Matthew K. McClure
knows more gets done with a
strong public mandate
and the way you earn that support is through
trust and transparency and being more connected
MATT HOPES THAT YOU WILL HELP HOLD LEADERSHIP TO THE SAME HIGH STANDARD OF DISCLOSURE THAT HE DOES AND BELIEVES COMMUNITY AGENDAS SHOULD BE INSPIRED BY THE COMMUNITY THEY SERVE.
MATT ASKS FOR -YOU- TO PARTICIPATION MORE IN THE GOVERNING PROCESS AND HE HAS THE PLAN TO MAKE THAT POSSIBLE. WHEN GOVERNMENT IS MORE CONNECTED, "TRANSPARENCY" BECOMES AN ISSUE OF THE PAST
WHEN AND WHY GOVERNMENT?
TRUE PUBLIC SERVICE IS ABOUT BEING
A RESOURCE NOT A HINDRANCE and
GOOD GOVERNANCE IS ABOUT BRINGING TOGETHER THE BEST IDEAS AND EXECUTION
Who wants to think about how the government handles things in their lives everyday? When it's done right it shouldn't be ongoing concern. This is why you have others do these things that don't relate to your daily lives or important goals. - that's the point of government in the first place "eliminating the drag" on what you are trying to get done and Matt gets this. The key is having access to the best resources and traditions that enrich your lives while helping take care of business when you need it.
Your elected officials should be facilitators that make the resources you need easy to find, easy to navigate, and fast. The day you seek out the community resources is the day you are in right in middle of what you need to get done . . . and done fast. If your resources are the real drag on your life, you need to decide exactly why that is - because it doesn't need to be.
We've all witnessed, a decline of critical thought in the current state of politics - everyone is peddling a message. We watch while important policy that used to hold weight not hold water anymore and as snappy as Matt can be with words, has not been reduced to "Three-word bumper sticker" policy or cheer-leading. Matt has no problem with transparency, being straight with the public, to speak the hard truth, share the credit, or work hard on other's great ideas as just second fiddle. Matt doesn't care if he can see the ball move, in fact Matt rather enjoys witnessing other people's success. Matt isn't interested in who did it, but rather how much we got done together, but Matt's policies have meat on the bone too.
Matt happens to like ideas and has a very out of the box way of thinking that helps him see how to take the worst problems and making them our greatest triumphs. Your officials need to get back to real policy and real policy planks don't become a reality by selling them on a T-Shirt. The winning "team" is the "people" wearing them.
What Matt has witnessed in meeting after meeting is "The way it is has always been done," and a tone deaf mentality that isn't a window into how things get done for us at all, but rather a lot of closed meetings and a shell game in the structure of the agendas to attempt to "look interested" in public sentiment and not getting things done in the end - not really it just looks and sounds done.
This shell game of trying to "looking transparent" is not the way to better listen to long-established non-elected leadership groups that more closely represent the people on the the ground-level that bring their own funding to the table and have earned their keep with in the community with long-term history of acquiring funding and keeping in good standing with their promises to the groups funding them election cycle after election cycle. It takes the citizens to maintain that long-arc policy year after year.
Part of being this "resource to the people" is finding the existing "resources within the people" and that means setting down the gavel, opening back up Town Hall doors and taking the show on the Road.
Effective governance should have the political discipline to make the real commitment to "long arc" policy beyond their own political cycle instead of the election year splash back to square one from the recycling bin. Matt knows "votes" do not get things done. If you have to fight to get elected to keep a project alive you have not been including the people in the process. When you learn to default towards a citizen's inspired agenda, election year antics and changes on the board aren't the dead-end road ending at the policy Junkyard.
Matt has the discipline and confidence to design progress or the sake of progress made towards long-term programs and policies that can survive the test of time and become real foundational change and stability based on what is right with the community and it's people. Matt has an extremely ambitious view of What 72,000 people are capable of when leadership takes steps to act as "resource and facilitators" to draw out the talent we need right here. Matt has seen it happen right here before in his youth. Matt knows this comes from working together and that has nothing to do with building taxbase or allocating your hard-earned tax dollars to things you really can't quite connect with and though very promising . . . never seems to quite stick after election year.
