The special meeting of the Hillsdale City Council lasted less than three minutes Monday evening before the council declared a recess. The council will reconvene Nov. 17 to swear in city officers elected last week.
The meeting fulfilled an obsolete provision in the Hillsdale City Charter, which requires the council to meet the Monday following an election. But because the timeframe for certifying elections has been pushed back in recent years to accommodate mail-in ballots, the election has not yet been certified by the board of canvassers.
“We can’t swear in the officers on the day that we’re supposed to according to the charter,” Mayor Pro Tem Joshua Paladino told The Collegian. “We called the meeting to order to meet the charter requirement and then recessed it so we can call it back to order next week when we can actually swear in the officers.”
It’s not the only provision in the charter that is now obsolete or illegal due to changes in either state laws or internal operations since the current city charter was last ratified in 1958.
It’s also a preview of how the city charter might change in the coming years.
Mayor-elect Scott Sessions told The Collegian he is open to amending the charter to correct obsolete provisions like the one that required Monday’s meeting. Paladino, who endorsed Sessions’ opponent for mayor, said he would like to go further with a complete revision of the charter in favor of a stronger mayoral office.
State law
State law has superseded multiple provisions in the charter, including election date (section 3.6), elected officers (section 3.17), primary elections (section 3.12), nominations (section 3.13), form of ballots (section 3.18), canvass of votes (3.19), and compensation of mayor and councilmen (section 4.4), according to Paladino.
The charter also references positions that don’t exist anymore, such as municipal courts, which were abolished when the Michigan constitution of 1963 was adopted.
“This charter really probably should have been rewritten in the 1960s,” Paladino said.
Paladino said the charter should now be updated to bring the document into line with current state law.
“It’s not like a constitution, because it’s not a fundamental law in the same way,” Paladino said. “It’s a fundamental law for the city. But every time the state constitution or state statute changes, a city charter is superseded if there’s a contradiction. The charter is not the governing document for the state.”
Michigan’s Home Rule Act allows communities to make revisions or amendments to the city charter as needed. Revision implies re-examination and restructuring of the entire document, while amendments imply the correction of details, according to the Michigan Supreme Court.
Charter revisions may be initiated by a resolution adopted by 3/5 of the legislative body or by a petition signed by at least 5% of registered voters, according to the Michigan Municipal League. Voters would then approve or reject the resolution and select a nine member charter commission to revise the charter. Amendments may be proposed by 3/5 of the members of the legislative body or by petition.
A change in the form of government would require a charter revision.
Council-Manager System
Hillsdale is one of 174 cities in the state with a council-manager system, according to the American City County Exchange. Under this model, the city council carries out general governing duties, and the council appoints a city manager to oversee the day-to-day operations of the city.
The mayor of Hillsdale chairs city council meetings, exercises limited appointment authority, and retains the authority to act as a conservator of the peace in the case of riots and disorder.
“The mayor’s only real executive authorities are the ability to appoint people to boards, commissions, and a few departmental positions with the consent of council,” Paladino said. “So even that power is limited. It’s not a direct executive power. It’s a checked executive power by the legislative branch.”
Paladino said he thinks the city would benefit from abolishing the council-manager system of city government and shifting to a model where the council and mayor are more involved in the operation of the city.
“The current charter was built explicitly on the progressive model where politics and administration are separated,” Paladino said. “So the idea is that there are political decisions that the city council makes, and then there are administrative decisions which the city staff are left free to make on their own. And I just think experience has proved that this doesn’t work in practice.”
Some municipalities in Michigan use mayor-council systems. In a mayor-council government, the mayor is the chief executive of the city, elected separately from the city council.
The mayor-council system may employ either a strong or weak mayor. Detroit, Michigan, uses a mayor-council government with a strong mayor, who has appointment authority and veto power. The city of St. Clair, Michigan, has a weak mayor who presides at meetings of the city council but has an equal voice and vote as every member of the council and no veto power.
A mayor-council system would give elected officials more knowledge of what is going on in the city and would provide a clear line of authority, Paladino said.
“If you’re not involved in the operations of the city government, you can’t really make informed decisions on political or policy matters,” Paladino said.
Ward 3 Councilman Gary Wolfram said he would object to changing the structure of the city charter to strengthen the mayor’s office.
“They’re not paid enough,” Wolfram said.
The money to pay the mayor for full-time work would have to come from the budget, Wolfram said. With the current structure, the mayor and city council members don’t have to spend their time overseeing day-to-day operations. They approach the role as a part-time job and receive a small stipend for their work.
“There’s only so much money in the budget,” Wolfram said. “So you could spend less on roads or less on police.”
Wolfram said he does not see a necessity to alter the charter beyond adding a few footnotes to mark the provisions that have been superseded by state law.
Possible Updates
Sessions said he would like to revise the charter to bring it in line with state law and to make it possible for those who do not live within city limits to serve on boards and commissions.
“I would work collaboratively with the operations and governance committee and the city council to review and identify any areas that may need revision or improvement,” Sessions told The Collegian.
Sessions said he is against changing the council-manager system.
“My primary concern with adopting a strong mayor form of government for Hillsdale is the potential risk of electing an individual who may lack the necessary experience or understanding to effectively manage the operations of the city,” Sessions said. “Under the current city manager form of government, the mayor and the city council have the ability to appoint a qualified professional who possesses the expertise and the knowledge required to oversee the city’s day-to-day administration in the best interest of the Hillsdale residents.”
