August 10th, 2023

 

Wow, biggest meeting I've ever been to. Jim Mead is being censured during this meeting for a continued track record of unprofessionality as well as costing the township $325k in damages due to a lawsuit because he can't stop harassing the non-white Coding Officer. He got a bunch of friends and family to show up & stan for him. He mentions the recall petition I filed against him earlier this year and so I've referenced relevant sections from that petition at the bottom of this summary.

[0:00:57] "before we move into public comments I just want to make a few comments... as there is a lot of rumors and misinformation floating around about our director of public safety. The fact is that he decided to retire after 30+ years of service. We want to thank him for his service in the township and wish him the best in his retirement... it is a personal matter, as we are not going to publicly address it further..."

Public Comments:
[2:03] Joe Harris - bringing up issues against code officer, sticking up for Jim Mead and saying none of his actions were driven by racism. Disputing both sections 11.2 and 11.6 in the agenda. Threatening to recall any board member who votes yes to censure Trustee Mead. He doesn't live in the township.
[4:50] Bob Wills - "as board members, are we all sheep just to follow?.. who are we working for, what are we working for?" Claims the chief was silenced by the board for wanting a raise.
"We've lost 12 employees in the last 18 months... why?"
[8:10] Tracy Myers - "I was clerk for almost 8 years... Jim Mead is an outstanding citizen, respected person in this place."
[8:50] John Harris - lived here for 79 years. "Ms Belles you need to learn how to get along w people"
[9:30] Josh Mosley - Thanks the board for giving him the opportunity to work for the township. "It was tough, but I got through it... the ones who worked against me, I don't hold a grudge against you guys... I don't. You guys can sit up here and say it's because of my record, or my past, but we all know, everyone in this room knows that Emmett Township has been a racist township for a very long time." John Harris getting triggered af by this. "I hope that one day we can get to a spot in life where we don't look at people for their color, we look at them for who they are."
[11:45] Denise Brodock - "I'm really proud that y'all showed up tonight. Wish you were here every board meeting... you can't just come up here and raise hell, put everybody down if you don't know all the facts."[12:05] James Smith "for those of you who say that this man is wrong, you have not lived his truth. You have not walked in his shoes... to say that he's wrong, you're wrong. Your experience isn't the same as his. We all have different paths-- so if it by choice, some of it is not... We need to be mindful of that."
[13:15] Heather Rocho - "I have come for 4 solid months to every meeting, except for 2... I want to say to every board member... what is going on?... we don't know all of the facts... I know nothing about what is being talked about." Agrees with Jame's comments, goes off about Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for a second, then encourages people to keep showing up to meetings and getting involved. "The transparency here is incredible compared to other townships."
[16:30] Sarah Stout - Lived here for "only 30 years" says there's a lot of rumor going around, says people are here with questions and concerns about transparency. "I'm just finding out today that there was an issue w a code compliance officer"
[19:55] Alex, resident of oak forest mobile home park, having sewage issues... maintenance is harassing, threatening tenants. Listing off several other issues.
[22:25] Ginger Dawdle - "we've been screaming, we're drowning in sewage and we're not getting any help. I haven't had water for a year... I'm grasping at straws. I want answers and I want them now."
[23:45] Victor Wright - property owner for 3-4 years, upset about not being allowed to paint cars? on his property. Selling his stuff, moving out of the township. "I want a hard copy, not digital... bc that's subject to change."
[27:10] Anna Guido - been here for almost a year, getting sexually harassed at her job. Has no water, struggling to get issues fixed in the mobile home park. "I don't want to live in a place where nothing gets done."
[29:15] Don Hudson - resident for last 15 years, neighbor is doing mechanical work in his garage... several cars always in his driveway, he's been harassed by this neighbor. Looking for some assistance from the township. Lots of noise, all the time from this place.
[32:25] Kathy - "this man behind me... his record has been expunged. Please don't refer to him as a felon, because he's not."
[33:30] Gavin Powell - remarking on the amount of people present for the meeting, and that it's funny that the "drain the swamp" crowd shows up all emotionally charged when somebody actually does come in an start draining. These people are remarking about "doing your due diligence" and it's disingenuous af because they're distorting facts & obfuscating data to make their case look rational when it's not.
[36:10] Doug Palmer - Josh is the best code compliance officer that I've saw. Did his job every day... This is Emmett Township, we have no room for racism. If you're a racist, I would say you should resign."
[37:10] Lynette Dougherty? Lived here all her life, been to many board meetings. "Jim Mead is doing his job... you are a board to work together."
[38:40] Patricia Mosley - Josh's mother, coming up to say that Josh only had one felony charge, and it has been expunged.
[39: 15] Bob Coward - Democrats infiltrating the board. "if it was all Republicans, nobody would be fighting and arguing up here. They'd all be getting along... This board has been hijacked... and is being controlled by Democrats."

