Update: Here is the link to the new LIVE area of the City of Novi website.

The City of Novi recently announced that they are joining the Novi School District in making all televised City meetings (Council, Planning, ZBA, Library, PR & F) available via a live feed on the internet. Community Information Director Sheryl Walsh spearheaded the effort and it required only a small additional cost to the City.

For those of us that have recently switched to ATT U-Verse, that is great news. I am looking forward to SWOCC working out an arrangement with ATT to provide that programming on their service as well.

During the past week, both the Boys and Girls basketball teams clinched their respective KVC titles.

This accomplishment is even more incredible if you consider that each lost a key starter midway through the conference season. The boys unexpectantly lost starting power forward Tyler Hoover when he made the decision to enroll early at MSU to begin his football training. On the girls side, starting Sophomore center Jessica Cingel injured her knee in January and was lost for the season. She recently underwent successful knee surgey and hopefully will recover in time for her junior season.

With a daughter on the freshman BB team, I frequently stayed and watched the varsity girls games. The team, lead by super shophmore Caroline Johnson, always played at a very high energy level. They were frequently much smaller than their opponents and often played with a four guard, one forward lineup. They always provided great effort and willed themselves to victory. We should be all very proud of the efforts of both the Boys and Girls and make an effort to attend the District playoff games in the weeks to come.

I was honored to attend the opening of the new City of Novi gun range recently. The state of the art facility it both a tribute and testament to the efforts of law enforcement personnel in our City.

During the ceremony, I was deeply touched by several very emotional moments that included the Project Manager for the facility builder and our own Lt. Victor Lauria of the Novi PD. These are not just guys doing their jobs exceptionally well, but rather people who have personally and professionally vested themselves into a project that means much more to our community than can be measured. As Lt. Lauria stood at the podium, his eyes welling and his jaw quivering with emotion, I felt so proud of his and his colleagues efforts to get this facility built. I am continually astounded by the leadership team assembled at our Police department lead by Chief Molloy and Deputy Chief Lindberg.

As I write this, I can’t help but reflect back on all the hand wringing and anomisty that surronded this project and wonder why? The supposed flood of opposition never really materialized (an likely never existed). It was an issue largely manufacturered for political purposes. After final funding was approved, it largely disappeared as an issue. From the time this project was concieved by Council Member Gatt, through all the budget delibration and it ultimate approval, I strongly supported the facility. I never had any doubts that this was a great asset to our City. I am so proud to be on the permanent plaque dedicating this facility and seeing it come to completion.

I was recently sent an email that contained a link to a video where Newt Gingrich responds to a question regarding the war on terror. I find his response to be brilliant. I encourage you to watch it and consider his words carefully.

I encourage you to take the time to watch this video….it is not politically slanted, but rather a blunt and chilling answer to a serious question posed to Newt Gingrich. It is a clearly†worded warning. This is one of the most powerful and articulate summaries of the dangers of our current situation that I have ever heard, and a mystery to me why this is not painfully aware to every American and a subject of constant discussion. It has been around almost a year and not one Presidential candidate speaks of the danger in this way.

Link to Gingrich Response

It has been a long time since we have written something new at NoviTalk. There are alot of reason, but none of them really make much difference.

Since my last post, I have ran unopposed for City Council, the millage to build a new library was passed, Michigan provided Mitt Romney with this finest moment in the primaries and then he quickly disappeared from the scene, Mayor Kilpatrick found out that text messages and email have a long tail.

Moving forward, I plan to write about things that interest me. Some may be local, others state or National. As always, I welcome any comments. I hope you will contribute and share you thoughts and ideas.

Recently, I had the opportunity to meet with several well know political figures in Michigan and ask questions for nearly three hours.

During that time, I asked a Congressman, what his thoughts were on a local issue. His comment, state, county and local governments have specific responsibilities and tax more than enough to fulfill those responsibilities. Where these government bodies get into trouble is by going beyond their scope of responsibility and taking on expenditures that are not necessary to fulfill their role.

That message has hit a nerve with me. It begs to ask, is there any justification for raising taxes when we are providing services that are above and beyond the necessities required of local, county or state government?

Good questions.

Lawmakers need to reject legislation that would impose an ill-advised $1.35 monthly fee on phone users statewide. This plan to create a separate Public Safety Fund to cover expenses for the State Police and others is a bad idea. Public safety is a core responsibility of government. The dollars to finance this essential service must come from the primary source of funding for operations, the state general fund.

Law enforcement agencies, like every aspect of state government, has taken a hit due to the budget crunch but the Legislature needs to provide dollars for them via real revenue and expense reforms, not an inappropriate tax on an unrelated service.

This bill, in part, has been talked about as aiding the 911 system but that’s hardly the case. The fee just applies to all communication services that connect with the 911 system. The estimated $198 million generated would be divvied up among multiple groups. The State Police, the biggest benefactor, supports the measure. But a slew of local and state law enforcement groups see no benefit and oppose it, including the Michigan Sheriff’s Association and Police Officers Association of Michigan. This tacky phone tax shouldn’t be apart of the solution to the pending deficit. That’s lazy governance. It does not address fundamental challenges but instead stuffs a money bag while making 911 the latest version of a pay phone.

As anybody who reads this blog knows, I had no intention of running for City Council this fall. I have written it dozens of times and told anybody who asked. I have recently changed jobs and I expected a very tough four person race between three incumbents (Lynne Paul, Toni Nagy & Bob Gatt) and Kathy Crawford. I fully expected to be working to support Bob & Kathy and to take an active role on getting the Library Bond approved and to get a new library built.

Things took an unexpected turn on Friday, June 8, the deadline for filing. I received a call from a good friend who advised me that I should check with the clerk at City Hall to see if anybody had entered the race other than Bob & Kathy. I found out shortly thereafter, that there were only two candidates for three positions. At 3:00 pm I drove to City Hall expecting to find that Lynne and Toni had decided to file at the last minute. What I found was that nobody had done anything yet. Shortly thereafter, Carol Jean Crawford walked in. We sat an chatted for about 45 minutes. I have respected for Carol for several years, even though we are frequently on the other side of the issues. I finally came to a point where I needed to make a decision. Read the rest of this entry »

Yes, most of our past postings are gone and not coming back.

As a result of a complete server meltdown and backup failure at our hosting company (Site 5), we lost everything since we started this blog. Unknown to us, they used a very poor backup schema and everybody lost everything that was not backed up offline. Live and learn.

As I said to our webmaster and co-editor Willy, they are just words and we have plenty more to write. So here we are and we are starting over. This will require Registering again to make comments or write postings. Sorry for the inconvenience. Blog away.

PS - Does anybody want to run for City Council?

This photo was taken last month of my brother US Army MSG Mike Staudt doing a Security Detail for a ribbon cutting ceremony at Pol-e-Alam, Afghanistan. Note behind him and to the left, the young Afghan in front of the Humvee.

His housing consists of a single room with Wireless Internet and Free Long-Distance to call home. They just recently took away access to MyPage and YouTube. To many videos being posted from the front lines.

Honor those serving us on Memorial Day.