By Kate Stockrahm
Flint resident Patrick Hayes filed recall language against three members of the Mott Community College (MCC) Board of Trustees today.
Hayes, who has served as an adjunct instructor at the college and whose step-daughter will be starting at MCC in the fall, filed the language against Board Vice Chair Janet Couch, Trustee John Daly III, and Board Secretary Wendy Wolcott on July 16, 2024.
The petition language cites the three trustees’ July 15 vote “to approve a contract for interim president of Mott Community College with Shaunda Richardson-Snell.”
“Kind of the final straw was just last night’s meeting,” Hayes told East Village Magazine (EVM) on the afternoon of July 16. “It just felt really undemocratic.”
Hayes explained that he’d been following the presidential search since former MCC President Dr. Beverly Walker-Griffea announced she would be stepping down earlier this year.
Hayes said dozens of faculty, staff, community members and students had come to the meeting to make public comment on the selection of Richardson-Snell, who they viewed as unqualified due to her lack of higher education experience as compared to the three other candidates for the role, ahead of the vote on the contract.
“And, you know, I don’t expect elected officials are always going to do exactly what I want them to do, but I think two things that are vitally important are transparency and accountability, and both of those things have just been absent in this entire process,” he said.
He went on to explain that the Board trustees had not only voted 5-2 to approve Richardson-Snell’s contract without providing much explanation for their selection, but that the same five trustees who approved that contract — which included Couch, Daly and Wolcott — also voted to move that contract vote to happen ahead of public speaking, so no input from the meeting’s more than 100 attendees would be heard beforehand.
“It just felt like they don’t care what faculty, staff, students, community members — the mix of people who were there to speak about this,” he said. “The message that was sent was, ‘we don’t care.’”
Hayes added that he would’ve included the other two Board members who voted in favor of the contract, Board Chair Andy Everman and Treasurer Jeffery Swanson, but election law prohibits the recall of an office holder (if they hold a four year term or longer) during the first or last year of their term. Both Swanson’s and Everman’s terms expire at the end of 2024.
The next step in Hayes’ filing involves a hearing by the Genesee County Election Commission, which is composed of the county’s treasurer, probate judge, and Clerk/Registrar Domonique Clemons.
Clemons noted that the commission is required to meet between 10 to 20 days from the date of filing to review the language.
“We will review the language to make sure that it is factual and clear, and that [commission] will then take a vote to approve or reject the language,” he said.
Should it be approved, there is a period of time afterward that Couch, Daly and Wolcott will have the ability to challenge that decision. Should it not be challenged, Hayes will then have 180 days to collect signatures for the petitions.
The amount of valid signatures needed to trigger a recall is likely in the tens of thousands for each candidate, given that Michigan law requires a signature count equal to 25% of all votes cast for governor in the trustees’ district in the last gubernatorial election.
“The Mott Community College Board encompasses all of Genesee County as well as parts of multiple other counties,” Clemons noted. “So it’s going to be a fairly large number. We have to go through and calculate all of that with getting data from multiple counties. So it’ll take a little bit of time for us to get that number.”
Clemons added that should the recall petitions filed on July 16 make it to the signature counting phase, he would work with each township and city clerk in the voting district of the MCC Board of Trustees to confirm the validity of the gathered signatures after his office’s preliminary check.
“They’ll all review if those signatures are valid, if [the signer is] registered to vote, if they’re in the right district or not,” Clemons explained. “Especially with a district this size, we will have to rely on our local clerks to each take a piece up, because it’s gonna be such a large number that they’re going to need to get through.”
From there, if enough signatures are collected and deemed valid, Clemons estimated the earliest ballot for a recall election would be in May 2025, as the deadline to make this November’s election ballot is August 2.
“It’s a sad day when my vote is being taken away,” Trustee Wolcott told EVM in response to the filing. “To be punished on how you vote is not right. I voted my conscience and I stand by that. My focus is on the students and the best interest of Mott. I will not be distracted or threatened. I have had enough, and I’m ready to get back to what we are supposed to be doing as a board. I still have hope that I can bridge the gap and bring us all together.”
Trustees Couch and Daly did not respond to EVM’s requests for comment on the recall petition filings against them by press time.
