CITY OF SOUTH LYON
REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING
August 8, 2005
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: Dryer,
and Wallace (1 vacancy)
City Manager Cook
Attorney Lee
City Clerk/Treasurer Zemke
Department Heads: Martin & Renwick
ABSENT: Council Member Schwarck
APPROVAL
OF MINUTES:
Councilman
Dryer stated that on page 4, the Resolution for the West Nile Virus Fund does
not indicate who made the motion and second.
CM 8-1-05-
APPROVAL OF MINUTES – JULY 25, 2005
Motion by Wallace, supported by Dryer
To approve the minutes of the regular
meeting of July 25, 2005 as amended
VOTE: MOTION
CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY
APPROVAL
OF MONTHLY BILLS:
CM 8-2-05-
APPROVAL OF MONTHLY BILLS
Motion by Dryer, supported by Wallace
To approve the monthly bills as presented
VOTE: MOTION
CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY
APPROVAL
OF AGENDA
Mayor
Doyle stated that he would like to add New Business #3 for approval of Block
Party for Appaloosa Court.
CM 8-3-05-
APPROVAL OF AGENDA
Motion by Dryer, supported by Wallace
To approve the agenda as amended
VOTE: MOTION
CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY
CITIZEN’S
SUGGESTIONS
Mr. Dick
Selden of 62401-1 Raleigh Ct., representing the Pumpkinfest Committee stated
that every year, a member of the community is selected as the Grand Marshall of
the Pumpkinfest Parade. This year,
Councilman Tedd Wallace has been selected to fill that role. Councilman Wallace thanked the committee and
stated that he is overwhelmed to be selected for such an honor.
Mr. Selden
stated that he also wanted to let Council know that in honor of Paul Baker, the
Buckboard Club of Colonial Acres is helping to get a life-sized, bronze statue
of Paul to be put at Baker’s of Milford as well as a bronze plaque to be placed
at the South Lyon Hotel. In addition,
he and Sam Black, editor of the South Lyon Herald, will be writing a book about
Paul and asking the assistance of everyone to write down their experiences and
memories of him. He stated that Paul’s
wife approves of the project, which will be a not-for-profit project.
Mrs. June
Lane of 678 Hagadorn stated that they are very pleased with the sidewalk
project on Hagadorn. However, when they
seeded the area, instead of grass, they have very tall “tomato-type”
plants. City Manager Cook stated that
the contractor will come back and correct this. Furthermore, she reminded everyone of the dog show that will be
taking place during Pumpkinfest.
Ms. Joane
Morgan of 22280 Quail Run Circle asked if the City had any plans to smooth the
bumps at the railroad tracks. City
Manager Cook stated that CSX has been notified, however he does not think they
will be back this year to fix it.
Discussion was held on liability issues why the City cannot do the work.
Councilman
Wallace stated that there are a number of trees, going north on Pontiac Trail,
that we have lost and asked if these would be replaced. City Manager Cook stated that we will be
looking at planting approximately 175 trees and we are looking at applying for
a grant through the DNR for additional trees.
They will not all be planted at one time, but will be planting them
throughout the City.
Councilman
Wallace stated that he has also noticed that Gateway has been planting dead
trees on their site. City Manager Cook
stated that this would be part of a punch list and would have to be corrected.
OLD
BUSINESS:
Mayor
Doyle stated that we have a revised drilling schedule for the Amoco lot. He stated that the lot next to Screwie
Louie’s will be closed from August 15-19th. City Manager Cook stated that they will
repair any damage that they may cause.
Mayor
Doyle stated that we need to accept the resignation effective the date
indicated in his letter.
Councilman
Wallace read the resignation into the record as follows:
Dear
Julie,
Please
accept this letter as my notice of resignation from the South Lyon City Council
effective July 31, 2005.
It has
been a privilege and an honor to serve the citizens of South Lyon for the past
six years, however I have decided to retire from public service and join my
children and grandchildren in Texas.
