The Dorr Township Board Thursday evening spent a lot of time dealing with the Zoning Board of Appeals, Planning Commission, Downtown Development Authority, Parks Commission and representative to the Ambulance Boards.
Board members talked about who will be new members and how much all will be paid, except for the DDA.
The debate was kick started when Supervisor Jeff Miling moved to remove Ryan Vandergraf from the ZBA because of poor attendance and replace him with Brad Selvius.
Trustee John Tuinstra moved instead to table the appointment because he doesn’t know anything about Selves and he believes a more rigorous procedure should be followed when choosing people to serve on these boards and commission.
Miling replied, “It’s hard enough to get anybody to serve,” and said he won’t go around begging people to join these boards.
He told Tuinstra, “If you’ve got some recruiting process, send it to me.”
He added that putting potential board and commission members through a process of submitting a resume or being subjected to an interview just makes it harder to get people.
Trustee Chandler Stanton disagreed, saying, “I think sitting down for a conversation with a candidate is a good idea” and he seconded Tuinstra’s motion to postpone the appointment.
However, five other board members, including Miling, Dan Weber, Treasurer Laurie Perry, Clerk Debbie Sewers and Pat Champion voted the other way.
Another discussion was prompted by a proposal to hike the pay of members of the Planning Commission, ZBA and Parks Commission from $50 to $75 per meeting. However, it was noted that the 2023-24 township budget was adopted last March.
In a compromise move, Champion moved to bump the pay to $60 a meeting and then review the pay next February at the annual budget workshop.
The raise does not affect Planning Commission Chairman Bob Wagner, who is paid $1,500 a year.
The board also voted to remove Vandergraf from the DDA for lack of attendance, to be succeeded by Manju Mariah on another 5-2 vote, once again with Tuinstra and Stanton dissenting because they don’t know about the newcomer.
In other business at Thursday’s meeting the Township Board agreed with the Planning Commission’s recommendation to deny an ordinance amendment for conditional rezoning and approved the Sheler rezoning request from agricultural to rural estates at 3932 18th Street.
They also agreed to Fire Chief Gary Fordham’s request to hire Don Akhurst as a new probationary firefighter.
As a former member of the planning commission, I agree with Stanton and Tuinstra that there should be a more rigorous process to getting board members.
When I applied, there were several candidates who also applied. We were asked to submit a resume and attend an interview. All candidates were asked the exact same questions, so all candidates could be evaluated on the basis of their answers.
I do not think the residents of Dorr Township want to see boards loaded with members who own allegiance to the person who proposed them as a candidate. Since there were several candidates when I applied, I don’t think there would be a shortage of candidates applying. The openings and the process of applying just need to be well publicized.
Agree with Joycelin