Ballot language for charter amendment proposals approved

The long-awaited revision of Warren’s City Charter is underway as the City Council approved ballot language for three proposed amendments to the city’s governing document.

The language now goes to the Michigan Attorney General and Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s office for review and if approved, the three proposals will appear on the Aug. 6 ballot. The proposed amendments address partially served terms for elected officials; the composition of the city’s election commission; and the communication method of official city notices.

“I believe this is addressing some long-standing discrepancies in our Charter,” said Councilman Jonathan Lafferty.

The first proposal relates to partial terms served by councilpersons, the city clerk, treasurer, or mayor.

Currently Charter language does not specify how mid-term vacancies are to be handled. That ambiguity led to current Warren City Councilman Gary Boike challenging then Council President Patrick Green’s tenure in court in 2022.

Green served two complete terms from November 2007 — November 2015 then served on Warren City Council for another year and 16 days. He left his council seat because he was elected to the Michigan House of Representatives in Nov. 2016. Green was elected to a city council at-large seat in November 2019; that term ended in November 2023.

Boike said in his challenge that Green’s term should have ended in November of 2022. The Macomb County Circuit Court ruled in Green’s favor and that decision was upheld by the Michigan Court of Appeals.

The Michigan Attorney General’s Office called attention to the issue of mid-term vacancies when it reviewed the 1998 Warren City Charter amendment language that created city council term limits, but specific language regarding mid-term vacancies never made its way into the city charter.

“We are looking at mirroring the state model here where if you serve more than half of the term, it counts as a full term,” said Warren City Council attorney Jeffrey Schroder. “We want to make sure there are no loopholes here no matter if you are appointed or elected.”

The second proposed amendment seeks to remove the city assessor from the Election Commission and instead, add a Warren resident to the body. Currently, the City Charter states that the Election Commission’s members are the city attorney, city clerk and city assessor.

“Right now, we have no city assessor in Warren and if we put a resident onto the Election Commission, that gives one more resident of Warren a voice,” said Council Secretary Mindy Moore.

The citizen representative would be appointed by the City Council.

A review of the members of election commissions around the state by the Warren Charter Review Committee showed that several municipalities have at least one resident member on their election commission.

The third proposed amendment changes archaic language in section 2.2 of the document that currently calls for all meeting notices and official city notices to be published in one or more newspapers and posted on 10 official bulletin boards in the city.

The proposed change calls for official city notices to be published in one or more newspapers and posted on the city website.

“Since the 1960s, there has been a little invention called the internet,” said Schroder.