My address
in Texas will be 437 East Hickory Hill, Burkeville, TX 75932.
Telephone 409-565-4429.
Sincerely,
Thomas Ray
Crawford
CM 8-4-05
– ACCEPTANCE OF RESIGNATION FROM CITY COUNCIL – RAY CRAWFORD
Motion by Wallace, supported by Dryer
To accept the letter of resignation from
Thomas Ray Crawford effective July 31, 2005
VOTE: MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY
Attorney
Lee stated that the City Council is not obligated by Charter to proceed in any
particular manner in filling the vacancy.
You may simply make a motion to appoint a person and vote on it, or set
up a procedure, including interviews, etc.
It is up Council how they want to proceed. The only limitation in the Charter is that Council must perform
the task within 30 days. State Law says
that if you do not fulfill your duty within 45 days, we are obligated to notify
the Governor. The Governor would then
appoint someone to fill the vacancy. In
effect, you would be leaving this seat vacant until the election given the turn
around time and upcoming election. The
30 days would be from the effective date of the resignation. Discussion was held on the vote. Attorney Lee stated that it would be simple
majority.
Mayor
Doyle stated that we have a number of people here who have expressed interest
in the appointment. He suggested that
each candidate be given an opportunity to speak. Councilman Wallace asked if all of the parties were informed that
this would be on the agenda. Councilman
Dryer stated that he did personally speak to each candidate.
Ms. Donna
Spencer of 1098 Colt Drive stated as soon as she and her family moed to the
City she immediately got involved with the South Lyon Area Youth Assistance in
1999. In 2001 she was elected as
Vice-Chair of that committee and 2002 she was elected as Chairperson, a
position in which she currently serves.
She has also served on many committees under the Youth Assistance
umbrella. Serving on that board has
given her experience and knowledge of the community. South Lyon has experienced some enormous growth within the last
few years, and appointing her to Council would represent that change. It is also time for some diversity on
Council. In talking with a lot of the
community, they thought it time to put a woman up there. She hesitates to bring in the gender issue,
but the people are asking for it. While
she has not been a life-long resident of South Lyon, she did grow up in a small
rural community and has lived in other towns that have experienced growth
issues. She stated that she has been at
every Council meeting since January, which shows her interest and eagerness to
learn about the Council and what is going on in the City. This shows a commitment to take on
additional leadership roles in the community, and these are sacrifices that her
opponents did not make. It would be
unfair to the community to simply place someone just for the sake of buying
time or to fulfill the ordinance. It
can be risky putting someone in who has no interest in running for a seat as
their accountability would be very short lived. For these reasons, she stated that she would hope that Council
consider her to fill the seat.
Mr.
Michael McGuinness of 22280 Quail Run stated that it is a distinct honor to be
before Council and it is an honor just to be one of the nominees. He stated that he is not here to say that he
is better than anyone else here, because he does not believe that he is. However, he does believe that even though at
the age of 21 he does bring distinct qualities that might set him apart and
offer some unique angles and perspectives that the City Council could benefit from. He stated that he currently serves 17,000
students at Oakland University where he is Student Body President. He has served as Student Body Vice President
where he proceeded over meetings of 30+ individuals undertaking Robert’s Rules
of Order. He has lived in the City of
South Lyon for a number of years and prior to that attended Walled Lake Schools
and prior to that spent his youth in the South Lyon area. Apart from that, he serves in public office
as a Oakland County Soil and Water Conservation Director, which in that
capacity, serves our community already, dealing with a variety of issues and
making sure that our residents receive benefit. He stated that he is just here to offer his name forward, and if
Council feels as though they would like to go with someone a litter older, he
does understand; he is only 21.
Hopefully, even for a brief period of time, the City recognizes the role
of our younger citizens. Along with
that, he would like to go into the high schools and promote voter registration
and younger citizen involvement in all aspects of our City government. Our youth is a very valuable asset. As a City Councilmember he could bring some
of that forward.
