Traverse City commissioners Monday approved a request from Safe Harbor to operate a day shelter at the organization’s Wellington Street site through June, in addition to its overnight winter shelter. Commissioners also extended an emergency declaration and approved rent relief for some businesses and organizations on city-owned property due to the pandemic, and revisited a contentious debate on how mayoral appointments are made to city boards.

Safe Harbor
Safe Harbor has the city’s blessing to continue operating a day shelter at 517 Wellington Street for individuals experiencing homelessness – in addition to its existing overnight shelter – through the first half of 2021 as a response to the pandemic.

Safe Harbor previously secured city commission approval to operate a day shelter through the end of 2020, and was granted another extension Monday to continue through June 30, 2021. The day shelter operates in a 20’x40’ heated tent with a wooden platform in the Safe Harbor parking lot just adjacent to the building. The day shelter provides guests with access to a heated gathering space, showers, laundry facilities, mobile phone charging, computers, and consultations with healthcare experts. Day shelter operations are currently running Monday-Friday from 8:15am until noon. Those hours could be expanded to seven days a week if additional staff can be hired, according to Safe Harbor Board Chair Michael McDonald.

Safe Harbor has traditionally operated primarily as an emergency overnight shelter during winter months, with guests required to depart each morning. But during the pandemic, several other support organizations or locations where individuals experiencing homelessness might go during the day – such as Jubilee House, Central United Methodist Church, and Traverse Area District Library – are closed, along with many local businesses.

Safe Harbor’s day shelter is a “vital place for people who have nowhere else to go to get out of the weather,” said Goodwill Northern Michigan Street Outreach Coordinator Ryan Hannon. “Many of the places where folks used to be able to go to access services…are closed, so people have extremely limited options.” Commissioner Christie Minervini said that “Safe Harbor and their volunteers and their skeleton staff are perfect examples” of individuals working hard to meet real-time need in the community, adding the organization was “taking on more and more of a burden” in its efforts to provide solutions for residents experiencing homelessness.

Pandemic Emergency Declaration & Rent Relief
Commissioners Monday approved a city declaration of local emergency through April 30, allowing all public bodies to continue meeting remotely through that date. The move was made at the recommendation of City Attorney Lauren Trible-Laucht, since a law that allows for remotely conducted meetings of public bodies in Michigan expires December 31 unless certain criteria are met. Several city commissioners and staff have health vulnerabilities that have prompted the city to pursue continued remote meetings as long as possible through the pandemic.

Commissioners also extended relief Monday to several businesses and organizations operating on city-owned property in response to the pandemic. The move reduces rental rates by 40 percent for November and December 2020 and January, February, and March 2021 for Votruba, Great Lakes Bath & Body, Brew, and Scalawags. The deal also keeps 2021 rental rates the same as 2020 and waives a $4,000 fee for Crooked Tree Arts Center that is normally charged if the annual Festival of Trains does not take place in the building. The event has been cancelled this year, but only because of the pandemic – a decision outside of Crooked Tree’s control.

Downtown Development Authority (DDA) CEO Jean Derenzy noted that while all of the above businesses have stayed current on their lease payments, they “are working as hard as possible to keep their doors open and trying to pivot as much as possible with limited resources. Under these unprecedented times, local governments, private business owners, and nonprofit organizations must continue to work together as much as possible.” Commissioners agreed and approved the rent relief, and also approved a new one-year lease agreement with Traverse City Whiskey Company to lease 2,520 square feet of city property next to its Fourteenth Street location for additional outdoor service space. While the lease was initially proposed at the city’s normal rate of $3,175.20 (based on square footage and parking lease rates), commissioners agreed to knock that price down by 40 percent Monday to reflect the relief offered to other businesses on city-owned property.

Appointment Process
Commissioners may soon hold a special study session to tackle a recurring contentious issue: how mayoral appointments are made to city boards. State law provides for the city mayor – currently Jim Carruthers – to make appointments to boards like the planning commission, brownfield authority, DDA, and other bodies. However, the rest of the city commission must confirm those appointments in order for them to go through. Several commissioners have frequently expressed frustration with what they see as inconsistency in Carruthers’ appointment process, with the mayor sometimes using an ad hoc committee of commissioners to help him choose appointees, sometimes making his own selections, and sometimes interviewing – or not – applicants in processes that have varied significantly in method and length.

Disagreement over the appointment process has led commissioners to block some of Carruthers’ selections; several seats that need to be reappointed on the planning commission, for example, have sat unaddressed for a year. Commissioners rehashed the issue Monday, with several advocating for creating a consistent process for all city board appointments. That could require using an ad hoc committee – consisting of Carruthers and two other rotating commissioners – to handle interviews for all appointments to city boards. The final recommended appointments would still come from Carruthers, with the rest of the commission required to confirm them.

While city commissioners made progress Monday filling multiple board vacancies – reappointing some incumbents and setting up ad hocs to interview candidates for other openings – they also agreed to hold a study session in the near future to address a long-term policy for mayoral appointments that could resolve recurring tension and confusion around the issue. Minervini said using an ad hoc committee for all appointments would help ensure “transparency” – such interviews are open to the public, unlike one-on-one interviews with the mayor – and predictability in the process, with all city applicants receiving the same treatment and following the same steps. “Three heads are better than one,” she said of using ad hocs for interviews, adding that a consistent process would “remove any perception of bias” in mayoral appointments.