When Hastings Township Supervisor Jim Brown sat down to interview Tuesday for a seat on the Barry County Parks & Recreation Board that he had applied for, he didn’t take questions from county commissioners;  instead he declined to be considered for the seat and chastised the commission for having so many people already on the board.

Five is a good number for any controlling board, seven is okay, but nine is iffy, Brown said.

“If you can’t do it with seven, you need to rethink what you’re doing,"

Parks & Recreation has 12 seats on its board, with two citizen-at-large seats vacant.

“There are all kinds of talented knowledgeable people in Barry County, but you have too many of them in one place. They don’t get anything done…the Parks and Rec Board is imploding as we speak. You don't have 12 to 15 people on a commission like this,"  Brown maintained.

“You set the numbers and you should reduce the number of board members…it is just not effective.”

Just before leaving, Brown also advised the commission to delegate the interviews for vacancies to committee members themselves. “They know what they need.”