New trustee fills Einhorn's unexpired term.

The Suttons Bay Village Council this week appointed local B&B owner Jackie Freeman to serve as a trustee on the council, filling the unexpired term of trustee Ewa Einhorn, who resigned last month.

Einhorn’s term was to have expired in November 2008, meaning Freeman will need to run in the 2008 election if she hopes to retain her seat. In November 2006, Freeman narrowly lost an election bid for a four-year seat on the council, coming in just two votes behind longtime incumbent Karl Bahle.

Following the 2006 election, the village council appointed Freeman to fill a vacancy on the village planning commission and as an alternate member of the zoning board of appeals (ZBA).
As a result of Freeman’s appointment to the village council, the council must now fill a vacancy on the planning commission and name another alternate member of the ZBA. Trustee Steve Mentzer has long served as the village council’s representative on the planning commission, but he agreed this week to relinquish his seat on the commission and allow Freeman to continue serving, now as the council’s representative.

State law allows only one member of the village council to serve on the planning commission and on the ZBA. Bahle currently serves on the ZBA, so Freeman agreed to relinquish her seat as a ZBA alternate, creating another vacancy.

The council will publish an advertisement asking village residents to apply to fill the vacant planning commission and ZBA alternate positions.

Freeman was the only village resident who responded to the ad to fill the village council seat which became vacant after Einhorn stepped down last month.

At its regular monthly meeting Monday afternoon, the village council voted 6-0 to add Freeman to their ranks following a nomination by council president Larry Mawby.

In recent years, Mawby and other village council members have been at odds with Freeman over her suggestions that the village should establish a “human rights commission” and amend the village charter to impose term limits, among other issues.

Moments after village clerk Dorothy Petroskey swore in Freeman and she was seated on the council, the new trustee brought up an issue she said she wanted the village council to revisit - its “mass gatherings” ordinance.

Freeman said she was among more than 300 people who attended a recent memorial gathering for the late local attorney Stuart Hollander that was held on village property. Freeman said she thought the event was “lovely,” but noted that it may have violated the village’s “mass gatherings” ordinance because organizers had not obtained a permit from the village council.

Freeman suggested that if the ordinance is to be enforced, it should be enforced equally or re-written. She also questioned whether the ordinance was unconstitutional in that it placed limits on the people’s right to “peaceably assemble” as spelled out in the U.S. Bill of Rights.

Mawby agreed to refer the matter to the village council’s Legislative Committee for consideration.

Freeman will serve on the council’s Public Works committee, replacing Einhorn.

In other business at this week’s meeting, the Suttons Bay Village Council:

• Adopted a routine resolution to transfer $9,500 from a “major street fund” to a “local street fund” to help pay for some planned repairs.

• Authorized Mawby to sign a “Partnership Memorandum of Understanding” with Leelanau County officials that will enhance the county’s chances of acquiring federal grant funding to conduct environmental assessments as part of the county’s “brownfield redevelopment” efforts.