By Scott Sullivan
Editor
Ethics Code
There is nothing wrong with dusting off an old Saugatuck Ethics Code. City council, at members Russ Gardner’s and Logan White’s urging, reviewed its 2004-established code last in 2008.
Filling 102 Butler Street seats then were Tony Vettori, Mark Bekken, Bill Hess, Barry Johnson, Catherine Simon, Jeff Spangler and Jane Verplank. Tony has since passed, Kirk Harrier was second-year manager and clerk Monica Looman (who later married and became a Nagel) was also new.
Simon voted “no” on that amended version. Then as now, questions were asked; unanimity was not assured.
In this go-round, members sought to:
- Make more effective use of city personnel and taxpayer monies,
- Comport with state law ethical provisions and penalties, calling them reliable safeguards against misconduct,
- Note council, being an elected by the people legislative body, is not vested with judicial powers, hence should avoid judging their or other officials’ conduct except when law invests them otherwise with such duties,
- Encourage citizens report breaches, in their views, to a council member or appointed official. Complaints about staff should go to the city manager.
- Persons concerned about “serious unethical conduct” should use state law procedures available already.
How well did that work? “If you love Saugatuck,” Bekken said 13 years later, at a Holland Area League of Women voters forum while running for the last of his 17 two-year terms, including more than once as mayor, “it didn’t get this way be accident.”
So what needs reviewing now? For one thing, it’s been a while; for another, every year is an election one for city councils. Both Saugatuck and Douglas run on cycles of 3 seats falling open biannually, then four on alternate years such as this Nov. 5.
Both city’s races when I started here in 2006 — Kirk’s first year also — ran largely uncontested, some go-rounds incumbents returned almost by default. Serving is not for the faint-hearted. Do you really love this community enough to devote the time and attention it needs to serve people right? The way we and they deserve? If you think it’s stress-free, beware lest you be successful. How committed are you?
Many, to our great good fortune, have been very. This includes agreeing to disagree yet remain collegial with eyes on a greater prize than our egos, agendas and power trips.
So after meetings some members socialized, not as a voting quorum but as neighbors, friends? In a small town, is this an ethics breach?
Members were — and are — prone judgmental moments too, of others sometimes especially. Who’s not human? Names of past, brief-lived council members such as Wendy Wise Fisher come to mind.
John Porzondek, who with partner Bryan Serman rehabbed their 790 Lake St. place into a home/bed and breakfast — handsomely, I thought — ran for and was elected to council after denied a protective deck awning they already had erected.
Historic District Commission and Zoning Administrator Mike Clark nixed it retroactively.
So John and Brian turned the removed awning’s framing into a front-yard butterfly bearing message signs. Circuit and state courts ruled doing so was their free-speech right, garish and provocative though it be. It was some metamorphosis. At least no one died of boredom.
Clark moved on soon enough. Porzondek served a one-and-done term, voting often in the minority, today 790 Lake stands with awning long back in place.
Small towns work that way: we make up and move on. Those who harbor bitterness let fester; what good is that? Better we not blame but give credit to a beautiful community that endures thanks to sacrifices we make gladly for each other.
So another fall looms. Gardner, White and Holly Anderson don’t have to rerun this November. The nonpartisan League has invited incumbent Mayor Lauren Stanton, Mayor Pro-Tem Helen Baldwin, Scott Dean and Gregory Muncey to a public forum Tuesday, Sept. 17, in the Saugatuck High School auditorium, 401 Elizabeth St.
Invited too are challengers Joe Leonatti, Sherry Tedaldi and Chris Peterson, like Gardner an ex-mayor/council member whom I expect will attend and articulately share views. Democracy, for all its bumptiousness, thrives that way.
Revisiting a now generation-old Ethics Code, last updated 16 years ago, needn’t be a straw horse nor pretext for a bully pulpit. Come with open hearts and minds filled with love for this place we share.
