Code of conduct to be topic of workshop

By Grace Lovins

The Birmingham City Commission on Monday, April 24, decided to schedule for mid-summer another workshop meeting to discuss the development of a commissioner code of conduct.

Commissioners last saw the proposed code of conduct on March 13, when the city manager and city attorney included the draft in the meeting packet. Prior to this meeting, city attorney Mary Kucharek was asked to go through the document and identify areas that were duplicative. The commission had 14 days after March 13 to review Kucharek’s findings and provide any comments on any changes they want to see.

These comments were included in the city manager’s report on the code of conduct in the April 24 meeting packet. Commissioners Pierre Boutros and Katie Schafer noted they had no comments or desired changes, while the other five commissioners submitted a list of suggestions or a marked up copy of the draft.

During the commissioner comments portion of the meeting, commissioner Brad Host gave a detailed explanation of what he sees wrong with the document. He said the drafted code, while well meaning, is seriously flawed and could have unintended consequences.

“I believe the revised code we’ve been asked to review has been drafted, intentionally or unintentionally, in an authoritarian manner, setting traps for the people turning to it in good faith for guidance, failing to encourage the clarity, efficiency and camaraderie it should seek to achieve,” Host said.

“I respectfully ask that we take a hard second look at this code, not as a rejection for our need for a code of conduct, but as affirmation of our desire to work in harmony, connect with our constituents without fear, and express our ideas openly and freely,” he continued.

City manager Markus reiterated that this is something the commission has to decide on and recommended setting another workshop session to talk it over and figure out exactly what the group wants, but the most important thing is that decide on it collectively.

“I would remind you that most if

Downtown team wins ten awards

The team at Downtown Newsmagazine garnered ten awards in annual journalism competition sponsored by the Detroit chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) for work from the 2022 calendar year.

Contest entries were judged by members of the SPJ in other states and Downtown Newsmagazine competed with other Michigan publications of 50,000 circulation or less.

News editor Lisa Brody took first place in the Health Reporting category for her May 2022 longform story on the move by local police departments to a co-response team approach on 911 calls in which a social worker accompanies public safety officers on emergency calls.

Reporter Kevin Elliott was awarded first place for his December 2022 longform story on the racial make-up of police traffic stops in local communities.

In the same competition category, Stacy Gittleman took fourth place for her October longform story on the ongoing battle in north Oakland County over who would control the permitting process for gravel mining and the possible threat to local control if the permit process is moved to state level as is now being proposed in state legislation.

In the Explanatory Reporting category, reporter Grace Lovins took third place for her November longform piece on the national movement to ban natural gas use in new residential and commercial construction as part of the environmental efforts to address global warming.

Reporter Stacy Gittleman took third place in the Environmental Reporting contest category for an April issue longform story on how Michigan is being viewed as a possible refuge for those hoping to migrate to escape or avoid projected worsening climate problems.

Publisher David Hohendorf was awarded first place in the Personal Column category for his opinion piece on the potential loss of local control over schools thanks to the flood of local and outside money in the latest school board elections; his critical column on the watered down version of financial disclosure for state lawmakers and members of the administration that was placed on the ballot in 2022; and his open letter to his new granddaughter about the challenges she will be facing as she grows up.

Graphics manager Chris Grammer placed first in the Magazine Spread Design competition for his layout design of the longform piece on local fire departments. Grammer was also awarded third place for his design of the April issue cover on the same story topic.

In the Portrait Photography competition, photographer Laurie Tennent took second place with her Faces personality feature photo of Bloomfield resident Bob Redner in his 1944 McKinnon G21G Goose seaplane.

Photographer Chris Ward took third place in the same category for her Faces feature photo of Birmingham resident Kaitlyn Buss, Detroit News columnist and editorial board member.

not all of that came from other jurisdictions codes of conduct and, in fact, I would say that that’s the type of thing that typically appears in a code of conduct. Having said that, at the end of the day, it’s this commission’s decision. My recommendation is you sit down in a work session and exchange your views, cut it up, get agreement as to what you want in that code of conduct, move it up to the agenda and vote on it. You don’t need [Kucharek] and me anymore,” Markus said.

Commissioners agreed to move the item to a workshop session for the next possible date. The review of the code and setting up a workshop session were not items that required formal action or a vote from the commission.

Bloomfield Community TV adds podcast studio

Bloomfield Community TV (BCTV), which has an awardwinning studio producing public, educational and government (PEG) programming for nearly 40 years, is branching out, adding a new podcast studio.

The current production studio is a video studio which limits viewership to the screen. As Cable and Community Relations Director Carrie LeZotte points out, with the new podcast studio, “the conversation is no longer limited to a screen.”

A podcast is a program made in digital form for download over the internet. Podcasts are primarily an audio medium, with some programs offering a supplemental video component.

The new BCTV podcast studio will still allow producers to create video content which is distributed on Comcast, AT&T and YouTube, LeZotte said. It just offers more, as podcasts are easy to consume while commuting, exercising or performing chores around the house.

The last few years have seen an explosion of new podcast content and programs. “Creating the podcast studio has allowed us to double the production space available to the community and give us room to host larger productions in the main studio,” LeZotte said. “The pod/vodcast are an evolution of what we’ve been doing here in Bloomfield Township for years – conversational shows with interesting residents and community members about local issues. Adding the distribution platforms now available will help extend our reach.”

LeZotte said she is really excited about a podcast called, “Community Readiness” with Bloomfield Police Chief James Gallagher, “as I don’t think there’s a police podcast out there that looks at education and community partnership quite the way our chief does in his program.”

Cable Operations Manager Steve Rota said he is looking forward to having residents take part in production to drive the studio forward. “Residents are the reason we have all the programs that we do. They bring their programming ideas and we provide the technical expertise; they give us the guest and the host and we put the show together.”

Once created and uploaded, all podcasts can be streamed via Podbean.

Residents of Bloomfield Township, Bloomfield Hills, Birmingham, Beverly Hills, Bingham Farms and Franklin are eligible to produce programs at the BCTV station by first attending a volunteer workshop. Interested parties should visit the township website for more information at bloomfieldtwp.org/services.

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