PELLSTON, Mich. (WOWO) — Rural communities across Michigan are having a harder time finding residents willing to serve in local government, leaving some township and village officials facing the prospect of staying in office long after they planned to leave.
The problem is particularly visible in small communities where local government positions once attracted residents who viewed public service as a relatively limited commitment according to Bridge Michigan.
A University of Michigan survey found more than three-quarters of Michigan townships and villages are struggling to recruit people for elected or appointed positions. Even when candidates do step forward, many local races are uncontested.
The issue is creating a difficult situation for communities that depend on small groups of elected officials to handle increasingly complicated responsibilities.
In Pellston, an Emmet County village of roughly 800 people, that challenge has kept an 87-year-old retired airline pilot in a job he had hoped to leave behind.
James Gillett returned to his hometown after retiring from United Airlines in 1996. Not long afterward, he was asked to join the village board. Within a year, he became village president.
Nearly three decades later, Gillett was ready to retire from public service.
But nobody else filed to run for village president before the July 21 deadline to appear on the November ballot.
So Gillett agreed to seek another term.
“I’ve told everyone I was not going to run for village president again,” Gillett said. “But no one has come forward.”
The position pays $14,000 a year.
Gillett said he frequently hears residents say they do not want to get involved in local government, even as those same residents voice frustrations about decisions made by village officials.
“People say, ‘Oh I don’t want to get involved,'” Gillett said, “but they still find time to complain about the things they don’t like.”
Pellston’s experience reflects a broader issue playing out across rural Michigan.
Research from the University of Michigan’s Center for Local, State and Urban Policy found that recruiting residents to serve in local government has become a challenge for a large majority of the state’s townships and villages.
Community leaders interviewed by Bridge Michigan pointed to several reasons.
Some cited weaker connections between neighbors and community organizations than in previous generations. Others said local government jobs have become more complicated while compensation has remained relatively low.
Positions that once could be handled with a few hours of work each month can now involve greater regulatory requirements, public meetings, infrastructure decisions, budgets and other responsibilities.
At the same time, local officials increasingly face criticism and personal attacks online.
The political environment surrounding local government has also become more contentious, with national political debates spilling into small communities.
Issues including renewable energy projects and proposed data centers have generated disputes in some townships, putting local officials in the middle of increasingly heated public disagreements.
That can make a township trustee or village board position considerably less appealing than it once was.
The consequences may not be immediately obvious because many communities have been able to keep their governments operating through people who are willing to remain in office.
In some cases, longtime officials continue serving because they cannot find anyone willing to replace them.
Gillett’s experience is an example of how that cycle can work.
A longtime officeholder reaches the point where they want to step away, but when no successor emerges, they remain on the ballot or agree to continue serving.
That can provide stability in the short term, but local leaders warn it is not a sustainable solution.
The issue also raises questions about what happens when longtime officials eventually leave and no experienced replacement is available.
Michigan’s system of local government puts significant responsibility on townships and villages, making the recruitment problem more consequential than simply filling a seat on a local board.
Officials must oversee budgets, public services, roads, planning and zoning, emergency services and other matters that directly affect residents.
The workload can vary considerably from community to community, but leaders say the responsibilities have generally become more complicated.
For rural communities with smaller populations, the pool of potential candidates is also limited.
That creates a difficult combination: fewer residents are willing to volunteer for public service at the same time local governments are dealing with more complicated issues and greater public scrutiny.
The University of Michigan findings suggest the problem is widespread rather than isolated to one northern Michigan village.
For communities like Pellston, the immediate solution can be as simple as convincing one resident to step forward.
But the broader challenge is developing a new generation of local leaders willing to take on the responsibility before longtime officials are no longer able or willing to serve.
Without that pipeline, rural communities could face a growing gap between the number of local government positions that need to be filled and the number of residents willing to fill them.
For Gillett, the hope is still that someone eventually decides to take the job.
After 29 years as Pellston’s village president, he has already made clear that he would like another retirement to stick.
