Holland’s new mayor, Nancy DeBoer, is immersing herself in her new role. And the former teacher knows all about learning curves.
“I’m no Al McGeehan. I’m no Kirk Dykstra,” she told WHTC on Nov. 9. With her history as a council member starting in 2007, she’s far from new at the job of municipal service.
After Wednesday’s city council study session, she chuckled when other board members teased her for letting the meeting run almost an hour over the anticipated schedule. Several public comments and council questions on Wolverine Pipe Line Company’s plans to install a new gas line under Macatawa River extended the meeting.She is, she said, trying to be “the best Nancy DeBoer” she can be.
Making the transition
This year, Holland has seen three mayors in relatively quick succession: Kurt Dykstra left the city to be Trinity Christian College’s president; his appointed replacement, Bob VandeVusse, presided until DeBoer won the seat for which they both vied. The council could not agree on someone to fill VandeVusse’s vacant Fourth Ward seat, leaving it empty until Brian Lynn won this month’s election.
DeBoer said one of her first mayoral tasks will be to create unity among city council members.
“It’s been a year of transition,” said Sixth Ward Councilman Dave Hoekstra. “Nancy’s going bring her personality and her perspective (to the job). She’s a very warm person, a very nurturing person, so I think that will certainly be part of her persona.”
First Ward Councilman Mike Trethewey said DeBoer has “a good listening ear. She has compassion. She tries to see both sides of the situation, from what I can see. She definitely has enthusiasm. Sometimes, maybe, a little bit too much.”
Freshman Fourth Ward’s Councilman Lynn, served on the parks and recreation commission with DeBoer and said he found her openminded. Deputy City Clerk Anna Perales, the only other woman on the dias during city council meetings, said she’ll miss sitting next to DeBoer at meetings, but is glad to see a woman leading the city.
Outgoing Mayor Bob VandeVusse said there is no doubt Nancy DeBoer loves her community.
Balanced life
At 61, DeBoer has a comfortable life and a sense of perspective. Aside from her successful drive to the mayoral seat, 2015 has been intense: DeBoer welcomed her first grandchild, celebrated her 37th wedding anniversary and grieved the death of her father, Stanley Bushhouse.
Jim DeBoer vividly remembers the first meeting with then-Nancy Bushhouse, in 1975.She was “the cute girl” in a Calvin College music class. Before winter semester’s midterm, Jim DeBoer and Nancy Bushhouse were a couple.
Today, they still behave like sweethearts and enjoy watching their growing family: Eric and Sarah De Boer (parents of grandson Caleb), Maria and Steve Darrow; and Jordan De Boer.
Nancy DeBoer said her role model, her mom Alice Bushhouse, demonstrated the possibility of a balanced life. Nancy grew up in a family that moved frequently for her dad’s career with AT&T. The Bushhouses eventually settled in suburban Chicago, where her mom still lives.
In the spotlight
While she’s accustomed to having TV cameras aimed her way now, DeBoer got used to the spotlight early, first as the oldest of three children; often as the new girl in school; then as one of the 49 graduates of her Illinois high school, Wheaton Christian Academy.
During her college years, summers spent working for a Chicago-area garbage company and learning the ropes of customer service made her realize, she said, “that it wasn’t really about me.”
Perhaps the most telling moment came in her first year as a teacher in rural Wisconsin, when a young student announced he knew she’d cried when her boyfriend (Jim DeBoer, who’d helped her move there) went back to Michigan. His cousin saw it and told him, the boy said.
“That was before Twitter!” DeBoer said, bursting into laughter at the recollection. “You think you’re out in the middle of nowhere and you think nobody’s paying attention, but they do.”
In 2001 — on Sept. 11 — she began transitioning from her full-time job as DeBoer’s wife and mother to three to community activist with her first-ever visit to Holland City Hall. With a few months, she helped create and lead what is now known as the West Michigan Character Council.
Mayoral priorities
DeBoer expects to bring her values as well as her teaching skills to her work as Madam Mayor.Critical priorities in the year ahead including finalizing a plan for renovating the Civic Center in a way that both respects history and opens up the downtown area to the waterfront, she said. Getting virtual feedback from residents is one innovation she hopes to include in the planning process.
Other key issues are preserving Van Raalte Farm’s buildings while making such discreet changes as installing barrier free restrooms and other accessibility features. She’s looking forward to seeing the BPW’s power plant construction completed.
She’d like to see Windmill Island Gardens blossom with more authentically Dutch attractions.More than that, she said, the island should be future focused and represent Holland’s other cultures.
“I don’t want us to turn into Anywhere, USA, where we try to do what every other city does,” she said. “We need to retain our individually and not be ashamed of it. Celebrate it but that doesn’t mean negating all those other cultures. We need to celebrate those as well.”
Even as those larger projects demand time, energy and enthusiasm, DeBoer expects to continue her work leading the the West Michigan Character Council.
LGBTQ equal rights fight
One issue DeBoer faces that won’t likely disappear is fallout from her 2011 vote against extending equal rights to Holland’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered community.
“I voted that way because of my faith and my principles. I also have faith in my principles that tell me every person is created by God. Every person is intrinsically valuable,” DeBoer said, adding that her recent campaign drew support from some in the gay community.
The issue sparked protests in 2011 and drew criticism from a Detroit Free Press editorial this month. Closer to home, the vote galvanized groups like Holland is Ready and induced organizers to move Holland’s annual Gay Pride celebration out of the Park Theatre to become a rousing Centennial Park event.
DeBoer maintains that the city is in compliance with the state’s Elliott-Larson Act. She doesn’t expect a drive to change Holland’s rules during her first term of office.
“We’re the best community when we all come together around whatever it is we’re trying to build or do or create as a group,” she said. “I don’t think you can legislate kindness. I think you have to encourage good values and help people care about each other.”
Should state law change — and a state constitutional amendment has been proposed for the November 2016 ballot — DeBoer said the city will comply with that law. In the meantime, she said, the city has more pressing issues, from the Civic Center to the Smart Zone.
