By Megan Kelley
Review Writer
LAKE ORION — The Lake Orion Village Council scheduled three special workshop meetings in April during the council’s March 27 regular meeting.
The council scheduled a workshop meeting with James Robbs, chair of the Board of Ethics for the City of Birmingham, for 7:30 p.m. April 5.
The workshop is intended to provide insight regarding ethical standards for public officials and a possible ethics ordinance. The village council has been discussing adopting an ethics ordinance for several meetings now.
At the council’s Feb. 13 meeting, Councilmember Nancy Moshier questioned whether or not it is necessary to have one at all.
Council President Jerry Narsh, President Pro-Tem Teresa Rutt and Councilmember Ken Van Portfliet maintained that an ethics ordinance was necessary as most municipalities in the state have one in place.
“Just about every community in Michigan has an ethics policy. Most employees of a municipality…there’s ethics policies built within their contracts, within their personnel manuals. But appointed and elected (officials), there are no ethics policies that our public could say, ‘You guys should be operating within this standard of operation,’” Narsh said.
During the March 27 meeting, Councilmember Michael Lamb had some charged words for Van Portfliet after Lamb gave a presentation regarding village finances.
The confrontation between the two members arose when councilmembers, including Van Portfliet, questioned Lamb’s “facts” to which Lamb responded by saying Van Portfliet had “never presented a fact to this council” in the two-and-a-half years that he and Lamb have served together. The response from Lamb caused some members of the council to call the confrontation a “personal attack.”
Later in the meeting, Van Portfliet said that he was excited for the meeting to discuss an ethics ordinance.
“There is no council member that should be subjected to personal attacks here in these meetings,” Van Portfliet said.
The council also scheduled two budget work session meetings for 6:30 p.m. April 12 and 8:30 a.m. April 22.
The council is hopeful that they will be able to discuss all matters within that time frame but was clear that there was potential to add another work session should it be necessary.
“We have a lot of issues, there’s a lot to discuss,” said Narsh.
All meetings are expected to be held at Village Hall, 21 E. Church St.
Village documents show that village Manager Darwin McClary intends to present the proposed budget for fiscal year 2023-24 at the council’s April 10 regular meeting. By village charter, the village manager is required to present a proposed budget to the council during its first regular meeting in April.
The village’s fiscal year runs from July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024.