After voting down two other candidates, the Orion Township trustees was finally able to agree on William Wilsher at their Aug. 4 meeting as the new trustee to fill the vacancy left by Eric Wilson.
Wilson resigned from the board to take over as Oakland County Commissioner for Orion and Oakland Townships. He replaced Larry Obrecht, who became head of Oakland County Animal Control in March. Wilsher will serve the remaining time in Wilson’s term on the board, which ends Nov. 20, 2004.
Supervisor Jerry Dywasuk, who had originally nominated zoning board of appeals member Matthew Gibb at the previous meeting, said he had re-reviewed the resumes and decided to lend his support to planning commission member John Garlicki.
“I don’t want to cast any negative things on anyone, but I’ll put the name of Mr. Garlicki forward,” he said. “I went through the resumes and it seemed like the board had two candidates to consider towards the top.
“(Garlicki) talked about experience in budgeting and decision making…Based on that, I felt he was the stronger (candidate),” Dywasuk said.
Clerk Jill Bastian said she was looking for a candidate who was more than just what they put down on paper.
“From personal experience, I wish I knew him better,” she said of Garlicki. “Resumes are fine and there are lots of people with good credentials, but I like to see what someone has done with their hands.”
Garlicki failed to gain enough support from the board to be voted the new trustee, and trustee Michael Fetzer put forth the name of Alice Young, who serves on the senior center governing board.
“I felt because of her business background and understanding of finance…she’d be a good trustee,” he said.
The vote for Young failed at 3-3.
“I was impressed with her background and experience, but regretted I’d not had a chance to see her in action,” Bastian said of Young.
Trustee Michael Gingell nominated Wilsher for the position.
“It always seemed important to me if we’re paying our taxpayer dollars, we should know a little something about the people who represent us,” said Bastian, who nominated Wilsher for the trustee position at the previous board meeting.
Wilsher will be sworn in as new trustee sometime before the next board meeting on Aug. 18.