Become part of the movement for unbiased, accessible election information. Donate today.
Valerie Sayles Murray (Bloomfield Township Board of Trustees At-large, Michigan, candidate 2024)
From Ballotpedia
Valerie Sayles Murray (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Bloomfield Township Board of Trustees At-large in Michigan. She was on the ballot in the general election on November 5, 2024.[source]
Murray completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
[1]Biography
Valerie Sayles Murray provided the following biographical information via Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey on July 31, 2024:
- Birth date: December 15, 1959
- Birth place: Detroit, Michigan
- High school: Oak Park High
- Graduate: Michigan State University, 1981
- Gender: Female
- Religion: Non-practicing
- Profession: Advertising
- Prior offices held:
- Trustee of Bloomfield Township - currently elected (2020-Prsnt)
- Incumbent officeholder: Yes
- Campaign slogan: I don't have one
- Campaign Facebook
Elections
General election
General election for Bloomfield Township Board of Trustees At-large (4 seats)
The following candidates ran in the general election for Bloomfield Township Board of Trustees At-large on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | ||
| Oscar Garner Jr. (D) | ||
| Roman Grigoriev (D) | ||
 | Valerie Sayles Murray (D)  | |
| Mark Antakli (R) | ||
| Neal Barnett (R) | ||
| Malissa Bossardet (R) | ||
| Christopher M. Kolinski (R) | ||
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Bloomfield Township Board of Trustees At-large (4 seats)
Oscar Garner Jr., Roman Grigoriev, and Valerie Sayles Murray ran in the Democratic primary for Bloomfield Township Board of Trustees At-large on August 6, 2024.
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Bloomfield Township Board of Trustees At-large (4 seats)
Mark Antakli, Neal Barnett, Malissa Bossardet, Margo K. Cargill, and Christopher M. Kolinski ran in the Republican primary for Bloomfield Township Board of Trustees At-large on August 6, 2024.
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Election results
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Murray in this election.
Campaign themes
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Valerie Sayles Murray completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Murray's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
| Collapse all
I am a resident of Bloomfield Township since 1985. I raised my 3 sons here in this beautiful community. In 1981 I obtained a BSA In Communications/Advertising from MSU. I have worked in the Advertising field for 10 years, but then spent 20 years in Education as Technical Support Staff. I have served on the Township board since 2020, prior to that I served multiple terms on my subdivision board, including road paving chair getting our roads paved from being dirt roads. We are Adopt-a-Road volunteers since 2009 for a mile of Inkster Road. I am a volunteer gardener in our subdivision and at a community beach, plus I've been a cat & kitten foster since 2014, hosting almost 200 cats and kittens until they were healthy and big enough to secure forever homes. I ran to be a Trustee in 2020 seeing that our local government was not resident friendly, there was distain and hostility often displayed towards residents at board meetings. The Township office staff, police, fire were excellent, but the lack of transparency with spending, and trying to keep residents in the dark led me to want to improve the situation. Funds were being spent on unnecessary cars and not the essentials, causing financial strain. Bloomfield Township is a bedroom community, 94% is residential, so bringing us back into better focus for the residents was important to our future. Having served most of my 4 year term, I have enjoyed the opportunity the residents have granted me, and would like to continue.
- I want a transparent, sound, and focused financial position. This includes re-establishing a new Strategic Plan, which was allowed to expire many years ago. I feel not having a well thought out plan for proper budgeting and focus of goals for the years ahead, is what allowed the board to go astray on less important, or more personal issues. We have met with our residents, businesses, students, to learn of their issues, and what matters most to them, to help us craft a solid plan to guide us for years to come.
- I wanted a resident friendly board, which was something that we had gone far away from. With some new board members in 2020, and a new vision and temperament, we have been able to work together better as a team, for the good of the employees and the residents. It's been a great experience to see how far we have come in less than 4 years, but there is always more to do, and the world, as we experienced with Covid, is ever changing. The prior board like to say "this is how we've always done things", but we choose to take a fresh look and be willing and able to embrace change where change is needed.
