By Scott Sullivan
Editor
Should Saugatuck bag CJ Bagierek as planning commission chair after a 40-page probe led by city manager Ryan Cummins with town attorneys showed he and wife Kimberly likely ran an illegal short-term rental at 610 Lake St. throughout his four years of PC tenure?
Council voted 4-2 March 23 to ask Bagierek to resign and/or face censure and removal as PC VC. He has until April 22 to choose.
“I take no pleasure in doing this,” said councilman Scott Dean at the meeting. “As mayor in May 2023, I interviewed and recommended Mr. Bagierek (for the VP post.)
By then the self-employed conveyor specialist/consultant per his Linked In profile showed March 26, had served six months on the PC, since first appointed Dec. 12, 2022 by then-mayor Garnet Lewis.
A 40-page investigation report led by city manager Ryan Cummins with town attorneys went public in the April 19 Commercial Record under the title “Saugatuck planners turn eyes on selves.”
Turns out council had viewed the nascent report two months earlier in closed session, but not acted on it. The ball instead was bounced March 19 to PC members, none of whom voiced enthusiasm to pick up a hot potato.
Planner Jim Bouck opened procedings moving to strike Item 5E, which Cummins had couched as “A Learning and Growth Opportunity” re: Bagierek, from the night’s agenda and minced few words.
“I see this as a public shaming of C.G.,” Bouck said. “That’s already occurred. Calling this ‘A Learning and Growth Opportunity suggests we don’t know our jobs.
“This is not our role nor responsibility. We don’t have the power to do so, you do,” Bouck said.
Planner Bobbie Gaunt suggested council seize the “learning and growth opportunity” for itself.
So ball back to council. Mayor Holly Anderson “exercised my prerogative” she said, when challenged by councilman Gregory Muncey “to put discussing it on council’s agenda tonight,” less than four days later.
Muncey, who lists Bagierek as co-producer of his “Saugatuck on Sundays” radio show, said he found the mayor’s move, unannounced to some council members, odd.
Councilmen Russ Gardner joined him saying they saw no malfeasance on Bagierek’s part and. “When alerted by staff of the possible conflict, CG at once corrected it,” Muncey said.
Kimberly Bagierek during public comments called the probe a “witch hunt … What a waste of taxpayers’ time and money. C.J. doesn’t run that B&B, I do.”
“Now she’s done the anger part,” her husband spoke next, more calmly, “we had a valid license when we bought our house in 2016, as had the previous owners. With the STR changes you made, now we needed an ADU (attached dwelling unit) permit too.”
“You were vice chair during those changes,” Dean said. “There were lengthy deliberations. It’s hard to believe now you didn’t know.”
Selective enforcement? Gardner raised past ethics questions still open re: current council members as more concerning.
Anderson said Gardner was involved in last year’s ethics policy update. “Since I’ve been mayor I‘ve upheld it to a T,” she said.
Dean’s first motion — to request the vice chair’s resignation or, failing that, schedule a public hearing on the matter — failed by 3-3 tie vote, lacking a majority. He, Anderson and mayor pro-tem Joe Clark voted yes, Gardner, Muncey and Lauren Stanton no. Potential tie-breaking vote Chris Peterson was not present.
Dean made another stab, changing the consequence for not responding to a public hearing on possible censure and removal as vice chair. Stanton flipped and it passed 4-2.
Bagierek replied to city council and this newspaper Sunday, March 30:
City council,
I am writing this to be included in the April 8 City council workshop packet.
When we bought our home, the previous homeowner warned us to stay out of local politics. Another one of those lessons only learned the hard way.
City council in a split vote asked me to resign my volunteer position or face a decision to be censured and removed from vice chairman position of planning.
This decision from city council took closed sessions, miscommunication with myself and the planning chairman, public disclosure, leading to news articles and TV news stories. If this would have been handled with a phone call from the beginning, it might have been more effective and efficient.
To my situation. At THIS time I can understand the concern with one of the ordinance changes to exclude legacy ADU from current ADU rules. It comes down to TIMING and the STR certificate that we received in 2022.
Timing: At the time of that ordinance we were still under the impression we were in compliance. I had previously looked for direction on recusal on different cases so there is no confusion of when that might be required.
Original STR license:
Multiple owner/operators prior to us rented the property in the same way with what I will call a standard STR license. In 2021 we met with city staff to address our STR certificate. We provided full disclosure of the property and based upon what the city had on record the city cannot deny the understanding of the property.
“The CITY wrongly told us how to apply and approved a standard STR license. There was no discussion of Special Land Use requirements. By taking that direction from city, we understood ourselves to be in compliance. In fact, in compliance for the duration of that 3-year certificate.
In early 2025 a SLU case came up for an Attached Auxiliary Dwelling Unit, a term not found in our ordinances but is understandable and I find might have fell through the same issue as ours. My wife and I decided we would follow that lead with our renewal. Starting this controversy.
I do understand I serve at the pleasure of city council, the whole city council. My comments really speak to the controlling portion of city council.
Your push for transparency is noted. Except …
1) After one year on the job city council voted a 10-percent raise to someone with significant performance and personal issue, shortly thereafter let go with a large settlement and no transparency to the citizens.
Council March 4, 2022 accepted the resignation of city manager Ryan Heise after an unexplained three-week absence and awarded him a lump sum payment of $98,654 for the balance of his contract plus 144 hours of unused vacation time plus insurance benefits for the next six months.
2) Multi-time election law offender on city council; nothing is said and was allowed to still be involved in the processes of city council and/or elections. No transparency.
Former mayor Lewis has twice now been fined by the Michigan Elections Bureau for campaign violations.
3) Questions of city contracts within committee member business, public displays of intoxication, and negative police interaction with city representatives.
Yes that’s a little bit of what-about-ism, Bagierek went on. But how else should we compare similar situations to the way things are dealt with? And if you compare severity it is hard to not look at the differences/
How this has been dealt with, I would have nothing to lose if I choose to take the path of censure by stepping down for the remainder of the year as vice chair.
I fully respect the planning commission and members and have reached out to gain perspective. Mixed reactions, but all my conversations honored my ability to make my own decision.
My one request before I make my decision is for the city to acknowledge the city’s error with the original 2022 STR license. Thank you.
CJ Bagierek,
Planning Commission Vice Chair
