The new Kalamazoo County Board of Commissioners held their first meeting of the new year Tuesday night.
The board elected new leadership. John Taylor, who previously served as a County Commission from 2002 until 2016, was elected as the new board chair. Democrat Tami Rey was elected vice chair.
The Kalamazoo County Commission also created a new leadership position, called vice chair pro tem. Republican, Jeff Heppler, was elected to the new position. He will help set agendas and fill in when the chair and vice chair aren’t available.
Taylor, a member of the board’s Democratic majority, said creating a third leadership position and electing Heppler to fill it promotes bipartisanship.
"I believe in my heart that it was for the greater good," Taylor said. "It was for the ability to have bipartisan representation."
Taylor added that “we got to remember that no political party or ideology has a monopoly on good ideas.”
