Ferndale city council member resigns due to job requirements

FERNDALE — A member of the Ferndale City Council announced his resignation, leaving a vacancy that the council will have to fill.

During the April 13 council meeting, Donnie Johnson announced that he would be stepping down as a council member. His resignation was submitted to the city the next day, and it will become official when the council accepts it during its next meeting on April 27.

Johnson stated that his reasoning for resigning now with over a year left on his term was due to his new job with the city of Detroit forbidding his working as a council person. He previously was the city’s associate budget director, but recently was promoted to deputy chief financial officer and budget director.

“Our sort of hierarchy of positions in the civil service of Detroit was not classified as a position with what we call substantial decision-making authority. So, that meant that I could run for office outside of my work time and I could pursue other things like that outside in addition to my day job,” he told the Woodward Talk. “Have been moving up the chain; being promoted at the city, I began to reach class titles that are considered to have substantial decision-making authority and that culminates in the one that I have now been appointed to. So, because it has substantial decision-making authority, which means that I can make final, binding decisions on behalf of the city of Detroit with regard to certain financial decisions, I am no longer eligible — under our ethics rules — to hold another potentially conflicting position.”

Johnson has been working with Detroit for over a decade and called this position one that he’s been striving to achieve.

While he said it is bittersweet to leave the City Council, one of Johnson’s professional goals was to become the budget director of Detroit and it came to the point where he didn’t want to forgo his professional development.

“I’m very sad and I’m heartbroken by it,” he said. “I hate to leave the City Council. I love serving on the City Council. I love serving residents. Even when we all didn’t agree, we all shared the same vision of wanting to move Ferndale forward and support the residents, and I’m going to miss it. It’s just one of those unfortunate life situations where life conspires to get you in the situation you’re in.”

Once the council accepts Johnson’s resignation, it will have 30 days to appoint a new member. Whomever is chosen will serve the remainder of his term, which will end Dec. 31, 2027. There is no salary for the position; there is a stipend of $5,000 each member gets a year that’s broken up into 12 payments.

Applications will be accepted up until May 5. A new council member will be chosen no later than May 26. For those interested and for more information, visit ferndalemi.gov/news/city-council-tempo rary-appointment-2026.

“The council body will review those responses and make a determination, either if there’s a candidate they want to move forward with or multiple candidates they want to take to a next round, but what that looks like moving forward is kind of up to the discretion of council and really depends a lot on the types of candidates and the number of candidates we get,” City Manager Colleen O’Toole said.

For the individual who does end up succeeding Johnson, he said the City Council is what you bring to it and his hope is for someone who is civically minded and willing to put in the work to fill his seat. He also hopes the person has a strong financial background like himself.

“You need to be up for that challenge and a believer in public service,” he said. “You’re there to serve the public. It doesn’t mean that you’re always going to agree with the public itself for your colleagues on the council, but it does mean that the lens you need to approach this with is a desire for service, to be in service to your fellow residents and to know that that’s the calling of the position. It’s not a thing you do lightly and I hope people will bring that thinking as they go through the process.”