White Lake Board to Hold Supervisor Interviews Thursday

If board members can agree, may have a supervisor by the beginning of next week. At Tuesday's meeting, the Board of Trustees agreed to narrow the list of candidates by noon Wednesday and conduct interviews Thursday.

All special meetings set by the board Tuesday will be open to the public. The first meeting, at 4 p.m. Thursday, will be to interview candidates and possibly take a vote. If the board doesn't reach a consensus, the trustees will meet at 4 p.m. Friday to address the issue and possibly take a vote.

Should the board still need time to come to a consensus, trustees will meet at 7 p.m. Monday. All meetings will be at .

The field of 10 is already down to six candidates, after two candidates were removed from contention at Tuesday's board meeting – one for not following the application rules and the other because he doesn't live in town. And after the board decided it didn't need to interview the two internal candidates.

Resident Jerry Walker did not resubmit his application, as required by the township board, and was therefore disqualified.

Clerk Terry Lilley explained that Walker had submitted his resume and application prior to the board opening the position to the public. When the board did open the position on Jan. 6 they required that all interested applicants resubmit their resumes and applications. If they didn't do so, they would not be considered.

David McManamon, of Highland, was also disqualified because he did not meet township residency requirements.

Trustees Greg Baroni and Mike Powell, both interested in the position, will not be interviewed. The remaining Trustees decided Tuesday that they already knew enough about the two candidates, and the interviews were deemed unnecessary for Baroni and Powell.

Neither Baroni nor Powell will be a part of the interview process, although township attorney Greg Need said there is no legal reason why they could not.

In addition, a late submission by White Lake resident Mike Skupin was denied because it was not turned in by the noon Jan. 14 deadline.

The board has until Feb. 14 to fill the vacancy, which offers a $75,000 annual salary, before the county would step in and call for a special election. If a special election is called, the White Lake contingents of the county's Republican and Democratic parties will select one candidate each to run for the position. Anyone else interested would have to run as a write-in.