Bay City commissioners vote to enter closed session on Howard litigation and contract talks

The Bay City City Commission voted 7-0 on Oct. 6 to go into a closed session with attorneys from Warner Norcross & Judd to discuss litigation in William Howard v. City of Bay City and contract negotiations.

The motion to enter closed session was made by Commissioner Tenney and seconded by Commissioner Rhunberg. In a roll-call vote the commissioners present — Coakley, Tenney, Zanotti, DeWitt, Rhunberg, Charlebois and Kubit — each answered “yes.” Mayor presided and announced the meeting would move to an executive session upstairs.

The mayor identified the attorneys who would attend the closed session as Kurt Brower and John Lauderback of Warner Norcross & Judd. The mayor also asked for and received unanimous consent to excuse Commissioner Morris earlier in the meeting; the mayor said, “Is there any objection to excuse Commissioner Morris? Seeing none, Commissioner Morris is excused, and we do have a quorum this evening.” That motion to excuse was made by Commissioner Charlebois and seconded by Commissioner Coakley.

The commission recessed immediately for the closed session; the mayor said, “Alright. We're going to executive session upstairs. We'll be back.” The transcript does not record further details of the litigation or contract negotiations, and no statutory citation or specific contracts were named during the public portion of the meeting.

Because the substantive discussion occurred in closed session, no additional details about the litigation positions, settlement terms or contract subjects were disclosed in the public transcript of the meeting. The commission indicated it would return to the regular meeting agenda after the executive session.