(Community Matters 185) Mayor: Longer Terms Could Mean Better City Policy In Battle Creek

Two years can fly by in local government and not in a good way. Battle Creek Mayor Mark Behnke and City Commissioner Jim Lance break down the May 5 election ballot question that would extend the mayor and city commission terms from two years to four, and why supporters say it’s about better governing rather than political advantage. If you’ve ever wondered how fast new officials are expected to learn budgets, procedures, and the realities of running a large city, this conversation makes the learning curve feel very real.

Episode Resources

Battle Creek City Clerk's Office Website

ABOUT COMMUNITY MATTERS
Former WBCK Morning Show host Richard Piet (2014-2017) returns to host Community Matters, an interview program focused on community leaders and newsmakers in and around Battle Creek. Community Matters is heard Saturdays, 8:00 AM Eastern on WBCK-FM (95.3) and anytime at battlecreekpodcast.com.

Community Matters is sponsored by Lakeview Ford Lincoln and produced by Livemic Communications.

Transcript

Welcome And Where To Listen

Richard Piet 0:02

I'm Richard Plant. This is Community Matters. Thanks for being here Saturdays at 95.3 8 a.m. Battle Creek Podcast.com anytime. Or go where you get podcasts and type Community Matters Calhoun County. You'll be invited to follow, and you'll get a little alert when these episodes drop. Presenting sponsor, Lakeview Ford Lincoln. May

The May 5 Term Question

Richard Piet 0:26

5th, Tuesday, election day in Battle Creek. And there is a question on the ballot about extending the terms of the mayor and the commission from two years to four. Here to help us understand that and get some perspective. Mayor Mark Banke and Commissioner Jim Lance from the city of Battle Creek. Welcome to you both. Uh welcome, Richard. Thanks for being here. So let's talk about this. Term limits are always an interesting discussion point. There are pros and cons, I suppose, from uh different perspectives about each of these, whether they should be longer, whether they should be shorter. What's the focus here? I want to give you both a chance to talk about that.

SPEAKER_02 1:06

I'll be honest

Learning Curve And Better Governance

SPEAKER_02 1:07

with you. I was approached by a couple of the commissioners, Commissioner Lance and Commissioner Reynolds, and they're both forward-type thinking people. They want to become more efficient and effective and how they carry out their function as commissioners. I applaud them and um I asked them to study it. We studied it, we brought it back to the city attorney, the city manager, who at that time said, Hey, um, it's possible. Um, we'd like to clean up some other stuff. So they're cleaning up a couple other items too. But I think if you look at a true objective here, is really to better understand how we do our jobs and how we can do be more forward-thinking, and um, in a sense, create a better policy for the city of Battle Creek.

Richard Piet 1:47

What do you think, Commissioner Lance? How is this better?

SPEAKER_00 1:50

I think it it reaches several things. Number one, what the extension of terms does just by allowing a commissioner who, like myself, who was pretty new to commission a few years ago, it gives us a little more opportunity to understand how a city operates. And and the city of Battle Creek, it's a rather large city. And to, I would say to learning curve is pretty steep, and to get a a handle on on everything in in two years can be daunting at times. So I think that's very important. Number two, the idea is not only from a continuity sense, but it also makes the commissioners probably more efficient and effective uh from a governance standpoint.

Richard Piet 2:27

Uh, Mark, we've talked about this uh before, the notion that when a commissioner starts, I think the first thing besides protocol and understanding how the mechanism works is boom, you're in the budget. You know, so it's it's not the ramp up that some might think. And so you're you're into it fast, and then in two years you're running again, or you're not. It's kind of fast, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 2:51

I I remember a couple years ago there was a first meeting, and uh we've yet to even get a tour of City Hall, and someone out of the box put a resolution on the agenda to withdraw something that was approved in the previous administration. Yeah, and uh and a gentleman made the comment that hey, I don't even know where the pop machine is yet, but already you're withdrawing a previously approved resolution. I'm opposed to that. So I thought that rhetoric using the pop machine was interesting. The fact of the matter is, two years is a short period of time, really, to serve your constituency. And a lot of people try to find out as much as they can on how to operate. Um, there's seminars you can go to, there's working with commissioners like Commissioner Lance, who may have more knowledge that can share it, and and we try to share as much as possible. And I think that's important. This four-year period of time gives us more time to really make good policy and not uh to be political at the same time. So I think it's important that we look at that as an opportunity to really do what's right for Battle Creek, uh create economic development, create prosperity, and go ahead from there.

