City Charter Commission looks forward to Jan. 26 meeting

Manchester—village or city?

by Marsha Chartrand

This Thursday, January 26, at 6 pm will be the public information meeting to present the drafted City Charter in the Village Council Chambers.

The elected Commission of nine members is asking for Village of Manchester residents to provide comment and feedback on the drafted City Charter. A completed draft copy of the City Charter is currently available on the Village of Manchester’s website. Written comments and questions also may be submitted to the Village Clerk until 4pm on January 26 and will be addressed at the meeting.

Chair Jeff Wallace and commissioner Dan Geyer both attended the Village Council meeting on January 17 to review and get input on the Charter and received a variety of comments from Council members. They also answered questions from Council on how the Charter would work as compared to the current Village Charter, which will be very similar.

In Michigan, cities have more autonomy, and more responsibilities, than villages due to their municipal structure. Villages and townships are tied together in certain decision making, even if it’s not beneficial for both village and township residents. A city assumes the legally required duties of primary local units of government: assessing property, collecting taxes for the county and schools, and conducting county, state, and national elections.

A city also provides local public services such as fire/police protection, water supply, sewage disposal, zoning, public works (streets and maintenance), parks, planning, and more. The village is currently providing most of these functions, either directly (water supply, sewage disposal, public works, parks, and planning and zoning), through contract (police protection), or through taxes to the township (fire protection). If the Village of Manchester is incorporated as a city, officials would negotiate a contract for fire protection services. Manchester Township has agreed to the idea of a negotiated contract or agreement. The taxes paid for fire protection would switch from township tax collection to city tax collection.

So it is not as simple as “changing a name.“ But the responsibilities of becoming a city have all been covered as part of the newly drafted City Charter.

“We have completed a draft that we’re all happy with; now we need input,“ said Wallace.

YOUR chance to provide that input is provided on Thursday. Please attend and become better informed about how the process will continue.

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by Marsha Chartrand

Marsha Johnson Chartrand, a founder, writer, and copy editor with the Manchester Mirror, is a 50-year resident of Manchester. She has a long history of volunteer and community involvement.