The City of Howell’s request to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to remove Anthony Kandt, a member of the Howell Carnegie District Library’s board of directors, has been denied.
Members of the Howell Carnegie District Library Board are appointed: three by the City of Howell, and four by the Howell Public Schools. While the city and the school district appoint library board members, they cannot remove them; that power rests solely with the governor. Kandt is a city appointee.
In early December, the city council requested Kandt be removed after an incident at the library board’s Oct. 10, 2023, meeting, when the city and library were in the midst of discussing the possible sale of a parcel of library-owned land for the city’s gathering-space project. At that meeting, Kandt read aloud an email from Jan Lobur, a member of the Howell City Council, in which she gave her opinion on what the library should do with the property. Kandt, who did not agree with Lobur’s opinion, read her email in a high-pitched voice and with a snotty tone.
Some city- and DDA-connected people at the meeting registered their disapproval of Kandt’s reading of Lobur’s email, labeling it as “misogynistic”
The Howell City Council on Nov. 27 unanimously found Kandt “unfit to represent the city on a local board or commission.” On Dec. 11, the council voted 4-2 to ask the governor to remove Kandt from the library board. Voting to remove Kandt were Erin Britten, Alex Clos, Jacob Schlittler, and Luke Wilson; voting against the motion were Mayor Bob Ellis and Nikolas Hertrich, with Jan Lobur abstaining.
In a May 10 letter from Daniel Osher, deputy legal counsel from the Office of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, the city was informed that circumstances surrounding its request did not meet the legal threshold for Kandt’s removal.
“The denial of the request by no means indicates a condoning of the conduct alleged in the request,” Osher wrote. “Rather, it means only that legal limitations on the Governor’s removal authority preclude removal under these circumstances.”
