Monday, August 20, 2012

Democrats Agree -- County Board Needs New Leaders

Talk about an understatement. The headline in Monday's Livingston Press and Argus reads "County Board in Need of Leaders."

The premise of the story is that since long-serving Jack LaBelle as well as incumbent Jim Mantey both lost in the Aug. 7 Republican primary and current board chair Maggie Jones decided not to seek re-election, there may not be anybody among the remaining six commissioners ready to step up and be chair.

That's a little pathetic, isn't it? David Domas has been on the board for 20 years. Dennis Dolan of Hamburg Townnship has been on the board for 10 years, althoughy his presence is hard to detect in terms of anything other than attendance.

The article smacks of a little bit of "measuring the drapes" for the new chair's office since the commissioners are talking about who's going to be chair before the election is even held, even though five of them face serious challenges from Democrats.

Voters gave Maggie Jones a scare in a primary two years ago and they dumped two of the three incumbents who had primaries this year. It seems to me the voters are making the same judgment as the headline. We need new leaders at the county level.

In five districts at least, they'll have a choicein November -- Bruce Schneider of Brighton Township in District 1; Jeanette DiFlorio of Oceola Township in District 2; Dane Morris of Hartland Township in District 3; Jeff Lee of Genoa Township in District 7, and Jim Katakowski of Hamburg Township in District 8.

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