The tumult over appointments to city boards and commission reared its head again on Monday night at the Council Committee of the Whole meeting as a Councilwoman would not vote to approve a slew of administration appointees because Council was not provided proof that they were qualified under the City Charter.
The only business during the Council Committee of the Whole meeting Monday night was the appointment of five new people to various boards, and the reappointment of 17 people who are already serving.
When it came time to start making the appointments — many of the people set to be appointed had come down to Council for their swearing in — At-Large Councilwoman Carol Wood pointed out that Council had not been provided with the proof showing that the people they were about to appoint were qualified. Back in March, after questions were raised about appointees because Second Ward Councilwoman Tina Houghton served on the Parks Board while in default to the city (in defiance of the City Charter), administration officials said they would do a review of the over 100 appointees to make sure they were qualified. And that for all new appointees the city would check qualifications, where in the past the city had relied on the appointees to just be honest about their qualifications. Appointees must not owe taxes to the city, not have a felony in the past 20 years and be a registered voter in Lansing.
Wood said that she had told Council President A’Lynne Robinson some time ago that she wanted some kind of document to show that the appointees had been checked. Otherwise, she would not vote for their appointment. And since there were only five Council members at the CoW meeting, a no vote from Wood would mean that the appointments would not go through. (At-Large Councilman Brian Jeffries left just before the discussion on appointments began.)
At-Large Councilwoman Kathie Dunbar, who was acting president over the meeting because Robinson was absent, decided to just end the meeting instead of having Wood vote “no” and kill the appointments.
Jerry Ambrose, Mayor Virg Bernero’s chief of staff, tried to assure Council that the administration had checked all the appointees’ background. But Wood said she just wanted a sheet of paper that proved it. The city does have a form that’s used for interdepartmental approvals, like for a zoning change. Wood said that if Ambrose could provide proof of the checks on the appointees, she would vote for it. Ambrose said that was not available. So, At-Large Councilman Derrick Quinney moved to adjourn the meeting, and it all ended.
The new appointees are Kelly Johnston and Kimberly Whitfield to the Board of Zoning Appeals, Maria Starr to the Memorial Review Board, Adam Hussain to the Parks Board and Alisande Henry to the Planning Board. Reappointments included Charles Mickens, Charlotte Sinadinos and James Butler III to the LEPFA board; Randall Kamm, Donald Heck and James Drake to the Building Board of Appeals; Joan Trezise and Ifield Joseph to the Capital Area District Library board; Peter Kuhnmuench and Robin Lewis to the CATA board; Kim Coleman, Baldomero Garcia and Gregory Ward to the Economic Development Corp. board; and Cassandra Nelson and Kara Wood to the Historic District Commission.
Earlier Monday night, during Council’s regular meeting, local developer Pat Gillespie’s project to redevelop the Marshall Street armory was given all necessary approvals for tax incentives and a zoning change.
Correction: An earlier version of this story should have stated that a public hearing on changing the city's retirement system was voted down.
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