Heather Williams has come out swinging against the Livingston County Board of Commissioners and Jay Drick, the board’s chair against whom she is running in the Aug. 4 Republican primary for the 5th District seat, which includes the City of Howell and Marion Township.
“Unfortunately, rather than recognize the talent and dedication of county employees, (Drick) chooses to use his position on the board to attack them,” Williams said in a release. “Public safety is very important to Livingston County residents and the current board is combative, rather than supportive of county public safety employees.”
Williams said she believes commissioners should focus on performing their constitutionally defined duties, not on using their time on the board as a stepping stone to higher office.
Williams is married to Steve Williams, a former member of the county board who was defeated by then-former Sheriff Bob Bezotte, in a contentious Republican primary election in 2016. Williams ran against Bezotte in the 2018 primary, but lost. Bezotte went on to run successfully for the state House in 2020, but is not running for re-election.
This will be the first political race for Heather Williams, who said she was encouraged to run for the county board in the past but chose to focus on her young child and farm at the time; however, she said she is running now because of the “gaping knowledge hole” on the board.
“We haven’t had a mother on this board for two years,” she said. “If someone doesn’t step up now, we won’t have one for another four years. Talk about taxation without representation.”
Williams believes that her background and experience will benefit the board’s decision-making process in many ways. After working as a licensed Certified Nursing Assistant throughout her college years, she said she was troubled by the county board’s response to Covid, and she thinks having a commissioner with actual medical experience would have helped “reduce the drama and excessively long meetings.”
“So much of the debate at the board meetings seemed focused on scoring a political win,” she said, “instead of trying to achieve the best results for county residents.”
Williams — whose father was an Army special forces sergeant in Vietnam, and whose husband served as an Army officer for 28 years — said she knows how much the Clinton-era base closures reduced the availability of veteran services in Michigan, and how important counties are to supporting those who have served. She said Drick seems “more focused on criticizing county Department of Veterans Services staff rather than supporting their mission.”
Williams, who has farmed her whole life, said that as well as being Michigan’s second-largest industry, agriculture contributes an outsized portion of property tax dollars to the county. She said the county board has forgotten just how important agriculture is to Livingston County’s economy and quality of life.
“Our county commissioners need to support all varieties of small businesses and recognize the diversity of our county economy,” she said.
Williams, a graduate of Maranatha Baptist University and a farmer in Marion Township, has been active in her church, Right to Life, 4-H, the Michigan Dairy Goat Society, and the United States Eventing Association, which focuses on equestrian competitions.
