City has neither the expertise nor the funds to replicate the work of existing agencies to address mental health issues

More about last week's CITCOM meeting

The same emotionally convoluted off-focus tone which caused Versagi Voice and bloggers on Patch's neutral coverage to use "waste of time" in their comments about such serious topics as depression, suicide, mental health, pit bulls, dangerous dog breeds has dominated published and private communication since last week's CITCOM meeting.

Suggest that the city has neither the expertise nor the funds to replicate the work of existing agencies to address mental health matters, and the response is personal attacks charging the commenter with caring more about mowing grass in city parks than about people. Not nearly as fierce and unbending are the counterattacks against people who would ban pit bulls and who neither share nor understand what seems a mindset which comes close to equating animals and humans.

The business of city government is government, not to stretch the meaning of "health and welfare" so much that it takes precious time away from addressing cops and firefighters and inspectors and engineers and treasurers and . . .

The Daily Tribune's Thursday edition carried an excellent overview by Catherine Kavanaugh, using the tragedy at Target Sports as its focus.

Those two agenda items aside, here’s what else occurred.

To begin with, not having the mayor read the announcements not only saves a few minutes, but gives WROK a chance to shine. Richard Wilson creatively and attractively scrolls the announcements on-screen before and after the meeting.

There were only a dozen speakers during Public Comment. Besides those who had been invited specifically to suggest city involvement in mental health matters, we heard: A friendly threat that the bicycles will be on Woodward en masse on Gran Fondo day, despite city rejection the race . . . A suggestion that the human rights ordinance is a moral issue and should be put on the ballot, not implemented legislatively at The Table . . . A plea not to pile shoveled snow on the Veterans Memorial . . . A reminder that each dog is an individual, so it is illogical to ban any specific breed . . . The Royal Oak Optimists donated a check for more than a couple thousand dollars to the city (My notes don't show if the check was earmarked for a specific purpose.)

Other agenda items:

• Apparently holders of a Bistro license seem to be moving toward wanting to change their Plan of Operation so it is more like that of a bar/restaurant. The request to serve food after midnight comes across as a first step.
• Improve implementation of online registration for Recreation and Senior Center programs.
• Consider rezoning of a portion of Eleven Mile Road to allow a new development.
• Settled a legal matter re preventing a foreclosure which would have deprived the city of some money.
• Dealt with a Dream Cruise concession agreement in Memorial Park.
• By showing the commissioners all seven of the RFPs concerned with developing a brand for Royal Oak, the Administration confirmed that it had made the right choice. (I know, I know. Why are we spending $20,000 on branding? "Because you suckers passed the millage," a handful of readers tell me.)

Unexciting as they may be for most of us, the bulleted items are the real business of local government.

Frank Versagi is the editor of Versagi Voice.