City Commission to Consider Arts, Safety, Parking and More at Meeting Tonight

When Royal Oak's City Commission meets tonight for the last time this year, it will consider a long list of issues.

Highlights include:

• Review of the city's annual financial report and audit.
• Discussion of the Michigan Department of Corrections’ parole policies and programs, in the wake of in the .
• A proposed resolution on electrical wires safety standards that urges the Michigan Public Service Commission to review the current “unacceptable level of performance” standards for an electric utility responding to wire down relief requests and recommends new service quality and reliability standards for electric utilities. In August, . Firefighters were forced to wait more than an hour for DTE Energy crews to arrive to cut off the power so they could put out the fire.
• A proposed resolution opposing Michigan House Bill 5187, which would reduced the size of the Oakland County Board of Commissioners and scrap the redistricting map created by a bipartisan committee and allow the current Republican majority county commissioners to redraw their own districts for the election to be held in six weeks.
• A proposed ordinance to establish the Royal Oak Commission for the Arts, part of the city's strategic plan for 2011-12 that includes an objective to “develop a plan to encourage artists and promote public art in Royal Oak” as part of a greater community goal to “preserve neighborhoods by encouraging community involvement and family activities; and further, to be recognized as a destination for entertainment, recreation and cultural opportunities.”
• A proposal resolution supporting equal benefits and opposing House Bills 4770 and 4771, which prohibit public employers from providing certain benefits to public employees and will eliminate benefits for other qualified adults, including domestic partners of either gender.
• Appointments to a variety of city bodies, such as the Downtown Development Authority, Planning Commission and Traffic Committee.

A full agenda and supporting documents is attached as a pdf file or you can find it on the city's website.