The Mackinac County Planning Commission is sending a draft ordinance of its proposed bylaws to the Mackinac County Board of Commissioners for approval . The bylaws will bring the planning commission into compliance with the State of Michigan Planning Enabling Act, which requires all planning commissions in the state to adopt bylaws by 2011 to outline meeting procedure, policy, and action.

Michelle Walk, liaison to the planning commission from the Michigan State University Extension office in St. Ignace, said the bylaws are very general.

The only discussion concerning the bylaws at the Wednesday, August 5, commission meeting was whether the eight-member commission should seek another member for a vacant ninth spot, or reduce its membership to seven. The discussion to reduce the number of commissioners came about owing to a vacancy left by commissioner Judy Luoma, who recently left the commission for personal reasons. The commission has seven sitting members with Ms. Luoma's resignation.

According to the proposed bylaws, the commission has to have an odd number of members to ensure that there are no tie votes on a given topic. The commission decided to keep nine members and will seek replacements for the two vacancies.

"The more people you have around the table, the better the discussion is," said commissioner Dean Reid. "To go down to seven I'm not sure is a good idea."

A replacement for Ms. Luoma will be sought to complete the remainder of her three-year term, which ends December 31. The commission may take longer to appoint a ninth member, who would be appointed for a full term.

Commissioners are appointed to three-year terms by the county board of commissioners and are paid $60 per meeting, plus reimbursed for travel expenses to attend monthly meetings. The county planning commission is seeking two individuals wanting to actively participate and dedicate their time to the commission, which meets on the first Tuesday of each month at the Mackinac County Airport in St Ignace.

"I would rather see us have nine people on the commission and not fill them until we find the right people," said commissioner Cheryl Schlehuber. "I would rather have an open seat than have [the county board of commissioners] appoint somebody just to appoint somebody."

In other business, the commission further reviewed questions for a survey to be asked to the townships in the county concerning the formation of a county-wide economic development corporation (EDC). Once the commission is satisfied with the list of questions, it will send out a request for proposal for a third-party vendor to conduct the survey.

Sending a copy of the completed survey to township officials and residents to be filled out at their own leisure was discussed, but turned down because the commission believes an in-person interview will provide them with the types of answers they want from the survey in a more timely manner.

"It's like pulling teeth to get people to fill out surveys" on their own accord, Mrs. Schlehuber said.

The goal of the survey is to help the planning commission decide whether to recommend to the county board of commissioners that a county-wide EDC be formed. The board of commissioners asked the planning commission in May to research EDC formation.

The county estimates that at least $100,000 a year will be needed to hire an EDC director and staff a nine-person EDC board.

The planning commission will next meet Wednesday, September 2, at 2 p.m.