Questions swirl around SMART bus millage renewal in Macomb County despite board vote

A SMART bus millage renewal may not get on the ballot in Macomb County this year despite a recent vote by commissioners.

The issue, if it's not addressed soon, could derail public transportation in one of Michigan's largest counties and undercut one of the two main bus services in metro Detroit.

Macomb County Clerk Anthony Forlini told commissioners in a letter that their vote last week, which appeared to give the effort enough support to pass, actually fell short. Forlini’s letter Wednesday followed a memorandum from the county’s top lawyer the previous day, which described why the 6-5 vote in favor of putting the nearly 1-mill, four-year renewal on the November ballot did not pass muster.

A majority of the total number of commissioners, not just those present at the June 16 meeting, would have needed to vote in favor, according to the memo from Corporation Counsel John Schapka. That means seven of the 13 commissioners on the board have to say yes. Eleven voted at the meeting, but two commissioners — Mai Xiong, D-Warren, and Antoinette Wallace, D-Mount Clemens — were absent and did not vote.

Forlini’s letter noted that “it does not appear that the proposal received the number of affirmative votes required by the county charter, and that as a result, the resolution failed. Consequently, the proposal cannot be placed on the November ballot absent some manner of timely corrective action by the commission.”

It wasn’t immediately clear what the next steps will be for the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation millage renewal in Macomb County will be.

Commissioners could bring the measure up for a vote again under certain circumstances, but board Chair Don Brown does not think that is likely.

A more realistic option, according to Brown, would be for SMART to send the commissioners another proposal that's markedly different and perhaps more acceptable to the board, but he hasn't received anything from SMART.

Failing that, communities could also cut their own deals with SMART, he said. However, the deadline to place countywide and local proposals on the Nov. 8 ballot is 4 p.m. Aug. 16.

A statement from SMART General Manager Dwight Ferrell to the Free Press referred to the issue as a "procedural matter."

“We have been made aware of a procedural matter stemming from Macomb County Board of Commissioners support of placing the SMART millage on the November ballot," Ferrell said. "It is our objective to work with the board to remedy this matter and ensure the voters of Macomb County can have their voice heard on the future of transit.”

Even if SMART and the board manage to find a solution, however, that wouldn’t resolve questions about the renewal’s ultimate fate in the county, where it barely passed in 2018, by 39 votes out of almost 155,000 cast.

Given the situation and the fact that Macomb County voters so narrowly approved the ballot proposal the last time, Forlini said communities need to find a way to create a funding mechanism, a stopgap, in case the measure doesn't get on a countywide ballot or fails if it does.

Regardless of the outcome in Macomb County, the stakes are significant for SMART and those who rely on public transportation in metro Detroit.

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Macomb County is the only county in metro Detroit that is “all in” on the SMART millage, and the recent split board vote highlights the challenges facing SMART in a region where the very concept of public transportation has become controversial, perhaps more so than in any other comparable metropolitan area in the country.

SMART provides bus and transportation services in communities in Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties and operates the limited stop, express FAST buses seen on Woodward, Gratiot and Michigan avenues that travel into and out of the heart of Detroit. The Detroit Department of Transportation provides transportation services in the city of Detroit.

Allowing communities to opt out of SMART, as happens in Oakland and Wayne counties, is seen by transit advocates as one of the major deficiencies in Detroit area public transportation. But that’s exactly what some members of the board and some transit skeptics have been proposing for Macomb. It’s also not clear how quickly the mechanisms could be established to allow individual Macomb County communities to decide whether they are in or out of the system.

The ballot language that commissioners were weighing last week said the SMART millage in Macomb County would raise more than $31.5 million in the first year. A potential loss of that revenue — and the riders and communities involved — would have consequences beyond the county’s borders, even if, as SMART officials have said, most of the money raised in specific jurisdictions is returned in service to those jurisdictions.

The board of commissioners could revisit the issue.

For the board to reconsider it, Schapka said, one of the prevailing voting members — in this case, one of the commissioners who voted against the millage renewal resolution — would have to make a motion for reconsideration.

Or, he said, a two-thirds majority of the board can vote to suspend the rules; then anyone could bring a motion to be considered. That would have to be nine of the 13 board members.

"It's an unusual situation," Schapka said.

Brown, the board chair, who has been a commissioner for northern Macomb communities for 32 years, doesn't see either scenario happening.

He said the five commissioners who voted no — Joseph Romano, Don VanSyckel, Jeff Farrington, Phil Kraft and Joe Sabatini — are all "pretty much adamant" about how they voted. All five are Republicans and represent communities in central and northern Macomb.

If no solution is found, Brown said, SMART service stops at the end of the year in Macomb County.

He said that would also affect organizations that partner with SMART, such as STAR Transportation in Romeo and Bruce and Washington townships and a connector service in the Richmond and Lenox Township area.

Brown, a Republican, and five other commissioners — Democrats Harold Haugh, Veronica Klinefelt, Julie Matuzak and Michelle Nard and Republican Barbara Zinner — voted to put the renewal language on the ballot for voters to decide.

Ferrell, the SMART general manager, has promised improvements to what SMART currently provides as well as an expansion of the SMART Flex on-demand transit service across the county. However, Brown said, many people are concerned that they are paying for SMART and not getting any services out of it.

Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter: @_ericdlawrence. Contact Christina Hall: chall@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter: @challreporter. Become a subscriber.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Macomb County clerk: Vote to put SMART millage on ballot failed