Brighton City Council Member Will Not Seek Re-election

Claudia Roblee, 6-year Brighton city council member announced that she will not run for reelection. Roblee was appointed to fill the seat of Cathy Jones in February of 2007. 

She then ran and won the seat in November of 2007 and again in 2011. 

When asked why she is not running again Roblee answered, “I have many new opportunities in my personal life that I want to develop and need the time to be able to do so.I have learned a tremendous amount from my time of service and am grateful that I was able to have the opportunity to work for the taxpayers of Brighton.

"I also believe that the same people on Council or any level of government year after year often leads to stale thinking.  No matter how satisfying my experience has been, making room for new blood (thinking) is essential.”

Some of Roblee’s achievements include spearheading the drive to institute the 4 point economic development approach of the Michigan Main Street Program.   With help from the Economic Development office of the city the philosophy of that program has been implemented and is being used successfully within the Downtown Business District. 

She also brought forward the Michigan Municipal Leagues Center for 21st Century Community Program. Council is using that program as a check to ascertain that the 8 assets identified in that program are being nurtured and developed within the city. 

Roblee helped pave the way for a Volunteer Committee for the care of the Imagination Station. 

Roblee also stated, “I am proud of the fact that I sat on a Council that in 2008 was looking at some pretty devastating projections and have been able to go from a projected deficit for 2013-14 of close to $8 million dollars to a projected surplus of close to $140 thousand dollars. 

According to Roblee though her biggest achievement was “Envision Brighton”.  

Roblee has previous facilitation experience, and was able to create along with 3 other committee members a visioning session to find out what those who consider downtown Brighton their downtown saw as the future for the downtown. 

The vision that was produced was then presented by Roblee to the Boards and Commissions of the city.  Some of the pieces of the vision have already happened and many are in the works as future projects.  Roblee and Lauri French, a Community Development department employee just presented why, how and what they did at the Building Michigan Communities Conference in Lansing on April 28th. 

 “The future looks good for Brighton”, Roblee stated.  “There will have to continue to be some readjustments to how the city operates and what it does for its taxpayers because of the drop in property tax values.  I am thankful Brighton was not hit as hard by the drop as other communities but nonetheless we are still dealing with less revenue.   

I believe that as long as the city keeps in place the processes and boards that exist for economic development we will be fine.  Those processes and boards are in my opinion what has kept the city strong and are the means for continued growth.”

Asked if she felt there was anything left unfinished for her tenure as a council member, Roblee responded, “Yes, I want to do a visioning session for our residential community similar to what I did with Envision Brighton for our downtown community. 

"I want to personally hear what they see and want as a future for our community as a whole and for their neighborhoods.  We should be asking our residents what their vision of the future is for our community and and work together to achieve that. Brighton’s motto is “Where Quality is a Way of Life.” I want to hear what that means to our residents.”

Roblee stated that she intends to be active in the community. “It’s in my blood to be service orientated.”

Information provided in press release.