Jan 11th, 2024 board meeting
Agenda: https://emmett.civicweb.net/Portal/MeetingInformation.aspx?Org=Cal&Id=212
AccessVision: https://www.accessvision.tv/telvue/848326
Remark from Deb in the beginning stating that "this is a public meeting, at the same time it's a business meeting. We don't all share the same opinions and that's ok however everyone please be respectful and all comments in the audience should be made during public comment section only. There will be one warning for outbursts and then escorted out of the building... the first public comment is the agenda items only, and the second is open comment section. Residents are not to expect answers from their comments at that time. You are always welcome to call and schedule a time for one of us to answer your questions or concerns, ik that some people wonder why we don't answer when they come to the board, but that's not what we are supposed to do, or how we're supposed to handle that."
Public Comments:
[2:05] Joe Harris - Ethics ordinance, not fair to bring it on such short notice, concerned about Deb having "too much power"
[5:01] Heather Rocho - Comments about meeting minutes, budget issues, more info on ARPA, ethics ordinance, "Ik Joe also does not live in this township, it saddens me that we need an ordinance to remain ethical." "as far as the ethics ordinance... I am thrilled, I know Joe has some concerns, I also know Joe does not live in Emmett township, that concerns ME but I appreciate his due diligence. I think this is something that was needed, that has not been done. Reminder this is a first read, I'm thrilled. I hope the residents look at this and pat those on the back who need to be patted on the back. Perhaps had we had this before, we wouldn't have had some of the issues. The only thing that concerns me, saddens me actually, is that we have to have an ordinance to be ethical. That's sad... so if we're bitching, pissing and moaning that I don't like this and I don't like that, stop and think why are we having an ordinance to tell people how to play in the sandbox? Thank you."
[7:48] Dick Brown interrupts the meeting to demand something be added to that meeting, right now. Not next month's meeting as was determined by an ordinance passed by the board back in the Dec 2021 meeting. This is the second time Trustee Brown has handily forgotten about the ordinance that he helped vote in and chose to interrupt and complain about being unable to add to the current agenda. He wants to remove the ethics discussions, and add more to the police budget
[8:26] Jim Mead reads off rules from the rulebook stating that the township board decides what the agenda will be for any meeting. "once the board gets to a board meeting one of the first things is to approve the actual agenda..."
[9:30] Supervisor Belles explains the reasoning behind the Dec 2021 amendment, stating that "there were things you didn't give people the opportunity to look at ahead of time, you know, like a 'gotcha moment' when you throw things on there and it's not fair to people. We talked about that, giving time to look at it." Trustee Brown interrupts stating that he only just got the packet for the meeting yesterday, although an email containing the information was sent out on Monday.
[10:50] Clerk Tracy wants to remove 11.11, the first reading of the ethics ordinance, from the agenda.
[11:10] Attorney Robert Thrall comments on the issues regarding amending the agenda.
[15:50] Brown and Titus make a motion to add to public safety discussion 8.5.1
[16:30] Trustee Juhnke wants to know more about Trustee Brown's issue "apparently, Dick, I need to know a little bit more about the basis of your request... can you just give us--" Dick interrupts to say "well when it's my turn I'll give you a sheet of paper that's got everything on it."
Tracy comments "now can we do the second part, remove 11.11 [the ethics discussion]?" wanting to remove it, then set up a workshop so that everyone on the board can review it before it is approved. All but Supervisor Belles says yes, then remarks that she will explain why she said no, but is met w heckling from the crowd telling her not to, so she doesn't.
[18:25] Dick doesn't know what's going on
[19:01] Trustee Brown has another question about a bill, Tracy informs him that it is a reoccurring payment made by the township... he apologizes for not knowing anything about it.
-----
[19:50] supervisor report:
As always its been a busy month and challenging trying to accomplish goals while working around the holidays. I hope everyone enjoyed their families during this break and going forward I want to wish everyone a happy and prosperous new year.
You will see later on the agenda a Hazard Mitigation plan for our township. I have sat on the committee to help get this plan in place. It will prove beneficial if ever someday a natural disaster happens in our township. It will make us eligible for funding and there was no cost involved to be included in this joint effort.
