Charter Review Committee Holds First Meeting

The newly formed charter review committee established a direction to carry out its work, set a meeting schedule and named a vice chair at its first meeting, held Thursday, Aug. 22. 

The committee will spend a year reviewing the city charter, the document containing the foundational guidelines the city operates within. The committee will review each of the 20 chapters in the city charter between now and June. Additionally, it will hold five meetings solely to gather public input. While some meetings are dedicated just to public input, all meetings are open to the public. Meetings will be held at 6:30 p.m. at the Hannah Community Center. 

To start the Aug. 22 meeting, the seven committee members and two alternates introduced themselves. City Attorney Tony Chubb then explained relevant legal information to the committee like the Freedom of Information Act, Home Rule City Act and Open Meetings Act. 

Chubb said that he has helped guide three cities’ charter review commissions, and is currently helping Saline’s charter review committee. He explained charter review commissions are elected and do a more thorough rewrite of the city charter, whereas commissions like what East Lansing has, recommend less substantial changes. 

Chubb said he will be in touch with state Assistant Attorney General George Elworth throughout the process to make sure the committee is working within its authority.

“[Elsworth] likes to get the information up front, but the legal, technical review under the Home Rule City Act will only happen after the resolution is passed by council, then it’s formally given to the governor, who sends it to him [Elsworth] for review, he recommends approval back to her [the governor], and she then sends that approval back to us,” Chubb explained. 

Chubb also clarified that he and council liaison Mark Meadows will be “technical” support for the committee, and the “creativity” and “thoughts” of committee members will guide the work. In other words, committee members will propose changes, and Meadows and Chubb will help committee members understand if changes are allowed and how they can be made. 

Once the committee makes its recommendations, council will vote on whether or not to send charter changes to voters to decide on at upcoming elections. Meadows explained that there were 47 or 48 amendments for voters to decide on the last time the charter was reviewed in the 1990s, and all were approved. He said these votes were taken across two elections that did not have much else on the ballot. 

Chubb said other cities he has worked in have put two or three amendments on the ballot across several elections, so voters are not overwhelmed. He said cities prioritize the most pressing amendments to be voted on first. 

Uncovering amendments that may need to be made will be a year-long process, but Meadows offered one example of a change that should be made. He said at the previous review, the city changed gendered language from saying “he” in the to “he/she.” He said this review should take a step further and change the language to be “they” or “their.”

Additionally, during a discussion about the length of charters different cities have, Chubb said some charters have been shortened because state law has overridden sections of charters, making them irrelevant. Identifying and removing redundant parts of charter will be one of the tasks the committee will take on. 

The committee made a few requests for materials to help going forward. Members asked for information from organizations that work with cities, like the Michigan Municipal League, on recent charter changes cities have made, or best practices for charter reviews. Meadows said at the last charter review, the committee was given a model city charter. 

The committee also asked for previous proposed charter amendments that have been rejected by voters. Members said this could give them ideas for amendments that may need to be revisited and can give them ideas for the types of changes residents have previously had interest in. 

There were recently a few ideas to change the city charter that did not pass at the 2023 election. One would have expanded the size of City Council from five to seven members. Another proposed amendment that was passed by City Council, but blocked from reaching voters by the governor’s office, would have moved city elections from odd-numbered to even-numbered years.

Jeffrey Hank voted committee vice chair, alternates are invited to join the discussion. 

At its Aug. 13 meeting, City Council voted to name Diane Goddeeris, Jeffrey Hank, Jonathan Forman, Veronica Wilkerson-Johnson, Ruben Martinez, Jill Rhode and Pam Weil to the committee. Additionally, Council elected to make Goddeeris, a former East Lansing mayor, the committee chair. Find out more about committee members in ELi’s past reporting here. 

Council opted to make Dale Kruithoff the committee’s first alternate and Lynn Richardson the second alternate. Alternates were designated to attend meetings and be prepared to step in as a voting member if a committee member could not finish the year-long term. 

Goddeeris said it was important to have good alternates because the last charter review committee had a member drop out about seven months in, and it was difficult to get their replacement up to speed. 

At the Aug. 22 meeting, Goddeeris announced the alternates will be active participants in committee discussions. The alternates will not be voting members unless a current member drops out. 

“As this one person said to me ‘I don’t want to wait until the end and then not be able to admit something that I saw that maybe you didn’t pick up [earlier],” Goddeeris said.

The alternates, who were sitting in the audience to start the meeting, were then invited to join the rest of the committee at the table. 

Also at the meeting, the committee unanimously voted to make Hank the committee’s vice chair. This means he will run meetings if Goddeeris is absent. 

Hank, who works as an attorney, has previously worked on charter amendments in Lansing and East Lansing, giving him unique insight on the work the committee is taking on. 

The committee will hold its next meeting Thursday, Sept. 12. At this meeting, the committee is expected to discuss how to structure its public meetings, and what the process for making charter changes will be.