Dorr Trustee Tuinstra’s micro-managing persists

ACHTUNG: This is not a “fair and balanced” article. It is an editorial by the editor.

Dorr Township Trustee John Tuinstra just can’t seem to let go of his persistent disease of micro-managing.

It seemed harmless enough Thursday night at the Township Board meeting, but he asked Fire Chief Gary Fordham if he could see the resume of the most recent firefighter hired, even after the board approved the move. It seemed harmless on the surface, but underneath lurked Tuinstra’s longtime penchant for micro-managing.

Dictionary.com defines the process as to “manage or control with excessive attention to minor details.”

Other dictionaries and Wikipedia say:

“A micromanager tends to require constant and detailed performance feedback and to focus excessively on procedural trivia (often in detail greater than they can actually process) rather than on overall performance, quality and results. This focus on ‘low-level’ trivia often delays decisions, clouds overall goals and objectives, restricts the flow of information between employees, and guides the various aspects of a project in different and often opposed directions. Many micromanagers accept such inefficiencies as less important than their retention of control or of the appearance of control.”

“The micromanager takes essential management practices to extremes and interferes with employees’ ability to do their jobs properly, while creating undue stress for them.”

These definitions seem to describe Tuinstra very well.

“I am your voice. I alone can fix it.” — President Donald J. Trump at the 2016 Republican National Convention

I excoriated Tuinstra and partner in crime Patty Senneker four years ago for micro-managing because they both insisted on taking in active role in hiring an assistant maintenance worker. Not long before, they jumped into the selection of fire department officials.

In both cases, they brushed aside the duties of the department managers who customarily are charged with selecting their personnel.

Tuinstra really outdid himself in micro-managing in 2013 when he single-handedly trashed a Township Board decision to raze the house and barn at the Graczyk property at the expanding park by physically stopping the bulldozer from doing the job. All he really did was delay the inevitable because of his personal dream of a farm petting zoo.

He and Senneker in 2014 ran against Supervisor Jeff Miling and together failed to get as many votes as the incumbent did alone. Senneker afterward essentially dropped out of the local political scene, and things have quieted down since — until Thursday night.

It is not good government not to trust your colleagues and department heads to do their jobs properly and instead somehow believe you know best about what should be done. Such an attitude only fosters suspicion and impedes cooperation.

This time it seemed fairly innocent. But Tuinstra’s attitude and philosophy remains.