KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — Tuesday, the Kalamazoo County Board of Commissioners held their first meeting of 2021, during which the Chair and Vice Chair of the board were also elected.
That comes after the final meeting of December 2020, when new incoming commissioners were sworn in on the board. The first meeting of 2021 also marks the new commissioners’ first day serving. In addition, it also marks the first meeting with Meredith Place serving as the Clerk & Register of Deeds, having previously served as the District 11 Commissioner.
The new Commissioners are listed as follows:
- District 1: Tami Rey, Democrat
- District 4: Jen Strebs, Democrat
- District 5: Veronica McKissack, Democrat
- District 6: Jeff Heppler, Republican
- District 9: Dale Shugars, Republican
- District 11: Fran Bruder Melgar, Democrat
However, during this meeting, the board also voted to elect their new Board Chair and Vice Chair. Before that decision could take place, there was a discussion of a motion raised by Tami Rey to limit terms for the position to one year.
“I believe that this allows for accountability, I also believe a lot of us are new and we don’t know everybody,” Rey said. “This gives us time to get to know folks and their different leadership styles.
Tracy Hall was in favor of this motion.
“This is something we did my first term, it does allow us time to reflect and evaluate,” Hall said. “It is something I wish we would have had last year. I’ll be supporting this motion.”
That motion ended up passing with a unanimous vote.
For the position of Board Chair, the commissioners also voted unanimously to reelect Tracy Hall as the Board Chair. There were no other nominations for that position.
“It’s not very often I’m speechless, and I’ve been thinking about this moment for a while and what to say,” Hall said. “First, I just want to say thank you to all 11 of you. It is my honor to be here with all of you, and to move our great county forward. I happen to think I live in the greatest city in the greatest county, definitely in the state, if not the country. It feels good to be very optimistic about moving into 2021 with all of you…we have a lot of challenges, and I don’t doubt that we will be successful in easing some of these challenges our community faces.”
Following that nomination, the next order of business was to elect a new vice chair. The board nominated Commissioners John Gisler and Tami Rey.
Multiple commissioners said that they would have liked to have seen Commissioner Gisler elected to the position in the interest of balance, as there are more Democrats on the board than there are Republicans.
“I think traditionally we’ve done that for many years, it’s worked out quite well,” Commissioner Roger Tunier said. “It shows our community that we can work across the aisle as a board with a shared leadership. It improves communication and transparency, and a new fresh start would be good, considering the last few years have not been very good with the board. I also think it’s important for whoever the majority party is to be sensitive to the minority party. If we can do this, I think we should do it. It shows that we have mutual respect for one another.”
Ultimately, Commissioner Rey ended up taking the nomination in a 7-4 vote.
“First, I just want to say thank you to everybody,” Rey said. “I’m deeply moved by your vote of confidence. As Commissioner Heppler said several times, representation is important. Leading with an equity lens and putting action behind our words is necessary. I’ll work hard with my eyes on the goals that we set together as a Commission. I believe we have a great group of Commissioners, and working toward a more diverse, inclusive, transparent, equitable county government should be a walk in the park for all of us. I’m excited to be here working with you all, I look forward to working with each and every one of you, getting to know you, and working together towards our shared goals for the county.”
