Michael Sessions

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Michael Sessions
Mayor of Hillsdale, Michigan
Incumbent
Assumed office January 1, 2006

Born	September 22, 1987 (1987-09-22) (age 20)

Michael Sessions (born September 22, 1987) is the mayor of Hillsdale, a city of about 8,200 people in the U.S. state of Michigan. He was elected November 8, 2005, and was sworn in on November 21. Elected at the age of 18, he is among the youngest mayors in United States history.

1 Campaign history
2 Controversy
3 Cancer
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Campaign history

Sessions' $700 war chest from his summer job was enough to fund a successful door-to-door write-in campaign. A write-in campaign was the only option because Sessions was too young to be on the ballot in the spring of 2005. The final results showed that Sessions got 670 votes, compared with 668 for incumbent mayor Doug Ingles, age 51, after a recount did not award Ingles any new votes, but disqualified 62 votes for Sessions. Sessions was awarded one vote that had been in question by the elections office, which read simply "the 18 year old running for mayor".^[1] Ingles initially requested a recount, but withdrew the request at a special City Council meeting.

On November 21, 2005, Sessions was sworn in as mayor for the city of Hillsdale. On the agenda for that night was an amendment to the current sign ordinance, an ordinance to set up a college zoning district, and the results of the 2005 city audit. Many media outlets were in attendance including: TV Azteca (Mexico), Nippon TV (Japan), Russian TV, The Detroit Free Press, and many local media outlets.^[2] Sessions has also appeared on Judge Hatchett, Montel Williams, NBC Today Show, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and the Late Show with David Letterman.

The mayor, who receives a $250 monthly stipend, "plans to devote after-school hours to the job [while attending nearby Hillsdale High School during the day] and use his bedroom as his office."^[3] Sessions graduated from Hillsdale High School in May 2006. In September 2007 he starts his sophomore year at Hillsdale College.

Sessions appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman earlier in 2005 to read the Top Ten list titled "Good Things About Being an 18-year-old Mayor." Saturday Night Live parodied this event, with castmember Andy Samberg playing a caricatured version of Sessions as the mayor whose new laws would include "anyone who gives the mayor a 'swirlie' will be given the death penalty!" Sessions has since performed two marriages.

Other 18-year-olds elected to mayoral positions that year were Christopher Seeley of Linesville, Pennsylvania (also born in September 1987) and Sam Juhl of Roland, Iowa (born in November 1987)

[edit] Controversy

Sessions plead no contest on July 2, 2007 to malicious annoyance by writing, a misdemeanor, in which he wrote an email, under a false name, to his former campaign manager's mother accusing his campaign manager of drinking and running around with women.^[4]^[5] In return for the plea, prosecutors dropped a more serious felony charge:^[6] that Sessions had illegally accessed his campaign manager's MySpace and America Online accounts to delete his lists of personal contacts with their addresses and phone numbers.

As part of his plea, Sessions agreed to a sentence of 40 hours community service and paying $850 in restitution to the victim.^[7]^[8]

Sessions has stated that he will not resign.^[9]^[10] The recall election process was started against him on July 9th 2007, with a hearing date on the language of July 25th, 2007.^[11] If approved, recall petitioners would have had up to 180 days to collect 522 signatures from registered Hillsdale voters.

The recall petitioner offered a prepared apology statement at a July 16th, 2007 public meeting, and indicated that if the mayor read the statement out loud or words to its effect, he would rescind the recall.^[12]

The recall language was rejected in a vote of 2-1 by the Election Commission on July 25th, 2007. The petitioner then submitted revised language on July 26th, 2007. Sessions went on the local radio station WCSR on July 27th, 2007 in which he spoke about the incident and offered an additional apology. The petitioner then withdrew the recall petition. ^[13]

On July 27th, 2007, Sessions indicated court papers were signed that expunged this matter from his court record.^[14] However, it is unclear whether this is so, as Michigan law states that this may not take place until five years have passed since the conviction. ^[15]

[edit] Cancer

On August 31, 2007 Sessions went on local radio station WCSR and announced that he is suffering from testicular cancer. He announced that on July 24th he noticed an enlargement and that by July 30th he had undergone surgery to remove the mass. Sessions continued to announce that he would be undergoing a dissection of his lymph nodes in September. ^[16]