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St. Joseph County Council appoints two to Redevelopment Commission after contested nomination process
Summary
The St. Joseph County Council voted to appoint Dustin Brown (5–4) and Gary Fox (9–0) to the Redevelopment Commission after a contested discussion about the nomination method and a public interview process for eight applicants.
The St. Joseph County Council on Feb. 11 voted to fill two vacancies on the St. Joseph County Redevelopment Commission, appointing Dustin Brown and Gary Fox.
The nominations followed a prolonged procedural debate about how the council should select members from eight applicants who had been interviewed earlier. Council leaders ultimately voted to proceed by considering one nominee at a time; that method passed on a roll call that produced a split vote before the appointments were taken.
Councilman Catanzarite moved to adopt the “one nominee at a time” method; the motion drew a roll-call vote after several members objected and asked for clarity. The council clerk later recorded the method as passing by a 4–? tally in discussion and then proceeded to votes on individual candidates.
Under that process, the council first voted on Dustin Brown. After brief comments from members about the quality of all applicants and specific praise and reservations about Brown’s interview, the council approved his appointment by a 5–4 vote. Council members who publicly expressed doubts during discussion cited concerns about whether Brown was speaking for a company rather than himself during the interview process. Council members who supported Brown cited his energy and community engagement during interviews.
The council then unanimously approved Gary Fox’s nomination by a 9–0 roll-call vote. The clerk recorded the vote as passing 9–0 and the chair stated that Gary Fox had been voted onto the commission.
The interviews had included eight applicants; some council members said the open-interview process was intended to be fair and transparent and expressed appreciation for the community interest.
Clerk roll calls and statements in the meeting record identify the votes by count; the council’s procedural debate over the selection method occupied the better part of the Redevelopment Commission agenda item.
Let the record show that Dustin Brown was approved 5–4 and Gary Fox was approved 9–0 for appointment to the St. Joseph County Redevelopment Commission. The council chair closed the item and moved on to subsequent agenda matters.