Matt does want you vote - but it has little to do with his ambitious view of what we are capable when we work together right here "in the Heart of Oakland" he knows to help get great big things done, you have to have real skin in the game and that means the public mandate first ...your "support." first. Matt believes that if you are involved in the process and if you have a real voice that the votes will come by simple governing - not campaigning.
That means better connectivity and a better way of managing ideas and information. That means constructing a new army of public resources, student leadership, business leaders, citizens advocate groups and non-profits that a closely tied to the voice of the people to implement that outreach, that don't cost money but rather are brought to the table by designing in equity of pride in a more socially connected, and actualized people.
When you build PRIDE in community a lot more gets done without delving into the the town coffers with ideas that loot the taxpayer. When you have 72,000 citizens, Pride is worth its weight in gold.
. . .The Difference
WHAT MAKES A WELL-ROUNDED BOARD?
Seven people, with the same skill sets, and ideology on to the same Board makes for Members that are redundant upon themselves and a waste of a seats that were meant for diversified perspectives and garners the fewest ideas and innovation - but this is exactly what happens every year to local boards
Question: Would you field eleven quarterbacks in a football game for the same play?
...It doesn't make sense much sense does it but we do it at the voting booths all the time.
There is no question Matt is a quarterback, He's led his entire life. But he's a front-line grinder too and that's one of a great many differences - Matt loves the work and he doesn't give up.
There's a whole lot more that goes into moving the ball than just a big play and Matt knows it take a whole team and that means you too. Matt has a long term, strategic game plan, unlike anything Waterford has ever seen before and though he can throw that long ball, he's not running on "election year Hail Mary's" He's got serious ground game and he happens to think you should be on the field too ..that's the difference.
WATERFORD'S GENERAL ELECTION
NOVEMBER 3RD, 2020
-VOTE LOCAL FOR REAL CHANGE-
IT'S TIME WE ALL START BECOMING A BIGGER PART OF BETTER SOLUTIONS
- COMMUNITY IN UNISON -
WHEN COMMUNITY WORKS TOGETHER - LEADERS LEAD BETTER
When the community has skin in the game, community pride becomes our most valuable currency.
The last thing that should be your mind should be keeping tabs on Town Hall. Matt believes your public servants are there to improve your quality of life by removing the daily "behind the scenes minutia" from daily living and give you more time to get on to building a good life in a reliable environment where you and your family can thrive.
Matt knows that when leadership is genuinely connected to the community's people, it is fertile ground for economic growth, rich traditions, vital social services, and institutions that keep people secure, prosperous, healthy, and productive in the community at any age.
MATT THINKS WATERFORD SHOULD BE KNOW AS THE NEXT BIG "IT SCENE," SOCIAL CENTER AND PLACE FOR NEW PILOT PROGRAMS,
known as THE NEW PLACE TO INVEST in "THE HEART OF OAKLAND."
and as the place to be for your children to learn to become the up-and-coming leaders in "Center of Everything," Matt knows this takes real change in the way WE THINK about OURSELVES, but you need to remember this is nothing new. - it is only something we HAD and LOST, and to change the way we think about ourselves, we need to have more people with more skin in the game. We need better connectivity and attention given to non-elected leadership within the community.
Our "Community in Unison" should be recognized as the place to look for the next exciting new pilot programs "in wait" to break new innovative ground.
Matt sees a place for each and all community members with their own unique skill sets, and what each of us can bring to the table; from CRAFT to AGE OLD WISDOM to YOUTHFUL EXUBERANCE, BRAWN and EXCITEMENT. Matt wants to help inventory our assets in ways never thought of before to start to recognize our waste and assets and put together new vision from our community back together as a people.
Matt remembers when we were the machinery pumping out productivity and pride, and he wants that purpose again that seems to have been diminished over time. Matt knows this isn't just another building; it means all sorts of new structure.
-MATT SEES A WATERFORD THAT CAN BE BETTER-
BE BETTER at building young minds,
BE BETTER building community Pride
BE BETTER at inspiring a sense of duty in the community
WATERFORD SHOULD BE KNOWN FOR GROWTH - BUT FIRST TO BE KNOWN FOR STRUCTURE
Matt sees local government not as the rule of law but where we build RESOURCES and FACILITATORS for the people to LEAD THEMSELVES and lead the way to a better, more equitable place for all of us to live.
