Ilsa Minor | Daily Press Three Delta County commissioners and their challengers participated in a candidate forum sponsored by the Delta County League of Women Voters and the Escanaba Area branch of the American Association of University Women Tuesday. Due to concerns about security and the amount of available space, the forum was closed to the public. Above, from left, Commissioner Bob Barron (R), challenger Myra Croasdell (no party), Commissioner Dave Moyle (R), challenger Kelli Van Ginhoven (D), challenger Matt Jensen, and Commissioner Bob Petersen sit answering questions.

ESCANABA — In a first for Delta County, the Delta County League of Women Voters and the American Association of University Women held a closed forum Tuesday for the candidates running in the May 7 special recall election for the Delta County Board of Commissioners.

“We hope that this format will eliminate the need for security and for audience disruptions. We want to offer all the candidates an opportunity to respond to questions without distraction. We did not want to be in the position of possibly suspending the forum,” Moderator Shannon Taylor said at the start of the event.

The new format was not without snags. Microphone issues prevented residents at home from hearing some of the answers to questions and prompted the forum to be restarted after part of the opening introduction from the League was given. A sparking electrical problem under the seat of District 4 candidate Kelli Van Ginhoven led to emergency tech support while other candidates continued to answer questions. Then, not long after the electrical problem, the city’s diesel backup generator kicked in as part of routine maintenance. Strong winds blew the exhaust back into the Escanaba City Council chambers, subjecting candidates, volunteers and members of the media to noxious fumes for the last half hour of the event.

The candidates — District 3 Commissioner Bob Barron (R) and challenger Myra Croasdell (no party), District 4 Commissioner Dave Moyle (R) and challenger Van Ginhoven (D), and District 5 Commissioner Bob Petersen (R) and challenger Matt Jensen (no party) — took the issues in stride, and were largely able to avoid character attacks against their opponents, which was a rule of the forum.

Only one question led to moderator intervention. When asked about disruptions by audience members and the commission’s response to those issues during meetings, Van Ginhoven was stopped and reminded to avoid comments about the actions of other candidates while criticizing the commission’s response to the audience.

“The funny thing is that I’ve heard this mentioned several times over the last 15 months is how outrageous the ‘mob’ is. However, if you watch the YouTube meetings, you cannot see the audience. You only see the commissioners — gavel, gavel, ‘you’re out of order. You’re out of order. I’m going to count to three; if you don’t stop, I’m going to call public safety,'” said Van Ginhoven before being cut off.

Van Ginhoven apologized, before reiterating that she would ignore the crowd and continue with the business of the county.

The question, however, drew other comments after Van Ginhoven’s warning that were directed at the seated commissioners but were not shut down by the forum’s moderators. When the question came to Croasdell, she referenced an incident when Moyle, who is legally blind, clashed with a deaf resident at the April 9 commission meeting.

“The last person that I would have ejected out of a commissioner’s meeting is a lady who is deaf and the person that was next to her was explaining to her what the commissioners were speaking about,” she said.

Moyle, who followed Croasdell in the questioning order despite not being Croasdell’s opponent, responded to Croasdell’s statement by stating he could not see the woman. He repeated his belief that the incident was a set up by his political opponent.

“I could hear things back there but I couldn’t see what was going on and it wasn’t that woman that I had a problem with, it was people hollering in. I was set up, but I’m not given the same level of respect as somebody whose deaf because of my vision,” he said.

Substantively, all three of the currently seated commissioners defended the commission’s hands-on approach to audience disruptions, decried statements from their challengers that the disruptions were the result of “whispers,” and said the meetings were becoming more productive following the adoption of a policy that allows for disruptive audience members to be removed. Their opponents argued audience members should be ignored, that gaveling and calling for law enforcement only fed into disruptions, and that the commissioners were overstating the severity of the audience’s actions.

For the other questions of the forum, the candidates responded mostly as individuals. Topics ranged from goals and challenges to more hot-button topics like diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), which has been a sore point for the commissioners, all of whom oppose it based on the idea DEI practices promote racism through favoritism and have voted against supporting programs that include DEI education or practices.

Both Moyle and Petersen spoke in favor of diversity, but said that DEI mandated outcomes based on skin color.

“The United States, the state of Michigan and Delta County, we are diverse. Do I think that there’s prejudice? Yes, but do I think that it’s a large part? No. I think that for the most part, people in the United States are not inherently racist or bigoted. … I believe in equality. Equality of opportunity. I think everybody should have a chance, but as far as outcome? That’s what people put into it,” said Petersen, before referencing a major air transportation company’s DEI policies. ” … Do you want an … airplane pilot that knows how to fly the plane or has melanin in his skin?”

