CITY
OF SOUTH LYON
REGULAR
CITY COUNCIL MEETING
April
26, 2004
Mayor
Doyle called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m.
Mayor
Doyle led those present in the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag
PRESENT:
Mayor Doyle
Council
Members: Crawford, Dryer, Schwarck, and Wallace
City
Manager Cook
Attorney
Parvin Lee
City
Clerk/Treasurer Zemke
Department
Heads: Collins, Martin & Renwick
APPROVAL
OF MINUTES:
CM
4-1-04- APPROVAL OF MINUTES – APRIL 12, 2004
Motion by Dryer, supported by Schwarck
To approve the minutes of the regular meeting of April 12, 2004 as
written
VOTE:
MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY
APPROVAL
OF MONTHLY BILLS:
None
APPROVAL
OF AGENDA
City
Manager Cook stated that Old Business #1 should be removed from the agenda.
Motion by Crawford, supported by Dryer
To approve the agenda as amended
VOTE:
MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY
CITIZENS
SUGGESTIONS:
Councilman
Wallace stated that he would like to extend condolences to the Mary Baker family
including Councilman Schwarck who is a nephew.
Mary Baker was a long time resident of this community and a pillar of
elegance.
Councilman
Dryer stated that he would like to remind everyone that Griswold Road will be
closed between Nine and Ten Mile Roads between May 1st and July 1st. Also, the City-wide garage sale is being held May 1 &2.
He further stated that the Parks and Recreation Commission has been
looking for donations for park benches and various other items.
We received a few donations at the last meeting, yet we still have a few
needs. Anyone interested in
donating and having their name on the particular piece of equipment in McHattie
Park can contact City Hall.
Mr.
Glenn Kivell of 235 W. Lake stated that he is speaking on behalf of many of the
residents on Lake Street. He stated that between 4:00 and 5:00 a.m. the street sweeper
comes down Ten Mile Road. Although
he understands the need to get downtown cleaned before the traffic begins, he
does not understand why they have to start so far out in the neighborhood
portion. Superintendent Renwick
stated that they do this twice per week on Tuesdays and Fridays, and it is the
time with the least amount of traffic. Mr. Kivell stated that he is just asking
that they do not start the vacuum until they get closer to downtown.
He stated that you would not see this done within a subdivision and is
asking for the same consideration.
Mr.
Tom Duncan of 60440 Eleven Mile Road stated that they were anticipating an item
on tonight’s agenda regarding the Gateway petitions that were submitted.
They had asked that the signatures be canvassed quick enough to appear on
this agenda and it was their impression that would take place, which was not
done. They were expecting a little
bit of urgency to be placed on this matter and would think that it could have
been done without taking the entire 15 days.
They were very disappointed it was not on this agenda and had hoped that
if there were complications that they would have opportunity to come back and
resolve those issues. The next
meeting will be the last reasonable meeting to take action on the subject and
approve it for being placed on the ballot.
Also, there may be some pressure to dismiss their efforts as citizens and
perhaps some arm twisting by the developer indicating that the City has no voice
in this. In reality, you have no
voice on whether it is conducted or not as long as you go by the City Charter.
We urge you to allow us to exercise our rights under the Charter so that
they do not have to pursue further means. They
will discuss the issue next meeting unless Council has any further questions
they could answer prior to that meeting.
Mayor Doyle stated that the City Manager did contact Mr. Duncan last Tuesday to
indicate that the issue would not be on this agenda. He stated that there are only two individuals who can go
through and canvass all of those signatures, the City Clerk and her Assistant.
All dudiligence has been performed to get that out in a timely manner and
they will be done tomorrow within the 15 day time frame.
This work is in addition to their day-to-day duties, and they are working
on it to get it done as quickly as possible.
Mr.
Duncan stated that they felt that additional help could be brought in from the
County or other additional personnel to make sure that this happened by today.
From their perspective, they felt that there should have been some type
of effort to hire individuals or do whatever it would take to get this
accomplished.
City
Clerk/Treasurer Zemke stated that she can assure Mr. Duncan and his group that
every effort has been made to accomplish this task within the 15 day time
period. She stated that State Law
actually grants a 45 day time period in which to accomplish this.
Unfortunately, the City Charter indicates only 15 days.
At the time the City Charter was adopted, the City’s population was a
great deal less, therefore canvassing 25% of 3,000 registered voters would take
much less time than what we have today. It
is a lengthy process and we have put every effort into get this done very
timely.