Mr. Harvey
K. Wedell of 1188 Vassar stated that he has submitted his resume and letter of
interest. He has only the opportunity
to serve and wish to serve. He does not
have any causes that he is sponsoring.
He has been in government virtually his entire adult life. He has administered departments and agencies
of government. He knows what department
heads go through in developing budgets and performing services. He has worked for Oakland County as a Budget
Analyst for the past 5-6 years. He was
responsible for developing and presenting multi-million dollar budgets, as well
as monitoring and ensuring that the organization performs on time and on
task. Currently, he is a Senior Analyst
with the Oakland County Board of Commissioners and works for 25 politicians. They analyze programs, policies and concepts
coming before various committees. He
serves on the Finance Committee and Public Services Committee. He has also served on the Personnel,
Planning and Building Committee, so he does offer broad experience. He stated that he would like to make clear
that he is not applying for an administrative position. He does understand that the City’s
Administration is a very competent one, and they do their job well. Council’s role is to provide guidance and
make policy. That would be his hope to
perform and in so doing support the efforts of the administration. Further, he does understand that there will
be a relatively new board in the next several months, and it would be his hope
to provide a bridge between the current City Council and the new “freshmen
class” coming in a few months, and help to provide some continuity. He offers his name for the appointment and
thanks Council for their consideration.
Mr. Dick
Selden of 62401-1 Raleigh Court stated that he has been a South Lyon resident
for approximately 10 years and has been active in this community since they
moved here. He is a former Councilman,
and has been active in the “Help Save the Pumpkinfest” Committee and is
currently Treasurer of the Coalition on Substance Abuse Prevention in the South
Lyon Area. He works in his church, and
has been on the Board for Colonial Acres Phase IV. He is retired, and attended every Michigan Municipal League
Conference while he served on Council including some regional meetings. He
holds an MBA from Michigan State Advanced School of Management and BS from
Wayne State University. He has children
and enjoys South Lyon and hopes to give his service to make it better. He appreciates Council’s consideration of
his possible appointment.
Mr. Robert
Martin of 602 W. Lake Street stated that he does not envy Council in making
this decision as he has just heard some very qualified people here. He stated that he has been a resident of
South Lyon his entire life and has worked here his entire life, therefore knows
quite a bit about South Lyon. He does
believe that he would be a good person to fill the gap. He stated that he has no agendas that he
brings, and would appreciate Council considering him for the job.
Councilman
Wallace stated that it is great to see such a selection to fill the
position. He stated that anyone who
does not get appointed, he would like to remind them not to give up that there
will be four council seats for election plus the Mayor in November. We would hope that you pull your petitions
and get started. The deadline is in
just a few weeks. He stated that you
just have to have at least 25 legitimate signatures of registered voters. Clerk/Treasurer Zemke stated that the
deadline is September 20th by 4 p.m. Councilman Wallace stated that he too was up for appointment at
one time and was not appointed.
Councilman Dryer stated that he was also in that position. We hope that you still pursue a
position. It is great to see the
interest that we have here. Mayor Doyle
stated that in years past, we have had very little interest or competition at
election time.
Mayor
Doyle stated that everyone who submitted letters spoke this evening. As far as the process, we have essentially
this meeting or next to come to some agreement. Councilman Schwarck will not be here until next month. Councilman Wallace stated that he would like
to see us take care of it at this meeting.
After this meeting we only have five Council meetings before the new
Council comes aboard.
Mayor
Doyle stated that he knows most everyone who has expressed interest and feels
that all have various traits and assets that they would bring to the
table. Any or all of these individuals
could go through and run for a seat, including his. He was leaning towards the appointment of Donna Spencer. Donna has been attending our meetings since
the beginning of January. She has been
working with the Youth Assistance as well and brings some experience. Two things, however are very important. One is the diversity. We have four men, and there has not been any
women on Council for some time, and he feels that it is important. Secondly, there is a very important issue.
