Choosing a City Council Member, "embarrassment of riches"

With Bob Buckner appointed to City Council, all eyes now turn to July’s pivotal Planning Commission meetings shaping the heart of Harbor Springs.

The Brief

• Planning Commission: Meets at 5:30 p.m., July 17; and at a Special Meeting on July 31, at 5:30 p.m. Zoom YouTube.

• City Council chose a new member to fill the seat vacated in June when Michael Behrmann stepped down. Under the City Charter, the four remaining councilors were required to appoint someone to serve the remainder of the term, which ends on November 9, 2025.

• Bob Buckner, a sitting Planning Commissioner (PC) appointed in November 2024 for a PC two-year term, was chosen to fill the interim and temporary spot on the City Council. He was elected by the Mayor and three council women to be the Ex-Officio member, City Council Designee, on the Planning Commission. It also opened up Bob’s spot on the Planning Commission and ZBA to be filled.

• These next Planning Commission meetings focus on:

  • Article #3 (Regulated Uses and Dimensions);

  • Article #4 (Overlay Districts);

  • the Redline of Article #10 (Land Development Options), and

  • one or two City of Harbor Springs immediate zoning applications.

• The upcoming July 17th Planning Commission meeting will discuss dimensions in the residential districts: the Bluff, Agricultural District, Uptown, Lake Street, Glenn Drive and all other remaining areas. These districts are the largest category, contain the most diverse properties, and bring up sensitive issues like building heights, density for duplexes, accessory dwelling units (ADU’s) / guest quarters.

• If we want to encourage and protect the existing zoning code protecting Harbor Springs’ character and culture, and one that is facing future-forward in solving today’s challenges (from short-term rentals to housing choices), we need residents in every district to attend and speak.

• City Council News Update Regarding the November 2025 Elections: The deadline for city candidates who are nominated by petition to the general election to file an Affidavit of Identity and nonpartisan nominating petition is July 22 @ 4:00 PM. Please contact the City Clerk at 231-526-2104 for more information. The withdrawal deadline elapses at 4:00 p.m. on July 25.

• City Council Meeting Monday, July 21 at 7:00 PM. Zoom YouTube Agenda: The City Council is appointing a Planning Commission member.

• We continue to receive feedback that it is difficult to attend meetings via Zoom. WLHS will be reaching out to City Hall to fix this problem.

July 2, 2025 City Council Meeting

There was a 2 to 2 stalemate in the opening discussions and initial votes for the seat.

Wendy Reeve and Kathy Motshall both referred to the elephant in the room, (the November 2024 YES/ NO Vote). We say put the elephant into bed. The audience felt it, but by now, we can no longer know who voted yes or no, and it doesn't matter. They may have changed their minds, see things differently, and accept some of the changes that have been made since then.

The process for replacement has no explicit procedure. In the void, Councilwoman Reeve proposed a nomination. With the following speech:

“I move to open the discussion among City Council and Chip Everest for the fifth seat on City Council to serve until the November election and to approve his appointment by City Council vote. With Mr. Everest's strong financial background, as well as his lifetime involvement with Harbor Springs, I find him to be the best-qualified individual of all ten of the very fine candidates who have applied for the empty seat on this city council.

In Chips’ own words, he has a lot of company and nonprofit board experience, which encourages inclusive and thoughtful decision processes. I like that he recognizes need for inclusive dialogue. I like the fact that he is able to talk to full-time and seasonal residents and understands the necessity of being able to do so. He has been impressive in his thought process and in demonstrating the qualities he attributes to himself on the planning commission.

And most importantly to me, given that this City Council is supplementing the election process with this appointment, I conducted my own unofficial straw poll among 20 residents. And when I listed the 10 candidates, every person recommended Chip is the candidate they would elect if they have a chance to do so. And every email City Council has received by citizens in the past 48 hours supports that observation. It's been unanimous.

I urge my fellow City Council members to follow the leads and desires of our citizens. I also look forward to the wise and accumulated financial experience in negotiating the financing of our electric substation, as well as the question regarding the funding of the city Marina building, as well as the question of moving two-and-a- half million of our surplus monies to a credit union rather than keeping it in a bank. Thank you.”