Mr.
Duncan stated that he never asked because he trusted the City Clerk’s
judgment, but was there not additional resources outside of the City that you
could call on or additional personnel that could be hired or trained to help in
the task. City Clerk/Treasurer
Zemke stated that it is the City Clerk’s job and responsibility, and she has
only one assistant. Attorney Lee stated in order to hire additional personnel, it
would require Council approval, budget amendment, training, etc., which would
then put us well beyond the 15 day timeframe. Mayor Doyle stated that we are
going through and doing this in a timely manner, but we are not rushing through
it either because we want to make sure we do not make any mistakes.
Mr.
Duncan stated that in terms of timeliness, by Charter you have 15 days so that
is why they are not disputing it, we are simply saying that it would have been
nice if it could have been accomplished within 14 days so that they would have
time to discuss it. It would be
nice to have an update tonight from the City Clerk and City Attorney.
Mayor Doyle stated that at this point, the only thing of substance is
that the signatures will be canvassed by tomorrow.
Once
again, Mr. Duncan stated that they are very disappointed that the issue is not
on tonight’s agenda. It would
have been nice to have the canvass done more timely.
Mayor Doyle stated that this quite a task in addition to their day-to-day
duties, and this is very timely given the magnitude of work that was given to
them.
OLD
BUSINESS:
Resolution
to issue a Liquor License – Waldenmayer & Coffey – REMOVED FROM THE
AGENDA
Proposed
Amendment to City Charter – Increasing the size of the City Council from 5
to 7 members
Attorney
Lee stated at the last meeting, Council requested that he draft all of the
proposals that would effectively revise our Charter to increase the size of City
Council from five members to seven. There
are a number of direct items relative to the actual size of Council and there
are a number of other provisions to be considered, two deal with a situation in
which the Charter requires a “super majority” in order to enact two pieces
of legislation. One of the items is
the termination of the City Manager within 60 days of an election, and the other
is for purposes of buying or selling real estate.
Finally, he has provided the interim mechanism for the election of the
two additional councilmen in the simplest and most direct way of making a
change, assuming the balance of the charter amendments are approved by the
voters. This is his suggestion for
the election of the two new members, after reviewing his proposal, if Council
had other suggestion or would like to see it done a different way, please advise
him.
Mayor
Doyle stated in the current Charter, the super majority is four out of five.
Attorney Lee stated that it is based on percentage, and if you want it to
be five of seven as opposed to four out of seven, it is up to Council.
Discussion
was held on the interim election. Attorney
Lee stated that in his proposal, the next City Election everyone would be on the
ballot with the top three receiving four-year terms and the others would get two
year terms so that at the next election cycle, three would be elected as
provided in the revised Charter and would keep the staggered election process
that we have currently. If Council
would prefer to have it done some other way, he would be happy to look at other
options.
Councilman
Dryer stated that as proposed, there would be no change in the board until next
year, November 2005. We could direct the City Attorney to draft language to
provide for a special election for the new council members in November.
Attorney Lee stated that there is very little time between the August and
November elections. Assuming the
issue is passed, the results are not certified until 10 days after the election,
and you would have an extremely small window to obtain petitions, signatures and
get their names on the ballot, less than 30 days. The other option would be to
create the positions and allow Council to appoint.
Councilman
Dryer asked if it would be possible to put the seats on the school election.
Further discussion was held on the school elections covering other
jurisdictions and it being confusing to voters.
Mayor
Doyle stated that if Council wishes to proceed with this, he would like some
thought given to placing the question on the November ballot versus the August
simply because it is a change to our Charter, and we would have a better turn
out in November given that it is a Presidential Election year.
Attorney
Lee stated that Michigan Law has a specific provision relative to Charter
amendment issues, and that is, it is possible if the electorate votes up some
provisions and down some others, there is a methodology to determine what
happens. The proposal that receives
the greatest number of yes votes controls.
If everyone voted to amend one section but not to amend another, the
margin of winning or defeating would determine which proposal and the cumulative
affect goes into place. He stated
that it is important to give yourselves enough time to provide public education. Each Charter amendment needs to be voted on separate.
Councilman
Dryer stated that he does not see a problem informing residents between now and
August. Attorney Lee stated that
this is the bedrock document of the City; changing a Charter is not something
you go into with a loose attitude. You
could come away with a disjointed result. Councilman
Dryer stated that this is something that has been in the news for some time.
Councilman
Crawford stated that he agrees it should be placed on the November ballot
because of the larger majority of the people who will be voting.
