Approval of Agenda

Council Member Jones made a motion to approve the agenda as presented, supported by Council Member Scheid.

The question on the motion was called and the result of the voting is as follows:

            Ayes:               Council Members Feuerstein, Scheid, Lallo, Jones and Gunderson.

            Nays:               None.

Public Comments

Katherine Henry, 806 Wildlife Trail, stated for the last couple of meetings the agendas and packets posted on line were changed by the time she got to the meeting.  There were 71 pages with attachments.  When she gets here a few hours later, there is a much different agenda with five new items on the consent and business items.  The documents were not on line.  They should try to avoid that going forth in the future.  It is hard for the public to participate when items don’t appear at all when the packet is presented on line.  The only thing available when they get here is one sheet.  The attachments are not made available.  They should try to change that going forward because they would like the opportunity to participate.

Shelley Gladding, 1021 Pleasant St., stated regarding the closed session, she was not at the last meeting.  It has been brought to her attention that Ms. Henry, their new commissioner, let it be known that she had put an application in to be on the Planning Commission back on September 16.  They were not given any notification of that in writing until January 15.  That is clearly a long time to wait.  That is a performance issue that needs to be looked at.  They have a member of the community willing to step up and be on the Planning Commission and it waited that long.  At the September 26 Planning Commission meeting, our city manager had recommended that they pull the number of members from seven down to five because it was hard to get a quorum.  If one or two members are missing and they are already two members short, that does leave them with the issue of having a quorum, but they had a member, sitting out in the public waiting to be brought on and she waited until January to bring it to them.  She doesn’t understand what the issue was.  At the October 22, 2013 Planning Commission meeting, she specifically asked if there had been any interest from individuals wanting to join the Planning Commission.  The city manager said she had not had been notified of any interest.  Mr. Knowlton also stated he wanted to get those open positions filled.  September 16 is when she sent it in and October 22, specifically asked, nothing.  November, nothing.  December, she believes toward the end of the meeting there might have been a verbal notification that someone was interested, but it would come to their next meeting and that is when they were actually given the application.  On September 16, it was scanned and emailed.  That was a performance issue.  At the last meeting, basically, from the way it was explained to her, Ms. Henry was treated like that was not the truth. These individuals are here because they care.  They should be treated with respect.  They love this community.  There is a full house.  They care.  They should make sure they are heard and respected and listened to.  She has a great concern, as chairman of the Planning Commission, when they have a highly qualified individual to come on, and then why does she have to check back?  It was March when the appointment went through city council and she came to the first meeting.

Robert Brown, stated like many of those in attendance tonight, he has the best interest in the community, however, the similarities end there.  When he decided to run for elected office, candidates have the luxury of being fully aware that they will lose a certain expectation of privacy.  However, their city manager is not an elected official, and as such in the office of city manager, she should have the same rights and expectations of those out in the community.  The publication of the document that was circulated at the April 1 meeting was a gross breach of the city manager’s privacy.  It served no purpose but to further sling mud, spread controversy and new conspiracy theories.  By circulating the documents, our citizens have reaffirmed the many unwanted reputations Belding has gathered over the years.  What is equally disappointing is the author did not have the courage to take responsibility for the forms they passed.  More so, if any of them would have been in the same position in their personal lives or work and were presented the same document, it would be treated completely differently. There would be lawyers involved and it would be a problem.  With that being said, they have sacred freedoms here in the United States, with nothing being more important than freedom of speech and expression. However, with those great freedoms come great responsibility and equal greatness to responsibly use those freedoms.  He would ask the city council to disregard the document when later referring to items in the closed session.  But once something is seen, it can never be unseen.  He hopes the council has the ability to discern between what is directly involved with the city manager’s office and what happens outside of work in her own personal life.  He recognizes the majority of information he received comes from third party sources and he thinks it is a fair statement here today that most of them are in the same boat.  However, today the city manager has the opportunity to change the status quo.  He is fully aware of the magnitude and the difficulty of the next request. He would request that the city manager waive the right for a closed session for her evaluation.  As a citizen he only hears the bad, whether it is the news, outlets, social media or fellow community members.  Whether everything being said is true is irrelevant because her reputation has now been damaged.  Letting our community view her evaluation process would allow them the transparency that they need.  They would learn firsthand about her struggles and failure, but most importantly her triumphs and successes in her office.  She has the ability to show them what would otherwise be unknown to them.  Tonight she and the council collectively can let her work record speak for itself and give them the open government transparency they demand.  Thank you.

