CITY OF PORT HURON CHARTER COMMISSION MEETING OF MARCH 9, 2010

The Port Huron Charter Commission has been working for over a year to re-write a charter that was drafted sometime in the 1960s. They have worked diligently, on the second and forth Tuesdays of the month at 7 p.m., to put together a modern document that will carry the city into the future.

The Commission sits and digs through thick ring binders, sequestered in room 408 of the Municipal Office center. They have drafted a document that they hope the citizens of Port Huron will approve of. As they enter into this final phase of their work, they spend their two hour meeting tearing apart the language or how it is written in detail. It's one thing to put some ideas on paper concerning the way the city will be governed in the future, but it's a whole other world now in getting the language just right for it to be handed over to the Attorney General of Michigan, and the Governor too, for approval. Before this document can go before the voters of Port Huron, it must be approved at the state level.

During the course of the meeting, Chairperson Laurie Sample-Wynn leads the group through various discussions on whether they think this wording will make sense to the people. Will it be approved by the Attorney General if it is worded that way? City Clerk, Sue Child, and John Livesay (the attorney hired by the group to walk them through the legal aspect of this) banter back and forth, discussing whether certain parts of a section should be there or would it fit better into another section. Ms. Child asks the Commission at various times throughout the meeting if they would like to change something, or would they allow her to make sure the way something is worded is consistent throughout the document. Ms. Child and Mr. Livesay have spent many hours drafting the document and double checking things to be sure they are legal and correct so when they present it to the commission, they have it ready for discussion.

On this night, Chairperson Sample-Wynn is short two commissioners with the absence of Commissioner Karl Tomion and Commissioner Greg Stremers. Present are Commissioners Karen Jamison, Melinda Johnson, Mark Neal, Pat Parcell and Jeff Wine.

One of the big issues has been the wording for the ballot concerning the two choices voters will have. The Commission has left it up to the voters as to whether they want the City Council to be elected at-large or by Districts. The Commission has devised the hybrid district system by which 3 council members will be elected from 3 districts, 3 will be elected at-large and the mayor will be elected separately at-large.

Discussion centered on specific wording such as the changing of boundaries of the districts after each census if needed, and not allowing the amount of districts to be changed.

One such sentence stated that "districts shall provide for equal representation as required by law". Another was "the number of districts shall not be changed accept by amendment to the charter". The city council can re-define district boundaries.

The Commission thought that there should be something like a "savings clause" in the charter. Those who negotiate contracts, like Commissioner Parcell, said that a savings clause helps if something is wrong with one part of the contract so that the entire thing is not lost. Of course, even though the Charter is something like a contract, it is also the city's constitution and the wording will be more in line with what would appear in a charter.

The Commission has worked hard to take a lot of the things that were in one paragraph and separate them out into separate paragraphs to make it easier to understand.

One question that came up concerned citizenship and taking an oath of office. Can someone take an oath of office if they are not a U.S. Citizen? The Commission has written into the Charter that people must be citizens to be in office.

Consistency is important. Using words like may and shall do make a big difference in how a sentence is interpreted. Shall means it has to happen. May means it can happen if they want it to.

Vacancies on council will have to be spelled out if the hybrid system is voted in. Appointing from the at-large are is easy enough, but it needs to be spelled out clearly that if a vacancy happens in a district, that vacancy must be filled by someone from that district.

In Chapter 5 it specifies that the city council shall appoint the city manager. Chairperson Sample-Wynn wanted to figure out if the city council should appoint the attorney. Nowhere in the Powers of the City Council does it specify whether the council can appoint an attorney and this sort of thing has come up in the past. It also doesn't talk about appointing a city manager either, although that is handled in Chapter 5.

Commissioner Jamison felt that it would not be appropriate for the council to appoint an attorney because it then steps into that area that could be considered micromanaging the city manager and the group had already agreed in the beginning that they wanted to stick with the strong city manager system. After much discussion is was agreed that the council still retained the right to hire their own attorney if they felt they needed to.

A lot of work was accomplished during the meeting, and while there is still more to do, the light is at the end of the tunnel. The Commission will be holding a public hearing on April 5th at 7 p.m. in the Public Meeting Room of the MOC building. They are very excited about what they have accomplished at this time and would appreciate everyone attending that meeting to hear what they have done so far and for the citizens to comment and share their thoughts on what might need changing and what is good.

The next meeting of the Charter Commission will be held on March 23, 2010 at 7 p.m. in room 408 of the Municipal Office Center in downtown Port Huron. It is open to the public and there is a public audience for people to share their thoughts. The Charter Commission has it's own link on the city website which is http://www.porthuron.org/content.aspx?Pageid=43 Check out the tentatively approved language on this site to learn where the Charter stands at this time.

    Add a Comment