Houghton unanimously passed a resolution opposing executive overreach related to recent cuts in the federal workforce and frozen funding. Last night the city council voted to approve a resolution opposing the Trump administration and special advisor Elon Musk’s overreach through the Department of Government Efficiency’s mission to find fraud and waste in the government.
In our oath of office, Houghton City Council is solemnly sworn to support the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of Michigan, and the Charter of the City of Houghton. Therefore, be it resolved that the Houghton City Council opposes administrative overreach, including the large-scale reductions in force of civilian and federal employees, and arbitrary rate change notices for indirect cost of research. By way of a copy of this resolution, the Council will convey our concern about executive overreach to our representatives in Houghton County, Michigan’s first congressional district, the state of Michigan, and the U.S. Congress. I’d say that in the document that I presented to try to avoid anything inflammatory, I documented every claim in every statement. If you go to the online site and click on the links, you can find the sources for everything that is included. – Craig Waddell, Councilor, City of Houghton
The resolution, penned by councilor Craig Waddell, uses oaths sworn by members of government, economic strategy and analysis by John Maynard Keynes, and government data to argue the President’s executive orders to freeze funds and actions by the D.O.G.E. to begin firing workers may be unconstitutional.
The council’s vote was preceded by residents voicing similar concerns as a part of regular public comment.
Furthermore, they’re being dismissed, it sounds like, for cause, and what the heck is that about? Does that mean they can’t even apply for unemployment? You know, there’s lots and lots of ways we can save money in our federal government. I think we all know about that. But it seems like this administration is going after the smallest, weakest people that they possibly can. You could go, I’m sure there’s lots of fraud in Medicaid, in Medicare you know there’s lots of people who don’t pay their taxes and what are we doing? We are not funding the IRS. We’re certainly not looking at eliminating actual fraud in the places where you’re paying real money. – Marcia Goodrich, Resident, Houghton
Councilor Mike Needham abstained from the resolution’s vote. Needham is employed as a federal worker and wanted to limit any potential backlash to positions he took. Councilor Buck Fultz desired to follow the voice of his constituents who spoke in favor of the resolution. However, he also expressed belief the city’s power to change anything at the federal level is limited to sending letters and calling representatives in Washington D.C.
I don’t have any problem with this. I understand that the world has turned completely crazy. I just wonder what this does. I mean we can send this, you know, our representatives know what we do. We can send this. I mean, I think it’s rhetoric. I don’t mind doing it. I just don’t know what it does. I think if you want to do something, you have to get off your butt, out of the chair and go do it. You know, everybody wants somebody else to do it. You do it. I’d like to tell you it would make a difference. They’re going to go out and go, oh, Houghton City Council said that we should be nice to everybody and that Donald Trump and Elon Musk are chunks of wood. What does it do? I mean, that’s my question. I don’t mind saying, okay, I think it would be a nice idea to do this. How does it change our reality? That’s my question. – Buck Foltz, Councilor, City of Houghton
Houghton’s residents who shared their opposition to federal actions are not the first locally to speak out. Earlier in February Hancock’s council meeting had several residents voice concerns. Two residents asked others to keep level heads and voiced support for the Department of Government of Efficiency. The area has also had residents protest at the Portage Lake Lift Bridge in solidarity with other protests on President’s Day.
Anyone interested in learning more about the Houghton City Council resolution in opposition to executive overreach can find a full copy linked here, Resolution 2025-1963 – Administrative Overreach
Houghton asks residents to get involved in how the city will brand itself in the future. Late last year the city of Houghton formed a committee to look into the city’s marketing and branding strategy, a practice typically taken up after several years to create a fresh outlook. The city has posted a notice asking for a handful of residents to participate in an early part of the rebranding process.
You know, kind of a gut check if you want to look at it that way on the work thus far before we go to the public input sessions, and that’ll help inform how we’re going to conduct those public input sessions. – Eric Waara, City Manager, City of Houghton
In the spring Houghton will host public input sessions to further engage the community. The resident’s branding group will meet up to four times over the next two months. Officials expect meetings to last up to an hour each. Those interested in participating in the Houghton resident’s branding group should submit an application to Amy Zawada with the city of Houghton.
A new meeting has been added to the City Manager’s schedule. Waara will represent the city at future KEDA meetings. A second appointment by the city council at its February meeting will keep Tim Scarlett on the Library Board. He will fill a four-year term. Officials noted the difficulty in finding passionate people to fill leadership positions on the Portage Lake Library Board of Directors, expressing excitement to keep Scarlett in the role.
A final item discharged an already paid mortgage. City manager Waara shared with the council the property owner of 500 Sheldon Avenue, where State Wide Real Estate is located, at the Huron Square building, could not find mortgage discharge paperwork on a City of Houghton RLF loan from 30 years ago. Waara said the loan was completely paid by 2000, and the building has changed ownership three times since the mortgage terms ended. The original loan was made out to Lake Huron Partnership One, also known as the Huron Square Partnership.
So we just said, you know what, we could probably just discharge the 1995 mortgage because it was paid off back, and the books were closed on that when it was still done on paper. – Eric Waara, City Manager, City of Houghton
On March 26th the City of Houghton will hold a ZBA public hearing for an addition to a property on Edwards Street. The property owner of 405 West Edwards Street has requested a zoning variance for a front yard addition that encroaches on the city’s setback requirement.
