Why

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I have served on the Grosse Pointe Park City council since 2021.   

While on council I have witnessed a series of official decisions that have diminished employee morale, reduced trust, questioned capabilities, impacted quality of life, and ignored long-term fiscal planning.  

I am running for Mayor because leadership matters and the priorities of our community must be public safety, sound budgeting, functioning infrastructure, and proper city maintenance.  We deserve the quality of life we pay for and expect. 

Respectfully, 

Christine M. Gallagher

       It is not a public relations campaign. Leadership is respectful of debate and does not ignore council questions or orchestrate smear campaigns against others. 

Nor does it hide important information in consent agendas to avoid scrutiny.   Nor use journalists from the local newspaper to discredit others.  

Short-sighted committee influence should not dominate strategic thinking.  

Decision making belongs to the council. It is not a rubber stamp for hasty, siloed committee decisions. 

As your mayor, I want a true coalition between council members, the administration, and the community. All working toward achievable, quantifiable goals that provide proper and transparent fiscal planning while protecting the health and safety of our residents and community.  

As such, I kindly ask for your support. 

And I respectfully ask for your vote on November 7, 2023.   

 Your Jung personality type

The  Personality Type that most accurately describes you is 

          Extravert-iNtuitive-Thinker-Judge

• Extraverts are outgoing, energetic and action oriented. They are enthusiastic and expressive.
• · iNtuitives pay more attention to information that is imaginative and original. iNtuitives focus on the future.
• Thinkers make decisions using logic and impersonal analysis. They think with their heads rather than their hearts.
•  Judgers prefer a lifestyle that is decisive, planned and orderly. They like a life that is organized and controlled.

          An E-N-T-J at-a-glance

You are a natural born leader. This motivation is so powerful that you may find it difficult not to take the lead. Your natural place is at the head of the crowd, marshalling everyone together and moving the group forward. You are rarely content to stand quietly in the background. You set high standards for yourself and others. You are continually creating a mental list of things you want to learn, accomplish and master.
 

You are keenly analytical. Being logical, dispassionate and objective is as natural to you as breathing air. Problems invigorate you - you enjoy resolving them using logic and objective critical thinking - strong points of your personality. Your decisive and positive action leaves others in the dust. You have little patience with uncertainty, inefficiency or confusion. You are not afraid to make tough-minded decisions and take hard actions. Every Jung Personality type has one or two specific nicknames that concisely describe your Jung personality type... Inventor, Strategist, Protector and others.

Your probable contributions to an organization

Each Personality Type has a different set of skills, talents and attributes that they bring to an organization, group or relationship. 

Here is a list of those most commonly associated with Personality Types like you - ENTJ.

• Is a take-charge kind of person.
• Readily and joyfully tackles confusion and inefficiencies.
• Radiates confidence to all with whom he/she comes into contact.
• Is highly strategic in choosing an organization's or project's direction. 
• Always focuses on the organization's goals.

On a team

Some people work well on teams, others work best on their own. Understanding the personality types of team members provides information about how individuals are likely to carry out their work and interact with each other. Given your personality preferences, the following are the strengths (and possible weaknesses!) you will most likely bring to a team:

• Leadership, pure and simple
• Brings total dedication to a project.
• Contributes by being goal-oriented, organized and by delivering results.
• Uses forthright logic to influence team members.
• Is adept at finding flaws in proposed solutions.

There is a drastic 61% increase in burglary, larceny, and auto thefts (as confirmed in the 22/23 Annual Public Safety Report). 

Yet, the mayor thought it does not worthy discussion by placing it on the consent agenda while she and the council majority agreed to eliminate several road patrol officers by slashing $522,000 from public safety wages to offset the significant deficit spending that has occurred over the last two years.  

Public Safety staffing is essential for the health and safety of our residents. 

The GPP public safety director Jarrell confirmed that only 11% of the time, GPP public safety is fully staffed.   And on several occasions, only 1 or ZERO patrol officers are on the road as occurred during the recent home invasions and community fires. 

