Committee on Appointments Meeting - July 29, 2025
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Committee on Appointments Meeting - July 29, 2025
The Committee on Appointments met on July 29, 2025, at 8:00 a.m., to consider mayoral appointments to the Grand Rapids Land Bank Authority, confirm the street administrator, and discuss board and commission vacancies. The meeting adjourned at 8:14 a.m.
Discussion Items
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Land Bank Authority Appointments: Six mayoral appointments were considered: David Legrand, Eric Brown, Guillermo Cesarnos, Kurt Repart, Chris Spaulding, and Randy Thielen. A commissioner moved to postpone all appointments, citing the absence of a seventh promised member (Tammy Vandenberg, not yet vetted), lack of gender and racial diversity (only one female appointee, no Black or brown women), and a desire to see the full slate. The Chair noted that Ms. Vandenberg, a housing advocate from Wellhouse, is expected to be added at the next meeting. Commissioner Robbins expressed comfort proceeding with the six appointments to keep the process moving. After discussion, the commissioner who made the postponement motion agreed to support the six appointments, asking the mayor to reconsider the final slot for diversity. All six resolutions passed unanimously.
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Street Administrator Appointment: The city commission approved the appointment of John Gourney as street administrator, a formality required by MDOT. The resolution passed unanimously.
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Board and Commission Vacancies: Ms. Bosker reported that few changes have occurred since the last meeting. She is awaiting recommendations from the Community Relations Commission and is compiling packets for the mayor. Attendance issues were discussed, with liaisons asked to report any concerns. The Civilian Board of Appeals was highlighted as a board needing strong community representation.
Key Outcomes
- All six Land Bank Authority appointments were confirmed unanimously (no recorded opposition).
- John Gourney was confirmed as street administrator.
- The committee will revisit the seventh Land Bank Authority appointment (Tammy Vandenberg) once vetting is complete.
- Continued efforts to fill board vacancies and improve attendance were noted.
Meeting Transcript
Good morning, everyone. All right. We will uh start the committee on appointments uh right now. All right, our first meeting of a very busy day. Um let's roll right into our agenda. All right, our first item here is a resolution confirming the mayoral appointment of David Legrand to the Grand Rapids Land Bank Authority. So moved Mr. Chair uh and and Commissioner, um I wanted to share that I am not gonna be supporting these today. I would like to make a motion to postpone when we met um sort of at the beginning of all of this for the land bank. Um we were it was shared that we would have a full slate. There's six names here, and so there's one missing name. Um so I think for me to be able to see the totality of who is on the board is really important. Um I'm a little disappointed that there's only one female representation. I think you know the representation across the board is good, but it's for me to know who that final name would be important. Um I know there has been some discussion. We don't typically put people's names out here on committee of appointments because that would be unfair to that individual uh because they you know may not be vetted for different reasons, financial or just you know, business or whatever it might be. Um so I'm not expecting the mayor to share that, but I would ask that we postpone these appointments until the next meeting when we can have that final candidate so we can see what the full slate looks like. Um so I'm sorry, Commission uh Mr. Chair, I didn't make a motion, but I wanted to explain why I wasn't seconding um the move that Commissioner Robbins made. Sure, thank you so much for your feedback. So, commissioners, uh I have spoken with the mayor at the chair of appointments uh about uh the land bank authority and the name that he's hoping will move through vetting here soon is Tammy Vandenberg, another advocate in the housing space, um, to also help with making sure we have um more gender representation, more diverse representation on the board as a whole. Um she's been in this space for many years and worked at Wellhouse, so I think that um that helps with that sort of full view of the board. Um and uh we'll hopefully be able to have that seventh member um added at next meeting. So um I'm okay with confirming these today and um Commissioner Robbins, would you like to share your perspective? Yeah, no, I I uh hear my my colleagues um concerns. I think um, yeah, and I guess going into this, I didn't even realize that there was one name missing. But I I'm I mean typically when we have a a board, I know this one's new, but you know, we'll we'll still proceed with appointing um individuals to fill as many vacancies as we can, you know, until if when we get enough people to um to fully have a board represented. So I I would be comfortable too, um, yeah, regardless of the individual who's um we'll be filling that last appointment spot. I'm I'm okay with moving forward uh with these names and then filling that seventh later just to keep the process moving. So I think my concern, colleagues, is that that could be the name that he wants, but that person is is that person fully vetted. No, not yet. Uh the inquiry just went out yesterday, and it's very difficult to have vetting completed in this amount of time. Sure, absolutely. Um, even though we've had six months to talk about this, and when this started, the mayor was very keen on this being set before this meeting. So um I on surface have no issue with Ms. Vandenberg. Um I will say that there are no black or brown women uh when I look at this body, and that's disappointing to me when we know that um black women in particular have carried a burden of housing instability and uncertainty in this community. Um so I'll move forward with uh supporting these ones today, but I would ask that the mayor reconsider that final one. Sure. And I think I'll talk and I'll I'll share that directly. Um but I I had not I had not heard that. So um, but I'm fine moving forward with these ones today then. Okay. And then if we don't um if we don't if these don't pass unanimously also it's taken off of consent, so there'd be a larger conversation as well, correct, clerk. That is correct. Right. So we can always do it that way as well, so there's more conversation or uh whatever we'd like. So let's uh start over uh with our first item here. Thank you both for your feedback. Uh let's start with our first first resolution confirming the mayoral appointment of David Legrand to the Grand Rapids Land Bank Authority.
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