Township trustee position to be up for appointment in 2023

By Jim Newell
Review Editor
ORION TWP. — Kim Urbanowski is moving up from trustee to treasurer.
The Orion Township Board of Trustees voted 5-0 during its meeting on Monday to appoint Urbanowski to township treasurer, effective on Dec. 20. Supervisor Chris Barnett, Clerk Penny Shults and trustees Julia Dalrymple, Brian Birney and Michael J. Flood, Jr. all voted for Urbanowski, who will replace current Treasurer Donni Steele.
Steele and Urbanowski were both at the meeting but could not vote on Urbanowski’s appointment.
Urbanowski will fill Steel’s current term 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 will continue to serve as treasurer until the end of the day on Dec. 19. Her final order of business will be at the final board of trustees regular meeting of the year beginning at 7 p.m. that night.
The board is expected to hold a public hearing and approve its 2023 fiscal year budget at the meeting.
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.
If the board had failed to agree on a new treasurer within 45 days of Steele’s resignation, the township would have likely had to hold a costly special election, said Barnett.
Barnett said he was pleased that Urbanowski would be the new treasurer and complimented her for already engaging in training for the position, and her volunteerism in the Orion area .
Urbanowski was elected to the township board in November 2020 and is in her first term as trustee.
She was previously the executive director of the Orion Area Chamber of Commerce, communications coordinator for the North Oakland Community Coalition and was a small business owner. She also served two years in the United States Navy from 1991-93.
“My two years of service as Trustee for this organization aligns well with the experience and knowledge vital to ensuring continuity of leadership for not only the Treasurer’s department but the Township as a whole. Donni Steele has served our Township with immeasurable integrity, intelligence and grit and it is my intent to continue that tradition of excellence,” Urbanowski wrote in her application letter.
Urbanowski moved to the Orion area in the late 1990s and has resided there since.
Shults had also submitted her nomination for the treasurer’s position but withdrew her nomination on Thursday. The treasurer’s position was posted Nov. 22 and only two people applied, according to township documents.
Once Urbanowski officially takes over the treasurer’s role her trustee seat will be vacant.
Barnett said the township board would have more information at the Dec. 19 meeting about how Orion Township residents could apply for the position.
He urged residents who are thinking about applying to hold off until after the Dec. 19 meeting when the board will discuss what process it would follow to fill the vacant seat.
Barnett added that the township would likely accept applications and either appoint a committee to review the applications and make a recommendation to the board to interview one or more candidates, or the board could decide to interview all candidates.