[42:40] Approval of the agenda, and to make a motion to remove 11.2 from the agenda due to numerous rumors, false allegations. Supervisor Belles was never going to be the 'sole hire' for any decision.
[44:30] Jim Mead wants clarification about accepting the agenda and tries to portray Supervisor Belles as being sinister. Jim Juhnke says "well lets spend some more time arguing about it... I would move now that we consider the consent agenda."

[46:35] Supervisor's Report
[50:03] Marijuana Report

[54:50] Supervisor Belles addresses the mobile home issues, saying they had been told that licenses were acquired but from what is being said, they lied. She said they'd look into what they could do but the County had already said they wanted to step in and take over.

[56:10] Clerk's Report
[58:10] Treasurer's Report
[59:05] Public Safety Report

[1:06:30] 11.5 Motion to go into closed session regarding trial and settlement strategy
[1:26:36] closed meeting ends, move to 11.6 Resolution censoring Trustee Jim Mead
-"Trustee Mead is only one member of the board, equal to that of all other trustees. He has no more authority over the township functions or activities than any other board member. On several occasions Trustee Mead has acted in ways that are outside of his statutory authority and duties and is against the interests of the Township... or used his position to represent his personal feelings and/or opinions on an issue of interest to the township as being those of the township board, despite not being authorized to do so... discussing confidential information regarding personnel matters which resulted in significant discrimination... the township board finds it appropriate to censure Trustee Mead because he refuses to resign..."
Trustee Mead, Trustee Brown and Clerk Myers are the only no votes, so the motion is passed.
[1:34:40] Trustee Brown Vouching for Trustee Mead. "Shame on you" for being against Mead

[1:35:50] Closing public comments
Joe Harris - This is unconstitutional, he has had no opportunity to defend himself against the charges. Claims it is a witchhunt against Mead lead by Belles. Threatening to look up records, "this is a personal vendetta that you have led."
[1:37:20] Bob Wells - Claims Mead did extensive research with his claims, "once again, you become the sheep not the leaders."
[1:38:15] Former Chief Kenneth Cunningham - claims he is unable to tell the truth, plays the victim without explaining details.
[1:40:45] Michaels - "you should be ashamed of yourselves... This township has so much to offer but it's held back by you seven people."
[1:42:15] - lived here all my life. Worked w public safety for the last 35 years... what happened to the chief is disgusting. Everybody else needs to resign.
[1:44:10] Gavin Powell - Everybody is confused about what is going, what's happening against Trustee Mead. That same day an article came out in the news stating that the township was being sued for 325k as one of the township employees has been harassed, targeted, bullied nonstop for the last two years by Trustee Jim Mead. The board member always voting against things that would benefit people because it's too expensive, but because he can't just show some basic human decency he is costing the township a third of a million dollars.
[1:45:25] Tracy Myers - "you're supposed to work together, as a team."
[1:46:00] Josh Mosley - "when someone does racial discrimination... what's supposed to happen?" John Harris gets hella triggered here, zero chill. Gets walked out by the police. "I'm trying to make your township better, you didn't want to work with me."
[1:48:30] Sarah Stout - "we don't know what happened" says that whatever is being required of Trustee Mead should be required from "all of you" but the whole reason he was censured in the first place is bc he wasn't following the rules that everybody else was following.
[1:49:35] Heather Rocho - Talks about Marshall township, why isn't there any transparency over what's going on here, how do we not know anything that's going on?
[1:53:00] Victor - Josh maybe needs more training.
[1:54:40] Ginger Dawdles - I just want competent people in these jobs, it doesn't matter about color.
[1:56:10] Greg Holland - you guys bought some property by the river that I was looking at, what do you guys want to do with it?
[1:57:05] Bob Coward - The Democrats have hijacked this board.
[1:58:50] Jim Mead's Daughter "he goes by the book, he does his research... They censored him, who are they going to censor next?"
[2:00:10] Josh Mosley's Daughter, Danae Mosley - my dad has never stole or embezzled anything. I hope all of you apologize to my dad when all the info comes out.
[2:01:05] Jerry Logan
[2:02:30] Adam Migler- former supervisor of bedford "as most of you know" Lots of yelling, 'constitutional' talk.
[2:06:15] Patricia Mosley - has anybody ever been a felon and gotten a job?

