August 11th, 2022

 
August 11th, 2022

This month's meeting was ushered in again with Jim Mead being the only 'No' vote on the monthly check register. Followed by a proposition to add items to the agenda by Mr. Mead, which was denied as it had previously been ruled that there will no longer be items spontaneously added to board meetings (during the December 2021 board meeting). Anything brought up in this meeting could be discussed in next month's meeting, but if it isn't in the August agenda then it will have to wait. After a heated argument about it, with Jim seeming to have forgotten this previous ruling and taking it as a personal affront, where the township attorney had to step in and correct Jim, he apologized by stating "I take back my comment."

Joelle's work overseeing the township's finances is complete, stating that John, the part-time accountant hired by Deb is more than capable of handling the task at hand. Apparently the Treasurer continues to need more training and expertise to competently manage the position, but after hiring both a CPA and a part-time accountant the township is finally heading in the right direction financially.

The Water Loop project is still underway, but is coming along well. Jacob, Deb's deputy, also came up to offer support for the new BS&A timesheets proposed for the entire township, including the police dept, which would help modernize a lot of the features and tasks, streamlining and making the whole process much easier, more accurate and quicker for all involved. This would free up time for everybody, allowing them to focus on more pressing matters as time is money, and making sure our elected officials have ample time to complete tasks at hand.

3 Marijuana businesses were here to have licenses granted for their properties, all 3 have had licenses revoked in the past for not following township ordinances... two of them did have their licenses granted, Great Lakes Natural Remedies because they're finally all together and ready to open, and Adrian Elite Extraction coming with a new timeline in regards to the repairs and construction needed on their property. The third, Green Buddha, was denied as they also own the dilapidated Louie's Donuts building on Columbia Ave which has stood dormant and in need of repair for the last 3 years. A comment was made by the owner of GB about how the previous township board administrations have been so "loosey goosey" in the past regarding rules or demands, but now "with the new supervisor and marijuana admin, the reigns have tightened" implying better management of the marijuana stores.

It was also made clear that, while many residents are unhappy with the 33 approved marijuana licenses the previous board approved (of which Tracy, Rachelle and Dick Brown were a part of), Deb has worked to bring that number down to 18 as of now, though there are still efforts to bring this number lower over the next few years.

The final action was regarding a township employee whose termination was to be discussed but which had been already acted upon as one of the trustees (Jim Mead) had taken the confidential information provided to him and, without informing anybody else on the board, had a talk with the individual and informed him of what was planned. This isn't the first time that Jim has breached the trust of the board, put his own personal interests above those of the township residents, or put other members of the township at risk because he decides to take actions into his own hands.

This was Deb's statement regarding the matter word for word from the access vision recording which I've provided in a link below: "We no longer need this motion because, on Monday, the plumbing inspector resigned.  In the past, Trustee Mead has insisted that personnel matters come before the Board and not through the Supervisor, although trustee duties do not include most personnel matters.  Mr. Mead has argued for this process even at the expense of the Board’s reputation.

This time, I was prepared to bring this matter to the Board to appease Mr. Mead’s wishes. All board members were entrusted with background details of the employee issues and what the repercussions may be to our office.  However, I was informed Mr. Mead took it upon himself to contact the person over the weekend alerting him in advance there would be a discussion on ending his services at tonight’s meeting. Mr. Mead opted to handle matters his own way.  Again, I contend this was certainly not within his individual scope of duties. But it didn’t matter to him. These were not the actions of a team player nor for the good of the Township.  I will not let this happen again.  I will not put township employees in an unsafe situation."

Several people came up for public comment during the end of the meeting to discuss their distaste with Jim Mead's antics and his apparent disinterest in helping achieve anything over the last 2 years as a trustee and requesting him to resign.

 At the end of the meeting, after several public comments were made about his inability to be transparent or forthright with his reasoning as to why he does what appears to be little more than virtue signaling, he finally spouted off several lines regarding subsections of rules in the manual to back up his position. Cool, but if you're going to explain to the public your reasoning make sure to do it in a way people can understand. It's nice that he's looking to fix issues, but why wouldn't you bring that to the board to discuss? Why wouldn't you suggest solutions or discuss these issues internally without causing what appears to be little more than a show of defiance during every board meeting "on advice of my legal counsel"?

https://www.accessvision.tv/telvue/737744

 

"in my time attending these meetings and witnessing how local govt works I feel more than ever that these positions are won not by any actual merit or competency but more akin to popularity contests, whereas whoever has the most name recognition gets the seat regardless of how well they could actually manage the job.