Not a lot of Saginawians will boast that the city’s urban conditions are vastly improved in comparison to 20 years ago, but the retiring Director of Neighborhood Services is among them.
John Stemple makes no apologies as he states his case.
“Generally speaking, complaints we received in the past are being resolved, and we receive fewer of them,” says Stemple, whose successor will be a longtime teammate at City Hall, Darrin Jerome.
But the point is, Stemple’s strategy kept him away from City Hall for countless hours, many of them with leaders of 16 neighborhood associations and block clubs that do their own things to varying degrees, but who also gather monthly to build cooperation. He also is a founding leader of SCENIC (Saginaw Code Enforcement Neighborhood Improvement Cooperative), which still may be little-known, but unites agencies, police, firefighters and blight fighters in teamwork that did not exist in the past.
Some of the better known associations are Houghton-Jones, Covenant Neighborhood, Cathedral District, Heritage Square and Adams Boulevard.
A highlight SCENIC volunteer effort, now becoming long-forgotten, has virtually eliminated past outbreaks of mass arsons during annual Halloween “Devils Night” hooliganism.
“Hope in Saginaw has to come from the residents here in the city to be a part of the solutions,” Stemple insists.
Back near the turn of the millennium, HUD has placed a freeze on federally funded demolitions of abandoned properties. City staffers gradually settled matters with the feds’ Detroit office, and President Obama’s original economic recovery stimulus provided hundreds of thousands of dollars for renewed demos. Indeed, it may seem that one eyesore replaces the next, and that overgrown vacant lots aren’t much better.
So what to do? Stemple has stood for stubborn. Consider his 2020 invite to a citywide meeting, conducted during the heart of the covid epidemic with the safety precaution of gathering, with masks and distancing, outdoors at Bliss Park.
He wrote: “This meeting (is) crucial to the future of our neighborhoods. There are many serious topics that we need to discuss and goals to be established. We want citizens to know that we are here to listen to them. Everyone who attends can make a valuable contribution to their neighborhood and to the city.”
Stemple aimed for a party atmosphere, recruiting food vendors and trucks to offer a free chow down for all.
He concluded, “We, as a community, have experienced many challenges in the past six months. The meeting will allow our neighborhood groups to come together, while six-feet apart, and celebrate — not only all that we’ve done, but all that we plan to do.”
Or, consider his explanation back in 2008 when SCENIC city vehicles first appeared on the streets.
“Meetings (with neighborhood residents) were brutal in the beginning,” he wrote. “Twenty years of broken promises had to be aired, and we had to earn their trust.”
Stemple is a 1988 Freeland High School grad who achieved an SVSU bachelors degree in business and briefly launched his own home construction company. Marriage and family life persuaded him to seek a more reliable income with more regular hours, just as he will do in semi-retirement as a part-timer for his home base in Tittabawasee Township. He began modestly in Saginaw, in 1995, in block grant home repairs as a specification writer, and gradually worked his way into leadership, in a career he never would have anticipated.
In a similar fashion, Darrin Jerome began in 1997 as a plumbing and mechanical inspector. An early sign of his future was as member of the original SCENIC team. He became a chief inspector six years ago.
Jerome says, “I look forward to building on the great work our team has done, and to continue to strengthen our neighborhoods and improve the quality of life in our city.”
Saginaw is in line for a two-year federal infusion of $52 million in anti-poverty funds linked to covid-19, and the share for neighborhoods should greatly exceed even the Obama stimulus money that arrived when SCENIC was beginning. City Manager Tim Morales says he sees Jerome as best qualified to maintain the teamwork approach during a “pivotal time” to pursue long-sought improvements.
John Stemple agrees. During his farewell meeting on Aug. 23, he told the City Council that an improved housing market, combined with a renewal of support funding, could bring housing upgrades and even new construction back to Saginaw.
“I think we’re on the edge of something good happening,” he summarized.
