Candidates talk millage, short-term rentals at Harbor Springs forum

HARBOR SPRINGS — The six candidates competing in City of Harbor Springs races in the Nov. 8 election took part in a forum hosted by the Harbor Springs Area Chamber of Commerce on Monday, Oct. 10.

Running for the mayoral seat are incumbent Matt Bugera and Andrew Potter. Running for the two available city council seats are incumbent Nancy Rondel, Jeff James, Maggie Lacy and Jamie Melke.

Bonnie Kulp, executive director for the chamber of commerce, was moderator for the forum.

Audience questions were not accepted at the forum, but Kulp said the “chamber did receive a fabulous number of questions from which to put together a wonderful array to ask our candidates and hopefully give everyone in the community an opportunity to make up their mind as to their choices.”

Each candidate was asked to prepare a two-minute opening presentation. During the Q&A, each candidate was asked the same question and each had a minute to respond.

Among the topics discussed on Monday were civility in discourse, the city’s upcoming public safety millage, taxes and affordable housing.

When asked if they support the public safety millage, four candidates said they do and two candidates said they don't.

Rondel: "I do support the millage. I think it's a good avenue to take. Absolutely, I have the ultimate respect for our police force. One of the things that makes Harbor Springs the town it is is that it's a safe town to be in, and that’s extremely important to me. I don’t think that it will solve all of our problems, in terms of revenue, but I think it’s a great start and I do think it’s something that a lot of our community really values."

Bugera: "I also support the upcoming fire and safety millage. Our police department does far more than just police the streets. They help our elderly citizens if they have a problem, they work with the children in the schools, they’re ambassadors to our city, they spend a lot of time working the streets of the town, they do safety checks on the buildings. I support the police department 100 percent."

Melke: "I also support the public safety millage. I think that the police are very active in the community. They’re always checking in on people, they’re around town, they’re walking, they’re in their car, and they are very approachable and I think that that makes it really easy to go to them if you ever are suspicious of something. I think that to support this millage would guarantee that we can continue providing those services."

Potter: "You all know that I am a retired law enforcement officer. I’m also a current firefighter … Councilwoman Rondel, when they were talking about the millage, she said ‘Let’s see what happens.’ No facts were offered. No data points were offered. I called 10 area departments and this is what I learned.

"Number one, the Harbor Springs per capita funding is one of the highest, if not the highest, funded police department in the entire state at $740 per resident … the next town is Boyne City, four times the population, five times the district to patrol, they have seven police officers, $248 per capita.

"... I love our police department. I love our services. Their services will not be cut if this millage is not passed. I do not support this police millage. This is nothing more than a Headlee Amendment override bait and switch."

Lacy: "I, too, would like to restrain from going with a millage until we pull together a financial committee. This is the fourth time that I’ve actually requested this to council and I believe that by having a financial committee we can understand exactly where we need to go. ... Also, if you’re looking at the focus with the police or the fire department, we have never denied anything that they ever wanted."

James: "I am for the millage, but not for the reason you think. ... The reason I am for it is ... our balances are getting low, and I understand that. The reason they’re low is because of the spillway. It should have been a bonded issue, it shouldn't have been funded out of cash, but it was. So, I would like to replenish that money. I would also like to, if I’m on city council, restrict where that money goes. I don’t know that we need it all, but I think it’s a fair deal."

When asked if there should there be more regulations on short-term rentals within city, the candidates all said it’s a difficult issue to balance.

Melke: "I think the planning commission is working toward some restrictions in residential neighborhoods. I have not had experience with living next to a short-term rental, so I can’t really speak as to the disruption that it has caused, but I have heard multiple people talk about how many people are staying in these homes and how long they’re staying and not respecting our community. I think that also cutting down a little bit on short-term rentals would allow more homes available for people that want to move here and live here and raise their family."

James: "I know that’s certainly an issue. Last year, it was certainly more vocal and you heard a lot more about it than you did this year. Funny, bizarre story, was talking to the postmaster person last year and she said she had never delivered more blow-up beds in her life … It made sense, because what was happening is one family would rent a place yet three families would show up, and that’s obviously not right, so that needs to be policed somehow. I don’t know how, but again it wasn’t as loud this year. Actually I’d like to ask how sometime how this year was compared to last year. But I don’t have any answers to it, that’s for sure."

Rondel: "We’ve been working on this and are continuing to work on it. Planning commission is really spending a lot of time trying to come up with some recommendations for council. I think it would make sense to put some limits on them. I don’t have the magic number for it. I don’t think we should do away with them. We pride ourselves in having festivals and the regatta and all the things we do in the city and folks need a place to stay and we have one hotel in the city, so I don’t think we can just do away with them. But we are working on it … (The) planning commission is working very hard to come up with some type of compromise on them."

Bugera: "At council we have updated our short-term rental rules three or four times in the last three or four years. The planning commission is working hard on it. Short-term rentals are a positive and a negative to the community. We have a lot of dark houses that aren’t dark because they’re short-term rentals now, which brings people into our town to support the businesses. But also it drives out a lot of the opportunities for people to rent homes here and live in Harbor Springs full time. It’s a balancing act and I think we’ve done a pretty good job so far of trying to make a balance and I think we’ll get better at it as time goes on."

Lacy: "So, this is a national issue and I believe it’s evolving and I think we have to go back to best practices and the city is doing a great job addressing this. I do believe that we have to look at the state, with the final decision is based on the state. That will dictate a lot of things for us."

Potter: "The short-term rental issue has been massaged and changed repeatedly in the last three years, like Mr. Bugera said, at least three times. It is constantly being rehashed and rehashed. Every time someone complains it’s being rehashed. I think the whole issue is equity and who gets the short-term rental lease versus you have one group that may have 20 short-term rentals. I think equity is a very important thing."

The full forum is available to view at youtube.com/watch?v=BpJbYRFC8XI.

— Contact Jillian Fellows at jfellows@petoskeynews.com. 

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Candidates talk millage, short-term rentals at Harbor Springs forum