The latest news from way down south in Wayland, where we discussed their recent plights in WWW . But now the hijinks continue as they try to find a City Manager without an interim in front of their name, as reported in Mlive:
Cameron Van Wyngarden
For the past few weeks, the Michigan Municipal League and Wayland city staff have been negotiating contract details with city manager candidate Cameron Van Wyngarden.
Now, they have the official blessing of the city council.
During their regular meeting tonight, Feb. 20, Mayor Tim Bala asked for a closed session to discuss negotiations with Van Wyngarden.
Then, councilor Jeff Hudson reminded him that the council had never actually voted to pursue Van Wyngarden as a candidate.
Bala looked at notes from a previous meeting and quickly agreed.
"We had no (such) motion or support," Bala said.
Van Wyngarden, who is currently the assistant city manager for the city of Greenville, is one of four candidates interviewed by the council during a special meeting Jan. 28.
Two of those candidates were eliminated from consideration after that meeting. Then the third, Merrillville, Ind. town administrator Howard Fink, withdrew his name, leaving only Van Wyngarden.
"He just happened to be the last one standing," said councilor Ron Kobish.
Councilor Jennifer Antel said that after the Jan. 28 interviews, the council discussed whether to seek additional candidates.
"We all said 'No,'" Antel recalled.
Hudson said he was concerned because another councilor had recently expressed a desire to consider other candidates besides Van Wyngarden.
But when Bruce Patrick made a motion to officially enter into negotiations with Van Wyngarden, it was seconded by Jim Roger, and passed unanimously by a voice vote.
Interim City Manager Terry Hofmeyer said another special meeting might be called, perhaps later this week, so that a vote could be taken on approving Van Wyngarden for the position.
If hired, he would replace former manager Chris Yonker, who was fired on Oct. 5. The reasons were kept confidential.
http://www.mlive.com/wayland/index.ssf/2012/02/wayland_council_give...
One thing that isn't being kept confidential is how screwed up the public officials are in Wayland, a great town despite it's so-called leaders. A chief executive who will effectively run the town is almost put in place without officially being even considered a candidate for the position. Why not just nix the fundamentally flawed City Manager system and go back to having elected leaders.
Wayland citizens, expect more by stepping up to the plate and getting some reasonable people into office. That goes double for Ludington.
