Dave Domas, currently the longest-serving member of the Livingston County Board of Commissioners, is resigning his seat representing northwest Livingston County on Sept. 30.
Domas was first elected to the Livingston County board in 1992, spurred to run for office when a landfill was proposed for a site less than a mile from his home on Lake Shannon in Tyrone Township. He said back then that his concern about the landfill, coupled with a sense of “civic responsibility,” encouraged him to run.
He sold that house on Lake Shannon earlier this month.
“I’m 90,” Domas said. “I’m getting on to ‘younger’ things, traveling. The big change is that the family is growing bigger and the little ones are getting taller. They asked me to move into where they live, so I’m moving to Plymouth.”
Domas, a Republican, first ran for the county board in 1992, and served from 1993 to 2002, when he decided to instead run for the 47th District state House seat. In one of the closest elections in Livingston County history, Domas lost to Joe Hune by two votes in a recount after the initial unofficial results had him winning by one.
Voters elected Linda Palazzolo to fill the seat Domas vacated on the county board; Domas challenged her in the 2004 primary and won. He served until 2018 when he withdrew his petition in the primary, which cleared the way for Wes Nakagiri to win versus Matthew Germane.
When districts were redrawn after the 2020 census, District 2 included Deerfield and Tyrone townships, as well as Precincts 1 and 5 in Oceola Township. Domas challenged then-Commissioner Carol Sue Reader in the 2022 Republican primary, and went on to win the seat he is vacating at the end of this month.
I asked Domas what he thought the chances would be of the all-male county board appointing a woman to fill his seat. The county board has been all male since 2023, and commissioners on Aug. 24 appointed Norris Hardeman to fill the position left open by the death of Frank Sample on Aug. 5.
“There are a lot of women who could fill that position and do it well,” Domas said. “We’ve had a number of women on the board and some have been outstanding commissioners. I don’t think the board is going to eliminate the opportunity to appoint a woman.”
The Livingston County Board of Commissioners will announce the appointment process to replace Domas after his last day, which is Sept. 30. State law gives the board 30 days to appoint someone to serve the remainder of Domas’ term, which runs through 2028.