Matt sees the potential for leadership in YOU and wants to take up the task of making Waterford "The Center of Everything" again.
Waterford was the center of commerce, entertainment, outstanding public education, great lake-life, and a vibrant, growing economy.
When you where in Oakland County, Waterford was the pulse and the Heart.
THIS STARTS BY CHANGING OUR MINDS FIRST
We need to stop focusing on the loss and start planning a future; this begins with the HEART and OUR MINDS and the people right here because it takes the people to lead change like this. It's time to start building on a foundation of strong communication, strong mentorships, strong values and pride, and to build a vision of a bigger set of goals to set our sites on. That begins with strong leadership, asking the people to lead themselves to the answers.
WATERFORD'S LARGEST ASSET IS YOU - WATERFORD NEEDS YOU TO START ACTING LIKE IT.
Leading is about ideas and the means to implement them.
People don't get in the way of ideas or getting things done.
Matt knows you get what you need to get done every day without government.
When a town has as large the population we do, getting things done shouldn't be the problem. The problem is that leaders need to learn how to get all hands on deck - and that is precisely what Matt knows how to do.
Organizing the community to work in unison is job one, which means building the strong public mandate it takes to push the big rock together.
Matt knows he has skin in the game and knows that when you have skin in the game too, we get more done. Matt Realizes that we need to do for each other and so he is promoting the "YOU do WE do" Initiative that rewards good civic behavior in Adults and our children, and that isn't just acknowledgments in the public forum ...that means dollars and "sense" too. Matt knows what Waterford needs is a new voice, and Matt knows
it's not his...
...it's yours.
WATERFORD NEEDS TO CRAFT BETTER WAYS OF LISTENING
AND THAT'S WHAT HE MEANS TO SET OUT TO DO
Matt has that new vision of just how to open up the process, and he wants to take the "Doors off Town Hall," and that means "Taking the show on the road." The result is a new era of "Community Inspired Agendas" in observation of what the community demonstrates to leadership as their desire and new direction and "Community in Unison" for a NEW WATERFORD and with this new direction of a more connected community comes new focus and
A NEW MASTER PLAN.
MORE COMMUNITY OUTREACH
- It means taking a more aggressive approach to seeking out already funded resources already active within the community
- it means creating more non-elected leadership within the community ready to take on tasks broken out into manageable pieces
-it means building trust in citizens already active and leading the community to run more workshops that better seek connectivity to the public.
- It means leaders have a subculture of task managers that are common threads between elections cycles that ensure long-term projects don't lose steam because board seats change.
-it means charging the community to learn to eliminate waste and take an approach to learn to do more "Non-Traditional Inventories" and learning more creative ways to recognize what talent or an asset looks like.
- It means creating bridges between siloed leadership boards to eliminate egos, redundancies, and wasted time creating individual goals not coordinated in an overall unified master plan for overall foundational long term success.
-It means letting go of the reigns and helping a community learn to lead itself, and that takes learning to become better RESOURCES, FACILITATORS, and MENTORS to the community instead of just budgeting legislators.
Matthew K. McClure believes there is something VERY DIFFERENT between running for FEDERAL GOVERNMENT and running for LOCAL OFFICE and that is the real ability to really change the quality of people's everyday daily lives, the culture, local activities and traditions, memories, their children's future, the health of your family unit. When you run local, you have the great honor of being closer to the people that you represent and that you can lose touch with if you continue further along in politics. Matt doesn't think that is "further along." ...it's just "further."
MATT SHOWS UP BECAUSE HE HAPPENS TO LIKE THIS TOWN
When it's local government, it isn't all about laying down the law. Your local government should know you. They should know what it means to be a citizen and being part of the community by showing up too. When you witness your constituents' lives, you can say you that understand the daily needs, and it that you have the tools to know how to enhance their lives - not how to get in the way. A good public servant knows their lane and knows to get over if someone needs to pass on government. Some people have better things to do than keep tabs on their local government.
Matt knows many in our community count on the social services he has studied for many years, and this is right in his wheelhouse. Matt has been preparing, studying, listening for decades about just these sorts of issues, and he is ready to move on real improvements.