Consent Agenda

Reports by Council Liaisons

Council Member Scheid stated the Housing Commission will be meeting on Thursday night.  He has to be at Showcase.  Things are moving along on the sprinkler system repair at Woodhaven.

Council Member Lallo stated he would encourage them to visit the Museum.  There has been a lot of painting and updates.  Labor Day is in full gear.  The Car Show will be taken over by the Drum Line.  Dave Scheid will do the tractor pull.  There are sponsorship opportunities.  If interested, please contact the Labor Day Committee. 

Council Member Jones stated the next Rec Board meeting would be held in May.

Council Member Feuerstein inquired about the Planning Commission meeting. 

City Manager Mullendore stated they would have public input on the review of the Master Plan on April 22.  That has been published in the newspapers and such. Two Planning Commission members have indicated they cannot attend.  Shelley Gladding will make a determination, as the chair, on what to do in moving forward.

Mayor Gunderson stated the DDA met.  There will be a walk around coming up, with people being invited, the business owners and things like that on May 1.  The downtown area will be redistricted to capture money for that.  The library has not met.  Last night there was a Rails to Trails meeting and they were presented with $1,000 from the ICCF towards the 2.28 miles here in town.  There are two other grants.  There is a $20,000 grant going in to DELMAC and a $10,000 grant going in to People for Bikes. They are hoping to hear on those the first part of May when they release their grant money. 

Unfinished Business

There was no unfinished business.

New Business

D.        Determine action of FOIA Appeal Request from Kimberly Orlich for FOIA REQ PROSECUTOR in 2003-2004 dated February 1, 2014

Council Member Scheid asked what were the chances of her going to court on these things?  What is the risk here?

City Manager Mullendore stated, based on the discussion with legal counsel, it is very minimal.  The policy is very specific, relative to the situation and they are not the only community that has this.  The attorney researched other communities with this type of a caveat in it and recommended we adopt it as well, simply because of the number of requests that were outstanding, including the dollar amounts associated with those.  He indicated he felt very confident that they could, if this was taken to circuit court, they would be able to defend it and prevail. 

Council Member Jones made a motion to affirm the denial of FOIA Appeal Request from Kimberly Orlich for FOIA REQ PROSECUTOR in 2003-2004 dated February 1, 2014, supported by Council Member Scheid.

Ayes:   Council Members Feuerstein, Scheid, Lallo, Jones and Gunderson.

Nays:   None

E.        Determine action of FOIA Appeal Request from Kimberly Orlich for FOIA Authorities to prosecute and charge under MVC and Old UTC dated February 1, 2014

Council Member Scheid asked if the city manager had replied to any of them?  Ms. Orlich has been sending these things for six months now and have they always had a reason not to send them?

City Manager Mullendore stated no, they have afforded and fulfilled them, however if there was a charge associated with it, she has chosen not to pay that.  They actually have a stack of FOIA requests that have been prepared with the requested documents, but she chooses not to pay the fee associated with that.  They can waive the fee if it is deemed in the public good, however that provision is generally utilized for news agencies or press outlets.  And due to the volume of the requests that were coming in and the volume of the work associated with fulfilling those, they did not deem that it was in the good of the public.  She has no formal website in which to put those on and after discussions with legal counsel he was very adamant that no, she needs to pay for these requests.

Council Member Scheid made a motion to affirm the denial of FOIA Appeal Request from Kimberly Orlich for FOIA Authorities to prosecute and charge under MVC and Old UTC dated February 1, 2014, supported by Council Member Lallo.

Ayes:   Council Members Feuerstein, Scheid, Lallo, Jones and Gunderson.

Nays:   None

F.         Determine action of FOIA Appeal Request from Kimberly Orlich for FOIA REQ Hummel Datamaster training dated February 9, 2014

Council Member Scheid asked what Datamaster training was?

Sgt. Burns stated the Datamaster was for drunk drivers, the machine that is used at the jail.  They have to be trained on it to continue their OUIL investigations.   

