Marine City ready to take charter changes to the voters

Townhall meetings to be hosted to explain language 

By Barb Pert Templeton

A city charter is like a municipality’s constitution, it dictates the powers, procedures and policies of the local government officials. 

Scott Adkins, city manager in Marine City, said while of course the charter is important the actual altering of the document can be simpler than one would think.

“Here, there are just some things there that are not defined and this will give more clarification to those pieces,” Adkins said.

In many communities, officials decide to rehaul their entire charter and it takes many months to complete a project like that and take it back to the voters. In Marine City, the commission felt a specific area of the charter needed to be addressed. The five sections will be amended if voters approve the changes placed on the upcoming November ballot.

“These will be individual questions and if (some or all) they don’t pass then the charter won’t be amended,” Adkins said. 

Adkins explained that prior to being placed on the ballot the actual wording and language for all five areas had to be draw up and sent to the Michigan’s attorney general’s office and then onto the governor for approval.  

At a recent city commission meeting officials discussed the process.

City Attorney Robert Davis said he and City Clerk Jason Bell spent a lot of time with the attorney general getting the resolutions setup and it was a great experience. He said things they asked included what do you want the resolution to say, what do you want to see and what do you want the electorate to see on the ballot?

Making the ballot language succinct was something the attorney general complimented Davis and Bell on. It was suggested that they add a few more words that would make things even more clear on the ballot for the voters, David said.

The ballot issues needed to be 100 words or less, he added.

“So that’s all we did here was added some more definition (via words) for what would be on the ballot,” Davis said, noting that if the commission approves the resolutions, he’s set to give them back to the state.

The section for the resolution with a provision for removing an official from office was one the state complimented the commission on stating they did a good job in explaining that part, according to Davis. 

“Are we having any meetings for discussions?” Mayor Pro Tem Lisa Hendrick said. “We just want to make sure they understand what they’re (voting) on.” 

Davis said yes, the city could host some meetings and Adkins suggested hosting an educational townhall.

“Near each polling location we’ll post what it says now and what did it say before and we can have some meetings for the public so they know what the city is trying to accomplish, Davis said. 

In all, there will be five questions listed separately on the ballot for voters to consider.

Section 3.3 – The first one calls for amending section 3.3 which addresses the payments to the mayor and commission for their meeting attendance. Adkins said this section will put in a stop gap for future compensation and will be worded to include a sentence with the words ‘no more than’ as related to a dollar amount. 

Section 3.11 – The city manager is tasked with overseeing all the city employees; the commission cannot have a say in employment decisions it’s up to the manager’s discretion. The specific language in this section will be better clarified. 

Section 3.20 – This one will set policies and procedures for the city commission; Adkins said this section will require the commission to develop certain policies and procedures that are actually lacking at this time. 

Section 5.4 – This section, regarding removing an official from office will basically follow the same process already in place including providing the proper notice, following a time frame for a hearing and allowing witnesses to speak on the charged official’s behalf. Adkins said for example, that there is no real change being made from the policy that was utilized when officials voted former City Commissioner Michael Hilferink out of office last year. “This is just to solidify and memorialize” the current section in the charter, he added. 

Section 13 – This section states the city manager is in charge of contracts and purchases/sales of property for the city. Adkins said the language has been adjusted to clarify any gray areas and make the section more controlled and defined.