Matt knows how to bring people together to get important things done for their community. He has made it his business to seek out and isolate the real issues that would typically distract from your daily life and your ability to pursue your happiness, livelihood for your family. Matt knows that local government should be a resource to get things OFF your plate and get ON with living. The board should be there to facilitate services and take care of things that generally retract from your time.
It's time for Waterford to better compete with surrounding communities that have moved on from "The way it has always been done" decades ago and that are now building quality DESTINATION COMMERCE with new enriched CENTRAL IDENTITY, with more SOCIAL OPPORTUNITIES. They present more -and- better jobs, more robust school recruitment, and more enriched CENTRAL CULTURAL FOCUS.
It doesn't get done by working harder (hard work hasn't paid off) We have only just made the problem bigger with more of the same URBAN SPRAWL. Waterford needs to work smarter, Take notes, learn lessons, and buckle down and take more significant risks with more ambitious planning. The smart way to do that is by hearing more ideas, and we have plenty of intelligent people right here sitting on the bench.
Waterford lost so much with the loss of its commerce and cultural center in "The Mall," and Waterford finds itself now purging population, the average mean income, pride, central identity, and culture from its core.
Waterford is clearly in what Matt likes to call it's "second Adolescence," and we as citizens together need to decide what Waterford is going to be again when it grows back up again. Though we have lost much for many years, Matt sees real opportunity in the place we are right now. We get to start brand new and fresh from scratch and pick from the very best new innovative ideas.
We can decide to do it "The way it's always been done" for "more of the same," or we learn to become more innovative, different, defined, leaner-meaner, more self-sufficient, economically nimble, and culturally limber.
IT'S WATERFORD'S TURN
to become
"The Heart of Oakland"
(The Center of Everything)
Culturally, one might say we are a blank canvas. We have been reduced to being called "Watertucky" and defined as a "Bedroom Community" of 72,000 people.
(Right around the 10th largest municipality by population density in Michigan)
This all might sound a little disappointing to many, but Matt sees opportunity in it. There is a great capacity to think very freely and narrow-in to what the public thinks we should now start to project outward again. We are starting with a fresh canvas and, in that, is an excellent opportunity to rebrand a failed brand image. It's time to buckle-down, bite the bullet, and hash out this NEW DIRECTION with THE PUBLIC because a big rock takes a lot of people pushing in the SAME DIRECTION to get rolling again.
This is a unique time, in a historical cycle, of the economy that requires creative cost-saving initiatives, and that means team building. Matt has leveraged the people his entire life, and it is what he does best. Matt is a recruiter and fund-raiser for non-Profit; he is a professional Branding Agent and has been a non-elected leader in the community his entire life.
Matt brings the community together to push big boulders with bolder thinking and the ability to Inspire minds to see the real potential in things, ideas, and in the assets in people.
Matt believes that you should have higher expectations of leadership and especially right now, due to the unique cycle Waterford is within that other towns had been through before. It's Waterford's Turn, the trending cycle says so. Matt sees what is different about the times we are in and knows there are windows of opportunity. It's time we start discussing these things together as a community because it's only a blank slate for a moment, and what we paint is set in stone.
Matt sees now more than ever, that leadership should be consciously reaching out to create structures and LONG TERM PLANNING FOR LONG TERM PROSPERITY It's time to start thinking in longer-arc policy to build foundational structures that move us past this lull we have been suffering for decades.
It's the time for Waterford to be making serious moves, and your decision in 2020 will have very long-lasting effects on the direction we chose. There is little land left in Waterford to develop, and these last few big decisions will have a lasting impact. We need to practice "LAND REVERENCE" and "ZONING DISCIPLINE" before we end up with only urban sprawl, lackluster retail, few venues for entertainment, and scattered continuity. Bad decisions right now will lock us into the same slow spiral we have been in for years.
WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH ME? AND WHAT AM I TO DO?
Matt is asking for new connectivity between citizens and leadership and between separated leadership groups as well. Matt is ready to be a LEADER that promotes the idea that the people can lead themselves when your officials decide that they will become a better RESOURCE for the community to reach out and create these structures outside of Town Hall.
As a PUBLIC SERVANT and RESOURCE, in a local office, Matt will work with non-elected local leadership groups and trusted non-profit funded resources, just as he does in the community now. Matt is not interested in just filling up a seat that a more active leader can fill he intends to work.
