Grosse Pointe Shores Council Argues Policy Proposal

Grosse Pointe Shores council argued Tuesday about two unrelated issues—council procedure and public building use—ultimately passing both but not without changes being implemented.

Mayor James Cooper introduced an amendment to the council's already established rules and procedures requiring all council members to submit any topics for the council's public meeting agenda in writing to him or the city manager directly by the Thursday before a meeting. The amendment also included the requirement of having a meeting with either the mayor or city manager. 

The amendment was met with resistance by councilmen Daniel Schulte and Ted Kedzierski who shared thoughts about how the additional process has a chilling effect on discussion among the council. 

Kedzierski said the discussion among council members about ideas is part of the point of the council. He likes to hear the ideas of other members and to bounce ideas off of them too, he said.

Schulte told council members he was concerned with the usage of the word "necessary" in the amendment, suggesting that the mayor or city manager would have power to nix topics from the agenda.

Cooper and council members Victoria Boyce, Brian Geraghty and Robert Graziani spoke in favor of the amendment. Each explained they felt it would allow all of the council members to be better prepared to discuss topics during the public meetings.

Boyce said she believes it supports a better public forum because it allows the city manager or city employees to do research on topics before the meetings to ensure the appropriate information is available. 

The impassioned discussion revolved around two instances in which council members had introduced topics during council meetings that were not on the agenda. Much of the council pointed fingers to certain council members for doing so and said they felt it was unfair to those who didn't know the topic would be addressed. 

The amendment was unanimously passed by the council after the Shores city attorney Mark McInerny explained the rules and procedures, including the amendment, are not legally enforceable. The word necessary was also changed to helpful at the request of Schulte.

Following that heated discussion, City Manager Brian Vick asked permission for the Parks and Harbor Committee to review and generate a policy regarding the use of public building, including city hall. He also asked that a 90-day moratorium be placed on the use of city hall by the public in the interim. 

Kedzierski and Schulte questioned why a moratorium was appropriate at all, noting the building is owned by the residents of the Shores and therefore should be usable by the public. 

Vick said he thinks policy is necessary as he anticipates requests to come in for the future Schroeder Park building which is to built this spring and would be operational before mid-summer. Vick said he receives occasional requests for use of the city hall building as well and that with the anticipated change in dispatch operations, he believes policy is necessary for that building too. 

The Shores and the Farms have been exchanging contracts related to the Farms taking over the dispatch services for the Shores, which could happen as early as mid-May. Vick said state approval is pending and will have an impact upon how quickly the consolidated dispatch can be put into place.

When the dispatchers leave the Shores city hall, the building will not be monitored 24 hours a day as it is now, which is why Vick believes a policy about public use is appropriate. 

The council room, which also used as the courtroom, holds a maximum of 44 people per the fire marshal and one recent request is what pushed Vick to make the request. A group that had taken an ad out in a newspaper requested use of the spot but the anticipated attendance easily exceeded the maximum capacity, he said. 

Another contributing factor to the heated discussion is a recent attempt by councilman Kedzierski to hold a town hall style meeting in the council chambers with Shores residents to get their feedback about the budget, which other council members oppose. Geraghty told Kedzierski he could have his town hall meeting at the library rather than in the council chambers, noting the room's formal atmosphere.

The request by Vick eventually passed 4-2 with a 60-day moratorium on public use of the building as the committee generates a draft of a policy, which ultimately must be passed by the council.