MC officials vote down resolution for SAD

Crowded public hearing included petition against plan

By Barb Pert Templeton

After budget meetings, a townhall and a public hearing on a plan to bail out the city by establishing a Special Assessment District (SAD) for Public Safety Services the idea was ultimately voted down by city commissioners. The turn of events means major cuts to personnel and services are on the horizon in Marine City.

The May 7 meeting of the commission included a room packed with residents and property owners eager to speak out against the city’s plan to address a $650,000 general fund deficit with a new 5 mil tax increase.

The meeting, that lasted nearly two hours, concluded with a pair of additional surprises when City Manager Michael Reaves resigned and Police Chief James Heaslip’s retirement was announced.

City Attorney Robert Davis took to the podium to explain the process of the SAD. He said it’s authorized by law and allows levying collections from those districts. Davis said the city administration has done several presentations in meetings for the public, though not many people attended them, about the need for the SAD to be established.

At last night’s meeting the SAD Resolution 009-2026 was on the agenda and a public hearing was required to hear comments on the proposal. The SAD proposed was to be good for three years and bring $706,000 to the city to cover deficit with a cap of 10 percent.

More than a dozen step up to be heard

Marine City resident Norman Rhodes spoke first during the public hearing and said his main concern is not the tax itself but the fact that a special assessment is different than taxation. Property taxes that are paid go into the general fund to support the police and fire plus they are spread out over many areas.

“A special assessment district is specific to each individuals’ piece of property and if you can’t make that tax payment the liability is on you personally and if you can’t pay it the county is going to take it,” Rhodes said. “So, there is a big difference between a special assessment and general taxation.”

Resident William Blanchard asked why the city waited until two weeks before something had to be done to bring this problem forward. The city manager has known about this for a couple years, he’s been here for a couple years, Blanchard said.

“This is just poor management and we as taxpayers can’t keep footing the bill for your bad management,” Blanchard said. “I live on a budget, if I don’t have it in my budget, I don’t spend it and the city’s got to do the same thing.”

“You want the city to grow but you’re taxing us out of our homes,” Blanchard added.

Roland Woelkers, a 40-year resident of the city, said he’s a retired police chief and he managed a budget of $16 to $20 million dollars so he feels for the city manager.

“I understand all the issues that poor Mike so going through I think it’s really important that we don’t look in the rearview mirror and do that Monday morning quarterbacking of we should have done this or should have done that,” Woelkers said.

Resident Heather Warner took up the petition drive to have the SAD issue put on the ballot so voters could decide on it. She collected 471 signatures which she said represented about 22% of those affected

When she stepped to the microphone, she offered several areas where the city could save money. She said they should consider utilizing part-time personnel to eliminate full benefit packages, have employees utilize their own cell phones thus eliminating that bill each month, use AI tools to complete routine tasks and invest in software packages that can help decrease work loads

including for those that automate accounting records and eliminate manual date entry errors while decrease staffing costs.

Officials reject the SAD plan; Reaves resigns

When the public hearing closed at 8:43 p.m. Commissioner Jacob Bryson made the motion to reject Resolution 009-2026. A roll call vote was unanimous in favor of Bryson’s motion. Commissioner Sean O’Brien was absent from the meeting.

The mayor then called for administrative reports and the city manager spoke up.

“I would like to take a couple minutes to thank all of you for showing up, you were passionate, eloquent, you lead with your heart but you put a lot of thought into it,” Reaves said. “I think there were a lot of great ideas here.”

Reaves said he respects the process and the citizens should have a vote and let the citizens decide what level of services they are going to have into the future. He then informed the room that he tendered his resignation to the commission prior to the meeting and it would be effective June 4, 2026.

“It has been an honor to work alongside dedicated staff, elected officials’ business leaders and residents,” Reaves said. “I’m proud of what we have accomplished together.”

During commissioner privilege each one took the time to thank Reaves for work on behalf of the city. Several also thanked the residents for attending the meeting and encouraged them to continue to do so.

Marine City Mayor Pro Tem Lisa Hendrick also thanked Heather Warner for her efforts on behalf of residents in putting the petition together and noted that she did the same thing in 2015.

“I want to thank Heather, this is the second time she’s had to step up and do the job for the community, she’s so passionate about it she’s out there pounding the streets to try to give everybody a voice and that’s a great thing,” Hendrick said.

As the meeting wound down to its adjournment, the mayor pro tem, who was first elected in 2011, perhaps summed the situation up best.

“We’re in a bad situation, we’ll pull it out, this town had done it before and we’ll figure out a way to do it again,” Hendrick said.