PONTIAC CHARTER COMMISION MEETING MINUTES

Transcription

1 Wednesday, November 7, :00pm Council Conference Room Present: Absent: Chair- Darryl Fowlkes; Co-Chair Dr. Doris Taylor-Burks; Yvette Carson; Roland Elam; Evelyn Leduff; Wilbert McAdams Jr.; Dr. Bruce Turpin; Dr. Deirdre Waterman; Willa Mae Wright. Guest (s): Rick David, Hubert Price, Gregory Hicks Meeting Called to Order: 6:12 AGENDA Meeting was called to order at 6:10pm by Chair, Darryl Fowlkes. Moment of Silence Roll call. Quorum present Approval of Agenda Dr. Waterman suggested that the agenda be adjusted to include invited speakers to present prior to the acceptance of the minutes. Dr. Taylor voiced a concern about presentations to the commission and what the process should be. Her feeling was that commissioners/committees would discuss with leadership about presenting speakers prior to the meeting before deciding on having a presentation to the full commission. Chair acknowledged the discussion. Motion Motion to approve agenda with the addition of speakers by Elam, 2nd by Ms. LeDuff, vote passed with one opposition by Dr. Taylor.

2 Approval of Minutes. Secretary Turpin indicated that the minutes include reference to attachments for the research committee and forms of government report that have not been completed. Turpin requests that reports by committees be presented with written documentation that would be attached to the official minutes. A summary of Ms. LeDuff s forms of government report was provided within the Oct 17 th minutes. A written report will be forthcoming. Dr. Waterman indicated that the proper name for the committee is Research and not Resource. Dr. Waterman also indicated that in the Minutes it should state that the By-Laws need to be circulated to commissioners prior to the next meeting rather than bought to the next meeting. Corrected spelling of Evelyn LeDuff on page2. Mrs. Wright corrected Next meeting date as Nov. 7th not the 3 rd. Motion Motion to accept the minutes with corrections moved by Dr. Taylor second by Dr. Waterman motion passed LeDuff opposed. Special Presentations Dr. Waterman, on behalf of the Research Committee introduced speakers Rick David, Hubert Price, and Gregory Hicks. Mr. David and Mr. Price, along with city council members were instrumental in putting the new charter issue on the ballot. Mr. Rick David Mr. Rick David presented first with an outline of Why Charter Reform Now Campaign which was used in a presentation to the Pontiac City Council prior to the 2/28/2012 election. (See Attached.) Mr. David highlighted the second bullet point on his attached document. The challenge inherent in charter development is achieving the proper balance between the relatively permanent charter mandates and the latitude needed by local officials to make government efficient, effective and responsive under changing conditions.

3 He went on to say that having this discussion now as we prepare for a post Financial Manager era is important. As is the need to examine that we are today in turns of right sizing governance, we are in a postindustrial smaller size era for the city. Shaping the city in regards to the issues of Regionalism and Globalization are also considerations. Pontiac has changing demographics that need to be taken into consideration as much as He indicated that a lot of his information is gathered from the Citizens Research Council and that they have offices in Novi. Mr. David went on to say that lots of different audiences need to be reached in the process of our deliberations. Mr. Hubert Price. Resources that he deems important included the Citizens Research Council with Luper, the? Michigan Municipal league and its CEO Gil Martin. The City of Pontiac has been added to its membership rolls. This membership avails city leadership the opportunity to participate in meetings and conferences that they sponsor. Attendance is free. Discussed efforts by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago in light of the current economic crisis. They have an initiative called the Industrial Cities Initiative a fifty (50)-page document. Two cities from the five states in their region were listed as examples of outcomes from the recent Economic Tsunami. One city as an example of having done well and another as an example of a struggling community. In Michigan they chose Grand Rapids and Pontiac. There is a report available on line. (I am enclosing a link you can search the site for information about Pontiac.) cfm Mr. Price feels that the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago would be responsive to a request for a presentation to the commission. Mr. Price further indicated that the higher education community, Oakland University, Oakland Community College, and Baker College would be good resources for no charge interns to help with the work of the Commission, along with other resources. Mr. Price feels that the citizen s response to issues of the charter during the petition signing period would indicate that there are concerns about the Executive branch and the Legislative branches of the city s governance. There were concerns about how to better educate the citizens about civic affairs. Made an example of the library s quarterly newsletter. People were concerned about city employee attitudes. Price opinioned, Management of financial affairs is the reason we are in this position. He gave an example of how, while he was a State Representative sitting on the Appropriations committee, they would have a quarterly report by the Consensus Revenue Estimating

