Ferndale voters reject Headlee millage restoration

FERNDALE — Ferndale’s proposal to restore its Headlee operating millage has been denied by voters.

On the ballot for the Nov. 5 election in Ferndale were two proposals, including one that would reset the city’s general operating millage back to 20 mills.

This proposal was rejected by Ferndale voters. Of the 11,655 total votes cast, 6,289 people voted no, which represented 53.96%. The number of voters who chose yes was 5,366, or 46.04% of the total vote, according to Oakland County Elections.

The Headlee override is set to expire on Dec. 31, 2025. As of now, the operating millage for 2025 will be 11.4144 mills. With the 2015 10-year Headlee override millage of 4.2808 mills, the 2025 combined general operating millage will be 15.6952 mills.

Paired with the Headlee proposal was a charter amendment to dedicate 4 of the 20 mills of the millage for public safety and recreation purposes.

From 11,708 total voters, 7,189 people chose to pass the amendment and 4,519 chose no. However, because it only would go into effect if the Headlee override was approved, the charter amendment became redundant.

Mike Thompson, who had been advocating against the passage of the proposals along with other residents, said he was relieved it didn’t pass, though he wouldn’t describe how he felt as happy.

“I’m not taking any kind of a victory lap because there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done, and I’m committed,” he said. “Our whole side is committed to doing some heavy lifting and making sure that we get something that a majority of residents, a big majority of residents, will endorse.”

City Manager Joe Gacioch stated he recently had a discussion with Mayor Raylon Leaks-May on what the city should do moving forward after the failure of the vote.

Gacioch said the city plans to organize a community town hall before the end of the month and possibly once more in December to discuss a possible new proposal with residents while all the information is fresh.

If the city was able to craft a new proposal, the earliest it could be on a ballot is in May, which is the administration’s preference.

“The longer you wait, I think the more questions you have about your budget,” said Gacioch. “The city has five union contracts that all expire June 30. And so there’s questions around the security of those contracts, I’m sure, for all of our employees. So the longer you wait, the more those questions linger out there.”

On the no vote by residents, Gacioch said the turnout was robust and that the clear majority was against the Headlee millage, but he noted there was a substantial amount of the community that voted yes.

“I’d say there’s general agreement on the value of services, but I think the voters said cost of living is a factor right now and it’s pretty, pretty expensive, and we have to revisit it and maybe tear things back,” he said. “The fact that the second proposal passed at a 61% clip, to me, communicates that there is community support for police and fire, because that proposal was to earmark funding for police and fire. So, that’s a signal to me. I think that’s a good thing. I think that’s a positive to work with. I think the community certainly supports the services, and I think we just got to repackage it and show that to our staff so our staff feel supported.”

Thompson agreed that something does need to be passed and what his side hopes to convey is that they need to protect the taxpayer from any wasteful spending and that police and fire can’t be used in political negotiations.

“We will do what we need to do to give them the confidence they need to bring on new hires and … work towards giving them the facilities that they need,” he said. “We are going to send a message. We need to send a message to the people that have moved here, the new people that have moved here who are bearing the brunt of these large tax bills, that we are working to get those down and that this is the kind of place that you can make your forever home because we know that you guys are handling … the outsized burden of all this.”

Recently, the City Council received a report on the condition of Ferndale’s current public safety structures and was presented with concept art of what a combined police and fire building could look like.

After the millage failed to pass, this project looks to be on hold until the situation is resolved.

“That increase would have supported the construction of that facility,” Gacioch stated. “The city can’t construct a new facility without the guarantees of revenues. And we also do need some support for a Headlee override millage to support paying for staff as well. You know, if you build facilities, you need to pay for the staff members to be serving those facilities. The notion of the Headlee override for funding staffing levels and a possible proposal to support a bond issue to construct a public safety facility, they’re all connected. The facilities need the people. The people need the facilities.

“That said, we consistently heard from voters that they do understand that the facilities need to be addressed and that there is support for the facilities,” he continued. “We want to hear from them. You know, if it was packaged as a separate proposal, is that something you prefer to vote on rather than including it in one proposal like was done in this vote? I think that’s what we want to understand, is our interpretation is you support it, you acknowledge the need. Would you prefer to be decoupled?”

Call Staff Writer Mike Koury at (586) 498-1077.