I have sent in all required documents for the fire grant that I applied for to purchase new helmets, so now we are just waiting on the check.
I along with two other trustees sat on an oral board and interviewed candidates for public safety recruits. We interviewed five people and have selected two. One will attend the academy and the other will be able to start right away. You will see this further down the agenda.
Fleis & Vandenbrink had a meeting with Jacob and I regarding EGLE Climate Action Plan Funding. We are going to move forward with applying for a grant that will help with the lift station consolidation costs. For those of you that don't know what that is, down on Main and Columbia, there are three lift stations and they are all bad. We are now working with the City of Battle Creek to consolidate three stations to one gravity lift station. The City of Battle Creek's portion is larger than ours, however, our portion of 29% is still substantial. We should hear something back by April.
The CIP is slated for presentation to the Board at the February 8th meeting. The FY2025 Recommended Budget has fallen a bit behind, but we are still targeting delivery to the Board during the first week of February.
FY2024 third quarter budget report and a report from the Marijuana Administrator are attached.
(22:25] clerk report:
Our clerk’s department have been working with 18 other municipalities and the County to offer the nine-days of early voting to Calhoun County Registered voters.
Early voting for Emmett Township registered voters will be held at the County Building in Marshall at 315 Green Street.
Absentee Applications are out in the Mail for the presidential primary that will take place on February 27, 2024. Please make sure that you make a party selection on your application. Please also be aware that you will no longer receive applications because of Prop 2-2022, on the application that went out there is a checkbox to be added to the permanent ballot list. Please check this box if you wish to receive your ballot via mail. You can always still call or come into the office and request a ballot. Ballots are not in the office yet, but should be here by Mid-January.
Please see the Elections Page on the Emmett Township Website for Updates!
We have started working on year-end wrap ups including W-2’s, 1099’s, and budgeting amendments.
-Agendas & Minutes can be found on iCompass, /Portal/
[26:15] Treasurer report
My
deputy and I have been diligently working with collecting taxes. I want
to thank those of you who have understood the mistake that was made and
cooperated with us as we have worked through this as this wasn't easy. I
have been working on getting land bank disbursements out as well.
Just a reminder that winter taxes are due February 14th, 2024, and summer taxes can still be paid at the office until February 29th as well, before they are transferred to the county on March 1st.
[27:00] Tracy does have petitions for anybody who would like to run for office, due back by April 23rd.
[27:32] public safety report
-two new officers, one will need to be sent to the academy, which will cost roughly $26k between wages, benefits, equipment, etc. though they plan on being reimbursed 24k of that. Second guy is also a trained firefighter.
[30:00] Regarding cars, the 'greater fleet' is roughly 10 cars, "I've been speaking with Supervisor Belles about what we're trying to shore up right now is our administrative cars are in horrid, horrid condition. She's asked some legitimate questions on that part of, some of these hairs I think, are coming? Is you've been made aware that there are a couple of patrol cars that are available for purchase, and they are hard to find. Supervisor Belles question is 'do they need to be police packaged cars for admin use?' and she wanted to explore the possibility of finding less costly cars, I believe that's the goal, anyway... so I've been looking for that. Lt. Geigel's stance on it... is he would prefer to just buy the police package cars, a little more robust in their building, and their mechanics and everything. This stays consistent w our fleet... What the benefits of that vs maybe a lesser priced non-police package that'll all be up for debate. Lt Geigel, and I've no reason to doubt him, he's got a lot of time and years doing the fleet stuff... given when you get on the state bid price, there's not a lot of price difference on a lot of these cars."
Trustee Juhnke asks what the price differential is, between these cars, to which he is given a ~$5k estimate. Supervisor Belles thinks otherwise, saying "Tony has provided me a list before of cars that could be admin and they give you like 20k, 30k, up to 40k police packages are over 50k" he responds "ford explorer has been quoted, that's one quote I have that's 46k" "and then you have to pay the extra 7k to get them outfitted with all the equipment, so that was the difference."
Trustee Brown asks a question about outfitting, "...but I think that's a lot of the splitting hairs that we're referring to these cars as patrol cars but that isn't the use that we're looking at trying to fill. Does that make sense or did I confuse anybody?"
