PORT HURON CITY CHARTER COMMISSION 2ND MEETING

The Port Huron City Charter Commission met for the second time on March 24, 2009 at 7:00 p.m. in room 408 of the Municipal Office Center, 100 McMorran Blvd.

The roll call was taken. Absent were Commissioner B. Mark Neal and Commissioner Karl Tomion. The previous meeting minutes were approved and filed. It was announced that City Clerk Sue Child would be posting the meeting minutes on the Charter Commissions website.

At that time the group asked for comments from the audience. There were 6 people in attendance at the meeting. Ken Harris of Port Huron suggested that to generate interest the commission could announce in the media exactly what they were going to talk about. He felt that people like controversy and if they know a particular part of the Charter is being discussed that has been at issue in the past, people will show up to give their point of view.

Ralph Polovich of Port Huron addressed the Commission in regards to the city manager/mayor style government. He stated that he was disturbed that there are those people who would want to do away with the city manager style in favor of a strong Mayor run city. His preference would be for a city manager form government because this way they would know a professional was running the city. He feels that a Mayor style government would not provide the leadership needed and could lead to cronyism.

Jan from Port Huron wanted to talk about the hot dog vendor issue but was told that was not a city charter topic and should be addressed to the city council at their next meeting because it is an ordinance.

Chair Commissioner Repp thanked those that had stepped up to speak for sharing their comments and again encouraged more people to come forward. The commission would like people to come forward now to give their opinions. This will help them consider issues as they come to them in the charter.

At this point the city attorney, John Livesay, spoke on the differences between the city charter and ordinances. He stated that it was somewhat complicated, but mostly the Charter is a document that sets the role of government in our city, a constitution if you will. Ordinances set rules such as zoning. Mr. Livesay explained it in short but this publication would like to provide the definition as is written in the Wikipedia online encyclopedia.

Under the Home Rule City Act, a city can amend its city charter by a vote of the electors residing within the city. An amendment can be proposed either by the governing body of the city, typically called the city council, or by an initiative petition signed by a certain number of registered voters. A revision of a city charter is a more comprehensive process which replaces the existing charter with a new one. The decision to revise a city charter must be approved by the voters of the city and can be proposed by the city council or by an initiative petition. A special commission is elected to conduct the work of writing a new charter and submitting it to the voters for approval. The commission is not bound to keep any provisions of the current city charter. Most commonly, city charters are revised in Michigan to change the model of city government that is followed. To change from one system, such as a council-manager system, strong mayor-council model, or city commission form, to another requires a charter revision. The Home Rule City Act specifies certain requirements that every city must contain within its city charter. At the same time, the Act provides for numerous optional charter provisions. In general, any power that is not specifically prohibited by another law for a city to exercise may be included in a city’s charter.

The entire text can be found online at http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/mcl/pdf/mcl-act-279-of-1909.pdf

Commissioner Wine felt that taxes are going to be a big issue for the commission. He wanted to clarify that the Charter can set the limit for mills used in property taxes. He asked that they have a discussion concerning the income tax.

Other commissioners were fairly sure that's an issue between the city council and the people. City Attorney Livesay said that any city is authorized by state law to implement an income tax. He also conceded that something could be written in the charter prohibiting income tax.

Chairperson Repp moved along to the discussion of procedure submitted by Commissioner Tomion, Commissioner Sample-Wynn and Commissioner Wine.

Commissioner Sample-Wynn spoke for the committee stating that they had compared a couple of samples of Rules of Procedure. She said that City Clerk Child had passed on some more samples and then showed them a consolidated version. The then discussed what a quorum for this group would be. They decided it should be 5 members. The vote that they would take of the entire charter before it was sent to the Governor must be 6 people, preferably the entire commission.

Commissioner Stremers like the one that Sue Child had sent that consolidated everything. He said it was very good.

Commissioner Johnson expressed that she like that one as well.

Commissioner Parcell wanted to be sure if a concensus was the same as a quorum.

Chairperson Repp said a consensus would be needed if a group had been asked to research a particular topic and the group approved that.

Commissioner Wine wanted to clarify the quorum issue. If only have 5 members present he feels that all five members should have to vote the same, not a quorum of those 5 members.

Commissioner Parcell shared that he would prefer to have 6 people voting on the big issues. He doesn't think it would be right for 5 to be voting on that. He said it would not be enough of a representation of the group.

