The County Press

City, library board reach lease agreement




BROWN CITY — Brown City Council members recently eached an agreement with the Brown City Library Board for a new building lease.

Library board member Charles Mitchell read a lengthy, well researched statement from the Brown City Library Board concerning the rent agreement.

Others in attendance were library board members Debbie Rickman, Bill Walters and Head Librarian Shirley Woods.

After a few questions, the Brown City Council unanimously agreed to a five-year lease for the space at 4207 Main St. for $515 per month, payable monthly in advance, for the library’s portion of the rent for the duration of the lease, which begins April 1.

The amount consists of $425 base rent and $90 for the library’s share of the electricity and gas.

In other business:

• City Manager Clint Holmes presented each councilmember with an updated City of Brown City Employee Directory containing officials and staff contact information.

• Holmes said CommuniTee-Shirts, an annual community promotion T-shirt designed to promote business pride and community spirit in Brown City, were given to the city hall at no charge to distribute to community volunteers and elected officials. Local businesses sponsor the back of the CommuniTee, and each participating business gets a custom designed ad, its own allotment of shirts, choice of imprint colors in the ad, and choice of shirt sizes.

• The city manager updated the council that in one of her first executive orders, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has changed the name of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (MEGLE).

• Holmes said the city received a Freedom of Information Act request on Feb. 4 for, “An electronic copy of any and all employees for year of 2018, (fiscal or calendar year). Each employee record should contain the employer name, employer zip code, year of compensation, first name, middle initial, last name, hire date, base salary amount, bonus amount, overtime amount, gross annual wages and position title. This data should be broken down by employer, employee and year. The principal purpose of this is to make this information more accessible to the public and to access and disseminate information regarding the health, safety, and welfare of the general public. This request is not principally for personal or commercial benefit. Our agency is just exercising the general rights of the public. For these reasons, we are requesting a waiver of fees. If there is a charge for this service, please obtain my approval in writing prior to proceeding with request.” The requested information was collected and forwarded, and the city received a response stating the information was received and accepted.

• City Attorney Gregory Stremers reported that the Michigan Legislature has changed the state Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) law as a result of last year’s “Emily” FOIA request. Under the new law, requestors will have to provide additional information, such as who is sponsoring the request, and more complete identifying information.

• The city attorney also spoke about some of the legal issues and challenges for communities associated with the new recreational marijuana law.

• Stremers noted police officer training has been an issue for many cities which are paying for future officers to attend the police academy as full-time employees. He said if that were to occur locally, Brown City would have to adopt new contract language for aspiring police officers who work for the city.

• Bob Armstrong of WMIC/WTGV-FM radio station handed out copies of the 2018 Fairs and Festivals Guide to the councilmembers and stated the station is publishing a special Activity Guide for 2019 covering all the events in the Thumb and Blue Water Area. The board agreed to free ads in the Activity Guide with the purchase of radio advertising for $959, which is a $23 increase over the 2018 price. Board members also agreed to have a Brown City business and direct link to Brown City’s website and the summer festival via www.sanilacbroadcasting/ com for an additional $99.

• Mayor Julie Miller congratulated Debbie Ryckman for winning the chili cook-off sponsored by the Festival Committee.