ACHTUNG: This is not a “fair and balanced” article. It is an editorial by the editor.
It is with a heavy heart I pen this opinion piece. Unlike today’s Republican Party, I choose to put the public good above my personal preferences by hereby asking for Brian Boot’s resignation from the Dorr Township Planning Commission.
This is not in sync with my personal wishes. I have watched Mr. Boot grow leaps and bounds while he served a four-year term as Dorr Township Clerk. After a shaky start, he blossomed into a conscientious public servant, overcoming missteps along the way, to the point he deservingly received my praise and an endorsement for his re-election bid in 2016. However, after his defeat at the polls in the August primary that year, he seems to have lost his way in the public arena.
Debbie Sewers defeated Boot in the 2016 primary by launching an aggressive door-to-door campaign that paid her dividends. While I have serious reservations about her politics, I have found her to be most capable in handling the functions as clerk.
Boot, after his defeat, was appointed in August 2016 to the Planning Commission to fill out the remainder of a term left vacant by Dan Weber. He failed to show up for any of the four meetings between August and December.
Then it was déjà vu all over again.
Boot was appointed earlier this year to fill a seat vacated by John Conklin. Sewers and Trustee Terri Rios voted in the minority against his selection, with Rios maintaining he had a poor attendance record back in 2016.
I confess it is difficult to acknowledge twice in the last several months that Rios is right. She had all the right reasons in leading the charge for the appointment of Williams & Works to handle the master plan process, and now she is correct to point out Boot’s continued dismal attendance performance on the Planning Commission.
Boot has shown up only once in nine meetings during his two stints on the commission. He is just one-for-five this year since his second appointment.
Mr. Boot impresses me as a good man who had the courage to learn the duties of his job and admit to his previous misunderstandings. However, it is unacceptable to miss as many meetings as he has, eight of nine possible.
More than several years ago I editorialized strongly against Jon Carroll’s repeated absences from Wayland Board of Education meetings, insisting he was cheating his constituents by being a no-show and spending too much time in Florida. He eventually stepped down and let someone else fill out the rest of his term.
I hereby respectfully ask Mr. Boot to do the same.
“… but he fool us. He no show up.” — Chico Marx in the classic comedy movie “Duck Soup.”
