Democrat elected to lead county board
The Republican majority Isabella County Board of Commissioners elected a Democrat to lead it Tuesday night, keeping in line with it operating as a non-partisan body rather than one split down party lines.
Tobin Hope, a Mt. Pleasant Democrat from District 7, was elected 5-2, with the other two votes going to Frank Engler, a Deerfield Township Republican from District 2. Republicans Terry Hutchinson, District 1, and Jim Horton, the previous county board chairman from District 4, sided with Hope. Horton nominated Hope.
Jerry Jaloszyski, a Chippewa Township Republican from District 3, nominated Engler. He and Engler cast both of Engler’s votes.
Before commissioners voted, Engler made remarks that felt more like an expressed desire for different governance practices than stump speech. Noting that he normally turns down leadership nominations, Engler said he’d like to see the commission’s decision-making be more inclusive for all commissioners and that the board had some relationship mending to do with other county officials.
Specifically, he mentioned a matter Jaloszynski moved to place on the board’s Nov. 5 agenda to discuss whether the county should hire a deputy administrator for new county administrator Nicole Frost. Prior to her hiring as replacement for Margaret Mcavoy, who retired at the end of 2021, Frost was Isabella County’s deputy administrator.
Horton called for a vote from commissioners on whether to add it to the agenda, and Jaloszynski’s motion failed on a 4-3 vote. Engler and Hutchinson joined Jaloszynski in voting to support it. Horton and the commission’s three Democrats — Hope plus Jim Moreno, District 5, and Steve Swaney, District 6 — voted in opposition.
Tuesday night, Engler called that a mistake, saying that any commissioner should be allowed to ask that anything be placed on the agenda, including if a commissioner wanted to discuss having the county board whistle the Pledge of Allegiance.
Engler did specifically talk about mending fences with Steve Pickens, county treasurer. Pickens and the county board fought out in court whether the county board could declare a surplus in a fund used to finance the purchase of delinquent property tax debt from taxing authorities across the county.
State law that established the fund said that surpluses in the fund generated by interest and sales of delinquent properties could go into the county’s general fund. Pickens argued that the treasurer declares surpluses while the county board argued that it can simply take money from the fund.
The courts sided with the county board but said that the county board was on the hook for Pickens’ legal fees, which the county at first refused to pay. The lawsuit was settled with both sides agreeing to abide by the court’s ruling.
Engler’s nomination was a long shot. The county board is split 4-3 among Republicans and Democrats and Horton — one of the Republicans — nominated Hope.
That Horton nominated Hope is not terribly surprising, however. Isabella County’s board of commissioners has a long history of operating as a non-partisan body willing to name leadership from the minority party.
For most of this century, the way the county commission has operated was defined by the friendship between Democrat David Ling and Republican George Green, both of whom stressed that party isn’t important when it comes to doing the business of Isabella County’s taxpayers.
It was a theme Hope touched on after his election. The county board then cast a unanimous ballot for Horton to serve as the board’s vice chairman on a nomination that came from Engler.
Engler and Horton were both placed in the same county commission district in last year’s redistricting. During that process, Chippewa Township was placed in a district with the western part of Union Township, while Fremont Township was swapped in after being poached from Jaloszynski’s district.
Engler and Horton are in the same District 7, while District 1 will have no incumbent county commissioner.