- We need to never lose focus on our priority of providing the best public safety we can for our residents. Keeping a high level, skilled and constantly training and learning more staff in both Police and Fire is essential to our core. We need to constantly be searching for the best candidates when positions need to be filled, budgeting for new Firetrucks, police vehicles, safety devices and training to keep our department the best equipped to service the needs of our residents and businesses. At the end of the day, Public Safety is job 1 in running the Township, in addition to maintaining our Clerks Department to run elections properly, Building Department to keep watch over building practices, it's all part of community government.
Responsible spending, top notch public safety, and overall building staff that are highly qualified, and personable to work with the public. This is a people business, so all of our people in very department are key to making our Township successful
We are a Township, which is a good partner in state government. We provide our own police and fire departments. Our police department coordinates with other departments, and the county as well. We have police and fire partners, where we work together, and help each other when events occur, that require extra resources, and of course the county steps in when issues present that need. We host district court for local infractions, but also go up to the county level for circuit court and county issues.
There are a few local electeds that I came to know prior to running for office and inspired me to consider running myself.
No, not that I can say.
Honesty, integrity, dedication, and compassion. We need to be able to work together, to reach decisions impacting every facet of the Township organization. We need to be able to talk to others, listen to their needs and views, and then make the best, most responsible decisions for everyone.
I am willing to learn, listen and be open minded in decision making. I am able to have solid, constructive discussions with utilizing good rationale, and maintain a friendly disposition, even if disagreeing.
Acting in the best of my ability for the residents and businesses in the Township. It's important to have a good balance on the board, hear out others views, maintain respectful at all times, to reach the best decisions on all issues, for everyone. This is not something I do with any personal agenda of my own, it's all about doing what's best for the residents, businesses and staff, in a fair and balanced approach. Making sure I am always acting in the best interest of All. It is my job to do what is right in the big picture, overall for the good of the Township, it's not about me. I have no additional political aspirations, ie, I am not using this as a stepping stone or for a short term, I am in this to run again, taking what all I have learned in my first term and hit the ground running in term 2. There is definitely a learning curve, and I have learned so much, but there is always more to do, and I'm ready to do it.
That I was able to make a difference, leave some good change for the residents, staff and businesses in the Township. I want to be known as someone who cared, stood up for what is right, and kept a friendly and functional government.
The assassination of JFK, I was very young.
I worked in a women's clothing store at Northland Mall when I was in high school. I worked there for 3 years until I went off to college at MSU
Yes, the Trustees are like contract staff, we are not considered employees, as we just attend meetings as needed, 3-4 times a month or as needed. When we meet twice monthly as the board of directors, we all sit on that dias with equal power of our voice and vote, even though there are 4 Trustees, plus full time elected Supervisor, Treasurer, and Clerk.
Not necessarily, it's not required. However, the more involved you are in your local subdivision, Township, volunteerism, whatever levels of involvement you have, certainly makes you a better resource for this position.
Knowledge of the community, budgeting, business experience, school district experience, a positive speaking presence or willing to speak up and contribute. All of these are helpful, but no one person has to, or can know it all. That is why it's good to have a group of 7 individuals who shouldn't all be a carbon copy of one another. Diversity is important in all aspects.
GMAR, Fems for Democracy, and I have applied to the Sierra Club, Planned Parenthood, and some others but they have not responded as yet.
Both extremely important. The previous board was more secretive, and in my opinion, and many others, not utilizing the budget for the betterment of all, there were a few too many perks being handed out, and when you can't pay your retiree/pension payments to the vested level needed, then you need to look at that spending on non-essentials and make some changes. I feel we have made many improvements to our visibility and our responsible governing.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
|
Candidate Bloomfield Township Board of Trustees At-large |
Footnotes
