City Council tables board, commission appointments
The Warren City Council tabled confirmation of 19 mayoral appointees to various city boards and commissions at its March 9 meeting citing incomplete information about applicants, length of terms and precise term expiration dates.
Confirmation of appointees to the Downtown Development Authority, Board of Review, Brownfield
Redevelopment Authority, Sidewalk and Tree Board of Review, Senior Health Care Commission, and Tax Increment Finance Authority were all tabled, Seventeen of the 19 proposed appointees were re-appointments to their previous positions.
At its Feb. 23 meeting, the council had requested a list of all commissions and commission members, the date they began serving in their appointed position, their expiration date and the length of their terms. Council Secretary Mindy Moore said to date, council has received none of that information from the administration. She pointed to the application for reappointment of Faisal Ahmed to the Board of Review as an example.
“There is no date on the documents, so I don’t know if these documents are from when someone was originally put into the position or if it is a new admission for the position,” said Moore. “This is a total lack of transparency on the part of the administration.”
Moore said there was no contact information for any of the proposed appointees and in some cases, certain parts of their applications were blacked out.
Mayor James Fouts said he was perplexed by the council’s decision to table all of the ap
pointments and said he is following City Charter guidelines for making the appointments.
According to the Warren City Charter, the mayor has the power of appointment and removal over officers, departmental directors and members of commissions and boards except as otherwise stated in the document. It adds those who serve on city boards and commissions do so at the discretion of the mayor provided that if a definite term of office is specified in the Charter, the person holding that office will complete their full term. The Charter gives council the responsibility of approving or disapproving these appointments.
Citizens are able to apply for positions on the various boards and commissions by going to cityofwarren. org and filling out an application. Moore expressed concern that information on the city’s web site is vague and residents wishing to apply may not understand which commissions have vacancies and when current terms expire. The website directs those with further questions about the application process to call the mayor’s office.
“What I am about to say is not necessarily reflected to any of these people that are here; I don’t know any of these people and I would like to have a chance to vet them,” said Councilman Garry Watts. “I have been doing some researching and I am finding multiple people on boards and commissions who are homeowners in town whose taxes are delinquent, I found some that own multiple rental properties in the city that the taxes are delinquent for multiple years, I’m finding water bills that are delinquent by many.”
Watts added some commission and board members have a poor attendance record and that many members of the DDA do not live in Warren. He specifically questioned the re- appointment of Joseph Minano to the Warren Crime Commission after he pled guilty to charges of embezzlement in Macomb County Circuit Court last year.
“We need to have people on these commissions who have integrity, who care about the city and want to do the right thing,” said Watts.
Resident Laurie Artz stated it is time for some new input on many of Warren’s boards and commissions, in particular the DDA.
“I have been very unhappy with the DDA, especially over the past year,” said Artz. “The DDA has failed to step up and do anything to support the small businesses that are dying in Warren. If you look at the most recent agenda, what they are talking about is buying flowers to decorate city hall.”
Artz suggested holding a Committee of the Whole meeting and inviting all of the prospective appointees to the DDA so that residents may question them about their plans for city businesses going forward.
Technical issues disrupt access
Several residents were unable to log into the March 9 Warren City Council meeting via Zoom or phone due to the incorrect login information being listed on the posted agenda for the meeting. The proper login information was subsequently posted on the Warren City Council Facebook page, but there were fewer people in attendance than is typical for a Warren council meeting. To compensate for the glitch, audience participation was moved until the end of the meeting to give those that were struggling to log into the meeting a chance to join.
Mayor James Fouts called Tuesday’s debacle a violation of the Open Meetings Act.
“This is blatant censorship and it is denying citizens their right to speak,” said Fouts.
Resident Pat Bernieri said she tried to log into the meeting for more than two hours because she wanted to speak about one of the agenda items.
“I finally gave up around 9:30,” said Bernieri.
Resident John Renaud was able to log into the meeting, but was not able to remain on the meeting to speak at audience participation once it was moved to the end. He said both the login issues and moving audience to the end of the meeting were slams to senior citizens like himself.
“I was very discouraged,” said Renaud. “I was on the meeting for a half hour, then they said they were moving audience to the end of the meeting. They should have kept the audience session at the beginning of the meeting and added one at the end. It is just common sense to do that.”
Fouts agreed two audience sessions would have helped to ensure everyone who wanted to speak had the chance to do so and also said the council could have better communicated the correct login information.
Council Secretary Mindy Moore did not immediately respond to questions regarding the reasons for Tuesday’s login information error.
Buffa a no-show at meeting
Warren City Clerk Sonja Buffa was not in attendance at Tuesday’s council meeting. At the previous meeting, Council Secretary Mindy Moore had called for her to appear before council to explain legal bills incurred during a case involving placement of a mayoral term limit ballot proposal in 2020. Prior to the March 9 meeting, Buffa did not disclose if she planned to attend or not and it is not clear if technical issues affecting people’s ability to log into Tuesday’s Zoom council meeting were a factor.
When asked prior to the meeting by The Macomb Daily about whether she would attend, Buffa declined comment.