HOUGHTON – The Houghton City Council held a scheduled regular meeting on December 14. During the meeting the Council handled a number of forward-looking agenda items including recreation grant applications, new commission appointments, and new firefighters.

Three of the first four new business agenda items were the submission of grant applications to the Spark program offered by the Michigan Department of Natural resources. The program offers a total of $65 million for public recreation facilities with each municipality eligible to submit up to three separate applications, though only one project per city can receive funding under the program.

The projects proposed by city manager Eric Waara were putting a roof over the hockey rink at Edwards Street Park, upgrades and repairs to the “Chutes and Ladders” play structure at the Ray Kestner Waterfront Park and resurfacing of the basketball court and striping for pickleball at Bridge Street Park. Separate motions for the submittal of each of the three grant applications all passed unanimously.

This meeting also saw new appointments to the Planning Commission. Three seats were contested, including the sitting council member. Much discussion involved a discrepancy between the Council’s common practice for re-appointment and the procedures as detailed in the City Ordinances.

New members Norma Veurink and Ben Ciavola were appointed to seats previously held by Brad Baltensperger and Jennifer Julien. Mayor Pro Tem Joan Suits was appointed to the seat previously held by Councilor Mike Needham. Councilor and past mayor Robert Backon commended Needham on his service, while Suits expressed anticipation at working with the Planning Commission.

Also during the meeting, Kathleen Richards was appointed to the Housing Commission and Karyn Olson became the newest member of Downtown Development Authority/Tax Increment Finance Authority. Sitting members renewed their terms on the DDA/TIFA, Board of Review, Portage Lake Water Sewage Authority, Local Development Finance Authority, and Western Upper Peninsula Planning and Development Region.

The fire department also got three new members, Stuart Tolsma, Maxwell Beard, and Elizabeth VanHeusden. Tolsma and Beard are residents of Houghton and students at Michigan Technological University, while VanHeusden lives in Hancock and is a certified firefighter. Their being added to the department was requested by the fire department via email and approved unanimously by the Council.

During the meeting, the Council also discussed the possibility of imposing term limits. While four of the current Council members are in their first two years of service, Needham has been on the council for over ten years, Councilor Robert Megowen is in his twentieth year on the council, and Backon has been on the council since 1990.

The concept of imposing term limits was met with comments that filling Council seats is often difficult enough as it is, and that if the people of Houghton want new members they have the power to vote new members in during elections. In any case, the introduction of term limits would require a change to the City’s charter. This was just a discussion, and no official actions were taken by the Council.

Conflict of interest again topic of discussion

Old business included a discussion regarding the council’s conflict of interest policy, followed by a vote to invite the city attorney to the regular council meeting that will take place on January 11, the meeting scheduled for December 28 having been canceled also by unanimous vote.

“The faster we get this started, the faster we can get this council moving forward,” said Councilor Robert Megowen. Megowen expressed concern at how much of the council’s time and energy has gone into the matter during the duration of the lawsuit, which is not expected to be resolved for some time.

“There’s been a lot of dancing around here and no one is really willing to ask the question that all the lead-up to that motion wanted an answer to,” said City Manager Eric Waara. “We spent a lot of time on that thinking about this and trying to see a way through this.”

Councilor Craig Waddell presented two key concerns. The first was that the City’s guidelines on conflicts of interest may be inadequate. The second was that the City Attorney may have conflicts of interest himself given that the issue at hand is a lawsuit against the City. Waddell also submitted a seventeen-page “Conflict-of-Interest Policies” document.

“It’s really not fair, in my mind, to hold people accountable to policies that are not well-defined, that are sometimes in conflict with one another,” said Waddell.

The City Charter forbids conflicts of interest, while the City Council Rules of Procedure seem to allow a conflict of interest provided that the conflict is disclosed, and the councilor abstains from voting on potentially impacted measures.