Laingsburg tables LSW budget until board hands over documents

Laingsburg's City Council refused to sign off on the 2027/2028 LSW budget last month, voting instead to hold the item until the board produces paperwork the local agreement requires it to hand over. The motion, made by Council Member Jason Innis and seconded by Council Member Tim Leonard, tables approval "until the documents identified on pages 12 and 13 of the local agreement are received and reviewed," according to the minutes of the Aug. 11 meeting. Mayor Pro Tem Randy Cragg was assigned to request the documents from the LSW Board at its August meeting.

The vote was unanimous among the six members present. Mayor Greg Beavers, Cragg, Innis, Leonard and council members Robert Miller and Jody Frank were at the table; Council Member Scott Dedic was absent. The minutes record every motion of the night as "all in favor." The Current reported that the Aug. 11 agenda listed the item as a wastewater budget vote. The minutes do not state the budget's total or say when the item comes back to the council.

The council did approve the year's transit bill. On a motion by Frank, seconded by Miller, members voted to pay the Shiawassee Area Transportation Agency funding request of $4,914.34 "with other funding options to be explored for the following year." The minutes do not say what those options might be.

Two pay and timekeeping policies for city employees changed. The council approved new Timekeeping and Time Clock language that adds corrective action for the first, second, third, fourth and final missed punch within a 90-day period. It also revised the DPW Weekend and Emergency Work Compensation Policy so that emergency call-outs are paid for actual hours worked, with a minimum total of $50 per emergency response or weekend funeral. Cragg moved the DPW change and Frank seconded it.

The marijuana permit renewal application fee amendment cleared its first reading on a Miller-Innis motion, "as presented, with no changes." That matters for what came next: as The Current reported Aug. 30, the fee's dollar amount was still a blank line in Resolution No. 2616 in the packet for the council's Sept. 1 final adoption vote. The outcome of that Sept. 1 vote, and the number that went in the blank, are not in these minutes.

Council members also cleared the street closure for the Twilligers Bottom of the Hill Blues Fest — Grand River Road from Roosevelt Row to South Laing Street, 2 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. The minutes do not give the date of the festival. Under other items, the council authorized City Clerk Kim Hamilton to prepare a request for proposals for municipal attorney services, the step The Current reported was set for further action on the Sept. 1 agenda.

The consent agenda, approved on an Innis-Miller motion, covered checks 43126-43155 totaling $58,774.92 dated July 14 through Aug. 11, e-checks of $21,168.34 over the same period and tax disbursements of $153,347.59. Beavers adjourned the meeting at 8:33 p.m.

What happens next: the LSW budget stays on hold until Cragg brings back the documents from the LSW Board and the council reviews them; no date is set in the minutes. The council's next published business follows its Sept. 1 meeting at the city offices, 114 Woodhull St., where the marijuana fee ordinance was up for final adoption and the attorney RFP for further action.