Grand Traverse County commissioners Wednesday will attempt to resolve two controversial issues that have so far divided the new board: the appointment by a previous board of a former commissioner’s wife to serve on the Traverse Area District Library (TADL) board, and the possible introduction of a new invocation policy that would allow for a short prayer to be given before county meetings.

Commissioners voted 4-3 at their January 2 organizational meeting to rescind the appointment of Traverse City resident Susan Odgers to serve on the TADL board. Odgers had been appointed to the role in December by a narrow split vote of the previous commission, with her husband – former Commissioner Tom Mair – casting the deciding affirmative vote. County Deputy Civil Counsel Kit Tholen stated Mair should have recused himself because of his conflict of interest, with the new group of incoming commissioners voting to rescind Odgers’ appointment pending a more thorough legal review of the matter by Tholen.

In a new opinion issued to commissioners ahead of this week’s meeting, Tholen said he believes Odgers’ original appointment was invalid and should be declared so by the board. He acknowledged that rescinding the appointment could open the county to being sued by Odgers, who could argue she’d been denied “a position to which she is entitled by the virtue of the prior vote.” But Tholen said that not invalidating the appointment would expose the county to potential lawsuits from other applicants who were denied a TADL board seat in favor of Odgers, adding that those applicants would have “the stronger lawsuit of those two.”

“While either lawsuit would entail the expenditure of legal fees by the county, it would cost less to be on the side with the stronger legal position and the side that ultimately prevails,” he continued. “Consequently, the advice of your legal counsel is that this board pass a resolution which declares that the December 19, 2018 purported appointment of Ms. Odgers was ineffective, has no effect, and is invalid.” Odgers’ appointment likely would have had stronger legal standing if the commission’s vote had been unanimous or contained a majority without Mair’s vote, but because Mair’s was the tie-breaking vote, his “behavior did actually impair the integrity of the decision-making process and the appointment would likely be voided if challenged in the Thirteenth Circuit Court,” Tholen wrote.

Commissioners Sonny Wheelock, Betsy Coffia, and Bryce Hundley voted against rescinding Odgers’ appointment at their January 2 meeting. Wheelock and Hundley both told The Ticker they would now likely reluctantly vote to declare her appointment invalid based on Tholen’s legal opinion. “If the county’s legal counsel is advising we rescind, then we’ll have to do that,” Wheelock says. Says Hundley: “I’m probably going to lean on his legal advice, but I’m not 100 percent sure yet.” Both rejected another argument made by critics that Odgers’ appointment was problematic because it gave the City of Traverse City overrepresentation on the TADL board. “City residents are still county residents, just like township residents are,” Hundley says.

Tholen said commissioners could choose to reappoint Odgers themselves – this time without an apparent conflict of interest on the board – or either reevaluate previous applicants or start the process over again with a new round of applicants and interviews. Hundley says he’d prefer to reconsider existing applicants, including Odgers, while Wheelock and Chair Rob Hentschel said the process should be restarted. “I think it best to go through the process again,” says Hentschel. “A conflict of interest damages public trust, so I’m glad we have an opportunity to readdress that and set a statement that it is important that we follow the rules.”

Commissioners Wednesday will also consider a proposal by Hentschel to add an invocation policy that would allow for a short public prayer to be made at the start of county meetings. Commissioners voted 4-3 at their January 2 meeting to table the proposal until this week’s meeting to provide more time to study the issue. Under the proposed policy language, any commissioner could be on a rotating list to provide the invocation – or have a designee provide it – with the requirement that invocations “must not be used to proselytize or advance any one faith or belief or to disparage any other faith or belief.” Commissioners or members of the public cannot be forced to participate in an invocation, and invocations cannot be longer than three minutes.

Hentschel says he proposed the policy “to add gravity to what we’re doing, and to help us focus not on ourselves but on what’s best for our community.” He says “prayer has been a part of our government since our founding,” and that a wide variety of religions and faiths can be represented during invocations. “It’s open to any faith...commissioners could invite a Jewish rabbi, or a Christian pastor, or anyone else,” he says. Hentschel is not supportive of a counterproposal offered by Commissioner Betsy Coffia to have a moment of silence instead of an invocation. “A moment of silence doesn’t have the same gravity as a few words of inspiration or gratitude,” he says.

While the policy includes language stating “no faith or religious denomination is intended to be favored or preferred by this policy,” some commissioners and residents have criticized the proposal for imposing any kind of religious activity onto government meetings. “I really do understand the impulse to ritualize and lend gravity to the proceedings…but this still is a religious thing, and I’m sticking with the high wall between church and state,” says Hundley, who supports having a moment of silence instead.

Wheelock is also opposed to the invocation policy. “We took it out for a reason…there was a public outpouring a few years ago,” he says. “I don’t see where it benefits conducting the business of the county. I’ve received many, many emails about this, and only two of them supported it. Most are opposed to it.”