What's going on with the village government in Vandalia, Michigan?

VANDALIA, Mich. -- The village is home to only 318 people according to the 2020 Census, but some major political drama is unfolding there, including accusations of misconduct, unfair firings, and the sudden resignation of one village board member.

The accusations range from wrongful firings to mishandling of finances. Many locals ABC57 has talked to are not happy with village president Evan Hickman.

Tensions reaching a boiling point in Monday night's meeting, as angry citizens express outrage with President Evan Hickman’s conduct. At one point in the meeting village trustee Karen Young announced her resignation from a position she held for nearly two decades.

“Mr. Hickman brought my packet by to my house, and as I'm reading it, I see something on there that just brought me to complete shock, and after doing my own investigating, that's when I said, I can't keep going like this. It was that our longtime DPW worker, he had been under my mother's time, and he just fired him,” said Young.

Karen Young’s mother is Beverly Young, the former mayor of Vandalia for more than 20 years, and Karen tells me her mother argued with Hickman often. At the village meeting, Young and other residents' questions were not answered.

The co-owner of nearby Sherry Lee’s bar and grill says he expects honesty and transparency from elected leaders.

"They didn't want to answer any questions from what I understand, they were informed not to answer questions. I'm a full believer in transparency, I don't know what the questions were, I don't know if he was able to answer them,” said Joel Hart, co-owner of Sherry Lee’s.

Young tells me one thing Hickman did that rubbed people the wrong way was allegedly firing multiple village employees and replacing them with members of his family. Now, Young has a message for her community.

“Please help us make change, and help our village get better, please help us, because it is, it's emotional, this my mom's legacy, and I feel bad, broken hearted,” said Young.