Let me transcribe, with a little grammatical
editing, a couple of conversations we had during “Talk of the Town,” as I
continue to hold down the fort there while Ed Ver Schure continues his recovery
from some medical issues.
We got a call in the first half hour yesterday
during open line time: “This fall Zeeland will have the city elections right? Well,
the mayor is running unopposed and the council people are running unopposed. This
is the fourth year in a row for city elections and no one has run against the Mayor
or the Council. Now there's a problem, and what's going on here? Do you think that
somebody would step up and try to find out what's going on?”
My response: “The answer to that question has to
come from the residents of the city of Zeeland. Somebody has to want to devote
time to being a public servant, and you're right, you'd like to think there'd
be somebody be willing to do that in Zeeland. But why don’t they? I can't
answer that.”
The caller continued, “That's the million dollar
question, isn't it? And it happens everywhere. You can't say that everybody's
happy living in Zeeland, right?”
“Well, here's the other thing, too,” I said. “You
take a look in Zeeland and nobody's running, but yet in Holland, we have a
contested mayor's race, we have people running for the at large seat on Council,
and as one of the Councilmen is stepping down, somebody else is going to step
up. So it depends on the community.
“Let's put it this way. In this day and age,
when elected officials are under more scrutiny than ever, and compensation,
especially on the municipal level, is really not that great. Is it worth the
hassle? Who wants to go through it? Who wants to put in the time and go through
the hassles?
“Another thing too; the duties of the mayor goes
beyond just being on council. The mayor has to be the representative leader at
functions, with ceremonial duties, as well as representing the city at municipal
conferences. Unless you are in a position where you are self-employed, retired
or have a flexible work schedule, it's not that easy to be able to devote the
time necessary to be mayor.
“You're right about nobody really wanting to
step up in certain communities and serve. If they make a decision that is not
popular, they can not only be subject to criticism, but also subject to recall.
Just look at Saugatuck Township for Exhibit A on that.”
I asked the anonymous caller to express his questions to
Zeeland Mayor Kevin Klynstra directly during “Talk of the Town” today, but he
didn’t follow through on that. However, Klynstra was listening to this
discussion and brought it up on his own.
“I appreciated that,” he started about that discussion, “and you
brought up some good points. That's too bad that there is not more interest. I
mean, when we had a vacant position, we did have six people that came out who
wanted to fill the position, but for some reason, people just don't want to run
in an election.
“And you mentioned the work. There is a lot of work,
especially in the mayor's position, going to different things around the city
and in the area …”
“Including a certain radio show on the first
Tuesday of the month,” I interjected.
Klynstra chuckled. “Yeah, so you know, it's something
you have to love doing, and I love this job.
“If you think you can do a better job. I would
love to have some competition. And, you know, we're supposed to have a nominating
board trying to find new people to run for city council. But I can't find
anybody that will be on that.”
Frankly, I can’t say things any
better than that.
Thanks!
