The City Commission will abandon its appointment process for a new First Ward commissioner after multiple deadlocked votes led to a stalemate, multiple city officials told The Grand Rapids Herald.
The seat will remain vacant until 2027, allowing voters to select the replacement in city elections this November. None of the city’s three finalists for the role will serve out the remainder of former Commissioner Drew Robbins’s term.
Robbins vacated his commission seat earlier this year in favor of a campaign to join the state House as a Republican. Because the remainder of his term was for less than one year, the City Commission was allowed to appoint his replacement, rather than putting it to a special election.
After the commission selected three finalists for the vacancy—Grand Valley State University professor Dan Cope, former commissioner Kurt Reppart, and First Ward candidate Lindsey Perez-Plescher—the commission ended up in repeated 3-3 splits when deciding which candidate to appoint. The stalemate could only be broken if two commissioners broke ranks to request a reconsideration of an appointment.
First Ward Commissioner AliciaMarie Belchak told The Herald this led the appointment process to become “basically dead by parliamentary rules,” forcing the commission to turn the issue over to go to the voters. The commissioner added she plans to endorse Perez-Plescher to take the seat in November.
“It was not as clearly communicated by the city as I would like,” she said of the decision.
Commissioner Lisa Knight told The Herald she hopes applicants for the vacancy will receive a formal acknowledgement of the pivot from the commission, given the amount of time invested in the process. Knight was a vocal proponent of Reppart, who has not currently announced an election bid for the First Ward seat.
“We have had no other deliberations on this issue and are hoping the Mayor will make a statement for closure for those who applied,” she said.
City Media Relations Manager Steve Guitar told The Herald that the decision to abandon the appointment process was the commission’s alone and was not influenced by other city officials.
“This is a City Commission decision and we, as an organization, do not have a role in their deliberations,” he wrote via email.
Robbins told The Herald that he was glad for the decision, given that he had originally hoped for a November election to appoint his successor.
“From past experience, appointment processes alone take several months of taxpayer-funded staff time to define, garner candidates, and implement,” he wrote via email. “As such, my personal recommendation was to wait.”
“While the process is ultimately their decision moving forward, I look forward to seeing who voters determine to be their next City Commissioner and will support the results as such.”
Write to jackson@grherald.com.