Matt is a grinder that sets his sights on goals and gets there, and that is an example that takes work to keep up with. Sitting next to Matt is consequential because you'll get left behind. Matt makes people around him work harder by example. It's an example of work-ethic, generosity, moral compass, and when people lead by their foundational beliefs for the good of people, it tends to elevate everyone.
It's hard to measure Matt's excitement once he catches a rhythm and momentum. It's even harder when he has gotten others in motion as well
MATT LOVES TO SEE PEOPLE SUCCEED.
This is why the idea of a "local office" in his own town is not a stepping stone but the entire plan. Matt loves Waterford and has lived a very fulfilled life right here and wants the same for your family too. He wants to affect his own home town and the people he knows and loves right here - He has no plans of running for a higher office at this time because he sees great growth potential right here. Matt has already presented very ambitious concepts for growth and better structures in Waterford that bring together our "Community in Unison." So for him, that means there is plenty to do, right here - right now.
Matt likes the ideas of a local office because he's not beholden to larger systems at play like big government, and that to him is real freedom to do as the town needs us to do. There is an opportunity to get impactful things done that significantly affect people on a fundamental and personal level.
Matt has experienced things that make or break families first hand, even with his personal friends and people he knows right here in town. Some couples just getting started, some single-parent families dealing with wit divorce and FOC, people on fixed incomes, families shaken by addiction and disease, those living in poverty, and some people suffering great tragedy or loss.
Matt had seen the recession and has been here long enough to see what we had lost when we lost "the Mall" and our Auto Plants as our central cultural identity, traditions, main economic drivers, main tax base, and memories.
Matt has been keeping a very detailed log and inventory of all of this for decades and quietly studying the pitfalls, failed planning concepts, the lackluster branding, and why many other communities have passed us by. Matt won't make the same mistakes of attempting to "replicating" outdated ideas but rather has built ideas of what long-term foundational "recovery" should be. Matt has been planning a completely new outlook on what a new -better- MASTER PLAN should look like.
Matt believes we can get a lot of the Mall "cultural fame" back. His extensive studies of trends and decline in Brick and Mortar Retail have made many of the flaws in thinking very clear, and he has been able to trace back to the real-time in failure where the issues should have been addressed and reproject forward a different path that can work.
Matt has some very new ideas, far more innovative, and ambitious, for very forward-thinking "Leapfrog" of our regional competition's "temporary solutions" that currently beat our lackluster idea of what a "Cultural Center" looks like.
He has constructed long-term ideas for new foundationally sound ways of capturing much of the same sense and luster again, over time, through the community's help, grant funding, and outside investment. This is led by a rallying cry to non-elected leadership groups to pilot our way back towards the sense of purpose we had lost and broken down into many pieces, to be worked on one at a time, in multiple phases, so no goal is too big at any given time to fail.
Matt wants your help to get the big rock rolling again, which takes more than just your vote. It takes your courage, pride, ideas, and will to help Matt build a mandate and support to decide to do great big things together.
Matt has lived right here for most of his 48 years, and people he knows and loves are all right here in our community too. He is perfectly confident that he knows the people well enough to know that we can get back what we used to love and lost by moving forward. Matt sees the path to do this in an economically viable, foundationally sound manner, and that most of all makes sense right now in the middle of all, we are dealing with financially.
Matt believes it'd be a point of personal pride to connect and serve, and in that prerogative, he thinks that gives furlough to ask for a little bit of sweat equity from you as well and from his own experience of being asked and his own initial resistance, that you might find real value for yourself in it - once he got started in public service, there was no stopping him.
Matt has the breakdown to make this a lot easier to participate in a lot of creative ways, and on different levels of commitment of time, you should be able to find ways to help that suit you - it's not one size fits all.
Matt's campaign is very much like this too, and he realizes we live busy lives on set schedules, and though you may want to get involved, that might take a little bit of time to make the adjustments to do so. So just like his Campaign, Matt sees ways you can "chip in and out."
and "back in again - when you can,"
But most of all, Matt hopes to at least hear your voice for your two cents. He wants to hear your convictions, passion, and to be invited into your world for a bit. That is the needed fuel for the fire for progress.
There's a vast difference between the Federal Government and Local Politics (when everyone lets there be.) And if the people are allowed, any single person can have a real effect in a community of our size - Matt knows this. He has been this in the community as non-elected leadership himself.