National studies prove that there is a direct correlation between visible patrol officers and crime deterrence.  Yet, the mayor and council majority voted to slash Public Safety Officers despite the 61% increase in crime. 

As a result of these staffing cuts, the mayor and the council majority have now voted to outsource the Park’s EMS service to Medstar.  

This action will not only double ambulance arrivals and transport time to the hospital it will also negatively impact the city financially.  

Medstar’s annual contract fee is $50,000. Additionally, the city will surrender its current ambulance annual revenues of approximately $75,000 to the outside contractor.  

Today, this revenue source is budgeted for, and approved within, the Park’s 2023/2024 operating budget. Sacrificing the 20 plus years of ambulance services to an outside contractor AT A COST of $125,000 is not the answer.  

This choice reduces our quality of life and adds NO financial benefit to the general fund. 

We must be fiscally responsible, but not at the cost of our residents’ health and safety. 

For two years we have known our budget has structural issues due to deficit spending. Yet, we have not developed a long-term strategy defined by timelines, project plans, scopes of work and corresponding financial requirements. 

This must be done to more effectively manage the budget so as not to sacrifice additional essential services or endure further cuts within our public safety department. 

For fiscal year 21/22 the city incurred a deficit of over $500,000 while this fiscal year’s loss (22/23) is anticipated to be more than $1M. 

The proposed fiscal year 23/24 budget is being “balanced” by eliminating patrol officer wages and relying on a onetime potential land sale.  

In the background, our expenditures have increased by over 18% while our fund reserves are projected to plummet by over 40%. 

Selling off city assets and reducing public safety is not the solution. 

Long term strategic financial planning defined by detailed, prioritized, and time lined Capital Improvement Plans must be produced.  

Other solutions to address the deficit should include more active considerations to expand shared services with our neighboring communities.

The mayor’s self-appointed committee to “heal wounds and open borders” with little or no public accountability of intentions or goals does not build trust. 

These closed deliberations identify 10 streets for reopening and propose connecting Windmill Pointe Drive to Alter Rd and making Whittier a two-way street. 

Decades old traffic patterns will be disrupted and are opposed by the public safety director Jarrell. 

Yet, these committee discussions continue. Why not include the tax paying residents who would be most affected by these discussions/actions instead of nonresidents and activists who have consistently criticized the Park?  

This information was leaked by a concerned resident from the mayor’s March meeting. The title of that document is “Cultivating Relationships Between the Earth and Community Through Imagination”.   

Energy would be best served by diligently using all efforts to secure Trombly as an educational institution. 

I conducted an independent poll of park residents to obtain tangible documentation of residents’ preference for Trombly. Over 60% responded. 

97% of respondents want Trombly as an educational institution. 

Conversely, only 1 respondent preferred multi-family housing. 

Yet, during the June 6th, 2022, planning commission hearing, the mayor voted to change Trombly’s zoning in The Master Plan’s Future Land Use Map to multi-family.

Only after my objection at the subsequent council meeting was the “multi-family” designation removed. 

We must NOT change our Master Plan. It is what prevents multifamily housing from being built on the site. 

Trombly is part of the fabric of our community and reinforces housing values. Trombly CAN bring students back into the school district.  

Closed nearly four years ago, the school administration has neglected its upkeep and has done virtually nothing to reopen it. And our city leaders have stood idly by. 

NOW IS THE TIME FOR BOLD ACTION by the School Board in support of Trombly as an educational institution. 

We need students to return to the district.

A much-needed breakeven cost analysis would answer many questions and define the path forward. 

At $15k/per student, returning 200 Trombly students would bring $3M into the district annually.  

A total of 150 random surveys were sent out to GPP residents selected from a Registered Voters lists that was provided with no names associated with the addresses. 

The 12th and 17th and 23rd addresses were selected from each page.    

90 responses were received = 60% response.  

First Choice are as follows: 

• 78% Trombly as GPPSS Elementary School
• 9% Early Child Care
• 10% "Back to Basics" school
• 0% Trade School
• 1% Multi Family Housing
• 0% Single Family Housing