Mayor
Doyle stated that he feels that we should go ahead and let the people vote on
it. We are not here to debate the
merits of the issue. He would
support placing this on the November ballot.
Glenn
Kivell of 235 W. Lake Street stated that it seems like the language could be
written that the new Council Members could be elected and serve until the next
regular City Election if we could have these new members elected at the school
election or special election. Attorney Lee stated that the very next City Election is next
November, and Council would have to direct him to put additional language in the
interim election cycle proposal that people would approve in November.
Mr. Kivell stated that this really is a straight-forward proposition;
increase from five to seven members. It
was stated that it has been indicated that this is as simple as we can get it.
Attorney Lee stated that this is the difference between having a Charter
Commission to review the whole Charter and what is being proposed.
He was directed to amend the individual sections of the Charter to
accomplish the five to seven members. That
is why he made his previous ruling because you cannot simply have one single
thing on the ballot to add two members to Council.
Councilman
Dryer stated that two years after the initial petition, we might actually have
seven members, which seems like a long time.
However he does understand the philosophy.
CM
4-3-04 – APPROVAL OF BALLOT LANGUAGE – AMENDMENT TO CITY CHARTER
Motion by Dryer, supported by Schwarck
To approve the language as presented by the City Attorney to place the
six questions on the November
ballot
to increase the City Council from five to seven members (see attached language
as part of these
minutes)
Attorney
Lee stated that Election Law does allow us to put some explanation on the
ballot, which we can discuss further.
Councilman
Wallace stated that we just received this language on Friday and have had little
time to review it. It does seem
cumbersome, and we are acting pretty quickly.
City
Manager Cook stated that he does not agree with the language dealing with the
super majority. Discussion was held on the wording.
Attorney Lee stated he did look at it to limit the wording to one
sentence and this one particularly was difficult because if you strike the first
sentence, it does not make much sense. City
Manager Cook stated that you are dealing with super majority, it doesn’t have
anything to do with the holding of the administrative position.
Mayor Doyle stated that as pointed out, the one thing you wanted change
could be voted down with the others being approved. If this particular section is voted down, then it remains at
an affirmative vote of four. Attorney
Lee stated that if the concern is that they could change the status of the City
Manger by changing this section, they could not. The only thing that could
happen is that the requirement would be a super majority to change the status of
the City Manager within the first 60 days after an election or not.
Councilman
Wallace stated that if we are going to be putting this on the November ballot,
we do have some time. Mayor Doyle asked the City Attorney if he has addressed every
topic dealing with the increase in Council. Attorney Lee stated that every
section of the Charter which is affected by the change in the number members
have been addressed to keep the same sense of the Charter, but simply change the
membership of Council.
VOTE:
MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY
NEW
BUSINESS:
Bids
– Second Street
Mayor
Doyle stated that this is information only at this point as it will be part of
our next budget year.
City
Manager Cook stated that we received bids on April 13th and he has
provided a summary indicating the low bidder.
This project is scheduled for next fiscal year so all we are asking is
that you acknowledge that you received the bids.
The bid was structured in such a way that the bidders knew that this
would not move forward until after July 1st.
Once the budget has been established, this will be put back on the table
to provide ample time to get ready for the project, which will not start until
after the start of the new fiscal year.
Councilman
Dryer stated that we are looking at paving, curb & gutter, etc. for an
amount of $517,000 for .2 miles, that seems like an awful lot.
City Manager Cook stated that this is the cost for doing these projects
and it is within the estimate of the engineers.
This is part of our Major Street Master Plan that we did a number of
years ago. It was stated that they do have some water and sewer problems within
this area. Coucilman Dryer stated
that we talked about Ten Mile Road and how much it would cost, and he would
expect a smaller road would be a little bit lower.
City Manager Cook stated that there are a number of these projects that
will be coming forward and those estimates will probably be in the same
neighborhood. If we are going to make improvements in the older part of the City
and upgrade those roads, this is what we are going to pay.
The
question was asked if the sidewalk would be both sides.
City Manager Cook stated that it would be both sides the full length.
Proclamation
– Month of May as Mental Health Month
Mayor
Doyle stated that we are being asked by the Community Mental Health Authority of
Oakland County to declare the month of May 2004 as Mental Health Month to bring
awareness about mental illness issues to our community.
He so declared the month of May as Mental Health Month in the City of
South Lyon.
