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Huntington Woods/Mayor - Four-year term.

The Candidates
On The Questions

Please
provide
biographical
information.

Why are
you
running?

What do
you see as
some of the
key issues?

How do you
plan to
address
these
issues?

Huntington Woods/City Commission - Vote for two. Four-year term.

Ronald
Gillham

Michelle
Friedman Appel

Harry
Howes

John M.
Wierzbicki

Resident of Huntington Woods since
1959. Married to Shirley since 1958. Three
children. Retired automotive engineer
from General Motors after 36 years. Born
in Missouri, January 1935. Bachelor of
science in engineering from University of
Missouri at Rolla, 1956. Elected to com-
mission in 1977. Appointed mayor, Jan-
uary 1981. Other than mayoral activities
I am, or have been, active in many com-
munity activities such as the First Pres-
byterian Church of Royal Oak, Optimist
Club, Boy Scouts, YMCA, etc. Major cur-
rent activities: city, golf, grandchildren,
church.

I graduated from Berkley High School and
have a bachelor of arts degree from the
University of Michigan and a law degree
from the University of Detroit. I have my
own law practice in Birmingham special-
izing in family and administrative law. I am
a 10-year Huntington Woods resident, am
married to Jeffrey, and have three sons,
Andrew, 9; Gabe, 7; and Sammy, 5. I am
a member of Beth Abraham Hillel Moses
and the business and professional section
of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit. I am currently president of the
Friends of Burton Community Park and
vice-chairperson of the Huntington Woods
Beautification Committee.

Resident of Huntington Woods for 22
years. Married with two daughters. Have
served as city commissioner for 12 years.
Involved for 20 years as founding chair-
man, past president and current vice pres-
ident of Huntington Woods Men's Club.
Served on the Huntington Woods Plan-
ning Commission for 10 years, traffic
committee for eight years, hearing offi-
cer for 14 years, Woodward Avenue Com-
mittee for two
years,. com-
mission liaison
to Recreation
Advisory
Board.

Huntington Woods City Commissioner.
Elected November 1991. Married to Pat.
Born in Milwaukee, Wis. Bachelor of sci-
ence, Marquette University; master of busi-
ness administration, Xavier University;
juris doctor, Detroit College of Law. Oc-
cupation:
Workers' com-
pensation
magistrate,
Michigan De-
partment of
Labor. Hunt-
ington Woods
resident for 18
years.

I am seeking re-election as mayor of Hunt-
ington Woods because I feel I am well
qualified, having earned the respect of the
citizens over the almost 15 years I have
already served. The city needs experi-
enced leadership. I am retired and I have
the required time available to perform the
job of mayor; I enjoy working with our
outstanding commission and superb city
staff; I have enjoyed the time and past ef-
fort for our residents, and look forward to
another four years of service.

Huntington Woods is a wonderful city which
enjoys significant involvement from many
members of its community. When I served
as materials coordinator for the Burton Park
project, I worked with the Huntington Woods
staff and hundreds of volunteer workers.
That experience, along with service on var-
ious community committees, convinced me
to seek the commissioner position in order
to continue my service to the community.
My background
as both a moth-
er of three and an
attorney will pro-
vide a valuable
point of view to
the commission.

I take pride in
our city and
feel good
about my in-
volvement and work on the committees,
commissions and projects on which I have
served. During my three terms as city
commissioner, many improvements and
renovations have been made to maintain
and/or improve the quality of life in our
city. I am happy to have been a pall of
these accomplishments. I would like to
continue on the city commission as there
is still much to be done.

I am in my first term as city commis-
sioner and I've seen the inner workings
of our city government and the budgetary
process. I feel that I am even more qual-
ified to "watch the bottom line" than when
I was elected four years ago. I wish to
help insure our city's continued practice
of fiscal responsibility.

Perhaps the
major issue
facing Hunt-
ington
Woods is that
of declining
revenues, in-
creasing
costs and re-
building our
aging infra-
structure.

The ongoing
need for capital
improvement to
the city's infra-
structure represents a significant present
and future challenge to the commission.
Due to legislative limitations on how cities
can tax and raise money, future improve-
ments must not result in deficit spending
or place an undue tax burden on the resi-
dents of our community. The commission
also faces the challenge of how these on-
going needs will be prioritized in order to
meet the needs of the community. Inher-
ent in all these issues is the need to en-
courage active citizen participation in the
decision-making process.

The key issue at the commission level is
the budget. Our cost of operating the city
increases faster than the inflation level.
This in part is due to unfunded federal and
state mandates.

Maintaining our high service levels with
minimal additional costs.

The challenge is to reduce costs without
reducing the service levels. An example
was the recently stymied effort to create
a joint venture with Berkley to provide pub-
lic-safety service for both cities. This would
have ultimately resulted in improved ser-
vice and lower costs to our residents. We
will be required to repair or replace much
of our water and sewer lines, "major"
streets. Our city buildings are in need of
attention. Our financial house is in good
shape. The commission has the obliga-
tion to set policies that allow creative ap-
proaches to reducing our operating costs
and long-term employee liabilities.

The Burton Community Park was financed
by a combination of state grant funds as
well as corporate and individual contribu-
tions. In order to address complex bud-
getary issues facing communities today,
we will need to look to new revenue
sources, such as state and federal grants,
private foundations and corporate contri-
butions. We also need to encourage
greater citizen participation in setting bud-
get priorities to guarantee we meet the
challenge of finding and establishing in-
novative funding mechanisms. As a com-
missioner, I will encourage the
commission to be more open and re-
sponsive to the residents of Huntington
Woods regarding these issues.

We have been successful in meeting un-
funded federal and state mandates by win-
ning grants to update our library and
Burton playgrounds. We will continue to
apply for these grants. We will also be
looking into upgrading our city buildings
with more efficient energy construction
and renovation. The cost savings in fur-
ther outsourcing will be reviewed along
with other cost savings in internal oper-
ations.

Continue studying alternative means of
providing improved public safety ser-
vices. Merger of Public Safety Depart-
ment with a neighboring city is not
practical, nor desirable. Swimming pool
renovation program should be financed
with a bond issue, subject to the voters'
approval.

