Aaron Place was appointed on Tuesday, April 14 to fill a vacant seat on Boyne City’s Board of Commissioners, completing a process that began following the resignation of former commissioner Sandra Pritchard in March.
Place, a former member of the city’s planning commission, was selected from a pool of applicants seeking to serve on the five-member commission with a 4-0 vote from current commissioners during the board’s meeting. Section 6.6 of the Boyne City Charter allowed the commission 30 days, or by April 24 in this case, to fill the open board commission position before a special election would be required.
The city posted the process for interested applicants last month, and several candidates were interviewed in person or remotely on Monday, April 13. The application and interview process was characterized by Boyne City residents who spoke at Tuesday’s meeting as everything from “transparent” to “disorganized.”
“The process has been incoherent at best and possibly a violation of the Open Meetings Act,” said Pritchard, who resigned her position in a March 19 letter to Boyne City Mayor Bob Farrell and fellow city commissioners.
“I think we tried to make it as easy as possible and as clean as possible,” said Farrell, who cited the commission’s deadline for applicants of April 10, giving the commission enough time to select a member before the 30-day deadline.
Commissioner Jennifer Hampton indicated that it was important for the board to fill the position given the high number of critical issues it will be facing shortly, including the city’s budget, building projects and more.
“This (process to fill a vacated position) was new for all of us,” Hampton said at Tuesday’s meeting. “We need to get issues tackled.”
Mayor Pro Tem Bridget Foltz said she would have preferred to see a more comprehensive communications effort to inform residents of the application process for the position, but ultimately agreed that filling the position now took precedence. Holding a special election would have cost around $11,000, according to Boyne City officials, but regardless of the cost, Foltz didn’t believe it was the best course of action.
“(If you had) a special election that person would only have one year of service before they would have to start campaigning,” Foltz said, referencing the fact that the new commissioner would only fill their term through November 2027. “(Boyne City) citizens approved this city charter, which allows us to appoint a commissioner.”
Each commissioner publicly named their top three candidates for the open board position, eventually deciding to select Place, based on a ranked order vote. Place was the only final candidate listed as the first or second choice of all four commissioners.
Place has served on the planning commission since 2013 and chaired the board from 2019 until his resignation in March 2025.
Position requirements for commissioner posted on the Boyne City website included a minimum one-year residency and no felony records.
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Boyne City appoints Place as new commissioner
Reporting by M. Alan Scott, The Petoskey News-Review / The Petoskey News-Review
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