Council Member Scheid made a motion to affirm the denial of FOIA Appeal Request from Kimberly Orlich for FOIA REQ Hummel Datamaster training dated February 9, 2014, supported by Council Member Lallo.

Ayes:   Council Members Feuerstein, Scheid, Lallo, Jones and Gunderson.

Nays:   None

G.        Determine action of FOIA Appeal Request from Kimberly Orlich for FOIA req foia policies at G dated February 11, 2014

Council Member Jones made a motion to affirm the denial of a FOIA Appeal Request from Kimberly Orlich for FOIA req foia policies at G dated February 11, 2014, supported by Council Member Scheid.

Ayes:   Council Members Feuerstein, Scheid, Lallo, Jones and Gunderson.

Nays:   None

H.        Determine action of FOIA Appeal Request from Kimberly Orlich for FOIA REQ  CITY CHARTER ATTORNEY DATED May 24, 2013

Council Member Lallo made a motion to reject the FOIA Appeal Request from Kimberly Orllich for FOIA REQ CITY CHARTER ATTORNEY DATED May 24, 2013 for failing to meet the requirements to file an appeal to the head of the public body, supported by Council Member Scheid.

Ayes:   Council Members Feuerstein, Scheid, Lallo, Jones and Gunderson.

Nays:   None

I.          Determine action of FOIA Appeal Request from Kimberly Orlich for FOIA REQ  RES LETC AND UTC dated May 24, 2013

Council Member Lallo asked if Ms. Orlich continues to submit FOIA’s, will the city process those or wait until the balance is paid?

City Manager Mullendore stated based upon the FOIA policy in place, if you have an outstanding balance, they will not process any requests until that balance is brought current. 

Council Member Lallo asked, other than time and effort and paper costs, is that what we are out, pretty much?

City Manager Mullendore stated the statute specifies that they are only allowed to charge reasonable fees.  The state says they may charge the lowest paid staff member who is capable of doing the work, only their fee.  That doesn’t take into account anyone else that is associated with the formal preparation of the document, when they have to work with legal counsel to make sure they are in compliance with the statute.  Those fees cannot be charged and she just tallied that dollar amount up today and they are at $9,700 in legal fees being paid out.  She has not gotten the bill from Varnum for last month, and that will be a big one because there were 17 different items sent from Ms. Orlich to our FOIA specialist there and she anticipates that bill will be anywhere between $2,500  and $5,000, because they are forming a legal opinion based on all of those.  They are not allowed to recoup any of that type of fee and when you factor in the general staff time that is associated with this, the low, conservative estimate right now with the current attorney fees, they are at just over $25,500 that this has cost them, but because they can only charge what the statute says, they cannot pass the total cost on. 

Council Member Lallo asked if the city can get the money Ms. Orlich owes?

Attorney Pat White stated there is the potential, but it would cost the city more to pursue it than what they have sitting out. 

Council Member Lallo asked if there was anyone else with an outstanding balance on FOIA requests?

City Manager Mullendore stated Tom Roda submitted a FOIA request.  He has been given a cost calculation sheet.  The documents are available.  He has chosen not to pay for that.  The other information requested is publically available on the website and she directed him to that.  If it is available for public viewing in that type of a forum the city is not obligated to produce a document.  

Council Member Lallo asked what his outstanding balance was?

City Manager Mullendore stated it was around $5.00.

Council Member Scheid made a motion to reject the FOIA Appeal Request from Kimberly Orlich for FOIA REQ  RES LETC AND UTC dated May 24, 2013, for failing to meet the requirements necessary to file an appeal with the head of the public body, as the 180 days started in June, 2013 and has expired, supported by Council Member Lallo.

Ayes:   Council Members Feuerstein, Scheid, Lallo, Jones and Gunderson.

