BY PHIL CUSTODIO
Clarkston News Editor
Clarkston voters may have the chance to change the City Charter in November. One of the four proposed amendments would prevent a repeat of last year’s mayoral election mixup.
“We understand the difficulty we’ve had in the past regarding the whole procedure, making it transparent, making it fair, and making it so everybody knows what’s going on,” said Steve Arkwright, chair of the Charter Review Committee, at the April 22 City Council meeting.
The proposed amendment would remove a requirement for council members seeking election to mayor, or mayor running for a council seat to resign first.
“The primary rationale for such requirement, possible misuse of legislative office resources or neglect of office duties while campaigning is inapplicable in our small government and can unnecessarily remove experienced council members,” according to the Committee Report to City Council.
The requirement was an issue during last year’s election when current Mayor Eric Haven resigned his seat on City Council in order to run for mayor.
The amendment was written to be as clear and objective as possible, Arkwright said.
Another proposed amendment would allow any council member, not just the mayor, to nominate a resident for appointment or reappointment to the Zoning Board of Appeals.
“Currently, a mayor, without showing cause, can simply refuse to place a resident’s name before the council for appointment or reappointment. This denies the full council any chance to even vote on the appointment or reappointment of an otherwise qualified resident or sitting board member whom a council majority may believe is best for the position,” according to the report.
The third amendment would expand the city audit delivery deadline to six months from the close of the fiscal year. The current charter requires an independence audit be completed within 90 days after the close of the fiscal year.
“The city’s current auditor has informed the city that it is impractical to deliver a thorough professional audit in such a short time frame,” according to the report.
Amendment four would allow any council member, not just the mayor, to nominate a resident for the Board of Review.
“Currently, a mayor, without showing cause, can simply refuse to place a resident’s name before the council for appointment or reappointment to the Board of Review,” according to the report. “This denies the full council any chance to even vote on the appointment or reappointment of an otherwise qualified resident or sitting board member when a council majority may believe is best for the position.”
City Council voted 6-0 to table the amendment proposals until next month.
If OK’d by council, the amendments would be submitted to the governor and state attorney general for approval, then voters would have their say at the general election on Nov. 5, 2019.
City Council created the committee last December, with Arkwright, Bill Basinger, Richard Little, David Marsh, James Meloche, Scott Meyland, and Jonathan Smith.
The committee also created a searchable PDF version of the City Charter, which involved retyping the original into a Portable Document Format.
No changes were made, although some edits were made to correct errors, Arkwright said.
“We noticed in section 15.5, First Election of Officers, it says the first election was in ’91,” he said. “I went back to research it to see if it really was in ’91, which would have been odd to me since we passed the charter in ’92. If fact, it wasn’t in ’91, it was in ’92.”
The existing posting of the charter is a 52-page scan of the original typed pages, which were approved in 1992.
The new document will be editable, but only by authorized city officials, Arkwright said. City Council voted 6-0 at the April 22 meeting to approve placing the new PDF on the city website.