“I respectfully disagree with the judge’s ruling, but I am grateful for how fast he made it. My team has a city to run, and we need answers. Practically speaking, the decision will freeze spending for the DDA; although that is inconvenient, it is probably best, until we have a final decision on how to view the budget. Because I continue to believe that no branch of government rules supreme, I want to test today’s ruling on appeal.
Important to note that Plante Moran a gold standard of auditors approved the DDA Audit and was received and filed by the council earlier this year.
I believe that the district court ruling was based upon an unpublished case; Zalenko (small city) which did not delineate clear duties of the mayor and council, and not the more recognized published ruling case Stecher. Stecher deals with the city of Detroit and a large city, and honors the separation of powers between a mayor and council.
The Warren charter requires a step-by-step procedure in which both branches of government must work in a cooperative and collaborative way. Courts give more credence to published case rather an unpublished case.
I believe that no branch of government at any level is supreme. In a democracy, one branch of government cannot issue unilateral decisions regarding the budget or any other major issues.
The city charter of Warren requires the council to work with mayor in a collaborative and cooperative way. The charter requires the council and mayor to follow a step-by-step process. If there is an impasse, the Charter requires the final decision to be the Mayor’s budget. The writers of the city charter recognized that the final tiebreaker rests with the full-time mayor, not a part-time council.
I must make day-to-day decisions important to the health, safety, and welfare of the citizens of Warren. The city council does not have that responsibility. The founders recognized this and that is why the mayor, not the council, holds the final authority.
Today, I had an important decision to make regarding a major windstorm that required important responses and directions to the police and Citizen’s Emergency Response Team (CERT). Every day I am charged with the responsibility of dealing with roads, major storms, various emergency issues, as well as, police and fire response. This is not a responsibility of the part-time council, but responsibility of a full-time mayor.
Thus, I look forward to a judicial review of this preliminary decision by the Court of Appeals.”
Mayor Fouts
