The Dorr Township Board had a lengthy debate Thursday night over a seemingly routine issue about who will administer the township’s Facebook page on the Internet.

The board eventually voted 5-1 to have Clerk Debbie Sewers and office manager Vicki Fifelski be administrators for the web site, though Trustee Terri Rios insisted they both should be handled by elected officials.

The move to name administrators was necessary because Library Director Natalie Bazan left for a new position last month. She set up the Facebook page and Fifelski had been inputting material with Bazan’s tutelage since last January. The two had been listed as administrators.

Sewers said the Facebook page was being set up for the convenience and prompt information for township residents.

But Sewers said Supervisor Jeff Miling should be an administrator rather than Fifelski.

Rios maintained that a hired hand could quit and say inappropriate things on the site, but Miling said elected officials very easily could do the same thing.

“I think it needs to someone who is elected,” Rios asserted, “not an employee.”

Treasurer Jim Martin said he suspected Rios has problems in trusting Fifelski and insisted, “She (Fifelski) has been doing a great job (as office manager) and she’s been doing it for three years.”

Miling said that if the board insists he be the administrator, he will hand off the duties to Fifelski anyway because she is more capable than he is in that area.

So Martin said that if Sewers’ motion is approved, “The office manager will be removed even though she is the de facto administrator. It’s a demotion.”
Miling said said Fifelski “hasn’t done anything objectionable while she has been administrator.”

Rios, in response to criticism from Martin and Miling, repeatedly denied she has any problems with Fifelski.

The decision to name Fifelski and Sewers serve as administrators was 5-1, with Sewers casting the dissenting vote. Rios surprisingly voted affirmatively.

PHOTOS: Vicki Fifelski   Terri Rios