Commissioner Sample-Wynn pointed out that it's still going to have to go before the people to decide.

Commissioner Stremers motioned to adopt the Rules of Procedure as presented to them. Commissioner Parcell seconded this. It passed unanimously.

Chairperson Repp summarized for the audience since they did not have a copy of this document to look at. Some of the main points were: they will operate under the open meetings rule, special meetings can be called, if these rules don't apply to something that comes up it will go the Roberts Rules of Order, 5 members shall be a quorum, a special committee can be established for a special project but will be disbanded once that project is complete, they will be paid for no more than 90 meetings and they will not be paid if they are not present. Prior to submission of the new charter to the Governor, 6 members must approve it. Vacant seats will be appointed by the commission. They also discussed how a commissioner can be removed. Basically if there is nonfeasance or malfeasance.

Commissioner Sample-Wynn wanted to know what nonfeasance was and the city attorney explained that it is basically when a commissioner is doing nothing or not performing their duties. Example of this would be if they weren't showing up.

Chairperson Repp continued the discussion on how they intend to proceed. They had received a bundle of information from the MML. She also wanted to know if they should hold public hearings. It had been brought up in the MML documents in regards to cities with low interest.

Commissioner Sample-Wynn thought public hearings are a great idea.

Commissioner Sremers wondered if those public hearings could happen during a city council meeting since people were there for those.

Chairperson Repp wondered if that would even be appropriate.

City Attorney Livesay pointed out that some people don't have constructive things to say at council meetings and the commission would open itself up to this.

Commissioner Wine wanted to have them at council meetings

Commissioner Sample-Wynn felt that certain parts of the charter will bring people in, especially the city government chapter.

Commissioner Johnson said the MML information suggested that chapter be dealt with first because it has a lot to do with how the rest of the charter is written.

Chairperson Repp asked the group if they should have a meeting first or a public hearing first.

Commissioner Sample-Wynn wanted a regular meeting first and then a Public Hearing but she wanted the pubic hearing to be interactive.

Commissioner Wine wanted to know if they held a public hearing, could they use council chambers since it is easier to get to and more people might feel comfortable there.

Chairperson Repp said that probably wouldn't be a problem to use that room.

Commissioner Stremers asked that they do a public hearing on the same night as they do their regular meetings.

Chairperson Repp wanted to get the first public hearing on the calendar because without that it will hold them up on working on that 2nd Chapter.

City Attorney Livesay mentioned that there are several parts of the charter that are no longer in use, like Chapter 16 and anything to do with retirees. They still have retirees that are under that part of the charter but no new people will be hired in using that part.

Commissioner Wine wanted to know how many public hearings should they hold before they give up. If no one comes or only 2 people come, should they keep trying?

Commissioner Sample-Wynn felt that they could only do so much and if no one cares then what are they suppose to do?

Commissioner Wine asked if they should limit it to city residents or let folks from the surrounding townships and cities participate. He worries that people from the surrounding townships might be critical and he doesn't want to be criticized for 4 minutes by someone who can't even vote.

Commissioner Johnson shared that people come up to her to share their views privately because they can't come.

Commissioner Parcell said he had talked to downtown businesses and asked them to come as group to the meetings. The Restaurant Association was meeting the next morning and he wondered if someone from the commission should be there to encourage those people to come since there will be 20 to 30 people present.

Commissioner Wine was concerned with the commissioners talking privately to citizens as the information could come back filtered by the commissioner. It's not that he doesn't trust his fellow commissioners, but he wants to hear directly from the people so he understands exactly what they are saying and so he can ask them questions.

Chairperson Repp addressed this situation and told the commission that if someone comes up to them they could encourage that person to email the group or come to public audience. She stated the email for the charter commission as charter@porthuron.org.

Commissioner Wine was wondering how they could advertise to the people about their website or email address and thought maybe they could use billboards to advertise.

Commissioner Sample-Wynn said that Lamar charges for the electronic boards even if you are a non-profit but she does know that they will donate a regular board if they pay for the artwork. She also said that Radio First and WGRT have community bulletin boards that announce events and they should take advantage of it.

City Attorney Livesay like the idea of people emailing the commission because when people write things down it forces them to focus on the issue at hand.

City Clerk Child stated that Council Member Mark Byrne had already used the email address and she had forwarded it on to the Commissioners. None of them had received it so she made copies of the one she had to pass out to the entire Commission.

