 grade instructor certification for apprentice classes
St. Clair Shores community involvement: Cub Scouts, tee ball, baseball, football, soccer, girls underhand fast pitch. Helped out at local school if there were tile projects they need help with.
Top three things you would like to accomplish if elected:

• Making sure we have a well-staffed police and fire department with all the equipment they need to keep our neighborhoods safe. There are many grants that can be obtained.
• Let's bring small businesses into the city by trying to move them into unoccupied retail space by giving them tax incentives to open the business.
  
• Let's make it as easy as possible to build new buildings with tax incentives and we must remember to keep respecting the surrounding neighborhoods. We have a beautiful city, let's make it more attractive for families to move into the city. By not charging for the parks and boat ramps, if you are a resident you should be able to use the parks and waters without an extra fee.

• Rehab Blossom Heath Park.
• Establish a hotel within the city.
• Recognize and welcome the growing diversity in our city and the opportunity it presents.

• My first priority is to maintain the fiscal stability of the City. In order to accomplish this, City Council has to be diligent in reviewing the budget to ensure city funds are well spent on necessary expenses. During the first two budget cycles I have been on Council, I went through the budget line by line to understand all expenses in a greater than $40 million General Fund budget.
• Another priority is to continue to use my private sector experience to improve how the City delivers its services. For example, I use my experience in purchasing components and preparing bid specifications during awarding of the new waste hauling contract, which will save the city $1.5 million over the next 5 years while offering more amenities. City Council members have to challenge City Administration and Department Heads to make sure what is being done is best for the residents.
• We also need to continue improving the City's facilities. In the next few years, we could be expanding the Senior Center and making improvements to Blossom Heath Park. I will work to make sure resident input is heard and both are fully-functional and useful facilities that residents can enjoy.

• Transparency: This is one of the most missing factors in the city. I believe the residents deserve better and if it takes exploding someone to accomplish this, so be it. Why are there owners fo businesses doing business in SCS sitting on various boards, commissions and committees where they can direct the award of contracts to their own businesses. It happens repeatedly with no questions asked. This has to stop. Why is Landscape Services handed all the lucrative contracts without question, while the owners sits on at least one or two commissions that has input who the contracts are awarded to. This is maybe a good project for our so-called ethics committee to look into.
• The Rat Abatement and Code Enforcement Programs: These two programs definitely need to be reformed and corrected. The rat problem is worse than ever in this city and all we do is write blank checks to Landscape Services on a monthly basis for services rendered to no avail. I personally believe that there should be a complete investigation into this by an outside agency.
• The Water Meter Program: I believe the charges that the residents are receiving after the new meters are installed are absurd. I know of several people that have complained to the city for the outrageous billings received after the new meters were installed and were told that the old meters were giving false readings and not charging enough. Whose meters were those? Whose responsibility is it to maintain them? I believe that we should get a class action lawsuit against the city and have a complete investigation and satisfy the residents.

• Think of me as your neighbor, referred to you by neighbor, referred to you by neighbors. I'm not seeking any special interest endorsements, and won't owe any favors. "I am going to be a different candidate, the likes of which the city has not seen in a long time." I'm one of two retired candidates. I'll be taking to the streets to meet with the residents personally, discussing their concerns and will make myself available 24/7 to do what is right for the residents. Their interests will be first, making neighborhoods better.
• I'll strive to maintain and improve existing services, while continuing the city's budget surplus. Further I'll propose council initiatives that will improve efficiency and transparency of city government, perhaps annual town hall meetings with department heads. I'll focus on improving residents' quality of life by helping reduce blight, working closely with city and residents to reduce crime, and resolve issues with unsellable homes.
• Success breeds success. Some of the city's best new development has come because we've held developers and business owners to a high aesthetic standard. As a full time council person and team player, I can work with council and city officials pursuing new clients for the city and its residents.

• Maintain the financial strength of the city by staying on top of the budget and continuing to eliminate any wasteful spending and by working with various departments and encouraging Department heads and employees to share ideas that would make areas of the city more efficient.
• Improve core services like Police, Fire and infrastructure. This can be done by using innovative ideas and advanced technologies. I would like the Police department to continue looking at 12-hour shifts for our police officers. When speaking to officers from other departments I have heard very positive responses. We are an older suburb and we need to make sure we keep up our roads, water and sewage systems.
• I would like to push for the city to aggressively market itself to new residents. We have an aging population and there will be a great deal of turnover in our housing stock. This may be the biggest threat to maintaining the standard of living we have become accustom to. We need to not only market to new families, we must also market to empty nesters who are looking to down size.

• Continue fiscal responsibility and conscientious stewardship of resources - smart budgeting and purchases while maintaining and even increasing services to residents.
• Continue emphasis on constituent services and communication - receptiveness and responsiveness to resident concerns, including frequent use of City of St. Clair Shores official Facebook page to answer questions and help solve problems.
• Continue resident - and business-friendly initiatives - continue analysis and revisions of current ordinances and practices to make SCS more fair, attractive and competitive while balancing the competing and complimentary needs and necessities of all member of our taxpayer base.

• Saving residents $76,000 in sidewalk replacement program overcharges. 
• Speaking at sentencing, on behalf of residents, after former Mayor and employee Curt Dumas confessed to embezzling $32,000.
• Continue exposing illegal City Charter violation when $2 million Courthouse debt loan was NOT take to the voters for approval.