Mott Community College Board Chair Andy Everman narrowly survived a vote last week to remove him from the Chair position. The Board of Trustees called a special session to decide Everman’s future after the Mott CC Trustee made an obscene comment on an open microphone at the January Board Meeting.
After a two-hour meeting that featured public commentary and debate on the matter, the Trustees voted 4-3 to retain Everman in the Chair position. Interestingly, Everman also voted on the matter. The remaining trustees split on whether to allow him to continue to lead the board. Everman, who is from Flushing, served one term on the board from 2005-2011, and was re-elected to the Board in 2018. In that race, he won the third open seat on the Mott CC Board of Trustees, finishing just several hundred votes ahead of other challengers in a crowded race.
Several people at the meeting expressed their disappointment at the outcome of the board’s decision. Others called upon Everman to resign. Still others pointed out that Mott faculty and staff would face repercussions for using the same language while at work.
Everman also resisted calls to resign his seat on the board and did not offer an apology for the remarks. He characterized the comments as part of a private conversation between an employee and himself, and that he intended no insult. That did little to appease those who found the remarks offensive, regardless of the context in which Everman made them.
Ty Phan, a Mott student and the local chapter president of the National Society of Leadership and Success offered an apology on behalf of the Mott community. Additionally, he remarked, “Quite disappointing, but this is what happens when people don’t know who to vote for.”
Voters will weigh in on Mott CC Trustee in 2024
That’s kind of a damning assessment, but at the same time, many people don’t make the effort to learn about who is running for a community college board seat. That’s a critical error. In this case, Genesee County taxpayers have $22M on the line, so it’s important for voters to understand who they’re putting in charge of it. In Washtenaw County, taxpayers currently send nearly $65M per year to Washtenaw Community College, so the stakes here are a bit higher.
Everman, who owns a printing business in Flushing, ran unsuccessfully to regain a Mott CC Trustee seat in 2016, and has also run for a seat on the Genesee County Commission in 2014 and most recently in 2022. He has been active in Democratic politics in Genesee County for a number of years.
Regardless of how you feel about the incident, it underscores the need for voters to clearly understand who they’re electing to represent their interests. The voters will get to weigh in on Everman – assuming he runs to retain his seat – next year. His term expires in December 2024.
Photo Credit: Teddy Mafia , via Flickr
