South Haven City Council supports city manager at special meeting

By James Windell

The South Haven City Council called a special meeting for Friday, May 16, 2025 at 8:00 am. However, the agenda for this surprise meeting had only one item listed: Discussion, deliberation and potential action regarding personnel matters.
Prior to the meeting at the City Hall, neither City Council members nor members of the public who showed up seemed to know what the meeting was about. However, several people who were supporting Sgt. Carlotto for the next police chief were in attendance.
Council member George Sleeper, representing Ward Three, indicated that he was not aware of the purpose of the special meeting when he said that when it came to “personnel matters” that must mean it somehow related to the City Manager. Sleeper said that if the Council was intending to discuss Kate Hosier or her performance, this should only be done in a closed session – not in an open forum. “Once something is said,” Sleeper said, “it can’t be undone.”
Councilwoman Mary Hosley, also from Ward Three, said that she and councilwoman Wendi Onuki, representing Ward Two, had called for the special meeting. “My intent was to ask for an independent entity to investigate,” Hosley said. That simple statement suggested that the meeting was about getting answers to questions related to the hiring process that ended up with Dennis Honholt, rather than Sgt. Pat Carlotto, being chosen as the chief of police.
This led to Hosier requesting a closed session and for a motion to continue the discussion in private. A majority of the City Council voted for a closed session and the City Manager and the City Council retired to a private room.
When the council returned 30 minutes later, the tone was different.
“There has been much discussion among the community, and I appreciate the discussions that we had in closed session,” Hosley said. “After discussion, we support the City Manager’s position on the interim police chief…I appreciate the discussion we had in the closed session to help us understand everything and we ask that the community accept us as leaders moving forward and that we found everything acceptable. We need to move forward and if you have questions that you think need to be answered, please bring them to the City Manager.”
Although the public had a chance to make comments, members of the audience seemed confused and, obviously, had no idea what had taken place in the closed session.
Mayor Annie Brown asked Hosier if she had any comments and she replied, “No comment.”
Brown concluded the meeting with her statement: “None of us were happy to be here but we had a good search process that led to a great police chief in Kevin Swope. He was exceptional. His hiring was the consensus of the search committee and ultimately the City Manager is responsible for the hiring and firing of city personnel. It’s unfortunate that personal circumstances did not allow him to stay long.
“It’s also unfortunate that the second candidate, Dennis Honholt, chose to lie to us about his intentions. He has made a number of baffling and contradictory statements since then with a public statement full of vague allegations. We can take comfort in the fact that his tenure here was short lived and now we have a great interim chief in place in Adam DeBoer.
“We can also take comfort in knowing that Kate Hosier did everything right and we still found a bad apple. That happens.
“Kate has been with the City for a decade; she has been an excellent leader, and she has guided us with a steady hand helping to move our community forward handling challenges. I fully support Kate Hosier. And I call on each of you to support her as well. I would remind you that we are all on the same team. We are all here because we love this community and want to see it succeed.”