Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette Calumet Village Council heard from Village Clerk, Kevin Weir, that Villlage Manager Ordinance No. 154 will appear on the March 10 ballot, giving the voters the opportunity to decide whether day-to-day duties will be responsibility of the clerk, or will pass to a manager.

CALUMET — A question that has come up repeatedly for years within the village will finally be settled by the voters in March.

Village Clerk Kevin Weir informed the council, at its regular January meeting, that the voters will decide the question of whether the Village Manager Ordinance, No.154, which transfers duties of elected officials to an appointed manager will be approved. In other words, should duties of the village clerk, which is an elected position, be transferred to a manager, who is appointed by the village council?

The referendum began as a petition begun and circulated by village resident, and former Council Trustee Peggy Germain, who began the circulation shortly after the ordinance was passed last October. Her argument was that whether Calumet Village has a manager or an administrator should not be left for the council to decide, but should be a question answered by the voters themselves.

“They (the council) were trying to change the way our government operates without the consent of the people,” Germain said, adding that if a manager is appointed, and is not popular with the residents, there is no way the voters can remove that manager.

“An elected official is accountable to the voters,” she said, “and if the clerk is not satisfactory to the people, they can remove him or her by voting them out.”

Caleb Katz, village manager said that currently the village operates under an administrative government, meaning that duties the clerk does not want to do, or can delegate, he can delegate it to the village administrator.

Under Ordinance No. 154, he said, the village manager is simply tasked with the everyday duties, which are outlined in the manager’s contract.

“It gives the manager more latitude to make decision,” Katz said, “i.e., if there are emergency purchases needed, or is somebody is going to be hired immediately, or things like that, versus if an employment issue comes up, I have to go the Personnel Committee, and the committee makes a decision, then makes a recommendation to the council, then the council has to talk about it, and they make a decision. Having a village manager just streamlines the process.”

Currently, the council makes all of the decisions in that way, and the clerk then has duties that he delegates to the administrator, Katz said.

“However, all those smaller tasks become the manager’s job, instead of having to go to the council at every meeting.”