4 Conference on the state of the budget. This estimating Conference was composed of representatives from the House of Representatives fiscal agency and the State Senate s fiscal agency. Also, there was the State Treasurer and two representatives from The University of Michigan school of Economics. Mr. Price feels that some form of fiscal accountability would be in order and that perhaps the charter could address that. Price states that the position of deputy mayor as part of the cities administration has been a position that elected mayors have promised to hire city managers to run for the day to day operations of the city for years and it has not happened. Mr. Price reminisced about times when the city had corporate executives living and serving in the community as elected officials. Felt that the charter could address how to engage more corporate participation in the city s management. Leduff asked for qualification of Price s position on corporate involvement. She had originally thought he has speaking as corporations being a source for grants. Price clarified that he felt it possible for the Charter to address issues of corporate participation in some way by virtual of the many councils and commissions the city has. Dr. Waterman spoke about the need for creating a meaningful budget and thought that Mr. Gregory Hicks, fresh from the Detroit city councils process could bring useful information about the ability of the charter to define what the city of Pontiac does in the future. She also spoke of what the process would require relative to time and budget issues Mr. Gregory Hicks Reminded the commission of who it is. We are the fathers and mothers of the governing documents of the city. This city charter is for the commission to define rules of governance for years to follow. Need to go over the Home Rule City Charters Act. The act gives legal rights to the commission. Clerk is mandated to provide support for the Charter Commission. The Home Rule Act would back up the need for staff and financial support for the charter process. It is the responsibility of the city to provide support for the commission. By virtue of being a public body the commission requires the support of public resources. Mr. Hicks estimates that this commission should require $100,000.00/yr of financial support for executing the duties of the commission. Core issues were similar in Detroit as they are here in Pontiac. Deficit spending, and agreement on money available to spend were high on the list Gave power to the city attorney to enforce the charter. Mayor appoints, Council approves. To fire, Mayor would have to have supermajority of council. Feel free to put what you want in the charter document as long as it does not impinge on the domain of the state, the city has the right to do as it pleases.

5 Have to have the discussion on how to monitor for corruption. Have to look forward to how city will look yrs from today. When discussing the forms of government it was indicated that there are problems with all forms and the problems come more from issues of ethics. So rules that attempt to address ethics are important. Public engagement: Citizens can be source of good ideas. Had 501 ideas put forward by the citizens of Detroit? Tried to meet in every sub community in the city of Detroit. This required coordinating with different hosts to help get people to turn out for the meetings. As elected officials you have to grow thick skin, you have to respect the authority of your commission s leadership. We have the right to put professional requirements for city positions. Leduff asked about the number of council districts and why they did not change given the population decline. Detroit still has 9 councilpersons seven districts with two being elected at large. Surveyed about 250 cites from around the country. Could be available to us via Mr. Hicks or Michigan Municipal league, or University of Michigan. Housing issues that have to be understood in Charters development. I.e. housing authority. Need to provide flexibility, not too specific. However when it comes to ethics there is more of a need for specifics Carson asked about the Roberts Rules situation that could find three people from the commission voting on an items approval. Mr. Hick s response was that the commission would have to decide on where to have a majority of the members as a voting outcome or majority of those present as an outcome. How did Detroit breakdown the process. Familiarize yourself with the charter, municipal process in other places. Public hearings Construction of the Charter. Each section was worked on about a year apiece and this was with staff. Legal and administrative.

6 Recess Meeting broke for a 5 min. Recess. Report of the Chair. Chair spoke with Elam to make contact with Oakland U and Cooley law for possible assistance. We were informed that nobody would be available until after the election. Contacted Mr. Matheson of the Michigan Municipal League. Matheson recommended Mr. Peter Letzman his web site is :// Mr. Letzman is a former city attorney for Troy and comes highly recommended. Chair scheduled to meet Mr. Letzman on Friday, Nov. 9. Chair reiterated the desire to complete this process by August of Dr. Waterman inquired about assignments and the information requested. Felt that emphasis by Mr. Hicks would suggest we need to be sure each of us has a copy of the Home Rule Charter Act. Chair responded that the election has been prioritized in the clerk s office and when the issues of the election are over we will be able to see what the clerk is capable of providing. Mr. McAdams inquired as to goal of what we would like to have relative to documents. Charters to which communities? It was agreed we wanted Detroit, Southfield, Warren, Benton Harbor, Troy, Sterling Heights, and Flint. Turpin asked, after collecting info of cities listed how do we plan to address the various components of those charters. Such as forms of government, how they address certain management controls, we will need some form of comparative analysis. McAdams; Charters have a basic pattern, tend to have the same format. Feels that by using digital tools we can compare in a side-by-side way and do some cutting and pasting to create our own document. The need for a legal review of our efforts will be in order prior to submission to the state. LeDuff; Agreed that Cooley Law can be a resource for our legal needs. Chair; Indicated that there could be budget issues regarding the Clerks ability to provide copying support. LeDuff; Reemphasized need to create a budget.

7 Dr. Waterman; Encouraged commission to push for a budget to present to the EM. Even though word has been that there is no money. Political weight of the community could help to sway a positive response for a reasonably thought out budget. Not to mention legal precedent based on the States Home Rule Charter Act. Yvette Carson agreed, we need to prepare a budget. Motion to Adjourn Motion to adjourn to a day certain. Moved by Dr Taylor second Leduff. Unanimous. Next Meeting 6:00pm Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2012 City Council Conference Chambers Respectfully, Bruce E. Turpin D.D.S. Secretary Pontiac Charter Commission