KALAMAZOO (WKZO AM/FM) — The Kalamazoo County Board has failed to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of Kevin Wordelman, and eliminated a half million dollars for the homeless, in a frustrating night for democrats and a solidly partisan night for Republicans.
It will leave District-2 in the Milwood area in Kalamazoo without representation for the rest of this year, and leave the board split with five Republicans and five Democrats for the rest of the year, contrary to the outcome of last year’s election.
The immediate effect was to defeat declarations supporting Propositions 2 and 3 on the ballot, and more substantially to reverse a motion made by Wordelman, to allocate $500,000 to the Housing Commission to address the issue of homelessness and affordable housing in the County.
Board Chair Stephanie Moore argued that it was important that the vacancy be filled, saying it’s unfair and undemocratic for those residents not to have representation.
Especially because there is an obvious candidate to fill the slot, Paul Haag, who is running unopposed to become the District two representative on next month’s ballot. His name was proposed but it too failed on a partisan 5 to 5 split vote.
Democratic Commissioner Mike Quinn pointed out that the last time there was a vacancy on the board, it was a Republican, and the majority Democrats voted to replace him with another Republican immediately.
The Democrats on the board called the Republican decision to block filling the vacancy disappointing, disgraceful and disgusting.