Barron, who has been a vocal opponent of DEI described it as the “third swing” of academia, the other two being political correctness and affirmative action. He further said it would eliminate capitalism, property rights, and “rights in general because the government knows best.”

“DEI basically wants equality in outcomes which basically means the destruction of excellence, merit,” he said.

Jensen referenced his military career and the diversity of the U.S. Armed Forces.

“The diversity part can actually make you stronger, providing it’s not one where we’re having to check a block just to fill it for a requirement for government. Everyone should have an opportunity to do anything they want to do, I mean, that’s one of the things this country’s founded on. It doesn’t mean everybody’s absolutely equal. It’s one of those (things) where everyone has different abilities,” he said, adding DEI should not be considered in the county’s decision making, partly because it is often a state or federal mandate.

Van Ginhoven equated DEI to helping a child in a wheelchair participate in a field trip to a football stadium, despite that child’s inability to climb the stairs. She also said the county should not consider whether a program offers DEI when making decisions.

Croasdell failed to answer whether DEI should be considered when making decisions by the county before her time elapsed, but said it meant people should be “treated the same” regardless of nationality, sex, religion or disability.

Another point where the commissioners disagreed with their opponents was on the Delta County Airport and whether or not the situation at the airport had been thoroughly resolved.

“Do I believe the issues at the airport have been resolved? I never believe that there were issues to begin with,” said Van Ginhoven, who added that both the current and former airport managers were underpaid and that the current commissioners on the airport advisory board should have been aware of what was going on at the airport.

Petersen, who sits on the airport board, said the airport was in administrative crisis, but said the new management at the airport was doing a great job.

“There’s more to do. We have not gotten all the issues resolved. We haven’t gotten into todays problems because we’ve been dealing with yesterday’s problems, but they’re moving ahead quickly. I see a great future for our airport,” he said.

Jensen agreed that the commissioners on subcommittees should be able to report back to the commission as a whole, but he took a more holistic approach to the question, saying the county needed to look at airport staffing, the number of employees nearing retirement age, and develop a strategic plan.

“This isn’t something that’s going to start and stop. There needs to be a strategic goal set up for the airport with very measurable goals that you can check off your milestones as you go, because if it’s not on paper, we’re not going to get to those goals,” he said.

Commissioners Barron and Moyle both said that the airport had been in trouble and added the facility was close to being shutdown by the FAA. Barron described the problem as a “meltdown in the management of the airport” and pointed to the summary of the investigation into the airport released earlier this month. Moyle pointed to letters from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) stating the airport was out of compliance.

Croasdell said she didn’t know what the crisis was because “not a lot of information was given out about that.”

All of the candidates were given an opportunity to discuss why they were running and what they saw as challenges for the county. Some also set goals for their time on the commission.

Barron said he wanted to continue in his seat and that the biggest concern for the county was residents not understanding how the government worked, leading to scenarios where the board was functional but the public was not. He also said the county needed to look at causes and not effects.

“We need to address these needs in a very positive manner. A lot of times we address a need and what we’re doing is we’re working on the effect rather than looking at the cause. A lot of those needs are basically because there’s a cause and we haven’t really done the work to address causes,” he said.

Croasdell said she was running because of the “disarray” and “turmoil” on the county board. She said housing availability at all income levels and the airport were concerns. She also said she wanted to reinstate Zoom access to meetings if elected.

Moyle said he was fighting to keep his seat because of the people that had previously elected him to serve and kept him on the commission since 2010. He said he was passionate about the county, believed in a “less government is better government” approach, and wanted to increase pay for county employees. He said the biggest challenge was people’s inability to get along at the county meetings.

Van Ginhoven said she was running because she loves the community and thinks she can do a better job than her opponent. She said the biggest challenge to the county was that the county was understaffed and existing staff were overworked and under-compensated. She said her first action on the commission would be to terminate the county’s contract with newly-hired Municipal Attorney Scott Graham.

Jensen said he had a good understanding of finances from his work as a small business owner, and that he could do better and develop a more cohesive county board that lets the public speak. He said one of his first goals in office would be to staff the veterans council and improve veterans services.

Petersen said he wanted to stay in his seat and continue to put in the work. His goals are to increase available housing for middle and high income individuals.

Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. on May 7.