A couple of familiar names will be on the Nov. 3 general election ballot as challengers in races for the Wayland City Council.
Former Councilwoman Tracy Bivins will challenge Mayor Tim Bala for a two-year term as the city’s chief executive officer. At the same time, Norm Taylor, who retired as Wayland Union Schools Superintendent June 30, will be the newcomer against three incumbent council members, Abe Garcia, Tim Rose and Joe Kramer.
Bala has been mayor for Wayland since 2008 and there is seeking his seventh two-year term.
Bivins ran for and won a council seat in 2012 after opposing the city’s controversial decision to fire longtime Police Chief Dan Miller. She served for almost six years, stepping down in 2018 for health reasons, which since then have cleared up.
Ironically, she was succeeded by Kramer, who first was appointed and then elected in November 2018. Kramer has been a longtime Boy Scouts leader and emergency medical technician for the Wayland Area Emergency Services ambulance program.
Rose, a long distance truck driver and local soccer official, was elected to the council for the first time in the same year as Bivins, so he is seeking his fifth two-year term.
Garcia is a relative newcomer to Wayland, but has served on the Planning Commission and now has completed his first two-year term on council. An employee of DTE Energy, has remained on the Planning Commission as the council’s ex-officio representative.
Taylor was superintendent at Wayland Schools for 10 years, but still lives in the city.
Three, two-year council seats are up at the end of this year, as well as the mayor’s post.
Tracy Bivens would bring dignity and respect to the mayor’s office, certainly lacking during the police chief debacle and the essentially free property give-away and screwing the city taxpayers out of a fair and open land sale to receive just compensation for city owned property.
Welcome Tracy, you would be a breath of fresh air to local politics.