We have grown a lot over the last several years, and we have a lot of new
families and faces. He feels that it is
important that the people that are coming in from other areas have a voice as
well. All of these people are very
qualified and it is a difficult choice.
This is a very short appointment, and he does not feel that anyone
appointed would gain anything as far as the election by being an
incumbent. He feels that Donna is best
suited.
Councilman
Dryer thanked all of the individuals for putting their names into the hat. We have a lot of experience here, experience
in government, experience on the Council, businessman, etc. One thing that he did come back to is that
this is a short-term appointment. We
need to have someone recognize what is going on currently, and Donna has been
attending all of our meetings, though there are different ways of keeping up on
what is going on in the City.
Therefore, he too is in favor of Donna Spencer.
Councilman
Wallace stated that he is aware that Donna has been at these meetings. However, personally, he does have someone
else in mind, Bob Martin. He stated
that he asked Bob to apply. Bob is
very well aware of what is going on in the community, and he has stated in his
letter of interest that he does not intend to run for election, he is just
interested in filling the gap. He does
not want to give anyone an advantage.
Councilman
Dryer stated that he does understand and respect Councilman Wallace’s comments
regarding getting a “leg up”. However,
we will have four Council seats up for election, and if the person that is
appointed does get elected, then it provides just a little bit more continuity,
especially given the expansion from five to seven members.
Mayor
Doyle stated that in speaking with Mr. Martin, he indicated that he has not
ruled out running for election. He asked Mr. Martin if he had
misunderstood. Mr. Martin stated that
at this point in time he has no intention of running. That may be something he would be interested in after retirement,
but no time in the near future.
Mayor
Doyle stated that he does not see this appointment as a “leg up”. It is going
to be easier for someone to be elected given the additional seats. As far as someone being capable of being up
to speed right away, Donna clearly is.
He stated that we can go around and around on this issue, but clearly
there is a majority of the board here now that favors one candidate. Furthermore, after talking with Councilman
Schwarck before he left, he does believe that if Don were here, he would be
supporting Donna as well.
Attorney
Lee stated that this Council has a right to determine their own procedure, if
you so choose, you could impose a super majority upon yourself for this
purpose.
Mayor
Doyle stated that if we do go past the 30 days, where does that leave us. Attorney Lee stated that you would be in
violation of the Charter. Mayor Doyle
asked what the repercussions are.
Attorney Lee stated that there are no sanctions within the Charter for
failure to fill that vacancy. The only
draw-back is that State Statute indicates that if by September 15th,
Council did not take action, we would be obligated to report to the Governor
that no action has been taken.
Mayor
Doyle stated that if for nothing else, we should appoint Donna for
diversification. Meaning no disrespect
to Bob, he has been in the City for many years and runs a business in a very
competitive area and does an outstanding job.
But, the fact is, as far as public service, Bob has none and Donna
does. The options are that one of the
two Council members could make a motion to appoint an individual or we could
table the issue until the first meeting in September when Councilman Schwarck
gets back, which will put us in violation of our Charter. He will not speak for Don, but the feeling
he got was that he was in favor of Donna.
The other part is that we have to value not just the “townies”
opinions. They are the minority of the
population. People who have moved from
other areas need to be represented, and Donna does that. Right now, two of the five members of
Council are life-long residents. He is
looking for diversity, and right now, the newer people do not have that. He stated that he has been in South Lyon 13
years. Also, having a woman is
important. He would hope that in
November, some people do step up.
Ms.
Spencer stated that there is nothing that would stop Mr. Martin from running;
he may enjoy it. Mayor Doyle stated
that he would take Bob at his word. Ms.
Spencer stated that she does feel that having someone fill the seat who is
interested in running is important, and would provide additional continuity. She stated that furthermore, she has
attended every meeting since January, and her opponents did have the same
opportunity. It was stated that with the meetings on cable, many residents will
watch it from the comfort of their own homes versus coming down to City
Hall. Mayor Doyle stated that he still
supports the diversity as well as someone who has taken the effort to be here.
