Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


Local veterans, leaders, a former commissioner, and others spoke out at Monday night’s Livingston County Board of Commissioners meeting about apparent efforts to cut the Veterans Services Committee down to three members from five.

There was a resolution originally proposed for last night’s meeting, but it was removed last minute. It would eliminate the two positions currently held by Committee Chair Robert Stants and Vice Chair Joe Riker at the end of their current terms, which expire December 31st.

A release issued by Riker before the item was removed from the agenda is attached.

A portion states “The proposed resolution before the Livingston County Board of Commissioners is raising concerns about the future of Veterans Services oversight, the independence of its leadership, and the potential elimination of the committee's only Iraq- and Afghanistan-era representatives. Resolution 2026-10-126 would reduce the Livingston County Veterans Services Committee from five members to three, effective January 1, 2027. The two appointments expiring December 31 belong to Committee Chair Robert Stants and Vice Chair Joseph Riker. The Livingston County Veterans Council has endorsed the reappointment of both members, according to Riker. The resolution does not identify specific financial savings, operational deficiencies, performance concerns, or anticipated benefits to veterans. It states only that committee membership has historically fluctuated between three and five members. The proposal follows several years of publicly documented disagreements between Veterans Services leadership and individual county commissioners”.

Bruce Hundley has served on the Committee since 2017 and explained during call to the public how the department has grown since the millage was “overwhelmingly approved” by voters and questioned why Commissioners would want to cut it.

Hundley stated “It’s a very successful Committee and eliminating the chair and vice chair just doesn’t make any sense to me. This was never actually discussed with any of us, until two days before the agenda came out. We were given no reason for this or the opportunity to discuss it. And we asked, we asked, and we didn’t get a reply. We’ve had our bumps in the road over the years and we’ve owned them in the last ten years as we took our services committee from the East Complex to our new building. Three minutes is not really enough time to express all my opinions and my feelings but I am asking that you maintain a five-person committee and strongly urge you to keep our Chair Rob Stants, a 30-year special forces veteran, and Vice Chair Joe Riker, a very highly decorated combat veteran”.

Former longtime County Commissioner Steve Williams commented the Veterans Department is “functioning great” and has unprecedented support from the public – which is demonstrated by recorded votes.

Williams stated “Why you’re screwing with them, I have no idea. Leave them alone, let them do their thing. If you have issues with people, take it up or replace them if you have to but don’t try and downsize the number of volunteers you have, that is just a recipe for disaster…You’ve already messed with a lot of the different departments, volunteers, and everything; let people do their job…whether they always agree with you or not”.

No commissioners responded to any of the allegations at Monday’s meeting.

There is also a spot on the agenda at the end of the meeting following the second call to the public specifically for “Commissioner Comments” - and there were none.