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Belding City Councilman Jorel Davis, Mayor Bruce Meyers, Councilwomen Shelley and Bonita Steele blazed through the second half of a budget workshop in only 22 minutes at Tuesday evening’s meeting. — DN Photo | Tim McAllister
BELDING — At Tuesday evening’s meeting, the Belding City Council completed the second half of a budget workshop in a fraction of the time it took them to make it through the first half two weeks ago.
The format was the same — Mayor Bruce Meyers called out the name of each fund, then asked the council members, one by one, if they had any questions or comments about that particular fund.
Citing a report in the Daily News that referred to the previous half of their budget workshop as “an excruciating process” lasting about an hour and 20 minutes, this week the council blazed through the second half of the budget workshop in about 22 minutes.
“As the paper said, it was a tedious process last time,” Meyers pointed out.
“They even had it down to how many minutes we discussed it,” agreed Councilwoman Bonita Steele.
Councilmembers asked very few questions as the workshop rapidly progressed, causing Meyers to prompt his colleagues, “You don’t have to be scared of the paper guy.”
“We are going quick,” Steele noted.
“(City Manager Jon Stoppels) did send a letter for people to ask questions ahead of time,” Myers said. “Is that what’s happening?”
“It could very well be,” Stoppels replied. “(City Finance Director/Treasurer Becky Schlienz) got some, and I’ve gotten a few.”
The workshop process now completed, the city’s budget will be officially adopted at a public hearing to take place at their next regular meeting on May 7.
DDA APPOINTMENTS
Also on Tuesday, the City Council voted 4-1, with Meyers opposed, to appoint five individuals to four-year terms on the Downtown Development Authority Board: James Hickman, John LaClear, Jim Mason, Michael Tefft and Nikolai Zerkle. The men were appointed all at once, in one motion.
Hickman lives in Lowell and is active in the local American Legion.
Belding Mayor Bruce Meyers voted against adding five members to the city’s Downtown Development Authority at Tuesday evening’s City Council meeting. — DN Photo | Tim McAllister
LaClear is a retired corrections worker, a Belding resident and a member of the Planning Commission and the Board of Appeals.
Mason is a Belding resident who is active with the Friends of the Belding Memorial Library, the Housing Commission and many volunteer efforts.
Tefft lives in Belding, works for the Housing Commission and is a member of the Planning Commission.
Zerkle lives in Belding and works as a legislative aide to state Rep. Pat Outman.
Belding’s DDA has been out of compliance with a state law dictating how many people must serve on a city’s DDA board. There are currently seven members, and Stoppels also attends DDA meetings.
“Over the last two or three years we’ve had difficulty filling spots on different boards and committees, none so much as the Downtown Development Authority,” Stoppels explained. “You can have as few as nine and as many as 12 members on that committee.”
During the council’s discussion of appointments, it was revealed that the list of DDA members on the city’s website (belding.mi.us/boards_commissions.php) was inaccurate and nobody on the board knew when their term expired.
“The city website needs to be updated,” City Clerk Janae Ortego said.
“I think some of this background work really needs to be done to even know who we have sitting on the board and who really is a current member,” Meyers said. “I’m not saying that any of them wouldn’t make perfect sense to put on (the DDA) if we possibly put them on at a later time. I’m just saying that I think we need to do a little bit more work on where we currently are with the board that we have and do some investigation around any more of the state law part of it before we just jump in and start putting a bunch of people on the board.”
DDA Chairwoman Sharon Carlson told the City Council that one current DDA member was under the impression their term had ended, so they stopped showing up for meetings last year.
“State law says that a DDA member stays on the board until they are replaced,” Stoppels told Carlson. “So even if you have an expiration date, you’re on there until you’re replaced. Now, that doesn’t mean you have to come to the meetings. You can respect the date and just not show up anymore.”
Carlson suggested the city hire a full-time, permanent DDA director who could guide the board’s decision-making process and help them navigate confusing state laws.
“Somebody who is knowledgeable about the application of funds, revenue sources, grant applications, working with different groups, what can and can’t be spent, where can it be spent, how do we get involved in bigger things,” Carlson said. “Similar to what the city of Greenville is doing with their DDA, and the city of Ionia. I consider us to be miles behind. Yes, we don’t have the same amount of funding, but we won’t get the same amount of funding if we continue to just capture the tax revenue and just support events in the downtown. I think it could be more beneficial to the whole community, we’re just limited.”
Meyers explained his “no” vote later in the meeting.
“I don’t think the whole DDA appointment was planned out as far as it should have been,” he said. “I don’t think it was thought through as much as it should have been. There are certain boards that sit here within the city that have power, and the DDA is one of them. They have the power to take money from citizens and distribute it out.”
