Still no agreement to fill commission vacancy

By Grace Lovins

Following a contentious debate on Monday, May 4, over who should fill the vacancy on the Birmingham City Commission, the six remaining commissioners ultimately could not come to a consensus, opting to leave the seat open until the next regular election in November 2027 unless the commission agrees that they’re ready to vote on the matter again in the future.

Like the past nominations, commissioner Kevin Kozlowski again nominated Debra Horner and commissioner Bill Kolb nominated Mary Jaye. Horner currently works as a University of Michigan municipal research program manager and serves as chair of the city’s environmental sustainability committee. Jaye is a retired Stellantis executive and a member of the city’s historic district commission

Two voting rounds were conducted for each candidate, resulting in four ties. Commissioners maintained the same positions as previous votes, with Kolb, Andrew Haig and Brad Host voting in favor of Jaye and in opposition to Horner, and commissioners Kozlowski, Therese Longe and mayor Clinton Baller voting in favor of Horner and in opposition to Jaye.

After neither candidate received a majority vote, city attorney Mary Kucharek explained that the commission will have to amend the rules of process going forward, including adopting a rule requiring all six commissioners to be present for any vote to be called going forward. All six commissioners voted in favor of adopting the new rule.

On top of that, Kucharek said the commission had the opportunity to decide if they wanted to allow the issue to be brought up again at a future meeting.

Haig suggested that the commission keep the same process for bringing topics up as potential agenda items: a commissioner would say they want to discuss the item at a future meeting and a vote would be called; at the next meeting, the commission would discuss if they want to put out notice that the city is seeking applications or if they want to work with the pool that they have.

Ultimately, the commission voted 6-0 in favor of making Haig’s suggestion the official procedure going forward.