SPEAKER_00 3:57

And to follow up on your point, Mayor, it allows the commission really an opportunity to see what its policies are going to look like in a few years. I mean, quite frankly, when you jump in on a two-year policy and and you may no longer be a commissioner, you don't really know how, if in fact, your policies actually impacted the citizens. And by having a four-year, I would say, uh a length of time to kind of see what happens, you know, you you get to really, I guess, understand and and see the impact of what you're actually doing.

SPEAKER_02 4:28

Absolutely. And not only that, but we're saving probably $50 or $60,000 in conducting the election. Not that it's a lot of money, but I think it's significant enough that we can use the monies elsewhere in the city administration uh to carry out our form of government.

Richard Piet 4:42

There's

Politics Concerns And State Context

Richard Piet 4:43

probably someone listening who's thinking politically and they can't help it because this is what we do now, right? Uh, even though you just made the point, mayor, about not necessarily thinking about it politically, but practically. But nevertheless, somebody may be thinking yeah, the it's just an opportunity to enrich ourselves or or some other uh negative viewpoint about it. Talk about that. I want to give you a chance to to respond to the that thinking.

SPEAKER_02 5:10

Well, everyone's got their uh First Amendment rights, and we respect those. The biggest thing to remember is that the state of Michigan, all 83 counties in the state of Michigan recently had a state statute that was passed that prohibited all 83 counties from having their county commissions be at two-year terms. They're now at four-year terms. So I think this was one of the incentives that was given to the commissioners to really start talking about the two-year as opposed to four-year. And that's where they moved forward. I think the state legislature was being efficient. I mean, they were just saying, hey, we can get a lot more done in four years working together as bodies, the governor, a governor, the counties in the state of Michigan, all 83 counties.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

And I'd follow up with that too, Mayor. I mean, the fact is we have a lot of elections in a over a course of time. And, you know, I think there's probably some fatigue from how many times people have to go and go vote all the time. There's just a, you know, probably having some sense of normalcy in the one less time to go vote probably will help people, actually. Might even have more engagement uh overall.

Richard Piet 6:17

There's an interesting thought. How about that? Right. You know, Jim, uh, Mark mentioned that you uh were among those that thought about this practically and researched it. Are there other points besides election fatigue, maybe, that seem to come out of that research that underscore the practicality of this?

SPEAKER_00 6:36

Well, I would say when we were brainstorming and looking at really before we enrolled as before the citizens, what are we really looking at? And is it something that we all support? And I can tell you, our group, Commissioner Reynolds and and our subcommittee, all supported the extension of this, and not for political reasons, but mainly for again, it's that continuity. Plus, we learned that the size of the city of Ball Creek, we're almost the last entity the size of us that only have two-year terms. I mean, most of most of the cities that are size have four-year terms. It makes it much easier. And frankly, because we have a city manager, the city manager probably feels a little more comfortable knowing what her four years will look like as opposed to every two years where you could have, in our case, nine new bosses.

Richard Piet 7:22

Yeah, Mark, you probably have witnessed that before too, in your tenure, when there's not necessarily a wholesale change, but a significant change in the commission. Maybe that does affect the business office at City Hall.

SPEAKER_02 7:36

If you remember going back to 1998, commissioners, there were four new commissioners that were elected to the commission. And um, Rant's leader stepped down because he didn't want to train four new commissioners at that time. Now there was some other controversy that was going on at the same time, but he got he was fed up. You know, quite frankly, I don't blame blaming him. Training four new commissioners is a very big task altogether to teach them about our local government. And it just takes a lot of time and uh a lot of intuition.

Bad Officials And Recall Safeguards

Richard Piet 8:07

What if somebody's gonna ask this? So let's ask it. What if there's a bad apple in the bunch? Right. So someone's been elected and maybe they don't have the best interests of the city at heart. Now we're looking at living with them for four years and not two. Somebody's thinking that. What are your thoughts?

SPEAKER_02 8:24

I'm gonna let the attorney take this on because you he's got the right answer on this.

SPEAKER_00 8:29

Well, unfortunately, that happens, right? I mean, we all know that when you go and vote, something may come across that doesn't work so well for everybody. But but fortunately for us, we're not changing at all in our recall proposals. In fact, we're still allowed to eliminate someone in the event that they they become a distraction. And quite frankly, based on the current rule set, how our ordinance is set up, it actually, if you wanted to remove someone in office, it is quite difficult because of the two-year term. A four-year term actually allows us, I would say, a better mechanism to recall someone or get rid of them in the event that they need to go based on uh behavior.

Richard Piet 9:09

And we shouldn't suggest that's an easy thing to do. I guess it's not supposed to be easy, right? There's a process to follow, and that's a whole other conversation. But uh, that's an interesting point that maybe that's the right way to build this, isn't it? If the terms are longer, then a situation like that should be addressed maybe a little easier.

