MARQUETTE – Last night the Marquette City Commission voted six to one to ask for Commissioner Don Potvin’s resignation. Potvin was convicted Feb. 12 of a misdemeanor charge of assaulting a city worker who was attempting to eradicate geese at Presque Isle. Potvin maintains his innocence.
“What happened could not be described as a confrontation had you been there,” Potvin told commissioners Monday night.
The motion to call for Potvin’s resignation was put forward by Commissioner Mike Coyne and seconded by Commissioner Beth Linna, whose husband Larry, a city employee, also asked for Potvin’s resignation during public comment. Larry Linna also alluded strongly to a recall effort.
“You’ve heard someone tonight ask for a recall,” Linna said. “As a city employee, I can’t ask for a recall – but you’ve heard someone call for a recall tonight.”
Linna works for Marquette City at the water plant and is a representative of the Michigan Council of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union.
Two commissioners – Joe Lavey and John DePetro – initially did not support the motion to ask for Potvin’s resignation. However, both changed their minds after hearing his statement on the motion.
“I want to make it clear that this motion is about Mr. Potvin’s action – his conviction, a criminal conviction of assault on a city employee,” Coyne said. “It’s not our fault. It’s not (that) we’re putting the blame on someone else. It’s not a political plot. It’s simply responding to the action of a person who represents the city. He did this. He is responsible for it.”
“By asking for his resignation tonight, I think we’re saying, ‘This is not acceptable behavior for a city commissioner’,” Coyne continued.
Coyne said he saw three options for the Commission. The first was a motion, which passed unanimously, to ask the city attorney for an opinion on the city charter and whether the commissioners were permitted to oust Potvin. The attorney answered, several times, “no”. The second option, was to do nothing and, “pretend nothing happened,” Coyne said, noting that’s an option he did not want to consider. Finally, the third option – to call for Potvin to voluntarily step down – failed. Potvin responded to the motion requesting his resignation.
“I told them before in the (Mining Journal) Paper, if they resign – I will,” Potvin said. “I would like to see change in this commission and in this city and would (the other commissioners) work with me a little on it, we’d get some good changes,” Potvin said. “I will not resign.”
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