Today’s Council Meeting

Hello friends. We just walked back from today’s City Council meeting. The primary issue involved questions about a meeting held last Thursday with the City Clerk called by the Mayor and joined by Councilmember Reeve and former City Manager Tom Richards.

The stated purpose was to ask about next steps with the City Manager. An issue so urgent it did not appear on today's agenda.

The Mayor and Reeve acknowledged under questioning that they did not reach out to invite the current City Manager. They also did not reach out to any other Councilperson, with the express purpose of avoiding compliance with Open Records laws (Three Councilmembers is a quorum). At times, the Mayor and Councilperson Reeve's recollections conflicted with the City Clerk.

Specifically, when asked if removing the current City Manager was discussed, the Mayor said "no" but the Clerk had a different recollection. When asked if the issue of the employment of a former city employee who is currently suing the city was brought up, the Mayor said "no" but the Clerk remembered it differently.

Councilperson Reeve said she did not know that Tom Richards was a witness in the lawsuit brought by the same former employee. The information was in a packet she requested about the lawsuit but admits she never read the packet. She also surprisingly noted that she doesn't talk to the City Manager.

There were not many good answers given during the meeting. I encourage you to watch at the link below if you have time (unless you have high blood pressure---then skip it).

The Council Chamber was full of members of the public. Not a single person spoke in defense of the secret meeting to discuss the future of our City Manager. All speakers had rather pointed questions of both the Mayor and Councilmember Reeve.

The Harbor Light was there to cover the meeting firsthand. I am confident there will be a full write-up in Wednesday's edition. Please look for it.

The end result of the meeting is that the Council voted to ask the City Clerk and recommended the Mayor and Councilwoman Reeve provide their recollections of the clandestine meeting to the City Attorney so he can consider potential violations of the City Charter. The Council will then hold a Special Meeting on Thursday at 3pm in Council Chambers to further consider the matter.

Whew. The whole thing was disappointing, frustrating and a bit maddening. It seems on the one hand, the Mayor and Councilmember Reeve knew enough about the rules to understand they couldn't have a secret meeting if they notified a third Councilmember but on the other, claim to not know that they should have brought the issue to the City Manager first.

Please take some time to review the meeting if you are interested. Video can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/live/BBOa2uFnXUI?si=epMrbnTFU4nmek-x

I am proud of the three Councilmembers who did not participate in the meeting for working to bring clarity and hold those who were involved to account. Councilmembers Melke, Buckner and Motschall are to be commended for their thoughtful questions and work today.

While sitting and listening, I was thinking about if any of the other three Councilmembers had participated in a meeting like this, the process hawks on the other side of the equation would have lost their minds.

We have an election tomorrow. We can elect Councilmembers who do the work, play by the rules, and understand both their power and limitations. I hope we do that. I think we've had enough!

Let's move forward Harbor Springs.