A group of Ontonagon Village taxpayers went out and got the required amount of signatures on a petition to get a referendum vote to limit the amount of years anyone can serve on the Ontonagon Village Council. However, a Michigan state law for villages prohibits a referendum on term limits for village council members.

Under the General Law Village Act (GLV), it states the following, “The GLV Act allows for referendums on four types of ordinances: reducing the number of trustees from six to four; changing the clerk’s position from elected to appointed; changing the treasurer’s position from elected to appointed; and assigning duties of other officials to a manager.”

The language for all such ordinance referendums states “that if a petition signed by not less than 10% of the registered electors of the village is filed with the village clerk within the 45-day period, the ordinance shall not become effective until after the ordinance is approved at an election held on the question.”

It does not state that a special election must be called. However, if one is held for another purpose, it must be on that ballot.

Last fall during the heated debate as to whether the village would opt in or opt out of allowing a retail business to sell marijuana in the village, that issue went both ways. At first, the majority of the members of the council went against the Village Planning Commission decision to opt out. They voted to get more input in regards to allowing a retail marijuana business to open.

After that decision, over 100 people signed a petition to get that issue put in front of the voters. After hearing from those that signed the petition and opposed the village allowing a retail marijuana business to locate within, the majority on the council voted to opt out.

Upon hearing that this issue may be put in front of the voters, a number of residents signed the petition to have a ballot initiative to limit the term anyone can serve on the village council in any capacity to eight years.

Other than Sarah Hopper who was elected in 2018, and Maureen Guzek, who was appointed to fill the vacant trustee seat of Tony Smydra, all the other trustees have been on the council for at least eight years. Smydra was appointed to the president position upon the resignation of Gerard Waldrop in April 2019.

Those circulating the petitions to have term limits asked for anonymity in fear of retaliation from the council stated that they simply wanted to put term limits on the ballot.

“When one looks at the composition of the council, you’re looking at upwards of 40 years combined,” a petition circulator said. “All we wanted to do is to have the same right that the voters had in 1992 for State Representatives and State Senators. Even the city of Marquette has term limits. Why is that only village residents can’t have the same right to simply ask the voters whether they want term limits?”

The term limit law in the city of Marquette reads, “No person shall be eligible to be a candidate for nomination for city commissioner at any election if the person will have served by the Monday following the next regular city election for six or more consecutive years as a member of the city commission, unless at least two years has elapsed between the termination of such membership and the Monday following such election. Consecutive years shall be measured from the last date at which the person took office as a member of the city commission following a period of at least one year without so being a member.”

In 1992, 58% of the voters in Michigan supported the referendum that was designed to limit the number of times that a person could be elected to congressional, state executive, and state legislative offices in Michigan. The following term limits were added to the Michigan constitution: U.S. representatives, three two-year terms in 12 years, U.S. senators, two six-year terms in 24 years, state representatives, three 2-year terms, state senators, two 4-year terms, governors, two 4-year terms, lieutenant governors, two 4-year terms, secretaries of state, two 4-year terms, and attorneys general, two 4-year terms.

The principal author of this proposal was Patrick L. Anderson, founder of the Anderson Economic Group. The term limits for U.S. Congress and U.S. Senate was invalidated in 1995.

That referendum for term limits passed by 682,500 votes according to the Secretary of State.

Organizers of the petitions to get term limits of eight years for any elected person on the Ontonagon Village Council contacted State Representative Greg Markkanen and State Senator Ed McBroom to see if they would sponsor an amendment to the General Law Village Act. Neither has responded to the organizers at this time.

There is a pending lawsuit to remove term limits for state-elected officials.

“All we wanted was to put this issue in front of the voters,” said one of the petition circulators. “We had both Democrats and Republicans that signed the petition. A petition drive that had over 60 signatures in one day.

“Those that signed the petition simply stated that our village needs new blood. An incumbent has an advantage on all elections, even more of an advantage on a local level where people vote for who they know. Thus it is difficult to get people to even run against an incumbent. Especially now when some of the local media has been shown to not report all that is really going on.”