Holly Council approves charter amendments

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Bill Kuyk

HOLLY, Michigan – Village officials reviewed three new Village Charter amendment resolutions at their March 9 meeting. By a vote of 6-1, the amendments were approved and will be published before being sent to the governor for review and approval.

The resolutions amend the Village Charter to define the term, “In default to the village” for the purposes of determining eligibility for public office in the village.

The issue was brought to the forefront in 2007 when top vote-getter in the election, John Lauve, was denied his winning council seat due to unpaid back taxes, and unpaid water bills and inspection fees.

The amendment specifies that individuals are prevented from running for office if the person is in default to the village. “In default to the village,” is further defined as including delinquent property taxes after the last day of February in the year following the year that the taxes were levied, unless subject to appeal, or if another debt is owed to the village and remains unpaid 90 days after the due date. Candidates must be at least 21 years old, be a registered voter and be a resident of the village of Holly at least six months prior to the date of his or her election.

The second of the three amendments defines the term “misconduct in office,” for the purposes of determining the existence of a vacancy in an elective or appointive village office. More specifically, it establishes when a vacancy in a public office exists. In his memo, village attorney Richard Figura said one of the causes for vacancy is “misconduct in office,” which to date, has not been defined. The new amendment, Figura says, adds a definition of “misconduct in office” based on state law.

The third amends the Village Charter to change the method of establishing the compensation to be paid to Village Council members. It provides that the compensation for the village president and council members would be established by resolution of the Village Council.

Village President Pete Clemens gave council members a chance to discuss the amendments after Councilwoman Pauline Kenner seconded Tom McKenney’s motion for approval.

“I think there’s a little problem with it because it says the salaries will be determined and run for the length of the candidate’s term in office,” Councilman Bill Kuyk, who explained his concerns with the wording of the amendment, noting that two-year versus four-year term limits could prohibit council members from being paid the same amount.

Kyuk offered a hypothetical scenario.

“You’ve got the new members that come onboard – some of them are going to be serving for two years until the slots of the people that were appointed to fill a position, so they would serve for the two years the remaining part,” he said. “Now the other members are going to serve for four years, but before their four-year term is up, half way through, there will be another election for three more members of council.”

Kuyk summarized. “That would mean that if council voted to make a salary adjustment one way or the other – up or down, all the people that were on the four-year term would have to abide by that remuneration for the four years,” he said. “There will be another election in two years for the other three seats when they alternate and they could have another salary review then and those people would vote and they could raise or lower their salaries and they would be saddled with that for the next four years,” he added. “If you increase the salary, the people that are still serving their two years would still have the low level of salary, and I don’t think that was the way it was intended to be.”

Powers directed council’s attention to Figura’s memorandum.

“It says,‘The compensation established by the council’s resolution would be come effective as of the commencement date of the next term of office of the president,’” she said. “By way of example, if this charter amendment is approved, the council would pass a salary resolution no later than July, 2012. The compensation established by the resolution would apply to the president and all council members.”

Powers said council would change the amount every two years. “The council would pass a resolution that year for it to become effective in November,” she said. “Because it’s taking in the fact that one of the terms – the presidency is a two-year term.”

Kuyk’s continued disagreement over the issue eventually went unresolved as council members weighed in and passed the resolution in a vote of 6-1 with Kuyk casting the dissenting vote.