By Mike Kruzman / news@whmi.com

The Livingston County Board of Commissioners will meet tomorrow morning in another attempt to break a stalemate as to who will be appointed to the vacant 5th District seat. With a March 13th deadline for filling the seat earlier vacated by Don Parker, time is running out for Commissioners to agree on who should fulfill the remainder of his term.

They have scheduled a special meeting for tomorrow morning at 7:30am in the board’s chambers. At their Finance Committee meeting last Wednesday, they interviewed four candidates: former commissioner and Howell Attorney Jay Drick, clinical nurse manager Lee Ann Blazejewski, Howell Township Planning Commissioner Glen Miller, and firefighter and former commissioner Mike Randall. Drick and Blazjewski gained nominations but neither received the required majority of votes. At the board’s meeting this past Monday, they were reconsidered, but the votes fell the same as they did the first time, which each gaining support from 4 commissioners. At tomorrow morning’s meeting, they will reconsider all candidates. According the board’s legal counsel last week, a nominee being reconsidered once only needs a majority vote of 5 for appointment, but a candidate being reconsidered a second time requires a 2/3 approval, making the road tougher for Drick and Blazejewski.

Chair for the Livingston County Democrats, Judy Daubenmire, said in a release, that she believes it’s time to try something different and appoint Miller, the lone Democrat who applied, to the seat. She said that Miller would be free to decide each issue based on the merits as he sees them, not based on loyalty to a faction. Currently there is only one Democrat on the board, Commissioner Gary Childs, who was elected as a Republican, but left the party last year.

If the board cannot make a decision on the appointment by Friday, it will go to a special election, beginning with a primary in August.