Belleville City Manager recommends Hootman for clerk-treasurer job

At the July 19 virtual meeting of the Belleville City Council City Manager/Police Chief Dave Robinson proposed his police records clerk to fill the vacant position of city clerk-treasurer.
Chief Robinson had spoken highly of Briana Hootman’s skills in the past when he offered her to help temporarily with the Downtown Development Authority work after coordinator Carol Thompson resigned.
Then, when Clerk/Treasurer Verna Chapman resigned, Hootman was again in place to help with those pressing needs in addition to her records clerk duties.
Chief Robinson said when Hootman did the minutes for the July 6 city council meeting and no councilmembers made any corrections, he felt like a proud papa. He said he has posted Hootman’s records clerk position internally to begin with and will post it in the Independent and statewide.
He said he now is working through the Civil Service Commission on how they want to handle it and whether they want to interview. He said, on her own, Hootman has gone through state certification to be an elections official. He said that is a long process and he doesn’t know how far along she is.
“She’s been great,” Chief Robinson said. He said the records clerk position is quite complex, but whoever they select for police records will be just 60 steps away from the clerk’s office for Hootman’s help.
He said he is thankful the city has a strong team that is getting stronger every day.
Mayor Kerreen Conley said it’s always great to see people grow within the organization.
Hootman, who was acting as clerk at the meeting, thanked everyone for their kind words. She said she looks forward to the opportunity to work with everyone and learn new things.
In other business at the one-hour-and-16-minute meeting, the council:
• Approved the request of Melissa Daroci to use the rose arbor and/or pavilion at Horizon Park for her wedding ceremony and pictures between 2:30 and 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 28, which includes set up and tear down of any wedding decorations. Parking will be at First United Methodist Church. The wedding party will travel by horse and carriage from the church to the park and then after the ceremony to the reception by traveling down High Street to W. Huron River Drive and then west to Elwell. The police chief has arranged a reserve detail to follow the horse and carriage from the church to the park and remain for the ceremony to assure there are no traffic issues. After the ceremony the police reserve unit will follow the horse and carriage to the city limits on Huron River Drive. Individuals from the event will clean up any form of debris left by the horse, Chief Robinson said. Daroci said she wants to use the rose arbor, but if it’s raining they will go to the covered gazebo;
• Heard Councilman Tom Fielder say that there is no procedure to reserve the gazebo and the city has not done this in the past. He wanted to know if this was a new policy. Chief Robinson said Daroci filled out a special event application and went through the process. Mayor Conley said lots of people have had their weddings there without telling the city and, “I don’t see a problem”;
• After a long discussion voted to have the second meeting in August as an in-person hybrid session at a place to be determined. There must be at least three council members present in person, a quorum, but others can participate online. Chief Robinson said he will check on the availability of the district library’s meeting room and, “I imagine the library has better Wifi … It might be something excellent”;
• Approved placement of a memorial bench to honor the memory of Mazin (Mike) Kouza, longtime owner of Hayward’s Party Store who died unexpectedly on March 24. Laura Nichols established a Go Fund Me page and raised $2,905 from 27 community members for this purchase. Nichols said she wanted the bench on city property next to Hayward’s, so if someone bought the store property the bench would not be removed. She researched the bench style purchased by the city and wanted to get approval before ordering it. She said there will be two small plaques on the bench, one with Kouza’s name and one with a poem written by his sister;
• Approved Mayor Conley as the city’s representative to the MMRMA (Michigan Municipal Risk Management Authority) and Chief Robinson as alternate. Mayor Conley recused herself from the vote. Former interim city manager Tracey Schultz-Kobylarz had been the official representative but she is no longer with the city;
• Approved accounts payable of $183,210.24 and the following departmental purchases in excess of $500: to All Season Landscaping, $4,499 for a new lawn mower for the DPW; to Morton Salt, $3,531.68 for road salt for the DPW; to Work N Gear, $1,350 for DPW uniform allowance;
• Held a discussion on what to do about the deteriorating roads in Harbour Pointe and the possibility of a grant. Mayor Pro Tem Jesse Marcotte said streets are bad on his side of the city, too, and they need a global solution. Councilman Ken Voigt said he talked to Congresswoman Debbie Dingell at the farmers’ market last week and she said grants will be available in the fall and communities need to have shovel-ready projects;
• Heard Mike Renaud describe the dangerous situation between High Street and Harbour Pointe where tree branches are hanging over and people can’t ride their bikes safely. “It is very, very bad and dangerous,” he said. “Having the blind corner there is dangerous”; and
• Heard Chief Robinson say they are getting the bids for dealing with the “goat proposal” for trimming the shoreline vegetation at Horizon Park and talking to the DDA to see if the DDA and the city can go half and half. He said the DDA records were hard to find. “This is something we want fixed,” Robinson said. “We don’t want to get to this point again… There’s no reason we can’t work as a team.”