The Leelanau County Board of Commissioners will be short one member for the next 175 days.

At a special meeting held Tuesday morning, commissioners decided against replacing recently-resigned District 1 Commissioner Jamie Kramer, either by way of a board appointment process or a special election. That decision, which the shorthanded board approved in a 4-2 vote, means the commission will operate as a six-member entity – and with a 3-3 Democrat-Republican deadlock – until a newly-elected board takes office on January 1, 2025. All seven commission seats are up for election in November, with primaries scheduled for next month.

Kramer submitted her resignation letter on Saturday, June 29, citing “changes in my life situation” that made the time commitment of the role untenable. Kramer initially wrote that her resignation would be effective Wednesday, July 31. At the beginning of Tuesday’s special session, however, Interim County Administrator Richard Lewis noted that Kramer had changed her mind and requested a revision to make her resignation effective immediately. The board voted unanimously to accept Kramer’s resignation.

“If you wish to appoint someone, then as of now, you have 30 days to do so,” Lewis then told commissioners – though County Clerk Michelle Crocker soon clarified that the guidelines put forth by Michigan Compiled Laws (MCL) do not actually require county boards of commissioners to fill seats left vacant “by death, resignation, removal from the district, or removal from office.” The 30-day window exclusively refers to the ability of a board to fill a vacant seat by appointment, if they wish to do so.

"Once that 30 days elapses…you do not have the availability or the action to appoint [a replacement],” Crocker said. If/when county boards fail to fill vacancies within 30 days, the MCL allows them to call special elections instead, to fill those seats by a vote of the electorate. However, a special election is also not required, and Crocker noted that mounting one now would be difficult given the proximity of both the August primary and the November general election.

“It would go on the November ballot,” Crocker said of the special election.

With the option for a special election effectively moot, Board Vice-Chair Doug Rexroat proposed simply not filling Kramer’s seat, stating that he’d rather “see the voters make that decision than this board.” If commissioners were to seek applications for a temporary board appointment, Rexroat suggested not allowing “any of the current candidates for that district” to apply, arguing that the board would be “putting our thumb on the scale of the election” by considering candidates who are already running for that office.

Rexroat’s proposal didn’t draw immediate support. District 6 Commissioner Gwenne Allgaier suggested tabling the matter and leaving the option of appointing a replacement open for a later decision, while District 2 representative James O’Rourke argued there were likely “some very qualified people in District 1 who are not on the ballot” who would be interested in serving on the board for a few months and getting public service experience.

“Everybody’s avoiding the elephant in the room: This board as it sits is 3-3,” Rexroat argued, pointing out a down-the-middle split that now exists between Republican commissioners (Rexroat, O’Rourke, and District 7 Commissioner Melinda Lautner) and the Democrat on the board (Allgaier, Board Chair Ty Wessell, and District 5 representative Kama Ross). Kramer, a Democrat, had given the latter side a majority since January 1 of last year.

“The likelihood that we’re going to come together on appointing someone is pretty low [because it means] we’re giving away control of the board,” Rexroat continued. “As nice as we’ve all played together, that’s going to hard for any one of us. So, to avoid us arguing about this for a month and not getting anywhere…let’s just try to function as a six-person board.”

“I’ve been through this one time before,” Lewis told the board, noting an instance in his lengthy public service career where a board “went months without a seventh member.”

“The only thing they could not agree on was board appointments,” Lewis said of that board. “Every other business item on the agenda – and there were lots of them – got done. You will take care of the business… As your administrator, I’m not worried about having a six-member board.”

But Allgaier and Ross both pointed out what they perceived as an unfair treatment of District 1 and its constituents. Without a replacement for Kramer, that district will go without direct representation on the county board for nearly half a year.

“I just want to make one statement for the voters in District 1 who voted for Democratic representation,” Allgaier said. “They spoke, and we are choosing not to honor their preference.”

“Obviously, that is the elephant in the room,” Ross concurred. “We did have a clear [Democratic] majority with Commissioner Kramer, and we have now lost that. And that has to be acknowledged.”

While Kramer’s win in the November 2022 election did create a Democrat majority on the Leelanau board, District 1 was almost evenly split, with Kramer beating Republican incumbent Rick Robbins 1,030 votes to 1,005. Robbins, incidentally, is now running for the District 1 seat as a Democrat.

Rexroat’s motion to leave Kramer’s seat vacant until January ultimately passed 4-2, with Allgaier and O’Rourke opposed.

Kramer’s three board and committee assignments – she sat on the board for the Bay Area Transit Authority (BATA) and on both the Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition and the Senior Services Advisory Committee – will be reassigned at next Tuesday’s regular board meeting.