The tempo changed a bit, and Reeve withdrew the nomination after her remarks. With some recommendations on procedure from the audience, each council member shared their top choices for the open seat (see below).

• Tom Graham: Chip, Bob, Jeannie

• Wendy Reeve: Chip, Janie, Jeannie, Bob

• Kathy Motshall: Gary, Bob, Linda

• Jamie Melke: Gary, Bob, Linda

While the vote initially reflected a 2–2 split, Bob Buckner was the one candidate who eventually appeared on every list. That kind of overlap is encouraging; it suggests a willingness to find common ground even in moments of division.

What matters now is to move forward with fresh eyes and a collaborative mindset, not by dividing along old voting lines, but by focusing on what’s best for Harbor Springs. The issues we face require thoughtful dialogue, not reflexive voting. Each member of city council should evaluate the issues for themselves.

What’s wonderful about Harbor Springs is that we are moving along, and the meetings are going well. WLHS will continue to watch, discuss, and write about the process and talk about the town. If you see these applicants on the streets, thank them for their time and commitment!

City Council Applicant Presentations

Personal Introductions, Experience, and Qualifications: Unfortunately, the community is not able to access and read the application packet that the volunteers sent to the City. But here are their remarks, given at the start of the City Council meeting

Janie Jenkins

“Thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Janie Jenkins, and I would be honored to serve. I’ve lived here for 61 years. I've been an official full-time resident for four. Over the past year-and-a-half, I've regularly attended the Planning Commission and City Council meetings so I'm up to date on decisions that are lying ahead and the challenges. I've also contributed to the discussions when appropriate, and I would be honored to contribute at a greater level for the upcoming time that is needed.

I currently serve on the Zoning Board of Appeals (the ZBA). I understand Harbor Springs and the community very well because I have friends who are full-time residents in Harbor, and I know many, many others who are in the surrounding associations.

I was Operations Manager for a proprietary trading firm on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade for 30 years. And for those years, they provided me a strong foundation of experiences such as problem-solving, organizational skills, finance, leadership, all that are relevant to City Council service. I would be honored to serve the city of Harbor Springs and its residents as an interim council member, and I thank you for your opportunity today”.

Nancy Rondel

“My name is Nancy Rondel. First, thanks for giving me the opportunity and considering me for an interim position on council. Many of you know me, so I'm not going to go on and on. I have been a voter here in the city of Harbor Springs since 1980, and I've been here for almost all of my adult life. I have worked here, volunteered here, raised our kids in this community, and it's been my home for over (garbled) decades.

I did serve on council for four years. In that time, I missed one regular meeting, and I was always on time and always very well prepared for any of the business we were talking about. I had an excellent working relationship with my fellow council members and the city staff, both of which I think are very important elements to serving my city in a cooperative and well-informed way. Running the city certainly is a team effort. While I was on council, I also served on the Tree Board, and I served on the Planning Commission, and I attended many, many other board and commission meetings, and I believe it's important to have a good understanding of all the city business.

Since coming off council, I have continued to attend in person almost every City Council, Planning Commission, Harbor Commission, and many other meetings. I've stayed very current on the business going on. It was not always easy to serve on council. We did not always agree, and we certainly had some challenges, but we worked with respect and consideration for our fellow council members and staff, and to make the best decisions for the city of Harbor Springs as a whole. One other comment, I'm sure some of you know our property is on the market, so I want to assure you that if I am chosen, I would definitely be staying. Thanks.”

Gary Stewart

“Good afternoon. I'm Gary Stewart. I live in the city of Harbor Springs. I think there are probably three areas that I bring to the conversation today. One is a long history and passion for the city of Harbor Springs. I grew up in the Detroit area, but I came up here as a high school kid to go skiing and then got married at the Presbyterian church here, have family here, was here through the years, and then 12 years ago retired from BP in Chicago and then moved into Harbor Springs where I have been here full-time ever since. I think that I have a great passion and history for Harbor Springs which is kind of area number one. I think the second thing I bring to the table is I'm a good listener. You can't teach high school and do various things I've done without being a good listener. especially junior high. I was a teacher at Harbor Springs High School in the late 70s, so I think I would bring that to the table.

