Mayor defends city clerk appointment

Home City News Mayor defends city clerk appointment

The Hillsdale City Council weighed in on Mayor Scott Sessions’ proposition to appoint interim city clerk Michelle Loren as the new, full-time clerk after cancelling the proposition in a 5-2 vote at its Nov.2 meeting. The council is now advertising the full-time clerk position until the end of November, when it will review applicants and make a decision.

Sessions still has the power to appoint who he wants, but the council has veto power and can continue to shoot down the candidates the mayor proposes.

Councilman Adam Stockford said he took issue with how the mayor ignored the process that he and the council had agreed upon for choosing the clerk, which entailed reviewing the resumes of those who applied.

In response, Mayor Sessions said the appointment of an existing, experienced employee utilized city finances better.

“We’ve already spent $6,000 on this for advertising,” Sessions said. “I didn’t feel like spending more money.”

Additionally, Stockford said the mayor made no mention to the council or the public that his motion would be on the agenda for the meeting.

“To me, not any of the applicants were qualified who possessed the necessary experience,” Sessions told the Collegian.

Sessions added that Loren was the deputy clerk from 2005-2008, has been the full-time recreational director and has stepped in to fill the clerkship when two previous clerks resigned in 2013 and 2014 respectively, making her qualified for the position.

Since the council decided to make the clerkship a full-time position, the city will make the recreational director position a part-time position and transfer some of the recreational director funds to the clerk position. Loren is currently the recreational director.

“I want to make sure it’s done fairly. It should be above-board and be transparent,” Councilman Bruce Sharp said.

Stockford noted that the applications they received included some qualified candidates, which he said deserved fair consideration before they could appoint Loren, who he stressed did not apply for the position in the first place.

“She served a long time and all arrows point that she’s qualified,” Stockford said. “If she would come out and say publically she wants it, it would go a long way, but I’m not sure if she wants it or not.”

Sessions said he has not spoken with Loren about whether or not she wants the position, but was told she had been contacted by someone (but he didn’t know who) and he was under the impression she would have taken the job if the council had allowed Sessions to appoint her.

“I can’t say what she says,” Sessions said. “I was under the assumption she was contacted and interested.”

Both Sharp and Stockford said they were uncomfortable with the clerkship being an appointed position rather than elected, but the people of Hillsdale voted to make the position an appointed one in August.

“I support the mayor,” Sharp said. “I may not agree with him, but I support him.”

Loren could not be reached for comment.