SPEAKER_02 9:27

We hope that we'll never have to use that. But in the event that the people in a particular ward or an at-large commissioner, if they feel that they need to be removed, that there is a mechanism in place that we can follow now, because as being commissioners for only two years, there isn't a mechanism there.

When The Change Takes Effect

Richard Piet 9:44

So let's suppose this passes on May 5th. How quickly does this happen? Everybody gets two more years, right?

SPEAKER_02 9:50

Well, yeah, they do, but at the same time, you've got to look at the fact that we're just trying to better the opportunity for elected officials to make good policy for Battle Creek. And not that we haven't been able to make good policy previously, but we'll have more time to work together to better understand where everyone stands on particular things and then move ahead forward. I mean, there were other things that the committee wanted to uh implement at the same time, but we thought about this. We wanted to be united uh behind it, and uh the entire commission voted in favor of it. And I'm very much in favor of it, and I wholeheartedly endorse uh the passage of this proposal.

SPEAKER_00 10:28

It really was a consensus by all of us. We had some other items on the that we were considering, but we couldn't get consensus. We might have had a majority, but but we figured look at this is something that we that we felt that was important uh to the city. We felt from those items that we've already identified. And when you can get nine of us who really believe that this is the right thing, and particularly since we're all nonpartisan, we felt that this was the right thing to do. And like the mayor, I wholeheartedly endorse this as well.

Richard Piet 10:54

Well, of course, I said that in jest, but uh practically speaking, how will this work uh going forward? If this were to pass, then it starts with the next election. How does it work?

SPEAKER_02 11:06

It's implemented immediately.

Richard Piet 11:08

Immediately, okay.

SPEAKER_02 11:10

We'll have our annual organizational meeting, they call it matter of fact. That time it's traditionally been at 7:30 for years and years and years, so it'll move back to seven o'clock that coincide with our regular start time because there's some confusions. Some people show up early, some people show up late. But um, the clerk asked that we put that in there, and we we did uh agree to that. So if that is approved, it'll also change that. And I believe there is one other, isn't there one other item, Jim, that they're changing?

SPEAKER_00 11:38

The organizational meeting was a change, and I can't think right off the top of my head, uh mayor, about uh the other item.

SPEAKER_02 11:46

It wasn't very big, it wasn't significant, but um, you know, the big thing, no matter what, I'm supporting it. But at the same time, if the the electric decides that they only want to keep it at two, fine, we'll go ahead. I mean, this is something that we wanted to reach out and see if we can get support from the people of Battle Creek.

Richard Piet 12:02

It is helpful to know, too, the point you made that uh cities and towns the size of Battle Creek and maybe smaller and larger have all recognized that two years is probably too short.

SPEAKER_02 12:15

Right. We're one of three um remaining in the state of Michigan, our size.

Richard Piet 12:19

The whole state, our size, three with two-year terms. Correct. Okay, yeah, so that's interesting. Immediate effect. So if this passes, everybody gets an extended term. Correct, right away.

SPEAKER_00 12:32

And you still get to go to the polls, though, right? You still get to vote for your candidate. So uh we encourage everyone to go vote.

Richard Piet 12:38

And speaking

Precinct Changes And Voting Locations

Richard Piet 12:39

of that, uh, Mayor, you uh uh made a point earlier that uh there's been a consolidation of precincts. So it uh it's worth mentioning that uh there are fewer precincts now. Make sure you check your voting location and you know where you're going.

SPEAKER_02 12:52

And you should have received a new voter card. If you have any question, call down at our city clerk's office and ask for someone there, and they'll tell you exactly where you're supposed to vote. At one time we had 23 precincts, and because of the early voting, and just for an example, in 2024, 24.36 percent of the people early voted. I think it's a nine-day period before the election that they can vote down at the cool center. And so consequently, we have less people that are voting on election day now, and that's why they're consolidating precincts from 23 down to 13.

Richard Piet 13:25

That's a pretty decent consolidation, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 13:28

Yeah, and once again, that saves us money because we're not going to have people sitting around just waiting for no one to come in. We need people to vote and people to make certain that they're working effectively.

Ballot Reminder And Sign Off

Richard Piet 13:38

All right. So, as you heard the mayor say, if you have questions, contact the city clerk's office in Battle Creek about that. But double check your location for voting if election day is the day indeed that you want to do that, uh, because the location may be slightly different as a result of early voting and several days of voting. Uh, just uh more practical to do it this way. All right, and watch for that uh question on the ballot Tuesday, May 5th, extending the terms of city commissioners and the mayor. Mayor Mark Benke, Commissioner Jim Lance. Thank you for bringing us up to date.

SPEAKER_00 14:13

Thank you, Richard.

Richard Piet 14:14

Thank you, Richard.