Another area is I know quite a bit about government and what makes government efficient. My work through 32 years in the energy industry was in legislative work, community affairs, news media relations, that kind of thing. I have some pretty well-developed ideas about sort of republican government with a small R, the way Plato talked about it in the Republic, where you hire smart people to legislate, and then after clear legislation is made, you support a good executive branch and our staff, and we have an excellent staff in the city, to do the work as legislated by council. So that's the model that I would be encouraging, as a candidate for the city council. Thank you.”

Linda Rachwitz

“I live in the City of Harbor Springs. I have been here full-time for 30 years. And what I bring to this city is a vast, a lot of experience in what goes on here. I was on the board of the Food Pantry when it originally became the Food Pantry after the Methodist Church started it. And I was on it at the time that we moved it to Holy Childhood, to the basement. And that was an experience that got me involved in all kinds of fundraising and communication. And I was on the board of the Friendship Center when Presbyterian Villages decided to tear the buildings down and put a new building out. And that was a challenge. The seniors had to be housed in other places for almost a year. And once again, that was a challenging one.

I served on other committees. I've been on the Board of Reviews for at least 12 years. I've kind of forgotten how long. So I'm very familiar with the roads and the streets and the people and what happens. So the reason I apply is I really do have a single mission and that is to bring the community back together. We've had some friction. I'm a bridge builder. I think I could reach out to everyone and listen, and that's my goal. Thanks.”

Chip Everest

“Good afternoon. My name is Chip Everest. and I live in the City of Harbor Springs. It'd be a privilege for me to be appointed by the City Council to fill Michael Behrmann’s seat, and I believe that I have the understanding, experience, and disposition necessary to serve this special community. I've been a summer resident here my entire life, and my wife Gayle and I decided to retire here six years ago. We deeply care for this place, and it is home for us.

Currently, I serve various local nonprofits, either through board work or simply volunteering. I'm on the boards of the Lyric Theater and the Harbor Hall Foundation. I'm co-senior warden at St. John's Episcopal Church here in Harbor Springs, and I volunteer regularly as a truck driver for the Food for Kids program, as well as being an Innkeeper for the Nehemiah Project homeless shelter. As a public service, I currently serve on the Planning Commission, and I was previously on the Harbor Commission.

For my career, I co-founded several energy and environmental companies where I always served at the CFO. And over the years, I attribute a lot of our success to my fiscal responsibility. As CFO, I have borrowed a large amounts of money on Wall Street, and I'm proud to say that I paid every penny of it back. I'm used to resolving tough and contentious issues through being a thoughtful voice of reason. I was the co-founder of Energy Solutions, which is a nuclear decommissioning business. Being in the nuclear business was challenging, to say the least, but I learned to listen to all the factions and to diffuse a lot of situations. Our company was actually involved in the removal of the Big Rock Point power plant across the bay. I think I have the time, the skills, and the passion to serve. It would be a privilege. Thanks.”

John Lio

“Good afternoon, I’m John Lio, and live in the City. I've been a full-time resident for 12 years. I'm a voter. I don't have anything to add to the information that I provided on my application, but you all know me at this point. If you have any questions, I'd be glad to answer.”

Bill McCullough

“What's up, everybody? I think we all recognize that we have an embarrassment of riches in terms of talent and people who are passionate about Harbor Springs. Every one of us is here to do whatever we feel is in the best interest of the community. I don't have a lot to say other than, I would take a similar approach, to what I've always done at the Harbor Commission, serving for a number of decades which is to balance competing interests. We have a finite amount of real estate and there's only so many things we can do and there's all kinds of things that people want to do and one of the challenges that the council faces is how to balance what we have what we want which way we want to go that sort of thing. That's about all I'm going to say, thank you.”

Bob Buckner

“Good afternoon my name is Bob Buckner. I live in the City and that's been my primary residence for the last 10 years. About a month ago I got a call from Mayor Graham informing me about Michael Berhmann’s plans to resign and asking me if I'd be interested in filling that seat. I asked for 24 hours, to think about it a little bit, but I've always been very civic-minded. I've served on the Noise Control Committee. I volunteer as a poll worker, and that's been for the last several elections, as Nick knows. I currently serve on the Zoning Board of Appeals and also the Harbor Springs Planning Commission. And after a day's reflection, I concluded that if Harbor Springs needed me to fill in as Michael's replacement, I'd be honored to do so.

