Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette Four Council Trustees and the village President, Rob Tarvis (L), voted to dissolve committees. Vice President Pamela Que (seated at right), along with Bernice Smith, Andrew Ranville, and Lori Wier (seated right), voted to dissolve the council committees. Virginia Dwer and Peggy Germain voted to keep them.

CALUMET — A decision of the Calumet Village Council to dissolve its committees met with opposition from some trustees at the regular October meeting last Tuesday.

The decision was placed on the agenda after a recent governance training when the council was informed that its function is to legislate policy, not do committee work. The discussion has been brought up in the past, with some trustees wanting to retain committees while others countering that they are not effective.

The governance training was led by Beckett & Raeder of Ann Arbor, a planning and engineering firm with which the village has worked in the past.

Village President Rob Tarvis said he felt the council effectively dealt with issues at work sessions and regular meetings.

“A lot of times, we’re not looking into things and bringing the best information to the council,” Trustee Virginia Dwyer said. “I personally feel our work sessions are a council meeting — almost exactly the same — it’s not really a work session; we’re doing the same things — we have almost exactly the same agenda on both of them.”

Dwyer also said that larger municipalities can afford to retain paid staff to direct affairs.

“In bigger jurisdictions, you have a paid person who is a recreation director; you have a paid person that’s this, a paid person that’s that,” she said. “We don’t have any of that stuff and I think committees are very important, because you can get together at whatever time is good and look into things.”

Dwyer continued, saying that it seemed to her that council has become content with handing decision-making to un-elected officials for the council to rubber stamp.

“I’m talking about the DDA; I’m talking about the Planning Commission; I’m talking about the HDC,” Dwyer said, “and all we are is — they make the decision and we have to say yes. We need to be more involved with that.”

Trustee Peggy Germain agreed, saying that as a trustee, she needs committees in order to be effective as a council member.

“I function best in a committee setting,” she said. ” I work hard. I don’t understand why we can’t have a committee if I’m going to be effective. You’re taking away my power to be effective on this council.”

Vice President Pamela Que said the council members are the policymakers for the village, adding that those on committees and commissions are doing the “legwork and the homework” to gather the information necessary for the council to act on.

“Other commissions can bring it to this board,” Que said, “and we can decide whether or not it is something we want to discuss or vote upon and bring it into fruition.”

Dwyer said she investigated the structures of other local municipal governments. Laurium, she said has seven committees, while Lake Linden has five.

“Houghton,” she said, “has committees and commissions, a ton of them.”

Trustee Andrew Ranville suggested the village consider ad hoc committees rather than standing committees.

Ranville said that while he is fine with committees, he is sensitive to the fact that the trustees are doing things that benefit the community and the village — “we all wear a lot of hats. This is in respect to time. … If we can follow a more structured agenda, that then helps us to focus.”

Dwyer made the motion to retain committees, seconded by Germain.

Ranville said that while the council voted to disban committees, that does not prevent the council from forming ad hoc committees.