Resident claims open meetings act was violated
By Barb Pert Templeton
At the recent April 15 Algonac City Council meeting a public hearing on establishing a Special Assessment District for the Algonac Fire Department was held although the ballot issue on the subject actually passed in Feb. 2024.
The first public hearing on the plan was hosted last year prior to the vote but city resident Sandra Simmons repeatedly told members of the council that the public was not properly notified about that hearing. She’s appeared at council meetings numerous times since last summer to speak during public comments.
“My question here this evening is are you ready to go to court?” Simmons asked at her latest appearance on March 18. “This investigation has taken me a year. The information that was sent to the State of Michigan and the county of St. Clair was false because there was no public notice, plain and simple.”
She concluded by wishing the council a Happy Easter and stating that we all make mistakes and none of us are perfect.
“God sent me here for a reason, to expose the City of Algonac,” Simmons added.
The city council invited City Attorney James Downey to appear at a council meeting on March 18 to explain the city’s position on the charge that the special assessment issue was not handled correctly.
The Algonac City Council held a retroactive public hearing related to the special assessment for the city’s fire department that was approved by a majority vote of the taxpayers last year.
He listed the following as proof that the matter was in fact handled correctly:
· Public Act 33 allows the council to put the issue of a special assessment on the ballot
· The city used various media to let the public know about the plan
· All Open Meetings Act requirements were completed at every turn
· Once voters approved the assessment a public hearing was held on May 21, 2024 noting the amount to be levied and it was one mil being assessed in year one.
“I want to emphasis the city met or exceeded with purposes, spirit and substance that which a public hearing is intended to be held for under Public Act 33,” he said.
Downey then recommended the city schedule and publish a retroactive public hearing and announcement in order to avail themselves of any further questions on the matter.
When Blue Water Healthy Living contacted City Manager Denice Gerstenberg on March 21 seeking clarification of why a public hearing would be held now, so long after the approved ballot issue, she sent the following reply:
The City Attorney attended the meeting to offer an explanation and opinion of the special assessment district process for the Fire SAD that went before voters at the February 27, 2024 Primary Election, and which was approved by voters by a margin of 62%. Although the city was in full compliance with both the spirit and the substance of Public Act 33, he recommended that city council set a date for a public hearing to avail itself of any further questions from one particular resident who has expressed concerns about the process.
Another resident speaks out
Algonac resident Eileen Tesch spoke during the retroactive fire assessment public hearing on April 15 and touched on several things related to the fire department.
She said first of all she wanted to say how much she appreciated the Algonac Fire Department, Chief Joe Doan, all the deputies and the first responders. She said it’s just unfortunate that there has been so much negative discussion over the last year because the city violated the public meetings act.
Tesch said when the city attorney appeared to explain the situation, he said the city was justified because they complied with the “spirit of the law.”
“I don’t know what that means and I’ve been an attorney a long time, however Mr. Downey could not cite one court case where the spirit of the law justified the violation of the law, so obviously you’re doing everything backwards now,” Tesch said. “So, we the people didn’t have an opportunity or due process to express our opinions at the time, a year ago.”
She then took issue with the fact that the city didn’t just take money from their general fund to help the fire department instead of putting it on the taxpayers via a special assessment.
“A year ago, I came here when I learned about the ballot issue, I asked why can’t you take the money out of the general fund, you had $4 million at that time and more now,” Tesch said. “You spent $17,000 on a Christmas tree, $185,000 on a vacant school and you tried to give away 24-years of our taxes and millage to a private developer (referring to the Brownfield Project).”
She said the fire department has a $400,000 budget and if they needed more support the city should have stepped up.
“If they needed more money to maintain regular services, why didn’t you give them the money?” Tesch asked. “But no, it was more important to you to create a special assessment district and saddle the taxpayers with more taxes.”
Councilman addresses “tripe”
During council comments at the end of the April 15 meeting Councilman Michael Bembas said while he didn’t want to pick on anybody or point out disagreements, “sometimes when you hear the same tripe over and over again then you have to say something.”
“We love and appreciate everybody that comes up here and talks because if everybody thought the same way we wouldn’t be needed and diversity of opinion is very important,” Bembas said. “However, when we already know the facts and we keep repeating the same misinformation it becomes a problem.”
As an example, Bembas said that the $17,000 used to purchase the city’s holiday Christmas tree was made possible by a gift from the Milford Jackson Memorial Trust Fund and no money from the city’s budget was used for it.
“The people who complain about that know that, they sat up here and they know about that fund, so to bring that up is dishonest,” Bembas said.
He said the same holds true for the city purchasing the former Algonac Elementary School and then recouping the money by selling it to a developer that will still allow for the city’s new community center.
“Please don’t buy into the misinformation,” Bembas said. “We were not going to give any money to anybody to develop anything, a tax break is not giving any money from the general fund to somebody.”
