BUCHANAN — Tensions were high at Monday’s Buchanan city commission meeting due to a disagreement between commissioners.

Commissioner Dan Vigansky brought up a discussion about commissioners participating in committees at Monday’s meeting. Specifically, Vigansky wanted to know what role city commission members should have in special committees and boards, such as the dog park committee or the tree board, and whether it was proper for a commission member to chair a special board or committee, rather than acting as a spectator for many of the committees to report back to the commission.

“I just wanted to start this discussion,” Vigansky said. “I just want to open this up for the commissioners to comment on.”

Clerk Gladys Bybee commented that some of Vigansky’s questions could be best answered by the city attorney.

“I don’t think this should be a question of legality,” Vigansky said. “These committees are for the people, and we, as commissioners, have enough to do already. If we are staying in one place [as a chairperson for a committee], we are not managing [the city] well. If we are going [between committee meetings and reporting back], that is management.”

He also expressed concern that having commissioners on these special committees would allow those officials to set personal agenda items at commissioner meetings, and that these committees did not provide minutes to the commission in a timely manner, which Vigansky implied leads to secrecy and diminishes the commission’s power to act on what happens at committee meetings.

Vigansky traded barbs throughout the evening with Commissioner Patricia Moore, who sits on the dog park committee, over the issue.

“I don’t know where these attacks are coming from,” Moore said to Vigansky. “There is nothing untoward happening at these meetings. These are public meetings. […] You are free to attend.”

Mayor Brenda Hess put the issue to rest Monday evening by saying that the commission would work to improve communication between the commission and special committees, as well as push for committees to submit their minutes in a timely fashion.

“These are things we can work on,” Hess said.

In other business:

• The commission addressed a protest petition against medical marijuana dispensaries in the C-3 district. The commission had been presented with the petition at its Nov. 13 meeting, but did not discuss it at the time.

The petition received 23 signatures, but some were not from property owners, while other signatures were tied to properties outside of the C-3 district. Because the protest petition failed to garner signatures from 20 percent of the district area, the board opted not to discuss the petition further.

“The long and short of it is that [the petition] did not meet the standards of Michigan Zoning Enabling act,” said Zoning Administrator Debra Patzer.