[34:50] Trustee Brown printed off a comment from Bob Wills, saying he was going to be here but he had a hip replacement yesterday so he sent a letter that I'm going to read... "I've been in recent communication w Ford to find two unsold ford... now currently ready for purchase, these are 2023 model year that were not taken by other depts... these vehicles are at old pricing at 46k..." Trustee Brown then says "my feeling is we ought to put those and the main line, take the main line moves out that are close but still going good and use them as admin cars," Supervisor Belles remarks that she suggested that same thing and Lt Geigel was against it.
Supervisor Belles remarks "I suggested that very same thing and Giegel was against it."
[37:50] Trustee Brown makes a motion to buy these two vehicles. Belles asks if he's checked the budget lines "we've got 103k, I think it is, that's enough to pay for a new truck and have about 80k or more left. There's plenty of money in there to buy two new vehicles and still have money in the 206 fund."
-----
[41:15] 9.1 RFP lawn service. Tracy had help from Juhnke, Brown and Belles (though Belles stepped out and Sobeski took over) who sat down w Blaine and "got him down to 39". Juhnke states "I still think he's the best--" but Brown interrupts with "I don't, now I get to talking to people and I don't and the reason be... he's working for our dept, Detroit dept so he's going to have to hire somebody. Who knows who he hires? Is he going to hire somebody who knows lawn care?" Belles responds with "does that really matter?... if he gets the bid in and doesn't get it done correctly then there's a clause to get rid of him." Juhnke states "the contract has a 30day termination clause, Dick, so we're protected." Brown claims that wasn't discussed in the meeting, though Juhnke replies with "yes we did, it's in the contract."
[42:40] Clerk Myers claim the contract was for 1 years, and if we wanted him for 2 years "it was a 3% inflation" she apparently left that information out when discussing with the supervisor earlier. Juhnke comments that we don't have to do it, we have lots of time until spring if they're having a hard time figuring out who to hire. Belles remarks "you guys had your consensus, and you decided and now all of the sudden we're up here and you want... idk what you want?" Juhnke says "well they've changed the apples to the oranges."
[44:30] Belles makes a motion to go w fully for 1 year for lawn care "this is a lot for lawn mowing, for the first one you guys recommended, Fully whatever, for one year."All yes except Brown and Myers. Belles comments that "we spend it on other foolish stuff so..."
[45:30] 9.2 Ordinance of rezoning
"what we have is a split zone property that has part of it is... residential, part of it is general commercial district and the property owner wanted to have it classified all as a general commercial district, and so that's what the ordinance means, taking a split-zone property and making it one zoning district." Mead says it's the old Union Hall down on Columbia. All vote yes.
10 Resolution sand Proclamations - Action Items
[46:45] 10.1 Natural Hazard mitigation plan
Belles asks Brown "are we adopting this or did you not have enough time to look through that?" which he says "not 900 pages" Juhnke asks for an explanation, telling Brown "we're not creating this, this is a county-wide effort." Belles says "if there was a natural disaster that ever came to our township... wipes out a lot, this would qualify us for, uh--" Brown produces a thick packet of paper, a print out of the proposal? "oh you printed that out?" "Yes I did, all 300 pages." "--so anyways, any natural disaster with us joined w the county on that, we would qualify for FEMA monies to help and repair whatever needed to be." "and the county has approved this?" "oh yeah, I sat on the committee w the county, and there was a few others who joined in, I think the city, um, Tony and I took turns sitting in on those." Juhnke asks about other townships, but she cannot recall "there's no cost to us for it.". Mead says Bedford, city of Battle Creek, Springfield "almost every other township in the county was on there I just had a few questions on here about, uh, some of the upgrades that they think should be done here, and some of the costs, idk where they expect us to come up w some of this money. The one that caught my eye was the... construct community saferoom to require building standards... for severe storms or tornado... That's a million they think it sound cost us..." "wouldn't they use the schools for that?" "I wouldn't want to be in a school in a tornado." Some more comments about price. More questions. He doesn't know what's going on. They motion to table this until the next meeting. All yes, Belles and Titus both don't seem too thrilled about it. Juhnke says "specifically where the money is coming from, if it's grant money it's not that big a deal."
