By Jim Newell
Review Editor
ORION TWP. — With Kim Urbanowski moving from Orion Township trustee to treasurer the Orion Township Board of Trustees is now looking to fill her vacant trustee seat.
During its meeting on Monday, the board voted on the process for selecting a new township trustee and to begin accepting applications on Tuesday.
The deadline to file for the position is 4:30 p.m. Jan. 4. Applications are available at the Orion Township Municipal Complex, 2323 Joslyn Rd.
Supervisor Chris Barnett recommended that the board create a subcommittee to review and interview applicants for the trustee.
“Depending on the number of applicants, more than one candidate may be recommended to the Board for further consideration and review,” Barnett said.
The members of the subcommittee are proposed to include Barnett, Clerk Penny Shults, Urbanowski, Planning & Zoning Director Tammy Girling and Chief of Staff Samantha Timko, with an available trustee as an alternate, if needed.
The subcommittee will interview candidates the week of Jan. 9 and bring the recommendation to the board for consideration and approval at the board’s regular meeting scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2023. The board usually meets on Mondays but is meeting on Tuesday due to the Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan. 16.
Candidates must be 18 years of age, Orion Township residents and a registered voter in Orion Township to apply for the trustee position.
The newly appointed trustee will serve the remainder of Urbanowski’s term, through November 2024.
This will be the first appointee to the board since Trustee Julia Dalrymple was appointed in June 2018 to fill the seat vacated after former Trustee Ron Sliwinski in May 2018.
The board voted 5-0 during its meeting on Dec. 5 to appoint Urbanowski to township treasurer, effective on Dec. 20. Barnett, Shults and trustees Julia Dalrymple, Brian Birney and Michael J. Flood, Jr. all voted for Urbanowski, who replaced Treasurer Donni Steele.
Urbanowski will fill Steel’s current term treasurer through November 2024.
Steele won her election bid for Michigan State House of Representative, 54th District, and must resign her position as treasurer before taking her oath of office and her seat in the state legislature at the beginning of the new year.
Steele continued to serve as treasurer until the end of the day on Dec. 19.
The board also agreed to come up with a contract to keep Steele as a consultant from Dec. 20-31 to help Urbanowski with the transition. Barnett said it is common for municipalities to briefly keep an outgoing official to help with the transition process.
Because Steele is more than halfway through her current term – she was re-elected in November 2020 – the board could appoint someone to fill her position instead of holding a special election. The same applies to filling Urbanowski’s trustee seat.
Urbanowski was elected to the township board in November 2020 and was in her first term as trustee before taking the treasurer’s position.