Belleville residents deserve answers on city manager selection
To the editor:
This is to the Belleville community and City Council:
I am writing to express serious concern about the recent decision by the Belleville City Council to select Brady Peck as the new City Manager over Darwin McClary.
Based on what was reported in your previous issue, Vol. 32.25, Mr. McClary has 36 years of experience as a city and business manager. The article also referenced a council member being impressed with his master’s thesis, which strongly suggests he has obtained a master’s degree.
By contrast, council members described Mr. Peck as someone with “a lot of potential,” an “opportunity for growth,” and acknowledged that this position would be a “learning experience” for him – in other words, learning on the job.
That raises an obvious question: Why would the council choose someone who needs to grow into the role over someone who appears to already have decades of direct experience and advanced education?
This question becomes even more important because the council itself acknowledged that “suggested requirements from the International City Manager Association and the Michigan Municipal League place education and experience at the top of the list.” Mayor Voigt also stated that the “city charter states the city manager should be selected solely on the basis of his executive and administrative qualifications, with special reference to his training and actual experience in municipal administration.” (Vol. 32.26)
If that is the standard, then the public deserves a clear explanation for why Mr. McClary was passed over.
I do not make this next point lightly, but it cannot be ignored. The same article (Vol. 32.25) also noted that Mr. McClary has a husband. Given Belleville’s political and social climate, it is not unreasonable for residents to wonder whether his sexual orientation played any role, directly or indirectly, in the council’s decision. If it did not, then the council should have no problem clearly explaining why the candidate with 36 years of experience and apparent advanced education was deemed less qualified than a candidate described as needing “on-the-job learning”.
This is not about attacking Mr. Peck personally. He may very well be capable and dedicated. But “potential” should not outweigh proven experience when selecting the chief administrative officer of a city.
Isn’t this the same concern many people claimed to have with DEI — that qualifications and experience should matter most? If so, this decision appears to be the strict opposite of a DEI hire: passing over a highly experienced candidate from a marginalized group in favor of someone with far less experience. That contradiction deserves to be addressed.
Belleville residents deserve leadership chosen through transparent, merit-based decision-making — not vague statements about growth opportunities.
The council should explain, plainly and publicly, why Mr. Peck was considered the better choice under the city charter’s stated standard of executive and administrative qualifications, training, and actual municipal experience.
If there were legitimate reasons Mr. McClary was not selected, the public deserves to hear them.
Until then, many residents will be left questioning whether the most qualified candidate was truly chosen — and whether all candidates were judged fairly.
Deeply Concerned Belleville Resident
Religious belief is protected, not imposed
To the Editor:
This letter is to: Thomas G. Clayton.
In response to Thomas G. Clayton’s letter in Vol. 32.26: The United States was not founded on “God’s law” as civil law, but on a constitutional system grounded in popular sovereignty, natural rights philosophy, and secular legal authority.
The Declaration of Independence uses religious language, but the Constitution — the actual legal foundation of the nation –does not establish God, Christianity, or biblical law as the source of government power.
It begins with “We the People,” not “God,” and it explicitly forbids religious tests for public office while protecting religious freedom.
So, your argument doesn’t stand. You are free to believe that your rights come from God, but that belief is not the legal foundation of the United States and cannot be imposed on everyone else. This country protects the right of all people to hold their own views, especially when those views do not align with someone else’s Bible.
May your God bless you and Happy Pride to all who celebrate!
Belleville Resident and Ally to “The Queer”
Modern science affirms being Queer is not sinful
To the editor:
Before I respond to the letter printed June 25 and submitted by Thomas Clayton, may I compliment the positive attitude expressed by the “Queer Belleville Resident” in the June 11 Independent. In that letter the writer spoke of Pride Month as a time of celebration and increased understanding, not as a request for sympathy.
Mr. Clayton’s explanation for calling out homosexuality as sinful is based solely on his acceptance of the Bible as the authority on the matter. However, the content of the Judeo-Christian Bible was written by our ancestors who lived some 4,000 years ago, and the content is much older, reflecting mythology passed on orally by Hebrews over the generations.
We live in more entlightened times with access to DNA and behavior sciences. Some of our friends and relatives are short, tall, near-sighted, left-handed, and LBGTQ. These characteristics result from many factors, including inheritance via genes, which were unknown to Scripture writers.
Please do not judge individuals based on 7,000-year-old opinions. Just as we realize now that left-handedness is not “sinister,” and is not longer subjected to attempts to make a person try to become right-handed, so modern science affirms that being Queer is not sinful.
Dee Crowe
Van Buren Township
Support new paper, meet the new editor
To the editor:
Good people of the Belleville/Van Buren/Sumpter tri-community, please help us continue to benefit from having a local newspaper. While most communities our size have lost their newspapers entirely, the Belleville Independent has run for more than three decades by the skill, grit and determination, mainly of one individual.
We are fortunate that visionaries in our community recently formed a non-profit, the best hope for sustaining small-town newspapers in the modern day. The non-profit board has already identified capable new leadership to carry the paper forth, but the entire effort can only succeed with the support of the community it serves.
A community celebration has been planned for July 16, at 6 p.m. at the BYC (details in the ad elsewhere in this paper). For a nominal fee, all are welcome to support the paper, meet the new editor, dine and enjoy ourselves!
See y’all there,
Sharon C. Peters
Belleville Area Newspaper Foundation Board member
We do not want Waverly property developed
To the editor:
We do not want the Waverly property developed. We bought our property across from the proposed site because at the time it had a golf course. We don’t mind that it had become a wildlife area. We are extremely concerned about our property being subjected to flooding, the destruction of wildlife and the heavy burden of traffic on Denton Road that this project would cause.
The company spokesperson lied at the meeting saying that the development of the area was part of the original plan when they bought it. I had called the Van Buren Building Department when I saw people taking soil samples. After speaking with a couple of people there they told me that they (the Waverly owners) had just found out that they owned the property. They bought the apartments over a year and a half prior to finding out that they owned that area so it could not have been part of the original plan.
Does this company plan on reimbursing us for the potential damage to our property, damage to the value of our homes and the traffic issues? I don’t think so.
So no, we do not want the area developed, especially more rental property.
Laura Loepp
Van Buren Township