[2:06:50] Board Comments
Trustee Brown - question about mattresses on the side of the road, by property
[2:08:00] Clerk Tracy "pissing match between deb and mead". I voted no for Cunningham losing his job bc it's not fair.
[2:08:50] Jim Juhnke - "There's going to be a lot of crow in this room, the facts will come out and when you read them please be a big enough person to look at them from both sides. This board took over a township that if nothing else was nearly bankrupt after 8 years of malpractice. We have come so far in the first 3 years with Jim's help, we don't dislike Jim but things got... --I got a job to do here, it's not who likes who, it's a job. I just want you to know when the facts come out be a big enough person to accept you might have jumped off the dock before the water was warm."
[2:10:00] Supervisor Belles - Addressing the park issue "townships don't have a lot of teeth in those trailer parks... they're state regulated, we're very limited in what we can do... At the end of the day if I feel like I've done the right thing, that's what I want to do..."
[2:11:20] Trustee Titus - Glad that so many people showed up tonight "I want to ensure people that I vote from my heart, what I think is best for the people of this community, not what's easiest. At times there's things that we know, that you guys are not privy too, and I assure you that I vote from my heart..."
[2:12:00] Trustee Mead - thank everybody for coming, brings up the recall papers that I brought up against him in January and how he, in response, filed recall papers against Supervisor Belles. "at the end of that hearing I decided to take the higher path" yet he's just been censored at this board meeting because he is costing the township $325k due to a lawsuit because he could not stop harassing a coworker.
 
As I am the one who filed the recall petition back in January that he mentioned, and shared my thoughts on that whole event in this group, I feel it's relevant that I reference that again when watching this meeting.
 
During a meeting of the Emmett Township board on Sept 8th, 2022 Trustee Mead accused the township supervisor Deb Belles and coding inspector Josh Mosley of embezzlement, quoting a mileage report that was previously approved at the April 14th board meeting. The sheriffs dept investigated these claims and found no wrongdoing or cause for further investigation and closed the case.
During a board meeting at Emmett Township on August 12th, 2021 Trustee Jim Mead voted No on a proposed wage study to ensure fair payment of township employees, citing misuse of taxpayer dollars even after being informed that it's funded by the state.
Any attempt to improve the board's cohesion and make working together easier for our officials could be seen as a long-term investment, but again, we find opposition.
During a meeting of the Emmett Township board on May 12th, 2022 Trustee Mead was the only No vote on a team building session suggested to help members of the board work together better.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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 ta...
Read more

Sept 8th, 2022

 September 8th 2022 Another meeting dragged out due to elected members failing to understand the cost of things or how townships operate. We enter the scene with Dick Brown complaining about the cost of construction on the front of the office, the removal of the awnings and how he, or the other trustees, had no say in the voting/approval of the process (as the cost was under $5k, which is the threshold for it being an action item on the monthly agenda). I don't believe Dick has any knowledge or understanding in regards to construction or the pricing thereof, but a lot of these items are simply things that can't or shouldn't wait for a once a month board meeting to be voted on (by individuals with no background knowledge regarding these subjects) before they can start working on them. There was also the complaint regarding the $195/mo ad spending paid for by the supervisor out of her budget, which is being done on a monthly trial basis and will end within the next few months...
Read more

Nov 10th, 2022

 Nov 10th, 2022 Hello! For this summary I've attached a link to the accessvision  video of the meeting, and have provided timestamps for some of the events if you care to watch. https://www.accessvision.tv/telvue/757828 Here is the agenda: https://emmett.civicweb.net/document/15678/?printPdf=true 7:35 In the public comments before the meeting we had resident Kristine vouch for the scene magazine township ad, citing that it has made a positive impact and other townships do it too with good results. 10:50 Eve D. made a public comment regarding the Beadle Lake Weed Project, stating that it was really working out and to keep doing what the township is doing. 19:20 - Mark Knotley from Municipal Consulting to give a presentation of his wage study that he has conducted on our township. He spends a lot of time going over the details of said study and his methods of conducting it, but essentially he states that though our Treasurer and Clerk are both below the minimum pay range, bc the...
Read more