BEULAH -- Benzie County planners believe one of their own should be ousted from the planning commission after she allegedly withheld crucial budget information.
The planning commission on Sept. 16 asked the county board to hold a hearing to determine if Mary Pitcher should be removed from the planning board. Pitcher also serves as a county commissioner.
Planning Commissioner Donald Tanner contends Pitcher refused to speak up in protest as the county board's finance committee -- of which Pitcher is a member -- considered laying off the county planning director and making other planning changes.
Pitcher then failed to inform the planning commission of the nature of the ongoing budget discussions, Tanner said. Both actions amount to "malfeasance, misfeasance and nonfeasance," Tanner contends, because Pitcher wasn't acting in the best interest of the planning commission.
But Pitcher said the finance committee only began to discuss what to cut in late August, and didn't make final decisions until mid-September. A Sept. 3 planning commission meeting at which she may have informed her fellow planners of the discussions also was canceled, she said.
"What (Tanner) claims I should have done was totally impossible," she said.
County board Chairman Mark Roper said all budget discussions occurred in public meetings. The board checked with a county attorney, who determined Pitcher didn't do anything wrong, Roper said.
"I don't think anybody's withholding information as long as things are done in the public eye," he said.
Tanner contends the county commission's finance committee urged Pitcher to keep the deliberations quiet so the planning commission wouldn't have time to react.
"Our issue is that the finance committee tried to stop, prevent or keep information from going out to the bodies that need it," Tanner said.
Pitcher denied those allegations.
"It's like a conspiracy theory, and there was no conspiracy," she said.
The county board doesn't plan to take any further action, Roper said. But Tanner said he contacted the Michigan State Police and requested an investigation to see if Pitcher or the finance committee engaged in any criminal activity.
Meanwhile, the layoff of county Planning Director Dave Neiger has been put off until the end of October, Roper said, to allow the planning commission a chance to figure out a way to avoid the layoff.
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