Cool
Cities Grant Application
City
Manager Cook stated that this is a new program that the Governor has put out
throughout the State of Michigan for projects that are roughly $100,000 to
improve downtown areas and business districts within the State of Michigan,
which is why they refer to it as “Cool Cities”.
This will also be a lead in, if we qualify, for T-21 funding if that
becomes available. He stated that
here are no major appropriations coming out of Washington as it relates to
federal highway monies. What we
have here is a project that would deal with the parking lot at Liberty Street
where the Veteran’s rock is to make some improvements tying in with the
brickscape, etc. as the initial start to improvements to the areas either side
of the Central Business District. Hopefully,
down the road we will qualify for something larger and make some improvements
along Pontiac Trail.
Mayor
Doyle stated that as part of the grant application, he was asked to go through
and put together an advisory board to give input on the project itself.
He has asked Jim Serra of Serra’s Carpets, Cory Bala who runs the South
Lyon Hotel, Maggie Kurtzweil of Parks and Recreation Commission, Jim Dinsmore
who has written for the South Lyon Herald and a student from the South Lyon High
School, Adam Enfroy. There is
nothing we have to do at this point as we move forward with the grant process.
Councilman
Dryer asked what the criteria is or what might help us get this grant.
City Manager Cook stated that we are putting a project together that will
benefit the business district. We
are attempting to continue the project we already started.
Mayor
Doyle stated that Kristen Cunningham has a copy of the plans that anyone can go
in and look at. It looks very nice,
and we have had pretty good success in getting these grants.
He stated that our downtown is a work in progress.
Long term, he would like to see us extend our lights north and south and
east and west, which would add a lot.
City
Manager Cook stated that this hopefully the first step in what would be a much
larger proposal for federal funds that may become available.
Further down the road, we would be looking at modification of the road
and how it is constructed between Liberty and Elm, which currently has no curb
and virtually no drainage, but this would be a much larger project.
Mayor
Doyle stated that as a reminder, we will be starting the tree planting downtown.
Friday is Arbor Day and we will be having a brief ceremony in front of
the South Lyon Herald around 10:00 a.m.
CM
4-4-04 – ADJOURNMENT
Motion by Crawford, supported by Wallace
To adjourn the meeting at 8:25 p.m.
VOTE:
MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY
Respectfully
Submitted,
_______________________________
________________________________
John
Doyle, Jr., Mayor
Julie C. Zemke, City Clerk/Treasurer
ProposED
Ballot Language
to
Increase the Size of City Council
Shall the Charter of the City of South
Lyon be amended to increase the size of the City Council from five (5) to seven
(7) members.
Yeas
__________
Nays
__________
Shall Chapter 3 section 3.7(b) be amended to read:
(b)
At each regular election there shall be elected at large a Mayor and
three councilpersons (the balance of this Section will remain unchanged).
Yeas
__________
Nays
__________
Shall Chapter 4 Section 4.1 be amended to read:
The legislative power of the City, except as reserved in this Charter,
shall be vested in a Council consisting of seven (7) councilpersons (the balance
of this Section shall remain unchanged).
Yeas
__________
Nays
__________
Shall Chapter 6 Section 6.1(c) be amended to read:
The City Manager shall be the Chief Administrative Officer of the City
government. The Council on the
basis of training and ability shall select him.
He shall serve at the pleasure of, and be subject to removal by the
Council, but he shall not be removed from office during a period sixty (60) days
following any regular election except by the affirmative vote of five (5)
members of the Council. The Council
shall set his compensation
(This
amendment would preserve the “super majority” provision provided in the
current Charter).
Yeas
__________
Nays
__________
Shall Chapter 11 Section 11.3(b)(2) be amended to read:
Such action is approved by the affirmative vote of at least five members
of the Council, and unless,
(This
amendment would retain the “super majority requirement” for the purchase,
sale or disposal of real estate).
Yeas
__________
Nays
__________
Shall Chapter 14 Section 14.4 be amended to add the following subsection
(c).
Interim Election Cycle. At
the first general election following the adoption of the amendments to the
Charter increasing the council to seven (7) members, four (4) councilpersons, in
addition to the Mayor shall be elected. The
candidates receiving the first, second, and third highest number of votes shall
be elected to four (4) year terms, and the candidate a receiving the fourth (4th)
highest number of votes shall be elected to a two (2) year term.
At each subsequent election the Mayor and councilpersons shall be elected
subject to Section 3.7(b) of the City Charter.
Yeas
__________
Nays
__________