Commissioner Stremers felt that an automatic response should be sent back to people letting them know their comments were received and that if there were any questions by the Commission they would be contacted. On a different subject he did some research on a couple of local cities that had recently written a new city charter. One was Dearborn and one was Flint. He took a look at Dearborns charter, which is posted online. He mentioned that Flints charter did not pass and maybe they should look at that to find out why.

Commissioner Johnson stated that she grew up in Flint and keeps close tabs on what's going on there. She said there were several problems with the mayor and others and she's pretty sure that's why it didn't pass.

Chairperson Repp commented that it might be a good idea to look at those so they would not be spinning their wheels.

Commissioner Stremers wanted the commission to set up public hearings right now to get people in and hear what they have to say.

Chairperson Repp questioned whether they might come up with alternative scenarios for the Chapter and let people see those.

Commissioner Sample-Wynn felt that putting different alternatives out there to see would give people ideas and something for them to have opinions on. She felt that some people won't have opinions unless something is in front of them.

Chairperson Repp suggested that at their next meeting they should discuss Chapter 2 in depth.

Commissioner Sample-Wynn suggested they have a public hearing on that Chapter at the meeting after that.

Commissioner Johnson asked if they would use the website to get the word out.

City Clerk Child said she would work with Chairperson Repp to get the announcement right.

Chairperson Repp felt it would be appropriate to use the council forum to announce the meetings. She also wants to get on the Paul Miller radio show. This would be a discussion about what type of government we are and that Chapter 2 & 4 sort of go together. She wants the rest of the group to check the MML information to find out the difference between a strong or weak mayor system and then discuss that.

She then noted that on the next agenda they will discuss Chapter 1 & 2. Chapter one is only 2 sentences but very hard to read.

Commissioner Stremers looked at Dearborn's charter and noted they had put in a preamble similar to the United States Constitution. He really liked it and thought it was nice.

Chairperson Repp mentioned they could to a public survey but those aren't always as effective as you would like them to be.

Commissioner Wine had been reading Councilmember Byrne's email and wanted to know how they would respond to it. He has suggested things that is not understandable. He wanted to know if it would be appropriate to contact Councilmember Byrne individually.

Chairperson Repp said it would not.

Commissioner Wine does not get parts 1 and 2 of that email. He would like to know the why of it.

Commissioner Parcell wants to invite Councilmember Byrne to their next meeting.

Chairperson Repp summarized for the audience that the commission had received an email from Mark Byrne and they don't understand his suggestions. City Clerk Child will invite him to come and clarify.

Commissioner Parcell figured there might be 2 or 3 opinions on Chapter 2 so people should write them down ahead of time.

Commissioner Johnson wants to hear from city staff concerning the Charter because they deal with it every day. They would know parts that aren't working or are hard to deal with.

Chairperson Repp said they could send emails to all city employees for input but they might not want to comment publicly.

City Clerk Child suggested the send out and agenda to the meetings with a sheet attached that they could type in their comments anonymously.

Chairperson Repp wants the council to comment. They put this on the ballet so obviously they felt it needed review, so it'd be nice if they commented.

Commissioner Johnson felt they should ask the department heads to come and speak concerning the chapters they have to deal with in their department.

Chairperson Repp agrees and said that when they get to the Chapter concerning finance, they would obviously want Finance Director John Ogden to speak on his take concerning this area.

City Attorney Livesay mentioned he had asked Mike Whaling, who is an expert in bankruptcy to come and speak since there is so much of this in our city right now and the Charter can help guide the city during something like this.

Commissioner Stremers pointed out that things have changed at the state level so you have to be careful how you word it.

At this this time the Charter Commission adjourned and they were given their "homework" assignments. The next meeting will be held April 14, 2009 at 7:00 p.m. in room 408 of the MOC building.

    Comments:

Trina 03/25/2009
I think they will be. I know the entire commission is looking for the residents from the townships to participate. I'm not sure why he said that because he did say over and over that he wanted to hear from everyone.

SpeakMyMind 03/25/2009
Commissioner Wine asked if they should limit it to city residents or let folks from the surrounding townships and cities participate. He worries that people from the surrounding townships might be critical and he doesn't want to be criticized for 4 minutes by someone who can't even vote.
As long as people who don't live in Port Huron but work here have to pay income tax, why aren't they good enough to speak about the charter?

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