What can this look and sound like?
IT'S SHOWING UP IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER
what that means is a lot of different things for different people with varying time availability, and we know that. What we are asking for is many different levels of participation for different people. It could be as simple as filling out a survey.
What we hope, at a minimum, is at least one connection. MATT KNOWS HIS PART OF THE DEAL, IS NOT TO WASTE YOUR TIME as ineffective leadership often does by not having the structures in play to optimize your efforts.
IT'S JUST SHOWING UP
And Matt's promise to you is that in-trade, there will be new systems in play capable of demonstrating to you, fair equity in the personal pride you receive for your time. Matt understands that in the past, you may have felt like you had been "Fighting City Hall," and you hadn't felt like they had a feeling of reverence for your presence.
...THAT IS GOING TO CHANGE
You are going to see the effects of your involvement in your community and feel a new sense of pride in your own leadership - this is the new contract between you and your new elected leaders.
And in that is ...The Difference.
When you can use your voice, and it can be heard - there is a "trust compact" stuck between real public servants and the public. And though, not every idea is the best idea or going to get used. We create ideas that do get used together. We can all be proud that each piece of input leads to the final result.
The "trust" factor is in the fact, you've been heard, your ideas have been weighed, and that there is a real compact leading to the best solutions. Not every agenda piece should be based on all public mandate, but many agenda "items" discussed should be.
To earn a public mandate, a faithful public servant has to listen and evaluate the public's needs as a whole. Matt believes there is an expectation that he should work hard to hear from you, and in that, he expects that you will work a little harder to lead as well if he does.
Getting things done shouldn't look "tricky" because the "magic" is concealed from the crowd. There is no crowd here when everyone is involved in critical stages in decision making - we are all on stage together and performing our best.
When a community has pride, their public mandate is worth its weight in gold, and what better counterweight for the real heavy lifting can we have than a community as a whole behind strong leadership that listens to a strong policy built on its real foundation ...its people.
With Matt's new concept of "Community in Unison" Initiative, our goal is to promote longer-arc larger-scale initiatives while still being in observation of the little details as well for the most vulnerable among us. What matt intends to set in motion can lift up even those with the least voice and help them become productive leaders too in the community. With access to the right resources, people can become empowered by their own abilities and gain the confidence to fulfill their potential just like Waterford can.
Learn more about "Community in unison" by getting in touch with our team today.
- JOINT LEADERSHIP -
Sometimes government and the people seem like passing ships in the night. It's time we learn to better communicate ideas as one towards simlar goals
Like most Townships, Waterford has two separate funded leadership board's the Township Municipal Board and the School Board. but more than not it is assume that there should is always two different sets of goals and not only are they not working transparently - they are not working in observation of each other. it's time we get on the same page.
Waterford leadership are two separate elected leadership groups following two separate paths seeking different things. When Siloed Government entities are not in observation of each they are stuck in the same boat paddle different directions.
There are plenty of opportunities to do more together and maximize the talent and potential in our elected officials
"Creating Traditions Today"
Matt is known for his infectious ability to inspire people with his contagious optimism.
He believes we are capable great big things when we come together to create new ambitious ideas.
Waterford had lost something when it lost "The Mall" We lost our core identity - It's time for the people of Waterford to decide what we are going to be again. It's time we chose and start to work together to reach new potential
Matt has been a proud resident of Waterford for 44 years and earned A scholarship from Waterford Schools where he attended Jayno Adams, Mason Junior High and Waterford Mott class of 1990 earning a Merit Scholarship to Case Western Reserve (CIA)
Matt has grown up with Waterford participating in just about everything you could imagine, and watched our town grow up too.
Matt knows Waterford,
what it used to be, what we've lost and where the future is currently leading us. He has watched the leadership, the surrounding communities, and has gone to the people to learn what our citizens say we need. Matt has taken note of the growing gaps between our progress and our competition and what the people suggest what they expected to see that they haven't yet.
Matt's Platform is very expansive because many people have expressed a great number ideas, their expectations, their growing concerns and
OTHER PEOPLE'S IDEAS
is where this is supposed to start.
Matt as well has made his own observations of what has worked, what hasn't, and what he sees as the typical pitfalls in leadership structures. Matt believes he has the competency to build between leaders, a path to many solutions that work for leadership and as well the people.