CM 8-5-05
– APPOINTMENT OF DONNA SPENCER – VACANT COUNCIL SEAT
Motion by Dryer
To appoint Ms. Donna Spencer of 1098 Colt
Drive to the vacancy on the City Council
Motion
died due to lack of support.
CM 8-6-05
– APPOINTMENT OF ROBERT C. MARTIN – VACANT COUNCIL SEAT
Motion by Wallace
To appoint Mr. Robert C. Martin of 602 W.
Lake Street to the vacancy on the City Council
Motion
died due to lack of support.
Further
discussion was held on the ramifications of not appointing someone within 30
days. The question was asked if it
would still be a legal appointment.
Attorney Lee stated that Mr. Crawford’s term does expire at the last
meeting in October. It would be of
consequence if he had two more years.
If you appoint someone less than 60 days prior to election, the
appointment would be for the remainder of the unexpired term. You could appoint someone the first meeting
in September with no consequence.
CM 8-7-05
– TABLE CONSIDERATION OF FILLING COUNCIL VACANCY
Motion by Dryer, supported by Wallace
To table consideration of filling the
vacancy on the City Council until the first meeting in September
VOTE: MOTION
CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY
It was
stated that we also have the appointment of Mayor Pro-tem as Ray Crawford had
served in that capacity.
Attorney
Lee stated that the Charter indicates that in the absence of the filling of the
vacancy, the senior member of Council becomes the acting Mayor Pro-tem. Mayor Doyle stated that historically,
Council had made the appointment of the senior member. Councilman Dryer asked Councilman Wallace if
he were willing to serve that capacity.
Councilman Wallace indicated that he would. It was stated that if you do not take action, he automatically
becomes Mayor Pro-tem. By taking action
you could nominate Councilman Wallace or any other member of Council.
CM 8-8-05
– APPOINTMENT OF MAYOR PRO-TEM
Motion by Dryer, supported by Wallace
To appoint Councilman Tedd Wallace as
Mayor Pro-tem
VOTE: MOTION
CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY
Councilman
Dryer and Wallace indicated that they would not be attending the meeting. Mayor
Doyle stated that he will be attending.
CM 8-9-05
– APPOINTMENT OF DELEGATE – MML MEETING
Motion by Dryer, supported by Wallace
To appoint Mayor Doyle as the delegate
for the MML Annual Conference in September 2005
VOTE: MOTION
CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY
NEW
BUSINESS:
Mayor
Doyle stated that since the last meeting, he has had an opportunity to speak
with Kathy Baker who is very much in support of dedicating one of the parks in
Paul’s honor.
Councilman
Wallace stated that he is leaning toward Fountain Park rather than Volunteer
Park. The fountain represents perpetual
motion, and so was Paul. Furthermore,
it is right in town, which will be seen by more people. He stated that Volunteer Park was named for
the many volunteers of the City, which represents something. Whereas, the name Fountain Park does not.
Discussion
was held on the name for the park. One
suggestion was Paul Baker Memorial Park.
Another was Paul Baker Legacy Park.
Further
discussion was held on renaming Volunteer Park versus Fountain Park. Mr. Dick Selden stated that he feels that
Fountain Park is too small for a man of Paul’s stature. Discussion was held on Fountain Park being
in closer proximity to downtown as well as the South Lyon Hotel. The question was asked if the sign could be
changed. City Manager Cook stated that
it would be.
City
Attorney Lee stated that rather than simply vote on the issue, Council could
direct staff to draft a formal resolution.
CM 8-10-05
– DIRECT STAFF TO DRAFT RESOLUTION – DEDICATION OF PARK
Motion by Wallace, supported by Dryer
To direct staff to draft a resolution
renaming Fountain Park to Paul Baker Memorial Park for adoption at the
second meeting in August
VOTE: MOTION
CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY