Connor Berdy v. Sonja Buffa

Markman, J. (concurring).

I concur in the result reached by the majority--that the judgment of the Court of Appeals be reversed and the Macomb Circuit Court's grant of plaintiff's requested mandamus relief be reinstated. But as observed by the Court of Appeals dissent, I believe it is only necessary that this Court address the issue of relief in the pre-election context because the proposition that "the Charter makes the council the sole and exclusive judge of the qualifications of its members, is inapplicable" in the present pre-election context.

Berdy v. Buffa , --- Mich. App. ----, ---- n. 3, --- N.W.2d ----, 2019 WL 2401772 (2019) (Docket No. 349171) ( TUKEL , P.J., dissenting); slip op. at 6 n. 3. Furthermore, I am in agreement with the analysis of the Court of Appeals dissent that plaintiff is entitled to mandamus relief, in particular its analysis that the Warren Charter provides for a single class of city council members subject to the term limits of three terms in office or a total of 12 years' service. And it is not disputed that the challenged candidates here will have served those limits by the time of the 2019 election and thus are ineligible under the Warren Charter, §§ 4.3(d) and 4.4 (d).

Zahra, J., joins the statement of Markman, J.