Matt asks that you might take some time to look over the great many observations he has made here or contact him directly with your thoughts.
What Matt sees as job one is and what he feels the difference might be about him too, and that will be a more open setting with more accessibility to new conduits to make sure he understands if these things make sense to you too.
Matt hopes that if some of the many issues here are the everyday things you can relate to, see value in, or of common consequence to you enough, that you might comment on all the work put into gathering these ideas together. Matt hopes that you will become a member of his Facebook "forum" page so we can be more connected to everyday issues on your mind.
We hope that if you see value in the work here for others as well like, your friends and neighbors, that you might pass along the thoughts that you like to others too.
As you can see, Matt has done the work and has listen to tens of thousands of people in Waterford and has put together one of the most extensive platform for change ever assembled in Waterford history and it's what he likes to call:
"The people's Platform"
Matt thinks this is the work ethic you should come to expect of your elected officials seeking to help move our
"Community in Unison"
towards new innovative ideas that reflect a better way of governing to become a better resource for you.
It has been the honor of Matt's life to talk to all the people that have gifted him their stories and that have helped him construct these many policies over a great many years and hopes that his interpretation of how you feel will better honor your hard work, your dreams and the way you chose to live your lives.
Though these stories have not all been happy ones, Matt has still seen the strength and potential of the people right here. Waterford has been through a great deal and we have real grit and because he grew up here he understand what we have all been through here together.
These same accounts have created an all new level of pride in his community, the people, and he has come to realize the things that make us
"uniquely Waterford."
Matt hopes that he can pay back the debt he believes he owes for the fortunate life he has had a chance to live right here in this town.
Matt hopes that you will look at it all as just a simple guide and framework of his
"type of thinking"
and not so much the exact plan.
Matt rather hopes that we might build that new better plan together and that is gonna take a little time getting to know each other better and used how we communicate ideas and listen to each other
... and Matt has a plan for that.
Matt hopes that these broad brushstrokes will be an introduction to the way he thinks about our town and about our people, and that it demonstrates his ability to think critically, optimistically, with pride and reverence and hopes it will instil confidence that he is perfectly competent to help us design a new path forward together.
In time, we can start to take a closer look at the real numbers and data, and what might be possible within a realistic working model to move Waterford forward again in growth.
Matt hopes that we can work towards solutions that work best for the most people at any given time and hopes that what you see today shows he knows this town. Matt knows how to put in the work, and to demonstrate that he has been here long enough to remember our forgotten potential.
Matt knows the people of Waterford because he grew up with you and he believes he understands one thing better than most do, and that is that the people here are that potential that have been forgotten and left behind.
Matt knows that if you work hard enough at it, in a town of our size you can still hear every voice and that's what he has been working towards for over a decade now ...hearing the voice of the people.
Matt believes that a local community agendas should have much more inspiration from the people and not just default to the ideas presented and proposed a couple nights before a Town Hall meeting without real input from the people.
Matt believes agendas should include more public inspiration
-out of Town Hall-
Matt has been working on just how this works and that means taking the hinges off closed doors in Town Hall and
"taking the show on the road"
The fight for Transparency ends when the community has skin in the game and agendas are inspired by the people and Matt as well wants your help with that too.
Proud Product of Waterford Schools
Jayno Adams Rockets / Mason Mariners / Waterford Mott Corsairs class of 1990
If you've been in Waterford awhile It's likely you have probably gotten to know Matt. If you haven't you'll soon realize when you do that in the most important ways ...he's a lot like you. Matt is definitely a product of Waterford Township, our ideals, orand long-lasting Waterford Pride through and through. There isn't much that Matt hasn't fully participated with, donated to, or been a part of in Waterford for many years.
Whether it was growing up on Little Morgan Lake; fishing, boating, swimming or playing hockey, cruising M-59, working at the Mall, playing WCA baseball, Corsairs Football, heading up the Homecoming Halls, hosting the class shows, staring in the Senior Play, Marching in the Band, headed up senior leadership as President of the National Art Honor Society and A-B Honor roll Matt has done it. Matt couldn't get enough of Waterford
If you can do it in Waterford Matt was either heading it up, leading the way, or creating a better way of doing it and he still is, Matt is still just as involved today as he ever was (even moreso) Matt lived a great life in Waterford and wants the same feeling of pride when he grew up for your kids too.
