WLHS: Attend the First Meeting of New City Council Monday

Through transparency and engagement we will preserve what is best about Harbor Springs and adapt to what needs to change.

We Love Harbor Springs is focused on preserving the best of Harbor Springs. Bring together the strength of full-time residents, property owners, area townships, and the tribe. Give the new Mayor, new City Council, and new members of commissions 6 weeks to get organized and lead the City before modifying the zoning.

The Brief

• The first meeting of the new City Council is Monday, November 18, 7 PM EST. Make an effort to attend: Agenda Zoom YouTube

• During the open session at the start of Monday’s meeting, citizens should ask the City Council to address the City Manager’s comments to NPR, correct the previous meeting minutes, lift the building moratorium, and delay zoning discussion until the new Planning Commission is in place on January 1.

• The City Attorney has made it clear that, in his legal opinion, as a result of the election, we are operating under the old zoning. (Zoom Replay)

  • Min 13:17 Ramer:  “I think I would just I say I concur that the existing code that was in place before Ordinance 439 was adopted as now effective.

    There have been some concerns expressed about that, and so as a safeguard, the idea of re-adopting the code, in my opinion, makes sense, doesn’t hurt, and certainly would Forestall any further questions.”

  • Min 15:57  Ramer: “I believe that prior zoning code is in effect, in my opinion.”

• The meeting minutes from the Special Meeting of the City Council on November 7, are not accurate. The minutes state ambiguity in the law. There is no ambiguity. The City Council should correct the minutes before they are accepted on November 18.

• In a special meeting after the election, the old city council implemented a moratorium on any zoning permits until the Planning Commission can meet and discuss the next steps. There was no need for the moratorium. Builders and homeowners are rightfully upset and harmed by the City’s actions.

• Builders have expressed they are perfectly happy with the old zoning. There is no need to rush the corrections to the zoning.

• The Planning Commission Chairman is advancing a plan to adopt modified new zoning in as little as 3 weeks. Completely ignoring the referendum’s purpose of engaging with the community. The Planning Commission will elect a new chairperson in January. We should wait.

• The new Mayor and new city council have the leadership skills and mandate to place the right people on the Planning Commission. These new Planning Commission members start on January 1. There is no need, after all this effort, to settle the zoning in 3 weeks. When you go slower, you get there faster.

Missing the Message

A recent article by Michigan Public Radio interviewed the City Manager and members of the NO campaign. Please read it - Article. We have received copies of this article from many of the 478 people who voted YES. Voters have spoken. It is unclear whether the City Manager has received the message. We encourage you to let the City know what you want and expect. Attend City Council Meetings and Planning Commission and speak up in open sessions so we get this right.

A few key things to note in response to the article.

• WLHS has received 100s of written comments from the community, attended dozens of city meetings, and met with 100s of voters. 99.9% of the comments we have heard are about solving problems for all demographics, including solving for affordability. His comment is offensive and without basis. His observation in no way represents the views of VoteYES, WLHS, or the voters in Harbor Springs.

• Cites rarely completely replace their zoning. And even less often without deep engagement with Citizens. It is too hard to get that much change correct. This is evident from the 478 people who voted Yes because the City overlooked their viewpoint.

• There are 150 donors to We Love Harbor Springs, Inc, a 501(c)4. Every dollar is from a voter, property owner, or someone in our local townships. All of the donations are public records, including the names of the donors. As a 501(c)4 there is no means to hide individual donors.

• We used lawyers licensed in Michigan, with headquarters in Ohio, because they have decades of municipal experience, and all the other area lawyers did not want to oppose the City. The law firm did not lead the referendum in any way. The Ohio firm provided legal counsel when the City rejected the referendum.

• The referendum was led by voters in Harbor Springs. The signatures were gathered by voters. Not by WLHS. WLHS supported them with legal advice and campaign expertise.

• The City, MEDC, and NO effort collectively have spent much more money and are better resourced with full-time staff and legal counsel. Mostly paid for with City and MEDC resources. WLHS is led by voters from Harbor Springs. All volunteers.

