Club Meeting, Featuring Kathleen McIntyre & Jenny O'Connor, Candidates for Livonia City Council

Club President Nancy Darga opened the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by an Invocation by Mike Ladwig. Sharon Pommerville happily collected Happy Bucks. President Nancy talked about the new Stevenson HS Interact Club and how we must nurture this new club.

Bill Friske reported on the last Giving Committee Meeting on September 16th. Started 3 years ago, the AM Rotary club has now provided grants to over 90 organizations, and will now meet quarterly. New on the Committee: Marlene Katafias and Tom Martin. A decision was made to make some changes to the online application and our website.

Nancy reported on the Rebuild Rotary Park Committee meeting at City Hall. There is a big gap in bid amounts, and the City is going to look at other options on what things are really necessary. Rotary has raised $50,000 towards the pavilion rebuild. There are insurance funds, some from the City budget, but more funds are needed. We could attempt to look at obtaining grants, and we need to replace and improve what was lost. Nancy spoke about some future events.

Our first speaker was Kathleen McIntyre

Kathleen was born in Livonia and graduated from Stevenson HS, where she was also a Rotary Interact Club member. She then went off to college, before moving back to Livonia, and ultimately ended up in the community where she grew up. She and her husband raised their children here. Kathleen has many years of experience in city government, as a former City Council member, Council President, and also in private business leadership.  She said that she was known for fiscal responsibility and support for public safety. Kathleen is running to keep Livonia safe, prosperous, and welcoming.

Kathleen will prioritize public safety by investing to attract and retain more first responders, maintaining our high standards for fire and EMS paramedic certification. She also supports having police and fire stations equipped with the latest technology and believes strongly in a close partnership between law enforcement and our residents.

Kathleen believes a thriving community requires a strong economy. She will cut red tape to help streamline city permitting and speed up the process in getting inspections and approvals.

Kathleen actively supports strengthening our workforce through education and skilled trade programs. She also wants to work toward ensuring Livonia keeps more of its tax dollars local.

Kathleen believes the City works for everyone, business and families. She is for upgrades to our local parks and wants to ensure they are all clean and safe. She also believes that we need safer, more walkable neighborhoods. When she was on the council before, there was a study done of all the city buildings and the cost to update them. At that time, it was estimated it would take $100 million to bring it up to standards. But now everything is on the table. To keep Livonia a welcoming city, she will work with everyone to get things done. Now is a pivotal time for Livonia, and Kathleen McIntyre is asking for our vote.

Our second speaker was Jennifer O’Connor

Jennifer is a 35-year resident of Livonia with 2 children. She attended Livonia public schools and graduated from Franklin HS, and has been a volunteer since she was 11 years old. Jenny is running for City Council because she wants the city to be here for everyone, and she has a deep respect for fiscal responsibility. She said the municipal bond vote showed residents are deeply divided on what they want for the city. Jenny has been working to meet and listen to workers, residents, and the local trade unions on what they want for the city.

Jenny has come up with several proposals she believes will help the City of Livonia move forward.

The 1st proposal is to help alleviate the staff shortage in our city workforce. By establishing a partnership between the schools and the public safety departments, we could invest in student training in high schools, the career center, and Schoolcraft College.

The 2nd proposal would be to take the $2.4 million dollar savings from employee health insurance changes and redirect it to updating our public safety infrastructure and maintenance of our public buildings.

Rotary soccer balls were presented to both speakers. The meeting ended with everyone reciting the Rotary 4 Way Test.

 Marlene Katafias