Belleville City Council gives immediate raise to its clerk/treasurer

A raise in salary from $62,000 to $75,000, effective immediately, was given to the Belleville City Clerk/Treasurer Brianna Hootman on a unanimous vote of the city council on July 1.
This was at the recommendation of city manager Jason Smith, who noted that on the Council of Western Wayne salary list, Hootman’s pay was the lowest of the full-time clerks on the list. She said her last raise was in August of 2021 and she had been working under an “agreement.”
Councilman Jeremiah Beebe was the only councilman absent July 1.
The agreement said the rate of pay is $75,000 per year/$36.058 per hour and her pay shall be adjusted on an annual basis after finding of a satisfactory performance review by the city manager. The clerk/treasurer is a salary-exempt position for overtime. She will provided health insurance benefits equal to those of the members of the GELC collective bargaining unit.
DPW Director Tony Bollino said he thought the salary should be raised to $78,000 because she does the work of both the clerk and treasurer in the combined job. The CWW list only listed clerks, not the combined jobs.
“We need to be competitive in the market to keep top people,” Mayor Ken Voigt said of the raise. “It seems like a lot, but we did budget for this.”
In other business at the almost two-hour meeting on July 1, the council:
• Approved the second reading and final adoption of a zoning ordinance amendment to allow banquet halls in B-1 zoning locations for buildings less than 2,500 square feet. It will be in effect 30 days after passage;
• Tabled to the next meeting for more information selection of a water meter contractor from the three selected bidders. Also, Mayor Voigt said he would like all five council members to be present for the important decision. Representatives of ETNA Supply and Ferguson Water Works were present to answer questions. The third bidder, SLC Meter, was not represented. Bids were $590,544.13 by Ferguson for Neptune brand meters; $612,683.85 from SLC Meter for Badger meters; and $628,006 by ETNA for Sensus meters. The recommendation from the staff was SLC. The present meters are 12 years old, but their technology is 30 years old, Smith said. He said they can’t get parts and there are problems with the collector. The company that made them no longer exists, he said;
• Approved the purchase agreement for the sale of the city’s former DPW site at 100 Davis St. for $50,000. Buyers Sam Arndt and Leah Stempky, on behalf of an entity to be formed, agree to take over responsibility for the contamination left on the site, which has test wells. The parcel adjoins their Burhop’s Collision site;
• Approved placing four amendments to the Belleville City Charter on the Nov. 5 ballot including: allowing the council to set the time and date of the meetings, roll-call votes eliminated, except for financial spending; allowing the council to set the purchasing policy and when bids are necessary; and removing completely the civil service commission, which now only covers the police chief and the clerk/treasurer;
• Approved lease of a Tymco 300 sweeper;
• Tabled for more information a proposal to buy a new tornado siren for $27,900 from Westshore Services, which is the same company used by Van Buren and Sumpter townships. Smith said that would put 48111 all with the same sirens. Smith had been asked to look at grants available and he said the MMRMA (Michigan Municipal Risk Management Authority) didn’t get back to him and other grants open in October for Homeland Security and private grants. Mayor Voigt asked him to at least put it out for bids;
• Approved accounts payable of $61,703.65 and departmental expenditures of $500 or more: to City of Williamston, $779 for outer carry ballistic vest for Officer Michael Pearl; to Core and Main, $555 for sewer cover replacement rings; to Harold J. Love and Associates, $1,500 for psych evaluation for Officers Charles Brooks and Michael Pearl and $750 for psych evaluation for Officer Marc Boudreau; to Monroe County Firefighters Association, $3,400 for 2024 association dues and chief dues and firefighter training; and to R&R Fire Truck Repair Inc., $5,239 for fire truck lettering;
• Heard a presentation on AirSpace Link UAS (uncrewed aircraft system) by Michael Healander, president of the company that manage space for drones for the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration). He presented a study on drone use in the city of Belleville and said the Council of Western Wayne paid for this regional deployment and there is $18 million set aside for drone grants. He said his office is on the 12th floor of the Michigan Central building. He said Belleville is at level zero, with the city having no drones and no policies. He said he doesn’t think Belleville should buy a lot of drones, but apply for a grant for $15,000-$20,000 to buy drones and license a drone pilot on staff. He said Camp Grayling bought 450 drones and, “You can go up there and train as pilots and crash their drones”;
• Heard a presentation from a representative of Geese Chasers who told how they have eliminated geese from Horizon Park with their border collies. He said in March, assistant city manager Steve Jones called them and he, his wife, and their dog Bracken got to work to get the Canada Geese off Horizon Park to make it cleaner for the summer lakeside concerts;
• Heard Mayor Voigt read a proclamation celebrating the 20-year anniversary of the Belleville Co-Op apartment building;
• Heard resident Larry Holmes ask about when the High Street/Main Street street corner will be fixed. He said it’s all bumpy and he has a bad back and it hurts when they hit that hole. Mayor Voigt said fixing that is high on the city’s radar. Mayor Voigt said has a bad back, too, and is having surgery;
• Heard a resident speak up for the geese, saying she can’t justify paying $800 a month to let his border collies run. She said she knows someone with a pooper scooper who has a business cleaning up and she would do it for a whole lot less so they could have their concerts without geese droppings. She said the geese were nesting when the Geese Chasers first came and if they didn’t get the DNR certificate required for demolishing the nests and eggs, they should be prosecuted and, “It makes me sick. When they’re nesting, they can’t fly because that’s when they’re molting.” She said there are other ways to get the park clean;
• Heard city manager Smith answer Mayor Pro Tem Kelly Bates’ question on progress on updates to Victory Park. He said they just got the contracts with the county and the calls for bids may be out soon. Assistant city manager Jones was not present to give the exact information;
• Heard Smith also report that repair work on the Harbour Pointe streets starts the next week, the water and sewer lines have been televised and cleaned, a used leaf vac was ordered and it needs work and should be ready by mid August for leaf pickup, the summer work program with students is working well and they have GIS mapped curb stops and fire hydrants, the BHS dance team will paint fire hydrants and the city will donate to them based on what they’ve done, and he would take a vacation day on July 3 and then the city office is closed July 4 and 5;
• Heard Councilman Randy Priest say he toured the cemetery that day and it needs a clean up. Smith said the DPW crews have been busy with “heavy lifting” and they will ask Pioneer Landscaping to clean the cemetery;
• Heard Councilwoman Julie Kissel say she went to Growth Works in Plymouth for an event and was very impressed with its work;
• Heard Smith say three bids were soliticted for refuse pickup and two bids were received, with no bid from the third. The two companies will give presentations at the July 15 council meeting;
• Heard Mayor Voigt say Lake Fest was phenomenal and the water ski show was really cool. He said it looked like twice as many vendors as last year. He called it a nice, low-key family event going for quality not quantity. He said the BYC fireworks was set for July 6; and
• Heard Assistant Fire Chief Chris Zweng say the previous Saturday, after six medical runs and two fires, the fire fighters were able to watch the fireworks across the lake on Harmony Lane. He said the newly renovated pumphouse area, across the street from the firehall, was a good place to watch.