Marine City starts process to remove commissioner from office

Hilferink previously censured, declared out of order

By Barb Pert Templeton

Over the last month members of the Marine City Commission have censured fellow Commissioner Michael Hilferink for his behavior and at its most recent meeting on Sept. 7 declared him to be out of order, after which time he was arrested for disturbing the peace. 

Now they intend to follow thru on a formal procedure to remove him from office. 

At the regular bi-monthly commission meeting on Sept. 7 Commissioner Jacob Bryson asked to add an item to the agenda to address something related to section 5.4 in the city’s charter, which is entitled “Removal from office.”

When the agenda item came up Bryson stated, “I’ll put this out there, I have no desire to ever go down this path again, but me personally I don’t think we have much of a choice.”

He then motioned to have the commission initiate Section 5.4 of the charter to remove Hilferink from office. The process calls for the charges to be written and delivered to Hilferink 10 days prior to a hiring. 

“This motion just starts the ball rolling, starts the process,” Bryson said.

Mayor Jennifer Vandenbossche seconded the motion and the remainder of the commission voted in favor of the motion. Commissioner Brian Ross was absent from the Sept. 7 meeting. 

When contacted by phone on Sept 12, Marine City Manager Scott Adkins said documents that will be drawn up in the process to remove Hilferink from office are ones he is not privy to nor was he aware of what the steps are to get to that point. 

As an employee of the city, he doesn’t have a role in the process but instead the mayor, city attorney and commission will be in charge of it. He said the clerk also has a minimum role and will simply release notifications once a hearing date on the issue has been announced.

The hearing can be set before a regular commission meeting or on a separate date not tied to bi-monthly commission meetings. 

Who can speak during public comments?

The incident at the Sept. 7 commission meeting that led to Hilferink’s arrest stemmed from his leaving the commission table and going to the podium to speak during public comments. While officials repeatedly told the commissioner that he could not remain there and rebut what residents had stated at the podium he refused to sit down.

“It’s my first amendment right to be at this podium,” Hilferink stated, while he was assured by the commission that he could speak on whatever he wanted during his commissioner privilege portion of the meeting.

After a ten-minute argument the commission voted to find Hilferink out of order at which time he still refused to return to the commission table. Mayor Jennifer Vandenbossche asked that he be removed from the meeting and Hilferink was then arrested for disturbing the peace. 

When contacted after the meeting Adkins said the public comments portion of the commission agenda is for residents to be heard and the board doesn’t respond at that time but may look into matters of concern and get back to the individual.

“It is not a time for back-and-forth dialogue,” Adkins said. “But the commissioner privilege portion of the agenda has an unlimited time frame.”

The way different municipalities deal with public comments depends on how their agenda is setup. Many utilize basic parliamentary procedure or follow Robert’s Rules of order for meetings.

Adkins said the city charter doesn’t have a section with Robert’s Rules listed but it is something utilized by the commission for orders and procedures.

Since Hilferink was not at the meeting when the decision regarding his removal from office came up, he took to his Facebook page, Marine City – Clay – Algonac – East China Citizens for Better Transparency to respond to the action.

On Sunday Sept 10, in a live post, Hilferink said there is no law on the books prohibiting him from going to the podium during a commission meeting. He listed several examples of other public officials leaving their seats at board tables to speak at the podium as a resident. 

“You guys don’t have much to worry about for me to be removed,” Hilferink said. “This attorney, (referring to City Attorney Robert Davis) I don’t know how he passed the bar, I really don’t, he doesn’t know our charter provisions.” 

Commissioners address the issue

During the meeting and vote on starting the process for Section 5.4 – Removal from office – of Hilferink, Mayor Pro Tem Lisa Hendrick said she just wanted to note that Section 5.4 of the city charter was used against her in the past. Following a three-hour hearing in Nov. 2021 Hendrick retained her seat on the city commission in a 3-3 vote. 

“But different situations, every time, each one, has to be taken separately so I just wanted to make that point,” Hendrick said. 

Then during the commissioner privilege portion of the meeting Commissioner William Klaassen offered up an apology to the public. 

“I want to apologize to the public for what happened here tonight,” he said, noting that he only made the motion to find Hilferink out of order in order to move the meeting forward. “If everyone would stick together and work together it would be better for the whole community.”

Then Hendrick used her commissioner privilege to commend city office staff for their hard work.

“I want to thank all of our staff, I know how difficult it was for all you to come here and taking on the tasks at hand,” Hendrick said. “I know how difficult it was for you with all the disruptions and all the issues and I’ll tell you what we couldn’t keep this city running without all of you.”

Hendrick went on to say they will be doing everything they can to support and keep the staff in place.

“We need you all here, we want you all to be happy here and we are going to work to make things right so you stay,” Hendrick said. “We just appreciate every darn one of you.”