Mackinaw City Council Challenges Williams Appointment to MISPC
By Paul Gingras

The appointment of Jim Williams to the Mackinac Island State Park Commission is being challenged by several people in Mackinaw City, who say he is not familiar enough with their village or involved enough in the community to represent it. The Mackinaw City Village Council, led by President Robert Heilman and prodded by resident and former park commissioner Ken Teysen, voiced its opposition Thursday, August 3, resolving to seek a reversal of the appointment by writing letters to politicians, area media, and the new commissioner.

The issue is not personal, residents say, and no one disputes Father Williams' popularity among his parishioners.

Father Williams, a Catholic priest in St. Ignace and Moran but a resident of Mackinaw City, says he hopes to convince village residents that he can be an effective and conscientious representative.

He was appointed to replace Audrey Jaggi on the commission by Governor Jennifer Granholm Thursday, July 20. The Senate has 60 days from then to disapprove the appointment.

The Mackinac Island State Park Commission has seven members who oversee Mackinac State Historic Parks, which include Fort Mackinac and the Mackinac Island State Park on Mackinac Island and Colonial Michilimackinac, Historic Mill Creek, and Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse in and around Mackinaw City.

Father Williams, an Independent, replaces Mrs. Jaggi, a Republican,

as the Mackinaw City Resident Commissioner, a designation established in 1958 to ensure local representation on the politically-desirable board. There is also a resident commissioner for Mackinac Island, that position currently held by Lansing lobbyist Dennis Cawthorne, who has a home and several business interests on the Island. Mr. Heilman charges that no one

in the village was consulted regarding the commission appointment, and that Governor Granholm's office should have sought recommendations from Mackinaw City residents with a stake in the community, as he said former governor John Engler had done when he appointed Mrs. Jaggi in 1997.

"Mackinaw City does not want to tell the Governor what to do," he said. "We just want to be consulted."

He pointed out that he considers Father Williams a good person, but he insisted at his meeting that the process by which appointments are made to the Mackinac Island State Park Commission is flawed, leading to what he called "a slap in the face of the community."

Council voted to send letters to The St. Ignace News, the Cheboygan Daily Tribune, the Petoskey News-Review, and possibly the Traverse City Record Eagle voicing its complaint that Mackinaw City is not being properly represented on the park commission. Whether the letters are sent depends on how they turn out, Mr. Heilman later told The St. Ignace News.

Council also plans to send a letter to Father Williams requesting that he "withdraw his name from the nomination," Mr. Heilman said.

Mr. Heilman added that he will contact State Senator Jason Allen (R-Traverse City) to discuss the matter and possibly push to amend Public Act Number 51 of 1958, which states "One commissioner shall be a resident of the village of Mackinaw City." He suggested that one way to ensure proper representation would be to add language stating that the mayors of Mackinaw City and Mackinac Island must be consulted prior to the governor's appointments to the commission.

The Mackinac Island resident commissioner position was engineered in 1941 by the late W.F. Doyle to gain reappointment to the board. Mr. Doyle owned a summer cottage on Mackinac Island's East Bluff and, for awhile, but not recently, the resident commissioner was nominated by the Mackinac Island mayor.

At last week's village council meeting, Trustee Jeff Hingston said he had received "a handful of complaints" from residents upset by Father Williams' appointment, and the board discussed letters sent to the village and Governor Granholm by Kenneth Teysen. Mr. Teysen served as a Republican member of the bipartisan commission for 32 years and said he was instrumental in getting the 1958 amendment passed. He was the second commissioner to represent the village on the Mackinac Island State Park Commission, after a five-year stint by Neil Downing. Mrs. Jaggi was the third.

Mr. Teysen's letter to Governor Granholm stated, "I have known Father Williams and his parents for at least 25 years and think highly of them. Having said that, the following are the reasons I strongly object to his appointment to the commission and ask that you reconsider it:

"He does not live here full time or even most of the time. He has not participated in the affairs of the village, local governmental agencies, civic or community organizations, or even St. Anthony Catholic Church."

Mr. Teysen pointed out that, prior to 1958, the village had no representation on the Commission, and Mackinaw City had no input concerning Fort Michilimackinac and Michilimackinac State Park, the village's biggest tourist attractions.

Although Father Williams owns a house in Mackinaw City, Mr. Teysen called this a "technicality" that will cause Mackinaw City to "revert to pre-1958 status."

Mr. Heilman agreed, saying that Father Williams has been a registered voter there for less than two years, and in appointing him to the park commission, the governor "followed the letter of the law, but not the spirit of the law."

Father Williams said he has lived in the village full time for the past three years, owned a house there for 10 years, and that his parents lived in Mackinaw City for 35 years.

He added that he has not been involved in the village's civic affairs for professional reasons.

According to the practices of the Catholic Church, he said, it would be inappropriate for him to become heavily involved in someone else's parish, unless he were requested to do so or unusual circumstances arose. Therefore, he became active in civic life in the community surrounding Ste. Anne's Catholic Church on Mackinac Island, where he served for 15 years prior to his recent appointment to St. Ignace.

"I would love to represent Mackinaw City," Father Williams said. "This is my home town. I'm not a businessman or someone with a lot of money. I'm a man of the people. If I am allowed to represent the village, I would love to do it."

Father Williams added that he plans to retire from the priesthood in several months, at which time he will be free to immerse himself in the civic affairs of the village. He also acknowledged that he would consider resigning if the village insists he do so, but he emphasized that he has an intimate knowledge of the workings of the parks under the jurisdiction of the Mackinac Island State Park Commission.

Governor Granholm is happy that Father Williams has agreed to serve on the park commission, said Liz Boyd, the governor's press secretary. No one in Mackinaw City, she noted, "proactively expressed an interest in serving on the commission, and the Governor does not make a habit of reappointing Engler appointees."

She noted that the Mackinac Island Community Foundation recognized Father Williams for his community service while on Mackinac Island, and that his experiences in St. Ignace will also benefit the commission by building a bridge between it and the community.

"He brings a wealth of experience and relationships to this appointment," she said.

"Father Williams is an outstanding individual who has demonstrated a commitment to Mackinac Island, where he served as a parish priest, and now has demonstrated a commitment to Mackinaw City, where he has chosen to make his residence," Ms. Boyd said. "He will be an outstanding member of the commission and will represent Mackinaw City well. His relationship with the St. Ignace community is a bonus that his appointment brings to the commission."

The seven-member commission meets about five times a year and commissioners are appointed for six year terms. In addition to Mr. Cawthorne and Father Williams, commissioners include Karen Karam, Laurie Stupak, Richard A. Manoogian, Joan Porteous, and Frank Kelley.