The Collegian

Issue date: 10/22/09 Section: News

Media Credit: William Clayton

Media Credit: Courtesy of Doug Moon

Kevin Pauken and Tony Vear usually support opposite political parties. But Pauken plans to vote for Vear in the city's general election on Nov. 3.

"Although Tony's a Republican, he's a nice guy," said Kevin Pauken, Hillsdale's deputy fire chief and the president of its fire fighter's union.

He stood in a crowd of about 20 people, gathered at Checker Records, where Mayor Michael Sessions was holding a question and answer session for mayoral candidate Tony Vear.

Pauken is a broad-shouldered, mustachioed man who went to school with Vear.

"We can argue about politics and move on, and that's the way it should be," he said.

Tony Vear
Vear is a member of the Hillsdale Planning Commission. He has a crinkly smile, six children, 11 siblings and a degree in Business Administration from Hillsdale College. He graduated in 1982 and his father was the doctor at the health clinic.

"If anything, I'm pro-business," he said, "because, let's face it: we're in Michigan and there's a job shortage."

He said that "jobs, roads, and quality of life issues" will be his top priorities if he wins the election. He said he wants to keep recreating the city's downtown, and hopes the local government will partner with small businesses to encourage growth.

He also hopes to tighten the city budget. Though he did not explicitly criticize the city's handling of taxpayer dollars, he said he hopes to improve its fiscal responsibility.

"You can always do better," he said, adding, "It's going in the right direction."

Despite emphasizing thriftiness, he said he wants to spend more on roads.

"We need to find some money somewhere to fix the roads and encourage people to move back to the community," he said.

Sessions, a Hillsdale senior who became one of America's youngest mayors when he was elected as a senior in high school, vocally supports Vear. By sponsoring Vear's question and answer session and sending an e-mail to his supporters encouraging them to vote for Vear, he has made himself an important figure in the election.

At the question and answer session, Sessions gave three reasons to vote for Vear: Vear works in Hillsdale and is committed to growing the local economy, and his election would save the city money: no special election to fill the city council seat currently held by Vear's opponent, Doug Moon, if Moon were to be elected mayor.

In an interview with The Collegian, Sessions said he believes Vear's experience on the planning commission is more valuable than Moon's experience on the city council, arguing that the council merely rubber stamps policies which the planning commission crafts.

Doug Moon
Moon was born in Hillsdale and lived here for his whole life, except while attending Eastern Michigan University. He has two daughters, and his wife is a Hillsdale alumna.

He rides a motorcycle -- a Suzuki TSXR -- plays drums and enjoys ice hockey, which he used to play in a league.

"I was playing against 18 and over; that can get a little rough. No one has to get up and go to work in the morning," he said.

If he has the time and money, he hopes to play in a 40 and over league in Jackson.

He said he wants to create policies that will make Hillsdale a good town for his kids.

"Everyone knows the streets are in rough shape," he said. "The economy's in the tank."

He also said that he has noticed many competing factions in town, especially involving business owners, the hospital and Hillsdale College. He said he hopes to help create compromises.

"Let's find a way that we can all get what we want," he said.

One of Moon's main campaign issues has been openness of committee meetings to the public. Many of these meetings take place in the morning of business days, which keeps most interested citizens from being able to attend them.

He said many people resist change in the community because their inability to attend meetings keeps them from understanding the nature of new policies.

Sessions and Moon disagree on whether a mayor will actually have the authority to make this change.

Moon also said he has more experience than Vear, having worked on the city council for three and a half years. Vear has a position on the planning commission, but has not had to deal with public criticism since community members cannot attend these meetings. He said the council often sends ideas and policies to the commission for further investigation.

"In all honesty, if everything were taken care of at the commission level and it just comes back to council for a rubber stamp, why does it have to come back to council?" he asked.

Moon also worries about ethical complications that could arise since Vear comes from a prominent Hillsdale family and works in town.

"I think that the potential for a conflict of interest is there," he said. "I'm not attacking his character in any way, but the potential is there."

"I really don't have anything to gain from this position," he said, since his extended family lives outside of town and he works in Coldwater.

Sessions has argued that this is actually a negative, since Moon wouldn't be able to respond quickly to crises in town.

Moon responded that, first, the town manager can respond to problems immediately, and second, Vear's job often requires extensive travel, so he would have the same problem.

Moon will have a Meet and Greet from 7-9 p.m. at the Hillsdale Library, hosted by Herb Pine, a former mayor.

The Hospital Controversy
Moon's vote on the rezoning of the hospital has become another contentious issue, since Moon voted against changing it from a residential to a hospital zone.

"You can't have a hospital zoned as residential in a city and expect the hospital to not have problems expanding," Sessions said.

According to Doug Moon, the story is much more complicated than that, and the issue goes back to a year before the rezoning was even an issue.

According to a story published by Associated Content, in 2007, Sessions hacked into the computer of Brandon Thomas, a friend of the mayor, and deleted his AIM and MySpace accounts and sent e-mails to campus authorities and his roommate's mother.

That's illegal.

According to Moon, Thomas took his computer to a repair shop and paid to end the hacking. But Sessions managed to keep hacking into the computer, so Thomas took it to the campus police, who traced the problem back to Sessions.

Thomas offered to drop the charges against Sessions if he paid for the repairs. Originally, Sessions agreed. But then he called the friend from his lawyer's office, saying he had changed his mind, refusing to pay and accusing the friend of blackmailing him.

So it went to court. Sessions was sentenced to 40 hours of community service, which he spent at the hospital where his father and his mentor, Duke Anderson, both work.

The issue of rezoning the hospital came up at the very last meeting of the city council that same year.

Moon asked a lot of questions about it and requested to postpone the decision for two weeks to allow further examination of the change.

"At that point, Michael Sessions blew a gasket," Moon said.

According to Moon, Sessions said the questioning was disrespectful, and the rezoning absolutely could not wait for an extra two weeks. He called the issue to a vote and the discussion ended.

Moon said Sessions' pushiness has often frustrated him.

"Everyone on council looks at him and says, 'You're how old? You still live with your parents?'" he said. "He should be trying to work with council, not telling them what to do."

So Moon voted against the rezoning. He knew it would pass, but chose to vote against it.
"It was on principle," he said. "They didn't allow ample time to discuss it."

The shady appearance of the rushed rezoning vote was a significant concern for Moon, especially because of Sessions' close relationship with the hospital.

"When you put it in context of everything, you have to make sure it looks right," he said. "I don't think there's any shenanigans with it, but unfortunately, it could appear that way."

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