Voters decide village councils, school board, tax proposals

Voter’s in the Eagle’s coverage area turned out at the polls Nov. 8 to approve several tax proposals and village council races.

For the Beverly Hills Village Council race, eight contestants vied for votes for the four open spots on council. John George Received the most votes with 17.5%, followed by Racheal Hrydziuszko with 16.3%, Rock Abboud with 15%, Mike White with 14.2%, Karen Gilbert with 13.7%, James P. Delaney with 10.3%, Gabriel Ervin with 8.5% and Jon Oen with 4.3%.

Five contestants vied to fill the three village of Franklin trustee positions. With 24.8%, David Albert Sahli received the most votes, followed by David Goldberg at 21.82%, Pam Hansen at 20%, Fred Gallasch at 17.1% and Nena Downing at 16.3%.

In the village of Bingham Farms trustee race, five contestants competed for votes for three open positions.

With the leading number of votes, Kathy Mechigian received 25.1%, Diane Howard received 22.6%, D.E. Hagaman received 20.4%, Lawrence Freedman received 19.1% and William Burrell received 12.8%.

The race for the four spots on the Bloomfield Hills Schools Board of Education included 10 contestants. Tareq Falah received the most votes with 12.16%. Following him were Paul Kolin with 11.6%,  Carolyn Noble with 11.51%, Meagan M. Hill with 11.48%, Harris Ng with 11%, Lindsay G. Baker with 10.2%, Sandeep Chada with 9.8%, Nicholas Haugen with 9.1%, Lauen Wilson with 7.1% and Jim Baker with 5.9%.

Six candidates ran for two open positions on the Birmingham Public Schools Board of Education. Nicole Spencer led the race with 27.2%, followed by Colleen Zammit with 19.1%, Art Jack with 15.8%, Bradley Wing with 15.7%, Kimberly Whitman with 14.3% and Samuel Oh with 7.6%.

In Birmingham, 63.5% of voters said yes to the proposed amendment to Chapter VI of the city charter. This amendment raises the threshold to $75,000 for contracts that are required to go through the request for proposals process, competitive bidding, and reviewed by the City Commission for approval. The previous threshold was $6,000.

For Charter Amendment Proposition A, Chapter II, Section 3, 68.7% of Bingham Farms voters marked yes. This proposal will omit from the charter of Bingham Farms the wording, “The Village shall not have the power: (1) To acquire by purchase or gift or any real property if the value exceeds $10,000 or by lease if the annual rental exceeds $10,000, any real property, unless the acquisition shall have first been approved by two-thirds of the electors voting thereon at any general election. The Village may lease office space which shall be exempt from the annual rental limitation.”

Bingham Farm’s voters also said yes to Charter Amendment Proposition B, Chapter III, Section 3-A; 73.2% voted for this amendment, which clarifies this section by stating the requirement that no person is to be elected or appointed to any office unless he or she shall be an elector of the village of Bingham Farms only applies to the elective offices of president and trustee, and the appointment to the Planning Commission.

Also in Bingham Farms, 85.8% of voters said yes to the Charter Amendment Proposition C, Chapter III, Section 11. This amendment states that if a member of the council has four unexcused absences from regular meetings in a 12-month period, their absences will be considered a neglect of duty and a cause to be removed from office.

Lastly in Bingham Farms, Charter Amendment Proposition D Chapter VII, Section 1 received 69.7% of the votes for and 30.3% against. This calls for language to state that any legally adopted ordinance by the council of the village of Bingham Farms is proposed by petition and signed by at least 15% of registered electors in the village.

A village of Franklin proposal passed 52.6% to 47.4%, adding 0.9361 mills by bumping an existing 3.5 mill tax that was reduced by Headlee rollbacks to 2.5639 mills. About $347,000 of additional revenue will be generated for the 2023-24 fiscal year for the use of general operating purposes.

In the U.S. House of Representatives 12th District race, Democrat Rashida Tlaib, 70.84%, defeated Republican Steven Elliott, 26.26% and Working Class Party representative Gary Walkowicz, 2.9%.

Democrat Jeremy Moss defeated Republican Corinne Khederian in the state Senate race for the 7th District 74.2% to 25.8%.

For the state House of Representatives race for the 54th District, Republican Donni Steele won with 51.17% of the votes, closely followed by Democrat Shadia Martini with 48.83% of the votes.

In the  County Commissioner race for the 1st District, Democrat Dave Woodward defeated Republican Chris Meister 63.8% to 36.1%.

For the County Commissioner race for the 9th District, Democrat Angela Powell won with 71.2% of the vote over Republican Gjyste Nuculaj with 28.5%.

The County Commissioner race for the 18th District resulted in a win for Democrat Janet Jackson with 76.9% of the vote, defeating Republican Kat Phillips with 23% of the vote.