Nays:   None

Public Comments

Beth Mays, 5441 Orleans Rd., asked if there was any way that Belding could shut down the Belding mall?  She has been an owner there from two years ago.  She heard the rumor it would close, so it kind of protected her not to invest any more into the mall. She was going to get an outside entrance.  She has an inside entrance right now.  But like, if there was any way that could happen, that would like screw her out of what she has invested in the mall.  And, she just like, she guesses that is her question is like, she doesn’t know, can it happen?  You know, like, can Belding just come in and shut the mall down and she is out money in her business.  She really does want to invest in the mall.  She wants to get another spot in the mall where she has an outside entrance so it would value her more.  She guesses at the time she heard the rumor it affected her quite a bit because there was a place up for sale that she was interested in, but because of the rumor she kinda didn’t go that route cause she didn’t know if that was actually a possibility that Belding could shut it down.  She wants to invest into Belding, but at this point, she doesn’t know if she wants to invest any more than what she is already out, she guesses. 

Craig Crebessa, 8079 Storey Rd., stated he wanted to take a moment to say that all these great people have showed up here this evening in support of things that have been going on here the last couple of weeks.  And, on behalf of what he had experienced with the city manager, he doesn’t think she is fit for the community from his personal experiences and from what they have seen happen throughout the community.  They are not innuendos at all or insinuations.  He personally saw, and heard it with his own two ears.  So, everything is on black and white that has been put out there.  There is nothing that has been made up.  There is nothing that has been contrived.  And so, working tonight as a community person, he is asking for council to do the right thing this evening, and to terminate Meg Mullendore’s position here with the community.  It has caused a lot of issues and problems for the people here and they would like to get moving in a positive direction again.  He believes in this community.  Born and raised and he would like to see that happen as quick as possible.  He thanked them for their time. 

Katherine Henry, 806 Wildlife Trail, stated first she wanted to thank them all that asked questions during the items on the new business agenda, to understand the facts and understand the law.  Although she disagrees with how the vote turned out, as they are still violating the statutes, she does think it was a very good first step they all made in asking those questions and she really applauds them for that.  She also wanted to make sure to thank Meg, because this time around, although she disagree with her interpretation of the FOIA provisions, she really does appreciate her work as she spent a lot of time in researching into the provisions and different things that are going on and she not only researched them, but it seemed it was important to her to explain them to city council as she understood them, as well as to the public and it wasn’t just the one same provision over and over again.  To her that was a vast improvement and she appreciated that.   Given they have $9,000, or $25,000 into Varnum, if it is going to cost far less to simply grant somebody’s request, aside from the exception category, such as Chief Nelson’s personal information, she understands those requests, but if it is going to cost far less to just provide the information on training and materials and procedures, her suggestion to all of them would be that they should just go ahead and grant them.  She wanted to applaud the tall gentleman, that she didn’t catch his name, for getting up and voicing his opinion.  She thinks that is great.  She thinks it is very important for people of all opinions to get up and speak and so sir, she is glad that he got up and spoke.  She wanted to make clear, that although she was the one that typed or copied and pasted the materials that were handed out on the handout at the last meeting, she was not the author.  Those were things, many of those things were things that were said at prior city council meetings, or discussed or provided by various members of the community, but many of those concerns were already on record, including the ones that were deemed to be too personal. So she didn’t want to put her name on it because it was not all her facts.  She summarized what people were talking about.    

Mayor Gunderson stated her time was up, but allowed another minute at her request. 

Mrs. Henry stated as far as identifying herself, her email was on there, so if anyone had any questions or concerns they could have contacted her and she would have preferred that they had done so, if they found anything that she said questionable or offensive, please email her.  She did want to thank Meg for getting the Planning Commission Master Plan on the city website.  She didn’t know if it was out anywhere else, but it is a very important piece and she does applaud her for that considering that they want the public involved.  Her only last thing she would say was that Meg has done good things for the community.  Her concern, and she believes, some of the concerns of those here, is that the bad things or questionable things that have been done cannot just erase.  She excused herself – the good things that have been done cannot merely erase the questionable things that have been done.  She would just ask them to consider all that in closed session tonight. 

City Manager’s Comments

City Manager Mullendore stated Ernie Thomas was recently recognized by the American Rural Water Association and there was a nice publication out that Cory did relative to that.  She wanted to express, again, how proud she was of him to have an honor of that magnitude bestowed upon him by his peers, it speaks to how well he does his job, how seriously he takes his job and the level of professionalism he has with those individuals, as well as to his staff and she can’t think of a more deserving person than him. 

