Neighbors, friends, and fellow Saline residents, Earlier this month, I had the great honor of being elected Saline’s next mayor. As I prepare to begin my service in January, I find myself reflecting on the past few months of the campaign, and on what I hope we can accomplish together as a community. Firstly, from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much to everyone who chose to support me; your kindness throughout the campaign - and at the polls - was truly humbling. I have enjoyed meeting so many Saline community members at community gatherings, at events I hosted, and going door-to-door …

Many people have asked me about the Washtenaw County Circuit Judge election. Judicial elections can be confusing. The non-partisan portion of the primary election ballot shows:                                     JUDGE OF CIRCUIT COURT                                     22ND CIRCUIT                                     NON-INCUMBENT POSITION There are four candidates for the open Circuit Judge seat resulting from the retirement of Judge Morris. I am endorsing Eraine C. Washington. I have been a Circuit Judge for 23 years and am now the Chief Judge of the Washtenaw Trial Court. The primary …

We are new residents of Saline. We moved here last Memorial Day weekend. We live on the corner of Mills and Hollywood by Houghton School. As we discovered this year, this corner is the bus stop. The children who waited at the bus stop made my morning each week day. As I left for work they were out there playing, interacting and being so respectful of the our property and each other that on those days I went off to work with smile, remembering my own childhood and delighting in theirs. We interacted with waves, to the kids and sometimes to the parents, siblings and pets who waited there with …

There are many people I'd like to publicly thank for their efforts before, during and after the Dexter tornado.  Our brave first responders in Dexter and the surrounding communities deserve special thanks not only for their efforts to warn us early about the coming tornado, but afterward for ensuring that everyone was safe. Our local firefighters and police personnel all worked together through the night to make sure people were not trapped in the rubble. They continued their valiant efforts in the days after the tornado.     I'd also like to thank the local government officials who worked …

We are pleased that our message was received by over 3,800 homes of supporters and independent citizens on Sunday night. Our call was intended to remind the citizens of our community of the upcoming election of tomorrow Nov. 8. As we have been saying for many months, this election is the most critical school board election for the citizens of Saline in over 20 years. We are pleased that we were able to remind thousands of Saline residents of the importance of this election, to our children, our parents, and the taxpayers of our community via our telephone call to your home last night. Our …

I would encourage voters to carefully consider all the facts when determining who to vote for as a Trustee on the Saline Area Schools Board of Education. Read the written words carefully and remember those conversations with the candidates both before the campaign started and during the campaign. Governor Synder has been openly criticized with “you didn’t tell me you were going to do that.” Well, people want to get elected, so sometimes the devil is in the details.  The truth is rarely pure and never simple.  Lost among the campaign literature, signs, blogs and forums is one essential …

I am writing to express my full endorsement of Patti Tanner for a seat on the Saline Board of Education. Patti has been a neighbor and colleague for over 10 years. During the time that I have known her, she has evidenced a level of integrity that is difficult to match and rarely seen. She is both a quality problem solver and an innovative thinker. I have observed her in many different settings and seen someone who has an amazingly reflective working style that seems to encourage new ideas and quality conversations. Patti is a realist and someone not compelled to be drawn into drama and …

Dear neighbors and friends in the Saline school district: You have never read a letter like this from us because we have never written one. This is an election that happens to include three Davids as candidates. We have some thoughts about two of them. This is a critical school board election and we feel at least one of the candidates comes to the table with an agenda that won’t help get the district to where it needs to be: and we know that one of the Davids has a strong record of effectiveness and accomplishment on the school board. The below link is to an article from Oct. 27.http://saline…