New Business - Action Item
[52:00] 11.1 Hire a public safety officer recruit
"This is to hire a PSO recruit to enter the academy and offer this person a road patrol position upon successful completion. Yes Brady can speak to that, everybody over there can speak to that. That's why I brought it to last month's meeting and that we had the interview in order for them to qualify for the grant that we had to fill out papers for. They had to be on our payroll NOW in order to get into that academy. There's also a 3 year contract t hat I had them sign that once they pass and become an officer, they have to be with us for at least 3 years or they will pay back all the academy and grant costs that we had to go through... so yes we had to do it." Brown states "we don't know this guy, the only ones who know him are the three that you had in there at the interview--" "Deb interrupts to say "there was four of us. the whole patrol over there knows him, the four of us that interviewed him knew... all the background checks were done, sight tests, physical tests." Brown says "I understand he was probably the best out of the group, I was told that." "That's why he was picked"
All vote yes.
[53:35] 11.2 Hire a PSO road patrol part-time for 6m
"We've talked about it we want to put him on a 6mo period, part time and then move him to full time..." Brown interrupts to ask about having them on payroll, Deb responds that in order for the grant money to work they had to be... all vote yes.
[54:45] 11.3 Hire PSO detective support
"since we're so short staffed over there w detectives and road patrol amongst the others, I would like to hire a temp position of a pt detective support officer. This position will handle the evidence intake which has gotten out of control a little bit. Get a little more organized over there, where it should be and sign the warrants, take calls and other assigned duties."
She wants to rehire Kevin Crawford, the officer who just retired from here, so he will already be trained and familiar w the dept. All vote yes.
[56:25] 11.4 Discussion of employee training offering
"I would like to discuss employee training offers... you don't see it here but you'll see it next month, a charge coming through on the credit card for, signed up for training for a class of a part-time person... we are paying for training that is something outside of their job description--" Clerk Myers interrupts to say it isn't "my question is the deputy leaving?? "no." "So we have two people in the clerks office that we have paid to go through all the trainings and hotel costs and everything to get certificates to be clerks? Do we start opening that up to part time people?" Trustee Juhnke makes a motion "that we don't support education for people in order to make them something that they are not, and I think that's township business." Clerk Myers interrupts "hold on, you need to wait though bc it is. Do you want me to go get the schedule so you can see?" Titus says he is confused, states "a lot of what we do in this township is educating people to put them in a forward position, so no offense but the way that's worded would not allow that from this point forward... the way that I took what was just said, was we're not going to educate people for a position they're not in rn, correct?"
Supervisor Belles asks "it's the same certification that you have... to be a clerk?" Myers says "it's called certification training but the classes are for her job." "She's an elections clerk? So we need 3 people all trained to be clerks?" Myers asks if we don't want her to have education? "I'm not against education at all, but didn't she just go to something today?" Titus asks "what is this rooting back to, so I understand?" Myers claims Belles is upset that she's sending somebody to training. "the money was in my budget, I thought it was a great opportunity for her. I completed my certification, this is Missy's last year [in the class]... she graduates... I would not sign anyone up for something that was not beneficial to our township residents." Titus wants to go over exactly what it is...Myers leaves to get the schedule. "I want to see what the training is, ykwim? if it's for her exact job?" Belles confirms that it is.
[1:03:10] "My point is... if we pay for all the part time, then all the part time should be able to go to these." Myers claims that we sent code compliance to part time to train? "to be a code compliance officer... this is a 3 year thing?" Myers says it's a great investment for her, Titus asks what the cost is, $700. Trustee Juhnke withdraws his motion, "let somebody approach this from a different direction."
Belles says "I want this open to all employees to be able to take in...--" Juhnke cuts in "open to people that we approve for doing it. This will obviously help the administration of this township, if she's more educated." Additional costs: food, hotel, etc. about $500. "I already had the money in the budget" Deb states that that wasn't what the money was originally for, but she moved it over. Titus says he'd like the motion to be a bit more specific, to send part time elections clerk to training. At a cost not to exceed 1500. All vote yes.
[1:08:30] 11.5 Motion to appoint Kathy Jarr to the Zoning Board of Appeals for a term to expire 12.21.25. Trustee Mead and Clerk Myers both vote no, everybody else is yes.
