TRAVERSE CITY — Three city officials may have violated state law when they made a last-minute decision to scrap an appointment to a city utility board.
The incident at Monday's city commission meeting may force the city to fix what City Manager Ben Bifoss called a "potential violation" of the Michigan Open Meetings Act.
The commissioners — Barbara Budros, Jim Carruthers and Jeanine Easterday — comprised a committee that planned to recommend city resident Tim Pulliam for appointment to the Traverse City Light & Power board. But just prior to the meeting the three agreed to change course and re-interview Pulliam and another candidate.
"We agreed to re-interview people ... not really realizing right now we are violating the Open Meetings Act," Carruthers said.
Attorney Robin Luce Herrmann, general counsel to the Michigan Press Association, called the incident "troubling."
She said the committee's decision to remove Pulliam's appointment item from the commission agenda, if not done during the course of a public meeting, may be a violation.
City attorney Lauren Trible-Laucht declined to answer directly when asked if the committee violated the open meetings act.
"Ad hoc committees are subject to the open meetings act," Trible-Laucht said. "You can draw your own conclusions."
To cure the potential violation, Bifoss instructed the committee to reconvene in public and vote on pulling the recommendation and re-interviewing candidates.
Budros contends she didn't consult with Carruthers and Easterday. She told them she intended to pull the nomination from the agenda and that candidates needed to be interviewed again, she said.
"They can say whatever they want to say," Budros said. "I gave them a call over the weekend and told them I was going to pull it. I have not discussed it other than discussing it with Jeanine and Jim and giving them a heads up."
Easterday said any violation was unintentional.
"I'm not trying to subvert the system; I believe in the system," she said. "Being a city commissioner ... is a very steep learning curve."
A date has not yet been set for the committee to reconvene.
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Barbara Budros
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Jim Carruthers
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Jeanine Easterday Record-Eagle/Keith King
TC officials may have stumbled over law
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