ESCANABA — A new year won’t mean a new set of roles on the Delta County Board of Commissioners, despite an unusually lengthy nomination and appointment process.

Almost immediately after the nomination process was opened by County Clerk and Commission Parliamentarian Nancy Nancy Przewrocki at Tuesday’s reorganizational meeting, Commissioner Bob Barron nominated Commissioner Dave Moyle to continue serving as the board’s chair in 2024, as he had in 2023. While a second was not needed for the nomination, Commissioner Bob Petersen also supported Moyle’s nomination.

Then, in a departure from the norm, Commissioner Steve Viau asked Przewrocki if he could make multiple nominations for the open seat and defend his choices prior to the commission’s secret ballot vote.

“I guess it would be permissible. I’ve never had that in 24 years, but there’s always a first time,” she said.

In a move that surprised some in the audience, Viau nominated Barron and then Commissioner John Malnar. He noted that his order was intentional before moving into explanations of why he nominated the two men.

Viau’s support of Barron — who votes with Viau far less often than Malnar — stemmed from two driving factors. First, he said he wanted to cut through Barron’s often polarizing public persona.

“I’d like to give Bob Barron an opportunity to show his knowledge to the community. I know he’s a little controversial in the treatment of public, and he’s taken a tough beating with the public, and I would like to see how he would handle the situation,” said Viau.

Second, Viau indicated he wanted a departure from the way Moyle interacted with other board members.

“In regards to the consideration of our former chair, who is very knowledgeable, very straight forward, but doesn’t show as much compassion or commissioner engagement (as) I would like — I can live with what he has done, but it makes it difficult for me to continue moving forward with my constituents on a lot of feedback that I get and not having a lot of information that we have passed or talked about,” he said.

Moyle did not respond to Viau’s comments during the meeting.

Viau went on to suggest that Malnar’s leadership would be less contentious and pointed to his past accomplishments representing the county.

“For Mr. Malnar, he has been steady on everything he has done, received awards from the (Michigan Association of Counties) Commission, to the Township Association — which represents all the people in the county — and I think it would be an honor to see his meek and mild disposition take over for the new year in doing what would be less controversial ways of doing things,” said Viau.

Viau’s nominations held little sway with the rest of the board. When the votes were all tallied, Moyle had received three votes, Barron received one, and Malnar received one.

When it came time for the nomination of vice chair, Petersen nominated Barron to serve a second term in the position and Viau nominated Malnar. Unlike the vote for board chair, the vote for vice chair was done openly, with the commissioners voting by a show of hands. Initially, it appeared that Malnar had won the seat, with commissioners Viau, Malnar and Petersen all voting in his favor, but Petersen quickly rescinded his vote, suggesting he had raised his hand in error.

After Barron’s election to the vice-chair position, the board moved on to appointments — a sore spot for the commission, which, despite making appointments in front of a crowd, violated the Open Meetings Act in 2023 by closing the meeting prior to making appointments.

“There are some minor changes that I will not get caught up in what I did last year, out of ignorance, so they’re going to be made now,” said Moyle.

Barron was placed on the building and zoning board; Malnar, who previously sat on the Community Action Agency board, officially became the CAA’s board liaison, replacing Petersen; and Barron joined the personnel committee, replacing Viau.

Viau objected to Barron’s placement on the personnel committee, arguing that if he wasn’t going to be on the board himself, the seat should be taken by Moyle to avoid any potential conflicts.

“I think there’s going to be a conflict with the personnel the committee and the finance committee having the same person on there that refines all the policies and procedures and descriptions of things both personnel-wise and finance-wise,” said Viau.

Malnar agreed, but the appointment and the others discussed were approved in a 3-2 vote of the board, with the remainder of the board supporting the changes.

A fourth set of board appointments took place a short time later, after the board added the opioid task force to its list of boards and committees in its rules of procedure. Petersen nominated Viau and Barron for the newly-formed board.

“I’d just like to say that I think Commissioner Viau has already been doing quite a bit of studying on this in the past and I think he’d be a good representative, and I think Commissioner Barron would be a good representative on that also,” he said.

Viau credited Delta County Administrator Ashleigh Young for motivating him to research the opioid issue.