Sept 9th, 2021

sept 9th, 2021

Tonight's board meeting was quite the doozy, here is a rough summary of what was discussed that might apply to those interested.
-Public comments regarding noise being made by construction on certain roads, as well as Zaharion automotive having an excess of cars on their lot that have just been sitting there? Both issues are being addressed.
-Deb proposed a wage study to make sure our public servants are being paid appropriately in the event that some ppl are making more (or less) than their position would reckon. Tracy, Rachelle, Dick Brown and Jim Mead were all against it, citing a misuse of taxpayers dollars, but it doesn't use taxpayer money and instead is money awarded by the state to be used freely.
-Sewer rates are going up because the state wants to make greater strides towards being ecofriendly.
-This was the final zoom meeting, all meetings from now on will be in person (though there was a suggestion to do them via facebook live?)
-Summer tax bills are due by sept 14th, all payments after that date will incur a 1% late fee. These need to be paid at the treasurer's office.
-Household Hazardous Waste collections will be held 9am to noon sept 25th and Oct 23 (both saturdays). The details to what items are accepted/not accepted are listed in the image I've provided.
-Deb discovered time card fraud being committed by Tracy and her deputy, who took a family vacation together (they're cousins) but logged those hours as if they were working. Basically stealing money from us taxpayers. Suggested to go to the payroll service. A majority of the constituents who attended the meeting voiced their opinion in favor of conducting the study.
-Joelle Knoch from the Jessup Group, a CPA hired by the board to come in and help with any accounting issues but discovered a mountain of other issues that needed to be addressed. Rachelle not recording transactions, using her own excel spreadsheets so they're not in public record. There is clearly evidence that the Clerk and Treasurer need more training in accounting if they're going to do their jobs effectively.
-Summer hours are over, Deb suggested 2 meetings per month from here on out, the first being on the second Thursday of the month at 6:30pm and the second being the 4th Thursday of the month at 10am. Still up in the air, though, so we'll see.

 

 

 My public comments:

There seems to be an awful amount of pushback regarding a wage study from people working 2.5 - 3 days a week and making salaried 48k/yr. I share the concern about wanting to know where taxpayer dollars are being allocated and feel that this effort into providing greater transparency into what our public servants are being paid is a necessary expense for future decisionmaking. Considering that this money is NOT being taken out of taxpayers dollars, I don't think that argument should be viable in regards to the wage study, whereas if somebody is making far more for the actual hours they're actually working, that money IS being deducated from the taxpayers and, as a resident of the township, am in favor of making sure that my public servants aren't swindling me for personal gain.

As Deb said earlier in this meeting, you're not in your positions for yourselves, you were elected to serve us. If there are better things that could be done with that money, a park or something, I would prefer it allocated towards those things.

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If Tracy is unable to understand that being on vacation means you're not at work and not on the clock, I feel like this is only further evidence that a wage study is necessary. "random time on a timecard" in any other job strikes me as something that would get me fired immediately, I don't understand why this is even an issue.