Tempers flared among members of the Grand Rapids City Commission on Tuesday as they once again considered appointing an interim commissioner to fill the body’s longstanding vacancy.

One First Ward seat has been left vacant for over nine months after former Commissioner Drew Robbins left the commission to run for state House. He was defeated in his election by Khristian Silvis.

After Robbins’s departure, the commission began an appointment process which named 10 semi-finalists, followed by three finalists. Among the finalists was Lindsey Perez-Plescher, whom voters this month selected to take the First Ward seat in January.

The commission repeatedly tried and failed to name an interim appointee to the vacancy, resulting in infighting and a deadlocked 3-3 vote. One appointment meeting even recessed briefly after First Ward Commissioner AliciaMarie Belchak became visibly emotional and abstained from voting. 

When neither side yielded, it forced the commission to abandon the appointment process altogether.

During Tuesday’s meetings, Belchak repeatedly called for the commission to appoint Perez-Plescher to the vacancy in the wake of the election and even proposed a non-agenda item to do so. Several community members, including Kent County Commissioner Robert Womack, also made similar appeals to the commission during public comment.

“I wonder, why are we stopping the inevitable and also having these voters so upset that they went out and voted for somebody to sit in that seat in the First Ward?” Womack said. “I know there’s been some hard feelings in the past, I know there’s been some disagreements, but at this time and at this moment we have a First Ward community that is hungry for democracy to be served.”

Mayor David LaGrand said during the meeting he was “sympathetic” to Belchak’s request for an appointment, but suggested that the move be made into a formal agenda item at a later meeting. The commission rejected that motion in a vote.

In their closing comments several commissioners addressed Belchak’s request, saying it was responsible for creating unnecessary division.

“I feel like this is Groundhog Day honestly,” Commissioner Milinda Ysasi said. “Commissioner Belchak, you have never once come and talked to me about this after you abstained from that vote.”

Ysasi said she felt slighted and accused Belchak of refusing to speak to her directly about the appointment process.

“You’re talking to people who are in other bodies of government in other communities, and how disrespectful to say I’m going to snip away what your responsibility is,” Ysasi said. “I have to draw a boundary about how I’m treated up here.”

Commissioner Lisa Knight made reference to a “mean girls club” in her closing remarks and encouraged her colleagues to ask questions of one another rather than starting “a whirlwind or a fire that could consume all of us.”

“If I heard a little bit of gossip, a little bit of juice that makes my flesh tingle, I’m going to come ask the question so I can understand the truth and the facts behind what I’m hearing,” she said. “I’ll still love you if you don’t like me. Life goes on.”

Commissioner Kelsey Perdue said Belchak had asked for her support in renewing the appointment process but was dissatisfied with her reasoning as to why it is necessary. 

“When I asked ‘why would we do that?’ the answer is ‘why not?’” Perdue said. “That’s not sharing a legitimate justification when we said we wanted to follow the process thus far.”

Perdue said Belchak was also responsible for dissuading the commission from an appointment because of her willingness to handle the ward’s responsibilities by herself. 

“I think that there is a sense of false urgency,” she added. “We’ve had 14 official meetings since April and we have three left for the rest of the year.”

In responding to her colleagues, Belchak said she felt strongly that the First Ward deserved to have its concerns heard given the number of public comments calling to appoint Perez-Plescher.

“I feel compelled to listen to my community,” she said. “I’ve had a lot of difficult conversations over the summer and beyond, and so I feel like it is my job as the First Ward elected person to respond to the election and that is why I want the peoples’ voice to be heard.”

“I think that governance is one way that we can show we are responsive,” Belchak added. “Maybe it is something you don’t agree with, but that’s where I stand on it. I’m doing what I think my community is asking for.”

The proposed appointment process is dead in the water unless the commission can formally agree to add it to a future agenda. So far, such a decision has not been reached.

Robbins told The Grand Rapids Herald he was disappointed by the continued division, especially because he followed procedure to give the commission enough time to appoint his successor. He also condemned making an appointment outside of the commission’s established agenda.

“In providing advanced notice of my departure from the City Commission, my hope was that my colleagues would have ample time to fulfill an expedient appointment process,” Robbins wrote via text message. “Ensuring my constituents maintained equal representation was my highest priority.”

“Unfortunately, consensus surrounding my successor was never reached,” he continued. “I understand the desire to have Commissioner-elect Perez-Plescher hit the ground running as soon as possible, but government functions best when it includes proactive communication by members and uses the proper channels necessary to advance items in a formal agenda.”

Write to jackson@grherald.com