• Voters in Harbor Springs made their own decisions on how to vote. They live here and have an opinion the City Manager needs to respect.

• The City Manager’s economic plan is focused on changing the median age of the city from 62 to 40. And to attract more full-time residents. He is spending City Resources to serve a group of people who currently do not live here. The City Council needs to redirect this effort to support current citizens. If the City wants to vote and decides to push out current residents for new residents, it needs to be a public discussion. Not a subcommittee without meeting minutes.

Letter to the City from a voter

From: A. O'Reilly
Date: November 14, 2024 at 11:14:09 AM GMT+1
To: Tom Graham
Subject: Harbor Springs - for the public record…I have never heard anyone on either side say…

Good morning Mayor Graham,

I congratulate you wholeheartedly and wish you the best of luck in your new role serving our city.

I am sorry to have to make this my first communication with you in your office as Mayor, however I am deeply disturbed by comments that two paid City employees, the non-bias advisors to the City Council, and another from committee volunteer have made about our community and it’s constituents in an NPR article on November 12, 2024.

As a voter in the recent election, as is my right and duty, I have never heard the disparaging remarks Mr Sinadinoski, Mr Iacoangeli and Mr Rotert claim as public knowledge and in public record as record of the stance of the YES voters purpose and intent.

The comments are distasteful and disrespectful to the entire community both YES and NO voters, second home owners, and visitors to the community alike and are quite simply false - yet placed in the public domain by those paid employees as representative of City Hall, the advisors to City Council.

In the following recent piece on NPR,

Mr Sinadinoski claims:

“We’ve seen comments from different folks about not wanting to attract certain ‘lower demographics…’’ Sinadinoski said. “And that’s a verbatim quote from public comment”.

Mr Iacoangeli claims:

“This was a well-organized, pretty well-funded effort by folks — we don’t know their names — to basically derail the zoning ordinance,” Iacoangeli said.

Mr Rotert claims:

‘’affluent residents with expensive homes and pristine views don’t want to have less affluent neighbors… and then this big concern that maybe taller buildings, apartment buildings, might block our view, or we’re going to have 'those people' move into our town.’’

Employees advise the community without bias; volunteers on committees, Boards, and Commissions also advisors are asked to refrain from speaking outside the meeting or lobbying directly personal opinions to Council or the constituents (Handbook 2022; ratified by City Council).

Because of the poor judgment from these individuals, through choosing to publicly express their views of constituents - as true, and by speaking on behalf of legislation with the lack of judgement around the purpose of the Ordinance put forward by City Council to ballot, these individuals do not appear to understand the importance of seeking common ground at this time and thereby may be unable to - without bias - seek the community trust, common ground and healing required to move forward and through this rift.

Thank-you for your time,

A. O’Reilly 

Other Items

Zoom and City Meetings - We have spent a great deal of time attending City Meetings in person and on Zoom. It is difficult to hear in the meeting rooms, see the documents on the screens and difficult to follow on Zoom. To rewire City Hall to allow clear video and sound would cost about 20k. Doing so would dramatically improve transparency. WLHS is focused on improving transparency. If you would like to donate to this effort or have the expertise to put it in place, please contact us weloveharborsprings@gmail.com.

Open Meetings Act - Since the election, several people have approached us to note that the Planning Commission met from April 2023 to Feb 2024 in a subcommittee to draft the zoning. Given the legislative nature of these meetings, the Open Meeting Act requires public notice and meeting minutes. We have yet to find any meeting minutes on the City Website. If you have information about these meetings, please get in touch with us.

Land Purchase - Another set of people have come forward, pointing out that several parcels of land have been purchased for development from parties in violation of conflict of interest provisions. This conversation includes annexing some property to expand the city. This is a charged issue that is best resolved to prove these claims are true or untrue so we can resolve conflict of interest claims. Please contact us with any facts related to the conflict of interest in the City government.