By James Windell
It promised to be a South Haven City Council meeting devoid of controversy and contention on Monday, July 7, 2025, in the City Hall Chambers.
The first several items on the agenda lived up to that promise. And item # 10 that had to do amendments to extend existing beach concession licensing agreements for another five years seemed like a slam dunk.
City Manager Kate Hosier introduced the seemingly banal item by saying that the city has been working with the concessionaires for some time, and “we have good relationships with both of them.” She went on to say that the concessionaires provide benefits to the city by keeping the areas around the concession stands clean and they provide extra eyes on the beach. “We would like to have both amendments approved,” she said.
What could possibly go wrong?
Before a motion was made to approve the amendments, Mayor Annie Brown asked if there were any questions. Councilman Joe Reeser raised his index finger on his right hand signally that he had a question.
“Is it possible for us to approve the concessionaires to add a percentage, say five percent to each bill, to go for beach safety?” Reeser asked.
That somewhat innocuous question opened the floodgates to a flurry of comments and questions – all of which raised more questions than they resolved.
While the city attorney was unclear as to whether the city could require beach concessions to add a surcharge to all of their sales, he indicated he could look into it.
City Manager Hosier pointed out that the city already benefits from having concessionaires do great of work to maintain the areas around their stands and they already pay a license fee. Hosier also said she wanted the amendments approved so the vendors have certainty about next year and can make investments in new equipment.
Councilwoman Letitia Wilkins suggested that it would be unfair to raise prices on items sold at the concession stands because only a limited number of people using the beaches would be buying from those concessions. In defense of his question, Reeser said he had posed his query in an effort to find a creative way to fund a lifeguard program.
Finally, after discussion, the motion to approve the amendments to the concession license agreements was put before the council. It passed by a slim majority. However, as soon as the passage was announced, Councilwoman Mary Hosley said she wanted to change her vote from yes to no. When it was concluded that she could do that, there was a new motion and vote to consider the previous motion. That motion passed. A new motion and vote was then called for to approve the amendments. This time the motion failed. Mayor Brown commented that the failure to pass the amendments was unfair to the beach concession owners as they were not present to be part of the discussion.
A new motion was proposed and then passed to request that the city attorney explore the question of whether the city could require concessions to add a surcharge.
In the meantime, the extension of the license agreements are on hold and will undoubtedly appear on the agenda of a future city council meeting, although it is likely there will be controversy over ways to fund a lifeguard program.
