City clerk: Council meets too often

While five candidates support or are open to City Clerk Chris Swope’s proposal that he says would cut costs and align Lansing with nearly every other city in the state, two are against and one is undecided because they say Council hardly accomplishes its business in 50 meetings a year.

“Fifty meetings is excessive and unnecessary when you think about the costs of staff time and the distribution and production of minutes and agendas,” Swope argues. “I can’t see the need for it.”

Swope said while those staff members are on salary, “there is other work we could do or could be done.”

Swope said Council members’ work loads likely wouldn’t be impacted.

Swope’s research shows Lansing and Detroit are the only Michigan cities where its councils meet weekly. 

On May 12, Swope wrote a letter to Council members with an attached resolution that suggested the Council consider doing what Grand Rapids did in 2006: Voters in Grand Rapids approved 73 percent to 27 percent a resolution to allow the City Commission to meet twice a month instead of weekly. 

The change would require amending the City Charter, which says the Council must meet at least 50 times a year. Swope’s proposal would reduce that to “at least twice a month.” Charter amendments require voter approval. Swope said the move would cut administrative costs, though he couldn’t say how much, and make the procedure work more efficiently.

The resolution was taken up by the Council’s General Services Committee Aug. 1, but was voted down unanimously by Council members Eric Hewitt, Derrick Quinney and Carol Wood. Quinney and Wood are candidates to keep their At-Large seats. 

Wood is against the idea because she thinks Council barely completes its business with weekly meetings. Quinney said he is at least open to the idea but voted against it in committee because he said Hewitt and Wood expressed “opposition” to the idea “from the very beginning” and he saw “no need to have a discussion at that point.”

The other two At-Large candidates, Thomas Stewart and Rory Neuner, both support the idea of fewer Council meetings and asking voters to approve.

“First and foremost, it will make things more efficient,” Neuner said. “It was really disappointing for me to see the votes from the committee. It’s an idea — let’s consider it.”

Neuner suggested “more work could be done in committee meetings. I don’t know what makes Lansing so incredibly unique that we have to meet more often than other cities our size.”

Stewart said along with falling in line with other cities, less meetings in a month “gives people time to be more proactive about policies and ordinances and doing a little more legwork with constituents. I think honestly that’s a good thing.”

Neuner and Stewart both referred to the medical marijuana dispensary ordinance, which was adopted at the Council’s last meeting before the moratorium on new businesses expired July 1. “Part of the issue is (Council) rushing now because they don’t have time to think. It actually allows us to be much more proactive as opposed to always having to react. I think that’s what we find ourselves in now. … It’s crisis politics,” Stewart said.

1st Ward candidates Jody Washington and Lynne Martinez are split on the issue. Washington is against the idea of two meetings a month; Martinez supports it.

“It appears to me that constituents want more from their Council, not less,” Washington said. “It seems whenever an issue comes up, we’re told there’s not enough information. I don’t think reducing the number of meetings would help them have more information. It appears they don’t have enough time together.” 

Washington scoffed at the idea that fewer meetings means more time for members to get out in the community.

“If anyone can speak out, I can. I am out in the community all the time,” Washington said, who works full time for the state Department of Corrections and part time as a nursing assistant at the Pines Health Care Center. She’s also president of the Eastside Neighborhood Organization and secretary on the Lansing Neighborhood Council board. “I don’t see how every other Monday would allow them to get in the community more.”

Martinez said even though the General Services Committee rejected the idea, she would still vote yes to put the proposal before voters.

“(Fewer meetings) would give us a chance to put committee meetings in the evening so more people could attend. It would give us a chance to have meetings with neighbors and groups and work with the city and other local municipal governments,” Martinez said.

Incumbent 3rd Ward candidate A’Lynne Robinson said she supports Swope’s proposal “in concept” while her opponent, Jason Wilkes, is undecided on whether Council should meet less often.

“We should listen to the recommendations of professionals who have researched this matter,” Robinson said, referring to Swope. “It certainly warrants additional consideration and discussion.” She supports the concept of “allowing Council members additional time between meetings” to gather information.

Meanwhile, Wilkes said he wants more information on potential cost savings and whether the proposal would allow for less public input. But he thinks things are going just fine now.

“I don’t see an issue with the way things are going now,” he said.

Elsewhere

Grand Rapids city commissioners are paid part time just like Lansing City Council members, Grand Rapids City Clerk Lauri Parks said. Voters approved amending the Grand Rapids City Charter in 2006 by a wide margin and that was after the Commission “piloted” twice-monthly meetings for two-and-a-half months before voting to put the resolution on the ballot, Parks said.

Parks was unable to attach a cost-savings number to going to twice-monthly meetings. She said it does reduce the number of meeting minutes and electronic agenda packets that have to be prepared — “all the ancillary costs of staff putting that together.”

The Ann Arbor City Council meets twice a month, but it also has 19 Council committees, two ad-hoc committees and has liaisons on four different commissions, the city’s website shows. The Lansing City Council has eight committees, and members are appointed to 14 boards and commissions.

The Ann Arbor City Council also holds caucus meetings twice a month, which are “optional meetings of the mayor and members of council to discuss and gather information on issues that are or will be coming before them for consideration,” the city’s website says. Ann Arbor Council members are elected on a partisan basis, unlike Lansing’s. The meetings are open to the public and “provide an opportunity for citizens to informally speak with councilmembers about items that are on the Council agenda,” the city’s site says.

The Lansing City Council would need to approve ballot language by Aug. 30, but Swope said that’s unlikely to happen now because proposals to amend city charters have to be approved by the Governor’s and state Attorney General’s offices. “At this point I am not pushing to move forward on it this year.”

However, Lansing voters will be asked Nov. 8 if the City Charter should be “generally” revised. The Charter, which was adopted in 1978, sets up automatic votes “at the November 1987 General Election and every twelve years thereafter” asking if the Charter should be rewritten. It hasn’t been yet. If voters approve, they would then elect a nine-member Charter Commission to do so. Swope said the issue of Council meetings could be addressed there, but he’s hoping voters don’t approve a general Charter revision.

“I don’t think we need a wholesale review of the City Charter,” he said, adding that the process could be a “big expense.”

As for meetings, Swope thinks it’s one necessary Charter “tweak.”

“We need to realize the Charter needs to be updated like other cities have done. I’m not sure that it would really directly impact the workload of actual Council members all that much. We’re still going to need the same number of city actions and relatively the same number of resolutions — just do them in a more effective manner.”

At a time of budget deficits in the city, Swope said it makes sense to be as efficient as possible: “In a time when we’re laying off police officers and closing fire stations, really to have administrative staff doing work that isn’t necessary is just a shame to me.”