Council appoints members to committees and commissions

By Megan Kelley
Staff Writer
LAKE ORION — The Lake Orion Village Council has a new president after its members unanimously voted Jerry Narsh to the position during their regular meeting on Monday.
The council also unanimously voted Teresa Rutt to the position of president pro-tem, similar to a vice-presidential role.
The vote comes about two weeks after a stalemate during the Nov. 14 council meeting, where Narsh and Rutt received three votes and council members Michael Lamb and Sarah Luchsinger also received three votes.
At that meeting the council agreed to postpone the election to their next scheduled meeting in order for all council members to be present. Newly elected council member Carl Cyrowski was absent from the Nov. 14 meeting.
Despite the unanimous appointments of the president and president pro-tem seats, there was a bit of council push back when it came to committee assignments, especially the planning commission.
As council president, Narsh is required by charter to serve on the planning commission leaving one spot vacant for another councilmember to be appointed to the commission.
Previously, the seats were held by former council President Ken Van Portfliet and Lamb.
However, with Narsh being required to take one of the spots, Narsh nominated Van Portfliet to fill the second seat. Luchsinger disagreed, voicing her support for Lamb to remain on the planning commission.
“He’s a contractor, he builds on the lake, he knows the ordinances, he knows the zoning ordinance, he knows the law, he’s done this for a long time,” Luchsinger said. “I think that he should keep his position on the planning commission.”
Lamb also maintained that he should keep his seat. “I don’t want to give up my planning commission position. Why should I give it up when I didn’t lose the election?” he said.
The motion to appoint Van Portfliet to the planning commission ultimately failed with Rutt, Luchsinger, Lamb and Nancy Moshier voting “no”, while Cyrowski, Narsh and Van Portfliet voted “yes.”
The next motion, made by Luchsinger, to appoint Lamb to the commission passed 6-1 with Van Porfliet casting the lone no vote.
Additionally, when it came to the DDA board, Luchsinger was vocal about wanting to be the council’s designee. Questions circled on whether or not the village council president was required to sit on the board – or if he could assign a designee to the position instead.
While the question went unanswered on Monday, Narsh did say that should a designee be allowed, it would be something he would be open to considering at a future meeting.
Other committee/commission assignments include Rutt being re-appointed to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee; Moshier and Cyrowski being appointed to the Orion Community Cable Communications Commission (OCCCC); Luchsinger, with Lamb as an alternate, being appointed to the Paint Creek Trailways Commission; Cyrowski being appointed to the North Oakland Transportation Authority (NOTA) Board of Directors; and Luchsinger, with Van Portfliet as an alternate, appointed to the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG).