RECALL WORDING FILED WITH COUNTY FOR CITY OF BUCHANAN MAYOR

By DEBRA HAIGHT
BCR Correspondent
BUCHANAN – People questioning the suspension of Buchanan City Manager Benjamin Eldridge followed through with their promise to recall Mayor Sean Denison if he didn’t resign. City residents Carla Johnson and Monroe Lemay filed recall wording with the Berrien County Clerk’s office last Friday.
Dozens of city residents attended the Nov. 13 City Commission meeting to get answers as to why Eldridge had been suspended. Denison and other commissioners said the investigation into the Eldridge matter is ongoing and asked for patience in providing answers.
The recall wording filed Friday by Johnson and Lemay stated that “City Commissioner Sean Denison suspended Benjamin Eldridge as the Buchanan City Manager”.
The Berrien County Election Commission will meet Monday, Dec. 4 at 1 p.m. in the second floor jury assembly room at the St. Joseph Courthouse to decide the clarity of the recall wording. A clarity hearing must be held within 10 to 20 days of the submission of the petition wording.
The Berrien County Election Commission is made up of County Clerk Sharon Tyler, County Chief Trial Judge Mabel Mayfield and County Treasurer Shelley Weich. Denison as well as those submitting the recall wording can appear at the clarity hearing to argue whether or not the recall reason is factual and the wording clear.
The recall effort will move forward if the wording is determined to be clear and pending any appeal by Denison. Recall organizers would then have 180 days to gather the required signatures to force an election to recall Denison. That number of signatures is believed to be 290.
Johnson said Friday that she and others supporting the recall are concerned about Denison’s decision to suspend Eldridge earlier this month.
She noted that this is Denison’s fifth year in office and he was re-elected to a new four year term on the city commission last November. People cannot be recalled in the first or last year of their current term in office. The first year of Denison’s current term was up last week.
“I will add that this is the mayor’s fifth year overseeing a city with a declining population and increasing debts they can’t pay, and he has not been able to get spending in control,” Johnson said. “It’s time for him to move on.”
She passed on comments from former County Commissioner Don Ryman who also supports the recall. “We chose language appropriate for the ballot that is factual and clear,” Ryman said. “It was the mayor’s action of suspending a cost-cutting city manager in a time of serious city budget deficit that catalyzed this recall petition.”

For her part, Lemay said she and others supporting the recall have identified four issues including ethical violations of Denison’s fiduciary responsibility to taxpayers through awarding no-bid contracts and violating the City Charter by suspending Eldridge without city commission consent.
Also, they claim Denison has usurped the city manager’s authority as defined in the city charter in all matters to city employees and violated the Open Meetings Act by censuring legal discourse in open public meetings.
Denison could not be reached for comment Friday. In extensive comments at the end of the Nov. 13 city commission meeting, he claimed that state law, court cases and the city charter allow him as mayor to suspend an employee with pay. He said a suspension is not an adverse employment action if it is needed to protect all parties in a workplace dispute.
He said he was concerned that another commissioner he would not name “violated his oath of office” and hindered the conducting of city business by sharing confidential information.
He denied claims that the city was in danger of being taken over by the state due to budget deficits or any bad financial decision. He said the city has been searching for ways to increase revenue at a time when state shared revenue continues to decline and costs are increasing on infrastructure and other projects.
He touched on a number of topics, from Clark Equipment leaving the city in the 1980s to the neglect of the city’s infrastructure for decades. The city approved a new $9 million wastewater treatment plant a few years ago, has started work on a new $5 million DPW building and now is ready to embark on a new streetscape project.
He said the City Commission has been working to find ways to cut costs and bring in more revenue. “We also need to continue looking to the future and planning for other upgrades and repairs not only to ensure we keep the city operating efficiently but to also invest in expanding our quality of life initiatives,” he said.
He recognized the concerns raised by residents since the Eldridge suspension. “They accused this commission and myself of corruption and unethical behavior,” he said. “And they made one thing very clear to me-just how uninformed a large portion of our community is and how much they have not been paying attention.”
Commissioner Dan Vigansky was not named by Denison but said in his remarks last week that he did not release anything “confidential” but provided Eldridge with the information “they were going to railroad him out with.”
Vigansky also gave what he said was “the rest of the story” of what’s going on in city government. He reported that the city attorney who recommended the Eldridge suspension is paid $10,000 a month and the city had to pay $20,000 a month for 18 months for financial services that city staff was unable to do.
He also pointed out that the city hired the previous city manager even after know she had sued her previous employer. He said the city paid her a $47,000 severance package when they could have only paid $17,000.