Clarkston officials address future of police and fire

Following at this hour, the future of police and fire in the village of Clarkston is in limbo. A proposed millage on the November ballot failed by just 25 votes, which could end with the city taking a major hit to its public safety services. Fox 2's Camilla Murray is live in Clarkston with the story. Camille, where does this go now? Is there any hope for funding? And, man, 25 votes, huh? I know, I know, that's crazy to think it didn't pass by 25 votes. There are options though, and city council is going to be discussing those options at tonight's meeting at 7 o'clock. Let's take a look at some video and talk about what we know and kind of break things down. Okay, so the current contract, this is the good news, the current contract for emergency services runs through June 2027. I want to make clear. We're talking about the village of Clarkston, which is actually quite small. The historic district, the little downtown that we know and love less than one square mile and about 950 residents. Clarkston City Manager Jonathan Smith says they were limited to the wording they could use on the November ballot because this is directly tied to the new budget, which doesn't go in effect until May of next year. Take a listen. We couldn't say in this millage ballot wording that there's going to be a 5.5 mil reduction. We anticipate that, and we think a 5.5 mil reduction is realistic. If you assume that, a 7 mil increase, a 5.5 mil decrease, it would equate to about $20 a month for an average home. We think that's a fair amount to have police and fire coverage. Yeah, $20 a month doesn't sound bad at all. But before you break it down, people are worried that it's gonna be another huge bill, $100 a month or something like that. They really didn't have a clear context of what it was gonna be when they voted. In the meantime, there could be a special election in May once that budget is passed to determine exactly if this is going to, they actually put it before the voters again, but with better language, they could understand what it would really break down to. But coming up tonight at six, we're going to talk about the possibility of what happens to the village of Clarkston if this doesn't pass in May, if they don't come up with a solution, and if the village doesn't have fire and police. And that's a Scary thing to think about. Reporting live in Clarkston, Camilla Murray, Fox 2 News. And Camille, just to be clear, for the next six months until that special election, the fire and the funding that remains right now is still in play and will continue until, obviously, something changes. Yeah, I mean, everything is business as usual right now. Nothing is changing. The village of Clarkston contracts with the Oakland County Sheriff's Office for police protection and the... I'm missing, oh, Independence Township, Independence Township for the fire. So it's business as usual, but they have to come up with a solution because this solution that's going on right now only goes until the end of June, which I know sounds like a long way away, but it'll be here before you know it. So true. All right. Thank you so much, Camilla Murray, for us live tonight for that live report.