MUSKEGON COUNTY, MI – The Mona Shores Board of Education on Monday voted to censure Trustee Wesley Wilson and called for his resignation over concerns about a 2018 felony charge for larceny by false pretense.
Wilson eventually pleaded no contest to misdemeanor larceny. He reportedly did not notify the board of the charges against him and some residents had expressed the legal issues were a matter of concern.
“Mr. Wilson’s failure to be forthcoming regarding his conviction has harmed public trust in the Board of Education and the Board’s trust in him,” according to the Aug. 10 censure statement.
“The Board of Education believes that this loss of trust will render him ineffective as a trustee, and that this trust cannot be restored while he remains on the Board.”
Board President Stan Miller said the censure statement, approved 6-0, is a formal way for the board to reprimand Wilson and his actions. Wilson abstained from the vote that occurred after the board went into closed session.
Wilson has until 5 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 13, to resign, or the school board will petition Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for his removal from office, according to the board statement. The board will then have 30 days to seek applicants and fill the open seat.
Wilson, elected in 2016, term expires in December 2022.
He was president of Grand Valley State University Democrats and a school board member at the time of his legal trouble.
Wilson was accused of misusing university funds under false pretenses after he purchased plane tickets to Las Vegas for the College Democrats of America Convention using GVSU funds in 2017.
According to a 69-page report filed by GVSU Police Department, Wilson took advantage of a university policy that funds 50 percent of expenses for approved student organized trips.
Wilson reportedly applied for enough funding to cover 10 students even though only five students were attending the event, thus covering the students’ full expenses, according to witnesses interviewed by police.
Wilson did not tell the four other students that he had misused the funds, witnesses told police. He also had invited two non-GVSU students on the trip, even though only GVSU students are eligible for the funds, according to the police report.
The university approved Wilson’s request and he purchased the tickets for $1,675 in September 2017. During the November trip, Wilson revealed to the other four students that he had intentionally applied for double the funding from the university to get everyone’s trips paid for.
In early 2018, when university officials were made aware of Wilson’s spending, he told university officials and police that it was “just dumb mistakes” and he had intended to pay it back, according to police records.
The Ottawa County Prosecutor’s Office reportedly issued a felony charge to Wilson for larceny by false pretense in April 2018. Wilson eventually pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor larceny, according to 58th District Court officials.
Wilson told MLive Tuesday in a prepared statement that he “has never lied about his past, and it has always been public record.”
Wilson, whose full statement is available online, said he did not agree with the board’s censure statement. He said he has not yet decided whether he will resign.
“I understand what I did was wrong,” he wrote. “I have tried my best to make amends to my community and GVSU. However, I do not agree with the board censure. There is such obvious political motivation behind the few community members who have encouraged the board to pursue such actions. The motion for censure was rushed; there was no investigation or fact finding as would typically be done by a board in these situations. There should have been more due process before such drastic action is taken against an elected official, whether me or anyone else.”
Miller said the Mona Shores school board was aware in 2018 of allegations against Wilson, but was not aware of any criminal charges. When asked by MLive what the board did after finding out about the allegations, Miller declined to answer.
“There’s parts of this that I simply can’t answer because it’s protected by the confidentiality of a closed session that we held in April of 2018,” he told MLive Tuesday.
The school board went into a 44-minute closed session “for the purpose of discussing complaints or charges against an employee or school board member” at the end of a work session April 9, 2018, according to archived meeting minutes.
The board did not publicly address the allegations after the work session.
Wilson’s charges were brought to public attention after Norton Shores City Council member Dan Olson raised concerns about Wilson during public comment at the school board’s Aug. 5 meeting.
Shortly after he began speaking, Olson was cut off by Miller and told to submit a written complaint to the board against Wilson to be addressed at a later meeting. Olson later told MLive he brought the charges to light to “hold Wilson and the board accountable” for their actions.
“(Wilson) should have either resigned voluntarily from the board, or the board should have petitioned the governor to remove him (when the board found out about the accusations against Wilson),” Olson told MLive last week.
“Instead, they did nothing and swept it under the rug.”
More on MLive:
Mona Shores back-to-school plan includes in-person, virtual learning options
Grand Rapids school board approves online-only learning to start year
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