Matt works works hard at anything he puts his mind to, he gives back, He was taught to give a hand up when needed, and knows better to help before being asked before. When Matt sees a problem he doesn't ask "Who is gonna fix this?" He rolls up his sleeves and gets to work.
What come to show in time with Matt is that he has a certain confidence and calm about how much he really believes in you, and thinks that together, we can sure get a lot of great things done.
Matt believes that a good leader is always building a great farm team and that means building leadership in youth. Matt is always looking for potential in others and has a plan to turn others into ground up leadership right here in the community and our schools. Matt seeks out the tiny spark in the human spirit and won't be content until we are all celebrating together great accomplishments.
meaningful change, and great accomplishments people never would have expected.
Matt had a lot of Great experiences growing up as a child of retired educators (still in love and together after 55 years) and has lived most of his 48 years doing much of what you probably did too right here - fishing swimming, boating, playing summer ball, sports in school, starred in the school play, hosted junior senior shows, Was President of the Art Society, A-B honor Roll, Marched in the Band, and headed up Homecoming Halls and was voted most talented his senior year. There isn;t a whole lot that Matt wanted to try or didn't excel at.
Matt earned a Merit Scholarship to a pretty exclusive College at in 1990 at Case Western Reserve CIA, right out of Waterford Mott and has gone on to live a good, honest, modest life in Waterford on a few different lakes here, His was taught to stand for what he believed in, that a man is his word, to give firm handshakes, to be gracious, to be chivalrous, to be a caring, generous, and to treat everyone like they were created from the same mold.
Matt is tough though too, he has been taught to stand his ground on his foundational beliefs, to expect respect in return for respect, to tell people how you expect to be treated, and that if you are honest with others and honest with yourself, that people will respect you regardless of your personal ideology.
Matt learned that when you "get," that you should always "given back" and now at 48 years old that means in the community, to Non-Profits, Donating time, dollars and coordinating events that define our culture and become traditions, like our Festival we gift to the community. Matt knows that a good cause is always worth your time because when you lift a family you lift the expectations of who we are to be. Matt helps At-Risk Youth, in cleaning/clearing the Clinton River and is involved in programs that help maintain the RiverWalk Mural Project and its surrounding land. He works with multiple fundraisers, Anti-addiction groups, Dog Breed Activists, Human rights / civil rights activism, and many more people and projects in the community and he is only designing more ways to work with you.
Matt had it pretty good in Waterford - he's not Richy-Rich be he has live a very rich life of love, family, community, social enrichment, and made thousands of great friends over the years - He wouldn't trade for anything in the world. So in Matt's mind, It's time to repay the debt he owns to the town he loves and he believes that means his time and service. If by chance you haven't met Matt ...you probably will. And when you do you might think that you already know him ...and that's not by mistake, he is trying to know you ...He knows this town like the back of your left hand.
"CREATING TRADITIONS TODAY"
Matt brings community together in common cause every year by gathering any local non-profit that wants to participate to raise raise money for their cause for this
FREE TWO-DAY ALL AGES GIFT TO THE COMMUNITY ALONG THE CLINTON RIVER
Birds of Prey performing their original "Drinkin' and smokin" Sunday August 24th 2019
(one of 67 scheduled performances over 2 days) at the 6th annual
-Free/All Ages- 2-Day
"Dare to inspire RiverWalk Fest" in Waterford
RIVER * WALK * ART * RACE * TASTE * RIDE * SOUNDS
Third Weekend in August Along the Waterford RiverWalk and Clinton River
248.979.0996
Show your
PLACE OF PRIDE and COMMITMENT
"MAKE YOUR MARK ON WATERFORD TODAY"
Place a stake where your Heart will be in Waterford and where you will promise to make a new focus to make a better place here in the
"CENTER OF EVERYTHING
in the
THE HEART OF OAKLAND
"The Movement for Improvement"
starts with you and that all starts with making the decision for change and a decision to ask for more. Matt has made that commitment to Waterford and to you and that's a promise he has made to do this this together and that's ...The Difference
Matthew K. McClure for
Waterford Township Trustee
-Make your decision to make
"The Difference"
with your Mark today right here-
