By Dean Vaglia
Leader Staff Writer
The Oxford Village Council met for its first 2022 meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 11. Topics discussed included an audit presentation, confirming appointments and a rental registry. Council members Lori Bourgeau and Allison Kemp were absent.

Changes to the agenda
Bourgeau and Kemp’s absences caused the board to postpone a vote on a resolution to opt-out of the Publicly Funded Health Insurance Contribution Act of 2011 for 2022. Opting-out of the act requires at least four council members present.
The council removed a vote on a resolution declaring the week of Feb. 1 to Feb. 7 as National Gun Violence Survivors Week in the village. The resolution joined the agenda on Monday, Jan. 10 and was removed at the insistence of Village President Kelsey Cooke to allow the council to look deeper into the language and ensure it is not a political statement.
“Gun violence to me is not political,” Cooke said. “But given the sensitivity and everything the community is going through I do not want to have our Village Council meeting being used as a platform to discuss gun control.”
The Planning Commission’s annual report was removed from the agenda before the Jan. 11 meeting and will be presented at the Feb. 8 meeting.

Rental registration
ordinance first reading
The council approved the first reading of a rental registration ordinance.
A person spoke during the first public comment period against rental inspections, though the comments were beyond the scope of the ordinance.
“What we are considering tonight is purely a registration ordinance,” Robert Davis, village attorney, said. “We are not considering at this juncture any form of rental inspection ordinance.”
The ordinance aims to help first responders know where people are living in town in case emergency services have to be called to the location. The information will allow first responders to appropriately gauge how many renters and rooms are in a building. There is no fee to register though failing to register will incur a fine.

Audit presentation
Joe Verlin of Gabridge & Company presented the village’s annual audit to the council. According to the firm’s findings, the village has sound accounts as of June 30, 2021.
“This is a clean opinion,” Verlin said. “It is the gold standard; this is the highest level of an opinion that we can provide on financial statements. It means something to earn it, but it should always be the village’s goal to have a clean opinion on your financial statements.”
The council approved and filed the audit report.

Board appointments
The council voted to extend existing board appointments held by sitting members of the village council.
Kemp and Ashley Ross were respectively selected to serve as the delegate and alternate to the Michigan Municipal League (MML), Cooke and Bourgeau as delegate and alternate to the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG), Bourgeau and Ross as member and alternate to the North Oakland Transportation Authority (NOTA) and Maureen Helmuth and Ross as member and alternate to the Oxford Township Cable Commission.
Open positions on the Zoning Board and the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) board were not filled. Interested parties meeting the residency requirements for the role can complete the application at thevillageofoxford.org/get_involved.php and send it to the village offices at 22 W. Burdick St., Oxford, MI 48371.

Possible meeting day change
The subject of changing the council’s meeting day came up during the council’s end-of-meeting comments section.
Ross asked about the change since the Oxford Community Schools Board of Education and the Village Council meet on the same day (second Tuesday of the month) and at overlapping times (BoE starts at 6:30 p.m. while the VC starts at 7 p.m.).
Helmuth suggested moving the council meeting to the fourth Tuesday.