Week in Review: Bloomfield Township on TV, Recall Language Approved and Much More

Couldn’t catch up to everything that happened in Bloomfield and Bloomfield Hills last week? No worries, Patch has some of the highlights:

Bloomfield Township to televise first public meeting: For the first time, members of the Bloomfield Township Board of Trustees voted to broadcast a regularly scheduled board meeting July 25 on Bloomfield Community Television, Channel 15. It is the last regular board meeting for Supervisor Dave Payne, who is retiring after a 41-year career with the township in several capacities. Board members who are candidates to replace him will present their resumes and qualifications for the job that night.

Bloomfield Hills residents to decide library millage: The Bloomfield Hills City Commission approved ballot language for a 0.39-mill tax levy that, if approved, will grant city residents greater access to and borrowing privileges with the Baldwin Public Library in Birmingham. Negotiators from the city and Baldwin agreed on a $268,681 pact this year and will continue working on a formal contract in anticipation of the vote, likely in November.

Second round of school board recall petitions approved: The names were different, but the results were the same: The Oakland County Election Commission approved recall petition language for three members of the Bloomfield Hills Schools Board of Education on Thursday.

The commission, comprising Oakland County Clerk Bill Bullard, Chief Probate Judge Linda Hallmark and County Treasurer Andy Meisner, found the petition language to be clear enough for potential voters to understand. School board members Mark Bank, Jacqueline El-Sayed and Robert Herner now join their colleagues as targets of an organized campaign to muster more than 5,200 signatures.

The commission also approved petition language filed to recall state Sen. John Pappageorge (R-Troy) at the same hearing.

District moving forward as consolidation debate continues: The consolidation plans for and high schools may be drawing most of the attention, but the moved ahead with consolidation plans of another sort last week. All district administrative staff, currently spread among three buildings, will be housed under one roof at the Doyle Center. The embattled board members also re-elected executive officers and announced that East Hills Middle School Principal Chris Delgado is leaving for a deputy superintendent post in the Walled Lake School District.

Harry Potter fans give epic film series a proper send-off: From local parties to midnight premieres, the Bloomfield area got caught up in the Harry Potter hoopla with the release of the series finale, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.