Council Votes to Move Williamson Seat – Mayor and Williamson Respond

Written by John Face

March 8, 2022

At Monday night’s City of Albion council meeting one thing was sure, and that was Garrett Browns redistricting map was going to pass and Shane Williamsons seat was going to change from the 6th precinct to the 5th precinct. The council voted 5-2 in favor of the plan that eliminated Williamsons seat from precinct 6.

Now City Watch has found out that there is an attempt by this group to force Williamson from his seat as early as April. Even though he was elected to a 4-year term and that redistricting changes don’t happen until after the general election. Which should mean his seat is good until December 1st which is the normal starting date for council members. It appears the plan is to get another sycophant of Mat Johnson and Garrett Brown appointed to council.

City Watch reached out to Mayor Victoria Garcia-Snyder for a comment regarding last night’s vote, she voted against the proposal that was adopted last night, and here is her reply:

Mayor Replies

“As the Mayor who has sworn to serve the Community of Albion, I feel that the actions taken by the City
Council at last night’s meeting have left the residents of precinct six without a voice in City government.
The City Council has spent close to $10,000 of taxpayer money for training that we had all agreed that
we needed to better understand our roles as elected officials as opposed to the role of the City
Manager.

I had expected that the other council members would have taken the information we had
received in that training as we considered the redistricting issue. However, last night’s process and
decision clearly went against everything that we learned as a council, as we did not allow the City
Manager to fulfill her responsibilities with respect to the redistricting task.

There were other options available to the council that would have created much less disruption and
confusion for our voters that still fell well below the standard deviation of 10%. It was clear from how
the redistricting proposal was initiated that the best interests of the citizens of precinct 6 were not of
primary concern. This action was taken solely for political reasons, to facilitate the removal of a City
Council member who had been duly elected. This is a sad day for our City Government, and a sad day
for Albion.”

I contacted Williamson and he sent me this statement:

Williamson Replies

Last night’s move by city council most certainly was a political and personal attack on me and my character. It is a completely disgraceful move to use a process meant to preserve and protect a citizen’s access to adequate representation to score a political touchdown on a colleague they don’t like. 

Even worse, how will council ever attract the talent to public office it needs of these are the games folks are willing to play? 

What Is Next

There will be a second reading and there must be a legal ruling as to when this redistricting plan can legally go into effect. All this was playing out as recalls are being readied against members LaNoue, Lawler and Jackson.

City Watch will update this story as needed. City Watch can confirm that legal action most likely will occur.