ESCANABA, Mich. (WZMQ) – A former Delta County commissioner looking to reclaim the seat he lost in a recall vote will face a challenger in the August 6 Republican primary election.
Cattle farmer Bob Barron served as the District 3 commissioner from January of 2021 to May of 2024, when he lost his position to recall challenger Myra Croasdell. During his time as commissioner, he says the board accomplished a number of important tasks.
“We had to replace our administrator here in 2023,” said Barron. “The county hasn’t missed a beat in that process. We had our airport manager quit with a 48-hour notice and left the airport in shambles. That now is back in shape, doing well. We’ve had a successful transition of the management of the parks and forests from the Soil Conservation District back to the County, and we learned how to deal with controversy.”
When it comes to his positions on local issues, Barron says his “stance” is his oath of office.
“All elected officials take an oath of office to uphold the Constitution of the United States,” he said. “Its cornerstone, which is the cornerstone of all federal law, is the Declaration of Independence. When you make your oath of office, you are making an oath of office to the Declaration of Independence—the real, full preamble of the Constitution. What an elected official needs to know is right in the first two paragraphs, as far as making decisions is concerned. That’s where my foundation is on absolutes, and absolutes are, ‘There’s only one source, and that’s the word of God.’ That’s what our oath of office really requires of us.”
Barron’s opponent is Christine Williams, who faced him for the District 3 seat at the polls once before. Williams says she has years of experience on boards and with local organizations that qualify her for the role of commissioner.
“I spent over a decade on the City of Escanaba Planning Commission, also over a decade on the Delta Planning Commission,” she said. “I have volunteered pretty much my whole life since I was 17. Professionally, I was the vice president of operations at Bay College before I retired in 2021, so my experience is oversight and management of information technology, operations, safety and security. I also ran the Department of Accreditation at the college, so that’s knowing what all of the state and federal guidelines for educational institutions are. I have a lot of experience working with large numbers of people to come to a consensus.”
Williams disagrees with many of Barron’s past actions, like his opposition to funding MSU Extension 4-H programs due to diversity, equity, and inclusion training for staff. If elected to the board, Williams says her top priority would be fiscal responsibility.
“When you’re spending the people’s money, I feel it is incredibly important to know exactly where that money is going,” she said. “The last couple of years, I have brought to the board what I considered to be some misappropriation of county funds. The response was less than stellar. How do we recover from that? For me, making sure that there are fiscal policies in place that are sound, that contracts are always reviewed by legal counsel, and that contracts have very specific language that protects the county so that we don’t ever get in a place where an individual or an individual organization has the ability to take advantage of the county or the taxpayers’ dollars.”
Williams also takes issue with Barron’s handling of the potential annexation of land from Escanaba Township to Cornell Township in 2023.
“I felt like there was a very clear conflict of interest, and Mr. Barron did not step aside with that conflict of interest,” she said. “I feel if he had stepped aside and allowed the board to do their work, that we wouldn’t have gotten to the place that we did, which was very contentious. When the annexation vote did not go the way that Mr. Barron wanted it to go, I feel like we saw someone that doesn’t show leadership skills. He referred to his fellow commissioners as ‘weak’ and verbally accosted them. I don’t think we need that on our board.”
Barron defends his leadership style, noting the board’s efforts to bring meetings “under control” last fall.
“We came up with some very good policy, because they were out of control,” he said. “Some of the very ones that were causing the problem are now on the board and they want to reverse it. They created the problem, and so we came up with a solution that worked very well. They didn’t like the solution, so they can get rid of the solution. I was there firsthand, getting verbally assaulted from the audience. The board had very much calmed down and gotten to its business over time because of those [policies].”
Williams and Barron have both been vocal about issues between the County and the Delta Conservation District. In March, Barron moved to have the County Board send a complaint against District Board Chair Joe Kaplan to the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD). The new board has since withdrawn that complaint. Wiliams has spoken during public comment at several board meetings about that and other issues.
“The complaint to MDARD was valid,” Barron said. “I’m not sure if they did do an investigation. I think they should. The reality is, that was necessary for that situation. As far as them reversing those things, fine. They’re doing some window dressing without going into the facts of what took place. The Soil Conservation District has lost 60% of its employees. There’s issues there that need to be rectified.”
“I’ve spent a couple of years investigating the financial side of the Conservation District as it relates to park revenue and the County’s contract with that organization under its previous leadership,” said Williams. “I presented it to the Conservation District Board at the time and received almost no response whatsoever. Then, I took it to the County Board, and only one commissioner reached out to me and asked to see the evidence, which I showed him. I never heard anything else from there on. That’s a fundamental flaw. It is the responsibility of the board to investigate that.”
Both Republicans believe they are the best candidate to face no-party Commissioner Croasdell in November.
“I have been through the baptismal fire,” said Barron. “We’ve taken a lot of flack, myself and the former board members. We continued to do what was right for the county in that 17-month period when we were harangued by these recall individuals. I believe that experience gives me a leg up on anyone that’s coming in this position. We kept doing what was right for the county and for all the people, and they are benefitting from it. Overall, the county’s doing well.”
“I am not going to hold hostage any local organizations based on what they’re required to do in order to get state or federal funding,” Williams said. “I’m going to be a fiscal conservative and present the board with information that I think would be otherwise difficult for them, because have experience working with large data sets. I can synthesize large amounts of information down to present a picture of what you’re seeing in a comprehensive way, and I think that’s something that’s lacking on this board.”
Click here to meet the District 2 Republican primary candidates.
