Is the County Drain Commissioner more powerful than the Governor?

I remember running with my cross country team through some neighborhoods last election season, only to be completely floored by one of the yard signs that read: “RACHEL HOOD (D) FOR DRAIN COMMISSIONER”.

Now if you are most people, you probably have a limited understanding of what a drain commissioner is, why it is a ‘Republican vs Democrat’ position, and why its even an elected position in the first place. I’ll briefly provide an answer to all three, as well as reasons why this position may be more powerful than the governor.

What is a drain commissioner? According to the office website, the mission of the drain commissioner is “to improve and maintain storm water drainage for the public health, safety, convenience, and welfare of the citizens of Kent County [and be] stewards of our natural and fiscal resources.” Put into practice, this means being an overseer of 500 miles of county water drains and managing how water runoff affects mall parking lots, farms, forests, lawns and urban areas. If downtown GR floods, for instance, it’s on the drain commissioner to engineer a solution.

Why is this a partisan position? While the original intentions of Michigan lawmakers is unclear, the most recent election for drain commissioner might be a helpful example. Both candidates in the race often were asked what their vision for the drain commissioner was. Rachel Hood (D), envisioned that the drain commissioner’s office should be renamed to the ‘Water Resource Commission Office’, and have responsibilities that are beyond what is typical for the role. Her opponent, Ken Younker (‘R) believes that changing the responsibilities as such would be expanding the role into operating where the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality should be operating.

While it is possible to have a non-partisan race where opponents differ on the vision and role of the office, aligning with a political party is just a pragmatic way to secure funding and votes.

…so why is a drain commissioner more powerful than the governor?

Alright, this is kind of a stretch, but what kind of bloggers would we be if we didn’t use tasteful clickbait? Joking aside, there are reasons to believe that the drain commissioner has more ‘power’ than the governor. By power, we really mean that he has the ability to do things without outside restrictions. The drain commissioner has the unique ability to both impose taxes and borrow money without any restrictions. Normally whenever a new tax is to be imposed, there must be some kind of vote to make sure that it is supported democratically.

But not for the drain commissioner.

The drain commissioner can raise local taxes without any short-term checks. Sure, in the long term voters can always elect someone else, but no other office in the state of Michigan has that kind of unchecked power.