Southfield City Council Meeting: September 26, 2011

City Council meeting held in Southfield, Michigan September 26, 2011

Topics Include:

• The Building of a New Golden Corral
• Smart Meters
• Lawrence Tech University Building a New Dormitory
• A New Police Firing Range
• A police officer not receiving his retirement badge and ID

You can obtain an agenda and related documents here.
You can obtain an audio file of this meeting here.

Controversial Stuff That's Going Down in Town: Updates to Smart Meters and Lawrence Tech Housing 9/26/2011

Last week I posted some stuff about Lawrence Tech and Smart Meters. At the September 19, 2011 Southfield City Council meeting both of those issues came up here are some updates.

At the September 19 meeting DTE Energy was asked to return and answer some questions the council had.



Gregory Keeler one of the residents being affected by the new Lawrence Tech University dormitory appeared before council to discuss it.

Southfield City Council Meeting: September 19, 2011

City Council Meeting held in Southfield, Michigan on September 19, 2011.

Topics Include

• DTE Smart Meters
• Lawrence Tech University's desire to build a new dormitory
• The building of a Golden Corral Restaurant

You can find an agenda and other documents related to the meeting here.
You can download an audio file of the meeting at here.
You can listen to other audio relating to DTE's smart meter program here.

Controversial Stuff That's Goin' Down in Town 9/18/2011 Part 1: Smart Meters

The reason why I generally only post audio of City Council meetings is because I really don't trust myself enough to write objectively and accurately about some of the issues. That's what I like about the tape. It is a fairer and more accurate record of what was said than I can give if I were just to blather on about it. I still don't think this will be better but I think I owe it to folks who come to my blog to find out what the hell is going on to at least give an overview and point them to relevant tapes.


Smart Meters
The first one involves DTE Smart meters. Again I really don't want to talk about this one because for a brief time I worked at DTE. They gave me my first internship and I don't trust myself enough to talk about it without that coloring my opinion, but it's my blog and I don't have the cash to tell someone else to write about it.

A few months ago, April 4 to be precise, DTE provided city council with a presentation about smart meters, (again in full disclosure I knew the presenter from my time with DTE) this was mostly just to provide some facts and make sure everyone felt comfortable with it.



Then, on August 15 Richard Meltzer came to city council with some concerns about the meters. Among them were health, privacy, and lack of an opt out program.



Council then asked Meltzer to speak at the August 22, 2011 televised meeting.



The Council agreed to look into it and sent the issue to the legislative committee. Over the past few weeks the issue has been cropping up again and again.

In the last city council meeting a group campaigning to get the meters banned attended, spoke and gave the council DVDs about the issue.



Relevant Links
An article from the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs Detailing the history of Smart Meters in Michigan

A New York Times article about a similar campaign in California

Southfield City Council Regular Meeting September 12, 2011

Regular City Council Meeting Held in Southfield, Michigan at 7:00 September 12, 2011

Topics Include:

• The Building of New Student Housing for Lawrence Tech University
• Controversies over DTE Smart Meters
• A Vietnam Veterans Monument
• Repairing The Southfield Police Firing Range
• The Local Government Investment Pool
• Road Issues
• Our Emergency Services and the Media

An agenda and related documents can be found here.
An audio file of the meeting can be downloaded here.