City Manager Mullendore stated there are a lot of issues going on and a lot of people that are upset and there is some dissention.  She understands that.  This position comes with a bullseye on its back in most situations.  That is not unique to just her, it is across the board.  They have to make some decisions that are often times not necessarily popular and as a result of that other things come to fruition and it becomes very personal.  She understands that.  Is it frustrating? Absolutely.  She respects what people say, and is she a work in progress?  Absolutely.  She is a human being which means she is going to evolve and she is going to grow and she is going to learn.  She does want to take time out to thank those who have supported her, who have sent her messages, who have called, who have come to visit her in the office.  It means the world to her and she thinks that they see the big picture and she is very grateful for that and she just wants to acknowledge that, so thank you.  That is all she had. 

Council Comments

Council Member Feuerstein had no comments at this time. 

Council Member Scheid stated he wished to thank people for showing up here tonight.  They went through some issues.  The FOIA request thing is confusing him so that is why he asked the questions.  Also, he called Ernie and congratulated him. If any of them didn’t read the article, Ernie handled himself very, very well in there, especially throwing some of the praise on to his workers.  He didn’t stand there and grandstand, he was real appreciative of it.  He congratulated him on that, too.

Council Member Lallo stated after the last meeting he looked into the FOIA request in regards to incarceration.  He did that as best as he could.  As far as he found, and he went as far as contacting the Attorney General’s office, the FOIA Coordinator there, and they told them that legally they are doing nothing wrong as far as denying those requests due to the incarceration, even though they were submitted prior to the incarceration.  Actually, there is nothing legally that was done wrong.  He made a mistake last meeting, and apologized to the City of Lowell and Mayor Hodges.  They have a five minute public comment period, not three minutes. 

Council Member Jones asked for clarification, as he had a couple people ask about leaf and brush pickup, do they need to be bagged or will they pick them up in bulk?

DPW Director Thomas stated leaves, in the springtime until fall when they fall off the trees, have to be bagged in biodegradable bags, weighing no more than 35 pounds.  Bags are to be placed to the curb no earlier than Thursday at 6 p.m. The bags will be picked up on Friday.  The bags were not picked up last Friday, that was his error.  Normally they started the second Friday of April picking up bagged leaves, but since they had such a hard winter, they pushed that back and then they got a big snow melt, everybody decided to go out and rake and they were extremely busy doing other jobs, trying to patch some potholes and sweep some streets.  Staff  has been working two days picking up bags with the loader trying to clean up for Easter Sunday.  They do have to be bagged in biodegradable bags.  Code enforcement will be around for those that put them out loose by the road.  Brush pick-up is scheduled for April 21.  Place brush at the curb by 7 a.m.  They have a route they take and they don’t pick up the same area twice, so it is important to have it out.  A March brush pick-up was scheduled, but there was too much snow.    

City Manager Mullendore stated the information was shown on the website, newsletter and on the Facebook page.    

DPW Director Thomas stated he hopes people understand that there are some priorities that have to be taken care of over picking up bags and brush. 

Council Member Jones stated with the way the spring has been, they have done an excellent job on what had to be done. 

Mayor Gunderson stated Judy Taylor has retired from police force after 32.5 years.  He congratulated her on her retirement.  He thanked everyone for showing up tonight.

Closed Session

A.        Pursuant to MCL 15.268, Sec. 8 (a), the city manager has requested closed session for her personnel evaluation

Council Member Scheid made a motion to enter closed session at 8:11 p.m., supported by Council Member Lallo.

Mayor Gunderson recessed the meeting at 8:12 p.m.

Mayor Gunderson reconvened the meeting at 8:24 p.m.

Council Member Jones made a motion to return to regular session at 11:50 p.m., supported by Council Member Scheid.

Mayor Gunderson stated council completed the evaluation for the city manager.  She scored 2.7 out of 5.  They discussed areas of strengths and weaknesses.  They will set timeframes and goals. 

Adjournment

Council Member Jones moved to adjourn the meeting, supported by Council Member Feuerstein.

Ayes:               Council Members Feuerstein, Scheid, Lallo, Jones and Gunderson.

            Nays:               None.

The Mayor adjourned the meeting at 11:52 p.m.