Should Mayor Johnson be given two votes to appoint Oakes to the council?

Mayor Johnson apparently with the assistance from the City Attorney has apparently taken the position that the Mayor, in essence, gets two votes if there is a tie for the appointment caused by the resignation of Cunningham.

Craig Ash treating a tie vote as a problem instead of encouraging good government could have required the Mayor to pick a compromise candidate. Mr. Oakes is recognized as a party who is anti-city law enforcement and is generally abrasive to at least part of the council.

Mr. Ash fails to examine the issue as to what is best for Ortonville, a candidate who is controversial and opinionated vs. a more neutral candidate.

Will the Mayor cram Oakes down the throat of the remaining council?

Police Department vs EDA?

It appears that the showdown to determine who is going to win this battle in Ortonville may occur Monday night.

The police department in the last 4 years has had two false claims by city councilmen and/or Mayor. Both attempts appear to be nothing more than an excuse to eliminate the police department.

The pressure was so significant that despite the fact that Chief of Police Department Curt Hormann was cleared of any wrong-doing the Mayor and a few others continue to claim this is in the best interest of the city to eliminate the department.

The city would be eliminating at least three jobs.

The issue comes in the form of the recent resignation of Cunningham. Dan Oakes has indicated and shown an interest in this opening for months. Mr. Oakes has long been a proponent of eliminating the police department for years. He was also in the middle of the police contoversy a few years ago.

The mayor has indicated that he would appoint Oakes and the Mayor has sought a legal opinion which would give the mayor two votes to break the tie. You heard it voters. The city attorney has claimed that the mayor gets two votes to break the tie.

In the middle of this controversy is the wife of Dan Oakes, Vicki Oakes. By eliminating the police department, Mr. Oakes would spend more on economic development. This would appear to be a motive of Mr. Oakes in eliminating the police department. Job Stability and job security, no not for the police department but for EDA?

What ever happened to compromise? A week ago on the McCloud project there was a lack of compromise that killed the project and now the Mayor, apparently not learning from last week, wants to exercise unprecedented power by voting twice.

I have talked to a large number of people the last few weeks and all were wondering why our Mayor is so determined to shove this appointment down our throats?

Let's have good government and make a compromise appointment.

The Ortonville City Council voted in Mr. Bill Powell for new city councilman.

The city councilman position was being sought by four people. Mr. Dan Oakes, Mr. Dave Dinnel, Ms. Mary Gufstafson, and Mr. Bill Powell. Mr. Bill Powell was a recent name added when he called the Mayor and asked to be considered. Mayor Blair Johnson opened the discussion by announcing that Mr. Dan Oakes withdrew his candidacy due to the influence from the newspaper and the internet website. There was some discussion started by Councilman Steve Berkner that the council could get along with only the six members they have and wait to fill the position at the next election if need be and that they should all work together.

Mr. Dave Dinnel was present at the meeting and he withdrew his candidacy. The mayor asked Ms. Gustafson if she was a city employee and she acknowledege that she was but thought it shouldn't matter because the mayor also was an employee because he did the books. The mayor said that he did not do the books for the city.

This left Mr. Bill Powell as the only applicant for the councilmans position. The council asked Mr. Powell to state his position. and he spoke of the need to not be so dependant on state governement and the city should be more self sufficient. The city council voted in Mr. Powell.

Other topics of discussion included the purchase of an aerifier for the golf course at $19,317.00 There was discussion about the equipment only being needed 4 days out of the year. It was returned to the board without approval.

The Mayor announce the discussion on having a referendum for the police department. Steve Berkner was very much in favor of allowing the voters to decide if they wanted to eliminatae the police department. Bob Meyer stated that this issue has been going on for over 15 years and needs to be put to rest. Police Chief Dinnel also acknowledged that they have lost meny good police officers because of the constant pressure of not knowing if the police department will be there in the future. Mayor Blair Johnson and councilman Nick Anderson also both agreed that they need to know the numbers before any move be made to combine with the sheriffs office. The numbers have to show that there would be a savings or they would not proceed. Both Mayor Blair Johnson and Nick Anderson stated they wanted the referendum. Mayor Johnson and Mr. Berkner agreed that the wording of the referendum would have to be accurate as to be sure that the public knew what they would be voting about.

At about the time we were all very concerned about whether this was government out of control, Mayor Johnson instilled some faith back into the system.

Or was it Dan Oakes who restored the faith? Dan Oakes withdrew his name for consideration he said for the betterment of the community. I think this was a difficult decision that Mr. Oakes made and he did the right thing. For this I respect Mr. Oakes.

I was a little disappointed in his letter as an attempt to blame this forum and Ms. Dorry for the backlash. This was first a little inappropriate. Ms. Dorry like myself merely had a different opinion in what was in the communities best interest. She should not have been attacked.

As for me, I have big shoulders and I am sure Mr. Oakes was disappointed.

As for Mr. Powell, he is fresh blood a bit out of the box that will provide good insight into the future problems of the city. We look forward to hearing more about him and his positions on the issues.

Congratulations to the Mayor and Mr. Oakes for promoting good government. Congratulations to Mr. Powell for his appointment to the council.