BOC elects officers, changes meeting times

BELLAIRE – The annual organizational meeting of the Antrim County Board of Commissioners is usually a fairly routine affair. 

But that was not the case for the 2019 one held on Wednesday, Jan. 2. 

In fact, actions taken at last week's meeting not only changed the face of the board, with three new commissioners sworn in, but altered meeting days and times for the first time in many years.

Initially conducted by Antrim County Clerk Sheryl Guy, the first order of the day after pledging allegiance to the flag and listening to a brief invocation offered by Commissioner Christian Marcus, was swearing in the two new Commissioners elected during Michigan's primary election last August, Terry VanAlstine and Josh Watrous, along with the rest of the board, for the year ahead.

The board then took on the task of electing a chair with just eight members, as District 8 Commissioner Jason Helwig was appointed last November to fill only the remaining month of former Commissioner Scott Kruger's term of office, which ended on Dec. 31, 2018.

Ed Boettcher, who has served as board chair for the past two years, was nominated by Marcus, while District 7 Commissioner Dawn LaVanway was nominated by newly sworn-in board member VanAlstine.

After a short statement noting her qualifications, District 3 Commissioner Karen Bargy, who has served as vice chair for the past two years, nominated herself.

Results of the secret ballot election revealed Boettcher received four votes, LaVanway received three, and Bargy received one vote. The gavel was then turned over to Boettcher for the remainder of the meeting.

Bargy was also re-elected as vice chair.

After the internal elections, Marcus made a statement regarding "the need to trust" the board chair, saying that he felt the board was moving away from that trust, as well as trust in each other.

Attention was then turned to monthly meeting dates and times, with VanAlstine making a motion to approve a resolution to hold two meetings a month, one on the first Thursday of the month at 9 a.m., the second on the third Thursday of the month at 7 p.m. The county's four sub-committees would be eliminated.

Marcus immediately voiced concerns about having employees paid overtime to attend night meetings, while Commissioner David Heeres noted that previous night meetings had always been poorly attended.

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