Beyond my service on multiple Harbor Springs committees, I think there are some key factors that make me qualified. Number one, objectivity. I think my conduct at the Planning Commission, and on ZBA meetings is a strong testimony, to my objectivity and my willingness to collaborate and work together. Number two, zoning ordinance. I think the zoning ordinance is gonna be a heavy lift, a significant hurdle for this city in 2025. I am fully up to date on where we've been, in terms of the development of the current draft of the zoning ordinance. And now have a good vision in terms of where I think we ought to be going and it's our goal to develop an ordinance that's going to be successful and acceptable to the year-round residents as well as season signal residents.

If I do say so myself, I've always been a pretty hard worker. I put myself through college. I think my conduct at Planning Commission meetings and at the ZBA meetings reflects my willingness to put in the hard work and to be prepared. And finally I think my professional career could make me uniquely qualified. I was the Global Vice President of Predictive Analytics for Mapinfo Corporation in that capacity, I was responsible for over 200 predictive analytics professionals and over $2 million worth of predictive analytics revenue. We had offices in Ann Arbor, San Francisco, Newport Beach, Raleigh, Albany, as well as internationally in Toronto, Windsor, England and Sydney, Australia. We developed site selection and sales forecasting tools, for models and models for retailers, restaurants, banks, service providers, virtually any business where location, demography, accessibility could possibly impact performance.

This is important because in my role as that person, the VP of Global Predictive Analytics, my colleagues and I very often were required to collaborate with City Councils and Planning Commissions on location and zoning issues to find the right location for our client. That's going to be complementary to the community. I'm very familiar with the politics and procedures of small-town government, and I think that makes me uniquely qualified. So for these reasons, I think I'm qualified and I'm prepared to fill the gap resulting from Michael's resignation. That is, of course, presuming you believe I'm the right candidate. We have several very well-qualified candidates here in the room today. I will embrace and support whatever the decision the council makes. Thank you very much.”

Jeannie Benjamin

“This is not my forte, public speaking. So I'll be quick and simple. I'm Jeannie Benjamin. I live in the City of Harbor Springs, and I think I know everybody, I've lived here my whole life. I graduated from high school here and went to Michigan State, moved back. And when I moved back, I worked in retail forever. My first committee was the downtown business committee before it turned into the DDA. From that I joined City Council. I was on City Council for a number of years and was on the ZBA, Planning Commission.

I moved out of town after City Council when I got married and moved out of city limits. And then I was put back on the Planning Commission for a number of years. I resigned at that point, raised my son, and now he's away to college. And it would be interesting and fun to get back involved again. I feel like there's a lot of change that's going on. And I feel like having had the history of living here as long as I have, I know a lot of people from all walks of life. So I have a pretty clear vision of everybody from locals to summer to those who have just moved here. And working downtown, you hear everything, it's a pretty good sounding board.

I feel like I could remain open-minded enough to hear everybody's point of view. And do the right thing because that's what we're supposed to do is the right thing and not do anything motivated by any other reason. We're all serving everybody who's sitting in this room, so our purpose is to listen and follow through on what we think is right and I think I can do that.”

John Cupps:

Not Present

Thank you

We all know that our community members and WLHS has been reaching out to the City Staff and the City Council members during this important time. The resignation of a fifth City Council Member has taught us that even though we have a process that’s appears to be organized, asking questions, giving advice, and checking and double-checking the facts is incredibly helpful for all of us. And we agree that these messages can be pretty pesky. Communication is our only means for success in protecting the culture of Harbor Springs.

As someone recently said, WLHS is overwhelmingly powered by local grassroots supporters, like our readers, and we are proud. Your emails, phone calls, deep research, and then with social media, our outreach is all at play.

Thank you to all the applicants who raised their hands. Those who have served over the years, we appreciate your continued interest and dedication, and with new persons beginning to show up, your new interests and backgrounds will, for certain, lead Harbor Springs into a better future.

Congrats, Bob Buckner - we hope that you all will see him and congratulate him - like it was said eloquently in Bill McCullough’s speech, we have here in Harbor Springs, an embarrassment of riches. We are so lucky. We hope your Fourth of July Holiday was happy for everyone.