Saline City Council Election 2021: Dell'Orco In, Filing Deadline Nears

The filing deadline for prospective candidates in the November 2021 Saline City Council election is 4 p.m., Tuesday, July 20. Voters will elect three members to council during the election, held during the general election.

So far, incumbent Jim Dell'Orco is the only candidate who has submitted his nominating petition and had it verified by Saline City Clerk Terri Royal.

According to Royal, incumbents Kevin Camero-Sulak and Jack Ceo also have nominating petitions. Both have been circulating their petition. Brian Cassise, who has twice run for council, has also pulled a petition.

Dell'Orco was first elected in 2019 and took office in January of 2020. He said he thinks he's made valuable contributions to the city and wants to continue that work.

"During my first term elected to Saline City Council, I’ve been given the opportunity to serve in a broad capacity. As such, I’ve been able to make substantive contributions to moving our city forward. It is for these reasons that I will be seeking a second term endeavoring to continue the work I’ve only just begun to tackle," Dell'Orco said when reached Wednesday.

Dell'Orco said he's gained a deeper understand of the issues facing the city while working on the Risk Mitigation Working Group.

"It is here that I was able to cultivate an intimate knowledge of the relationships between middle management and staff whereby I developed a deeper understanding and appreciation for men and women at all layers of the organization. This work enabled me to facilitate the flow of important information from the bottom to the top," Dell'Orco said. 

Dell'Orco also serves on the Code Review Task Force. Recently, the city adopted new medical marijuana ordinances that were largely drafted by the task force.  Now the task force is drafting a "responsible contractors' ordinance."

"This will invariably help us recruit and retain higher quality contractors that place a broader emphasis on training and better wages for their employees. The likely outcome here will be less stalled projects and more responsible growth overall," Dell'Orco said.

He also serves on the hiring committee that's seeking a wastewater treatment plant superintendent for the city.

"I’ve been charged with the critical task of helping to identify the best way forward as we seek to rebuild our city’s aging infrastructure. Getting these decisions right will provide a better quality of life for our residents for several decades to come," Dell'Orco said.

Dell'Orco and his wife, Nichole, live on Henry Street with their two daughters. He is employed as a research scientist at the University of Michigan Medical School's Diabetes Research Center.

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