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ESCANABA -- Delta County Commissioner Bob Petersen sat down with the Daily Press Tuesday to address the negativity -- both from the public and among the board members -- that he says has hurt the commission’s ability to do good things for the county.
“I think what it is is politics these days is not about what it is that we accomplish that is good, but it’s just (to) slander and beat the people down that you don’t like,” he said.
Petersen’s comments come after a particularly heated meeting on May 9, where Commissioner Steve Viau called the board corrupt and suggested that multiple board members were making decisions outside of meetings.
“If I can prove you were corrupt, and corrupt means doing things behind the scenes, would you resign?” Viau asked Petersen during the meeting.
Petersen did not say he would resign during the May 9 meeting, but pressed Viau to tell him what he had done behind the scenes. Viau did not make any direct accusations at that point in the meeting, but had previously said he had “proof on some stuff” and other things were a “gut feeling.”
“I’m 62 years old. I’ve lived my entire life without ever being accused of anything like this. I’ve never done anything to warrant that and I don’t think, I don’t think it was appropriate at a board meeting for Mr. Viau to do that,” Petersen told the Daily Press.
According to Petersen, the trend noted by many that he and commissioners Bob Barron and Dave Moyle vote similarly is the result of the three commissioners holding similar conservative worldviews, not actions taking place outside of meetings.
“Commissioner Viau believes that Commissioner Moyle, and myself, and Commissioner Barron are getting together and planning everything we do, in violation of Open Meetings Act. Well, the fact of the matter is I'm probably talking to Commissioner Barron once every couple months. I do talk to Commissioner Moyle a fair amount because we’ve been friends for 15 years, but we are not getting together and planning things,” said Petersen. “We’re three conservative people; have very similar beliefs and thoughts. So when something comes up for a vote -- it’s just like the other two vote the other way every time because they’re of similar mind and similar thoughts.”
Viau’s comments at the May 9 meeting were largely spurred by Petersen, Moyle and Barron supporting the hire of Ashleigh Young as the county’s administrator. Young had served as the county’s interim administrator following the controversial termination of Administrator Emily DeSalvo earlier this year and had previously served the county as the controller and director of human resources. She remains the controller in addition to her administrator duties.
“When I looked at the job description, 75% of that job description is about financial, which Ashleigh has been doing wonderfully for three-and-a-half years now,” said Petersen, who also said that, while the commission had made changes to the qualifications for the position, the job description remained essentially unchanged from what had been used to hire previous administrators.
While there are a couple of controversial items on upcoming county agendas -- specifically, the proposed annexation of roughly half of Escanaba Township into Cornell Township and a reaffirmation of the county’s Second Amendment Sanctuary status -- Petersen said he believes the agendas will be less controversial in the near future. He noted a few projects that he and the rest of the commission were working on to improve the county, including bringing wages for non-union county employees to competitive levels, working to better fund veterans services, and reducing costs for the U.P. State Fair Authority by including fairground property under the umbrella of the county’s insurance. His personal goals for the county are to increase available housing by working with developers and to promote economic development.
“We’ve got to stop the vitriol coming from both sides and that’s, now that’s becoming, instead of working on the things that I think are important, that I should be working on, this vitriol is going to be one of my number one projects. And all I can do is try and stop it at the board. I don’t know how to stop it out in the public,” he said.
Petersen said that the things being said about him at meetings, in letters to the editor published in the Daily Press, and on social media have hurt his business and credibility in the community. He also referenced emails sent to him, Moyle, and Barron by those seeking to recall the three commissioners asking for them to resign.
“I’m really working. I do my homework. I put serious thought into things before I make a decision, and my whole goal is to advance this county. If somebody’s got constructive criticism, I will talk to them all day long. When I get ‘step down or be fired’ I don’t even reply,” he said.
While there has been much talk in the community about recalling commissioners, nothing can legally be filed with the county to even begin the process until July. The soonest any commissioner could be removed from the board would be the Nov. 7 election.
“Whether it changes seats on the board or not, that, to me, is unimportant. What’s important to me is this county moves ahead. If they manage to recall me in November, I just want to walk off this board knowing that I did something good. And if … I don’t get called off, I want to continue to work on doing something. This petty stuff that’s going on, that’s not why I signed up,” said Petersen.