Citing a potential conflict of interest, the Hillsdale City Council blocked the appointment of Professor of Political Economy Gary Wolfram to Hillsdale’s Board of Public Utilities earlier this month in a 5-4 vote.
The Board of Public Utilities nominated Wolfram for the position based on his expertise in the field of Michigan’s public utilities, and the council agreed he was the most qualified candidate for the job.
“We are running [with] a limited number of board members right now, and Gary would be a great candidate. I can’t imagine anyone better,” BPU Assistant Director Chris McArthur said at the meeting.
The council ultimately decided, however, the BPU could not bring Wolfram onto the board while still contracting privately with his consulting firm, the Hillsdale Policy Group.
“It’s a matter of clean lines of authority,” Councilman and former Hillsdale Professor of Politics Will Morrisey said at the August 15 meeting. “In any organization, you really need to have a demarcation between the people who are making the decisions or setting the policy versus the people who are advising them or carrying out the policy.”
Wolfram said he wasn’t ruffled by the rejection.
“I mean, I do consulting work for the Michigan Conservative Energy Forum, I charge them $300 an hour, and I’d do this for free,” Wolfram said. “I didn’t go to the meeting, because if they don’t want me, God love ’em.”
The BPU first tried to appoint Wolfram in April, but the council foiled the attempt in a 3-3 vote. At that time, private contractors like Hillsdale Policy Group were paid by the BPU directly, which dissenters argued would amount to Wolfram writing his own paychecks.
Since that time, the council has restructured the city code so that firms like Wolfram’s receive money from the city itself, not from the BPU directly. According to local attorney John Lovinger, who testified at the council meeting, this change means that no legal conflict of interest would bar Wolfram from appointment to the BPU.
Dissenting members argued that such a change was simply a legal sleight of hand and worried that the appointment, even if technically licit, might still foster distrust in the people of Hillsdale.
“Even if there’s technically not a conflict of interest, the public perception is not good,” said Councilman Matthew Bell. “I’ve had more than a few constituents talk to me about this appointment.”
Councilman John Stockford emphasized the importance of maintaining good public perceptions of the municipal government.
“People don’t trust their government- they just don’t,” Stockford told the Collegian. “It’s not just in Hillsdale, it’s everywhere. Since, like, Watergate. Mary and Gary Wolfram have done a lot for the city. They’re good citizens, they’ve made some important changes, they’ve made some money off the city at the same time, but it’s the perception.”
The vote was by no means an indictment of Wolfram’s previous consulting, with yay and “nay voters alike expressing their appreciation for his work with the Hillsdale Policy Group.
“The city council respects Dr. Wolfram very much, appreciates all the work he’s done for the city, are supportive of his efforts, and hopefully he continues to be an involved person in our community,” Stockford said. “Nobody who voted no was comfortable voting no. It was one of those tough votes.”
For his part, Wolfram is inclined to laugh the whole affair off.
“The bottom line is, a person who didn’t even ask to do something has been put up for a non-paid, voluntary position, and gets turned down,” he said. “Why in the world is that a headline story? It’s like you didn’t get into the Rotary.”
