Saline City Council Candidate James Peters

James Peters

Family

Wife, Geraldine. Children, Nathan

Education

Associate: Western Pennsylvania Institute of Technology, Associate: Washtenaw Community College.

Employment

Senior Mechanical Designer, HDR Engineering Inc.

Community involvement

• Saline Celtic Festival (Executive Committee.), Festival celebrating Saline's sister city Brecon Wales
• Saline K9 Crusaders (Founder), A charity organization dedicated to raising money for local animal shelters.
• Church (Board of Commissioners). New Columbarium facility.
• Church, Building Committees, (Volunteer) Building design, bid evaluation, construction oversight and fund raising for large capital projects.
• Recently awarded the Pathfinders Gold Award of Excellence for Community Service by fellow employees.

Why Are You Running?

I care about Saline and I enjoy community work. I hope my conservative common sense approach to issues will be beneficial.

What Are The Top 3 Issues Facing The City and How Should Council Address Them?

1. Personal Property Tax/Decrease in City Revenue

One alternative approach is "land value taxation". This shifts the tax burden away from buildings and possessions, onto the value of the land itself. This method was successful in other cities. Property taxes have declined due to a decrease in taxable value. State-shared revenue has been on a steady decline and building permits and interest income has dropped dramatically. As a result the city’s revenue has decreased, limiting the services the city can afford. Many difficult decisions have been made. The city must continue to monitor the overall forecasts in the near future and take a case-by-case approach to spending.

2. Downtown Development.

• Improve city parking. Much of downtown troubles are out of Saline's control—things like the bad economy and nearby shopping like Wal-Mart, Oak Valley and Briarwood Mall, just to name a few. Employing a meter maid will only anger residents.If we can find additional parking and add better signage to guide visitors to existing parking located off Michigan Avenue that should help.

• Encourage socialization. A permanent town center gathering place will help. This will give us a better sense of identity. 

• Re-think the signage laws for business people that don't have US12 frontage

• Begin fostering young entrepreneurs. Set up a mentoring system with established business people to work with the young. Help the young to learn life's most important skill, how to deal with people. Encourage young people to stay in the area. Traverse City has been very successful with this system.

3. Shared Services.

I would prefer Saline remain independent. But if we can't, other local cities have demonstrated considerable proactive efforts associated with establishing collaborative arrangements with other communities and partners.

Some examples are using resources from the state and county such as personal property auditing, elections and joint purchasing agreements. Sharing services like school elections, fire department training, senior and youth assistance and various police services.

Additional sharing opportunities include parks and recreation programs, public works, human resources and benefits. We need to look at all options but I would consider looking at police and fire as a last resort.

(This page will be updated as we publish the candidate's answers to the questions we posed.)