Paul Smith has staged some unusual political stunts over the years, including demonstrating with shocking political signs. He’s a fiscal conservative and outspoken. He’s now turning up the volume on Sterling Heights Mayor Michael Taylor saying he’s been bombarded with loud music and called police to say the mayor did this to him intentionally.
Smith ran against Taylor in the last election a few years ago. Taylor is not combative. He says Smith is “cantankerous.”
Smith lives about a half a mile away from Dodge Park, and $30 million in park improvements that were approved by voters includes a new stage.
Smith says the mayor pointed it at him.
“He had a perfectly good bandstand tore it down and he built the new one directly aimed at the guy who ran for city council and ran against him," Smith said. "So what am I to believe?”
Smith says people are taxed too much and there’s waste in government.
“He hates me, he hates the city manager, he hates the police, he hates the firefighters," Taylor said. "And what does he do? He chooses to live here. So I think Paul Smith is a great advertisement for Sterling Heights.”
But the mayor is not complaining. He says Mr. Smith made him a political success.
“The reality is I owe him a debt of gratitude," Taylor said. "I couldn’t get a second on the city council before Paul Smith showed up. And now I’m the Mayor of Sterling Heights.”
Smith is running for County Commission and has two opponents in the Primary. But this is not about that, this is about old city political battles and he won’t stop what he’s doing.
