City tells citizen deadline to apply for Planning Commission was April 2. Person selected applied on April 6.

MIDLAND, Mich. — Aaron Deckrow is the newest member of the Planning Commission, the volunteer body which advises the City Council on new developments in town. Mr. Deckrow beat out seven other applicants for the position, which is filled by the council. One of those applicants was Eric Anders, a local gadfly who frequently criticizes the public officials within City Hall on social media and during the public comments portion of meetings.

But Mr. Anders’ application was not considered by the council.

“The City advertised the initial Planning Commission vacancy on March 17 and the deadline to apply was April 2,” Grant Murschel, the City’s Director of Planning, told Mr. Anders in an e-mail message after he had applied.

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Mr. Anders applied for the position on May 13, after interviews for the candidates had already begun.

However, Mr. Deckrow, the person that the council ultimately selected for the open seat on the commission, didn’t apply until April 6, contradicting Mr. Murchsel’s claim that the deadline to apply was April 2.

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“I have been out of town but have been speaking to [Mayor Pro Tem] Marty Wazbinski about the Planning Commission and wanted to submit my application,” Mr. Deckrow wrote in an e-mail message to a City staff member on April 6, which was obtained by the City Paper. Mr. Deckrow’s application was attached electronically in that message.

City Manager C. Bradley Kaye told the City Paper that Mr. Anders wasn’t considered for the latest opening on the commission because he had applied after the candidate interviews had already begun. The interviews were conducted on May 11, May 13, and May 14.

“The original filing deadline for applicants interested in sitting on the City Planning Commission was April 2, 2021. Submission of an application by that date assured any applicant that the City would receive and consider their application as part of Council’s review and interview process. Applications received after that date were not assured of such consideration,” Mr. Kaye told the City Paper about the discrepancy between what Mr. Anders was told and the date of Mr. Deckrow’s application. “In this case, the review and interview process did not take place immediately and Mr. Deckrow’s application was received before Council did their review. As such, he was considered with the others.”

No one told Mr. Anders that.

In e-mail messages between Messrs. Anders, Kaye, and Murschel; the City repeatedly insisted that the deadline to apply for the commission was on April 2. There was no indication in those messages that special considerations might be made for other applicants who applied late, but before candidate interviews. Mr. Wazbinski, who Mr. Deckrow mentioned in the e-mail message along with his application, is one of the two members of City Council responsible for interviewing Planning Commission candidates and making a final recommendation to the council, which, generally, does not see the entire list of candidates.