What I Learned by Failing at Local Politics

It is hard to go anywhere in Flint without running into someone who has fond memories of or connections to Mott Community College.

For me, they go back generations. My grandma was a nursing instructor there. My brother went there and was a member of Mott’s 2012 national title-winning basketball team. Some of the absolute best nights of my career as a writer were spent watching hoopers chase dreams in Ballenger Fieldhouse. I followed in my grandma’s footsteps and taught at Mott as well (although I taught communications because I’m nowhere near smart enough to have followed in her footsteps as a nurse). My home, where I’ve watched my kids grow up for nearly a decade, is just a few steps from campus.

So those personal attachments, along with a deep understanding of the importance of the institution for students in our city and county, were the backdrop for my first foray into local politics in 2024. I had become so disgusted watching the antics of a majority on the Mott Community College Board of Trustees during that time period that I decided to try and organize a recall against three of the five trustees who were then part of that majority (the two others were ineligible for recalls because their terms expired in less than a year). Part of my frustration, and the frustration of many other faculty, staff, students, and community members, was the board’s insistence on hiring an interim president, Shaunda Richardson-Snell, who had absolutely no education experience. They eventually installed her as permanent president without conducting a national search (as is custom when looking for any high level executive, particularly a college leader) or even so much as considering another candidate. 

Skipping Ahead for a Minute

Bridge Michigan reported this week that Richardson-Snell has been accused of “religious proselytizing” while serving as the college’s president. Bridge reported that Americans United for Separation of Church and State sent a letter to the college late last year saying it had received a complaint about Richardson-Snell.

According to Bridge, Richardson-Snell asked Wayne Wilson, a member of the Navajo Nation (Diné) in Arizona, if he’d accepted Jesus Christ as his personal savior during an annual Peace and Dignity Ceremony on campus in the fall on Indigenous Peoples’ Day. 

Trustee Art Reyes also spoke during a meeting in October about hearing from a student who said that Richardson-Snell had asked him if he was familiar with “the one truth” and shared her religious beliefs after the student had gone to her office hours and asked her a question about artificial intelligence (Reyes’ comments are in the video near the end of that meeting). 

The board has called a special meeting for 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, February 18, in the Regional Technology Center to discuss the accusations. Members of the public can address the board and share their concerns.

As someone who has closely followed the issues of the board and their handpicked president, I can say that the accusations aren’t surprising considering related things that have occurred over the last two years. 

My hope is that the community takes the accusations seriously, shows up, and addresses the board during public comments on Wednesday.

Learn by Failure

So, to close the loop on the headline here, I definitely failed at local politics. The primary reason? Recalls are insanely hard. I had no idea what I was doing, but my recall language against Trustees Janet Couch, John Daly III, PhD, and Wendy Wolcott was approved. That was the simple part – as long as you submit language that is clear, not a statement of opinion (i.e. you can’t recall someone because you don’t like their aura), and that a voter could understand, there’s a good chance your language will get approved. 

The hard part is collecting signatures. And, even for an election many don’t pay attention to, a successful recall against Mott’s trustees would’ve required somewhere in the neighborhood of 40,000 valid signatures from registered voters per trustee, which I didn’t fully wrap my head around until AFTER the language had been approved.

I naively talked myself into thinking that was doable with nothing but a scrappy crew of passionate volunteers. It wasn’t, for a few reasons:

• You will hear from way more people who SAY they want to help vs. people who actually follow through. I convinced myself that if we had 200 volunteers and they each got 200 signatures, that math would just math itself into a successful recall. In reality, I had a little under 50 people reach out and want to collect signatures. Not a bad number honestly. But the actual number of people who DID collect signatures was 11. I think any campaign probably has similar experiences. You have to assume you’re going to end up with significantly fewer participants than people who commit to participating. 
• You will not have enough money. In actuality, recalls are rarely successful, and the only ones that do achieve or come close to their goals are well-funded. My funding was … not well. It’s impossible on a fixed income to fund things like thousands of copies of petitions, or organizing events to try and get people to come and sign, or especially paying petition gatherers. 
• I did not have an elevator pitch. If people see you holding a petition in a public space, most of them run. If you do get the chance to engage in a conversation, you need to have something snappy. Try explaining succinctly how a community college not everyone has a connection to or is even aware has an elected board that has been infiltrated by Christian nationalist influences and hired a president with no higher ed experience without conducting a national search. Doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue! We were actually able to collect a lot of signatures from people who are connected to Mott or who are active in local politics in Genesee County. But that alone was nowhere near enough. If you’re recalling someone in a countywide or larger area, you have to be able to explain the “why” to the normies who don’t engage much in politics, and our ‘why’ just didn’t lend itself to an easy explanation.
• Time. At the time the recall was going on, I was working full-time, I was teaching a class at Mott, and I was coaching fifth grade basketball. I made time to collect signatures because I had a deep belief in the importance. But honestly … we all have things in our personal lives that are sacred, and one of the things looking back that I’m still most mad about is that the people on this board displaying the worst example of public service took time away from me that could’ve been used drawing up a better inbounds play so we didn’t lose by two points to a Goodrich team that I spent three years trying to help the kids on my team beat. 

So, I failed. For a lot of reasons. But I don’t regret trying. I do regret one thing, though.

An Apology to John Daly

At the time that I filed recall language, Daly was regularly voting with a majority on Mott’s board that was acting unethically. Among other things, they’d been accused of violating the open meetings act, then-board chair Andy Everman was regularly dismissive of college staff and members of the public, and none of the concerns raised by constituents during public comments at meetings were ever addressed or even treated as valid concerns. 

Something changed with Daly, though. I wish I knew what it is. But I do absolutely regret that he was included in the recall. At some point, he clearly broke ranks with the board majority and he has been an outstanding board member and even more outstanding example of a public servant. He asks detailed, smart, prepared questions. He has been an outspoken advocate for transparency, processes, and more ethical governance. He has expertise as a highly educated professional himself, who has also taught courses. I’ve been deeply appreciative of everything he has brought to meetings since whatever it is that caused his course correction.

And course correcting in politics is not easy. It takes backbone. He deserves immense credit for that. In fact, according to Bridge’s reporting, Daly is the person who called for the special meeting to discuss these recent accusations in an open forum.

A Hopeful Takeaway

Although I clearly failed in what I set out to accomplish, organizing a recall wasn’t a waste of time. It DID receive media coverage that helped the overall attention on the governance issues at Mott. It DID help people understand the importance of paying attention to all local elections, perhaps especially ones like the Mott Community College Board of Trustees one that are sometimes overlooked. It DID help ensure Everman wasn’t re-elected to the board. 

It is vital to pay attention to government and elected officials at all levels, but I’m a strong advocate for starting local. Decisions made at state and federal levels impact us, obviously, but sometimes the impact of those decisions aren’t immediate. Locally, our elected officials make decisions that have direct consequences (positive or negative) on our communities that can often be felt instantly. 

Mott Community College is a vital resource for the district it serves. Most importantly, it is and has been a resource for everyone, no matter what your background is. If you care about preserving that, I hope you will consider attending and speaking at the next meeting.