By Shelby Stewart
Staff Writer
Ortonville- At the Monday night council meeting, the board voted 4-3 to table the reappointment of two planning commissioners whose terms had ended June 30, with councilmen Larry Hayden, Pat George, and Village President Tonja Brice voting no. The council asked the village manager to explore posting the openings to see if anyone else might be interested.
“Commissioner terms typically end on June 1st, the planning commission voted unanimously at the July meeting to recommend the council reappointment of commissioners Bob McArthur and Patti Olson to additional three year terms which would end on June 1, 2022,” said Brice. “Both of these people are new, they’re our two newest people, they’re both filling terms that were not available.”
McArthur was appointed to the planning commission in March of 2018 to fill the seat of David Van Dis, who passed away in January of 2018. Olson was appointed in May of 2017 to fill Charlie Craciun’s seat, who stepped down.
“This is in no way a personal attack on any one of these two candidates, because we know they’re model citizens, they’ve been around forever, this is about creating opportunity for other potential village residents to partake in our village politics and planning commissions, ect.,” said Dan Eschmann, president pro tempore. “It has nothing to do with the credibility and their character, because we know they’re very good people.”
Planning commission terms are for three years, and the terms are also staggered so a few seats are up for appointment each year.
“In my past experience, we have had openings on the planning commission and the DDA, it seems often we have a hard time finding candidates, and they sometimes go unfilled or have an open position on there for months, so I think the fact that we have two people who are doing the job now I think it would be prudent of us to accept the recommendation of the planning commission at this time,” said Hayden. “I also think it does not work well to help build trust between our bodies of the council and the planning commission when the planning commission has a clear recommendation and likely want to see these people renewed in these appointment and we turn around and don’t follow their recommendations, because they are obviously quite satisfied with the two that are on the planning commission right now.”
It was the recommendation of the planning commission to reappoint both McArthur and Olson to full terms.
“I’m all for giving everybody a chance, if you don’t know, you don’t know,” said Mark Butzu, councilman. “They’re very good planning commissioners, but there could be somebody out there that we don’t know about or we could know about if we at least try.”
Other members of the board echoed that they would like to see some kind of process in the future to alert the community of those openings so anyone who wants the position could apply.
“Based on the size of our community, is it prudent to have seven or could we do five? Just overall take a look at the local communities around us and see a comparable size,” said Coleen Skornicka, council member. “I think having the vacancies up and everything is a good format to follow too because then we all know when the commissioners, and they know, when their terms are expired as well so that we’re not in this situation again. This isn’t anything that is new, we’ve requested this from DDA directors, a posting, and we’ve requested in the past from planning commission, so it’s just following the same precedent we have in the past, and it’s not about the personal, it’s about the position, the business side of it.”
McArthur also addressed the board during the discussion.
“I found out being on the planning commission wasn’t so darn easy, it’s very technical on a lot of other issues,” said McArthur. “And I find out, that being on that planning commission, just going to the meetings does not make you a good commissioner. There’s seminars, there’s things that you have to spend money and time to attend. You’re going to sit there and tell me in two years that somebody else warm and fuzzy can be appointed and I’d be let go?”
“I’m sorry, I don’t need it, that’s not what I got on it for,” he said. “And I think you’re making a big deal out of something, I think you need a list, because I know when I got on, it was difficult trying to find someone to fill Dave’s position, who was a very good friend of mine. I know he was a good commissioner, and I thought it would be something that I would really like to do for the rest of my time on Earth, and participate with it. Not to be just some little two year program, that when somebody else wants to be on that commission and wants to get on it, that’s good. I would prefer you leave it tabled and let me and Patti, who I can’t speak for now, think about it. I can tell you that right now.”
The council also voted 5-2 for McArthur and Olson to stay in their positions until they are reappointed or someone else is appointed to their positions, which is the regular practice for those positions. Council members Eschmann and Skornicka voted against the motion.
“If I was them sitting here right now, I’d be up and out of here,” said councilman Pat George.