Message to Dorr Township Board: ‘Your cancer is back’

ACHTUNG: The following is not a “fair and balanced’ article. It is an editorial by the editor.

Perhaps the worst news anyone can get is “Your cancer is back.” It might be even worse than “You have cancer” because you may have held out hope that you beat the disease.

That’s what it felt like Thursday night at the Dorr Township Board meeting, when Trustee Terri Rios and Clerk Debbie Sewers told nasty tales about the conduct and performance of office manager Vicki Fifelski. It was an ugly spectacle in an ugly public meeting.

The performance prompted memories of another unpleasant development in Dorr Township politics a couple of years ago, when Assessor Patty Sampley resigned. Before she left, she told the Penasee Globe, “Since the past election and change in elected officials, the dynamics of this township have drastically changed. It has always been my belief that if I cannot give 100 percent to a township, then it is time for me to move on. Certain circumstances have made this impossible to happen…”

Mere process of elimination revealed she was talking about problems in working with Rios and Sewers, though she did not mention them by name. But I did, in an editorial after her departure.

I wrote then that Dorr Township had made some strides since it saw an awful high rate of turnover in elected and appointed officials in 2013 and 2014, but I worried the old problems might have returned, and Sampley’s words served as a warning.

In other words, “Your cancer is back.”

Dorr Township six years ago was plagued by plenty of contemptuous behavior on the board by Trustees Patty Senneker and John Tuinstra, the latter now often joined in votes against reappointing Planning Commission members by Rios and Sewers.

Contempt for long serving Planning Commission members Bob Wagner and Larry Dolegowski was masked by the feeble excuse of term limits. Tuinstra and Rios performed the same on Plan Commission Vice Chairman Robert Traxler.

Luckily, efforts to have them ousted failed, but in two cases an extra meeting had to be called for the action to be taken at added taxpayers’ expense.

It has been clear that Senneker, Tuinstra, Rios and Sewers, with their Karl Rove sytle leader Bernie Schumaker have carried personal and political grudges stemming all the way back from the contentious sewer issue that led to a failed recall effort.

Supervisor Jeff Miling, who like former Clerk Brian Boot was “one of them” a long time ago, has told me privately he’s been pleased with apparent progress, and the township has been able to move forward and get things done.

But after what I saw and heard Thursday evening, Dorr Township may continue to be mired in stagnant vitriol and personality politics. That means it’s up to the voting electorate to make some serious critical choices in the August primary election next year.

After the U.S. Constitution was developed in 1787, Benjamin Franklin was asked what form of government was adopted. He was said to have replied, “It’s a republic if you can keep it.”

Dorr Township residents and voters should consider themselves forewarned.