[1:08:40] Trustee Brown "I don't have anything against Kathy or any of the residents that are here, but have you ever put it out for any of the other residents to apply for this?" Supervisor Belles remarks that she did not this time, but has done so in the past.
[1:10:00] 11.6 Motion to appoint Dean (Ed) Harris.
-11.7 John Sims Jr ''
-11.8 James Smith ''
-11.9 Elliot Ure ''
-11.10 Krstine Oneil ''
-----
[1:12:20] Closing Public Comments
[1:12:35] Pat Dougherty - Support Jim Mead and Dick Brown "First of all I want to stand in support of Jim Mead and Dick Brown, we all appreciate so much... we're concerned about some of the things that have happened in the township here w payment and settling, money that had to be taken out of the general fund to pay these... that settlement that came up a few, while back... we're talking about pennies and nickels on... uh, assigning money to different things. I think there's a lot of concern about the direction of the township rn. The openness... and ik, Steve said something about being open and transparent but we don't feel like we've got that right now. ty."
[1:13:35] John Harris - "Mr Juhnke I just want to say that last vote that you had... you was right, you should not have voted. He knows it, he's got conflict of interest bc he's on the board he should not have voted. It's written right here." Suggests going to the ARPA fund to get money for the lift stations. "One more thing, what happened to Magoos? That thing is still up? That eyesore is unbelievable. Why is it still there? I can't believe that that thing, that pile of junk is still there."
[1:15:10] Heather Rocho - Scolding everybody for not getting along
[1:17:05] Joe Harris - Agree w Heather, "you guys worked through a lot tonight" Ethics clause needs to be done right. States that though he doesn't live here, he grew up in this township.
[1:19:00] Brian wilbur, owner of wilburs grading and property maintenance. "can we get clarification on who actually got the bid for that, on that proposal? There was a lot of talk about it, and it kinda just went, we never really heard who... so then, I guess my other question/concern is... last month we had a lot of concern about issues with the proposal, stuff in the proposal, the proposal this meeting was based off of snowplowing and everything else, that was not in the proposal and I guess why was one certain person able to renegotiate and stuff like that when the other, if we were gonna add snowplowing to it? The other thing is with fertilizing and herbicide, you have to have an applicators license for that. When they put my proposal up last month, they added my insurance paperwork and everything, all the paperwork I've submitted and nobody elses' was submitted or put on the board. Just curious about that."
[1:20:30] Lonnie Root - pulling out of car wash at night is dangerous "idk if any of your ppl drive at night... these guys pull out there at night and they unload these cars for the big car thing... the other night I was coming back toward town and they were out there in the dark about 10pm and they had left it. Nobody was there, no lights were on and some kid on a bike I damn near hit him, when I swerved away from him I almost hit the cars. Does anybody at all pay attention to this? It should be a police issue... why are they allowed to unload in the middle of the light."
[1:22:15] Gavin Powell - "I just want to say having so much... being so against an ethics proposal I think is a little sus, why wouldn't you just want to hear something that help keep everybody ethical on uh, everything that's done with this board. This is the second time we've had issues where people want to amend the agenda on the day, when we've already passed a motion back in December 2021 where you have to bring it to the board, then it will be on the next month's meeting. I don't know how you guys keep forgetting that. Then there's all this talk about being more respectful, but it's the board members themselves that are causing these issues or holding things up with questions that could have been answered in an email or something... sounds like Dick Brown is running for supervisor, I wish you the best of luck. I think if you're going to exert so much power over the board, that's fine, I know you've got a lot of experience as a supervisor and I wish you the best of luck in your running. Tracy wants three people trained as clerks, which is ok, but she's been a clerk for... a long time, so I'm not sure why she needs all of this new help now? That's all I want to say, thank you."
[1:24:00] Teresa Myers - "I was the clerk here, I worked here for 20 years. I'm telling you, I don't understand, elections are getting tougher. People have to be trained, and if you don't train them, they aren't going to know their job. The elections people are making this harder and harder for the people unless you've worked one you don't understand."
[1:24:30] Eric Anderson - What is the DDT? "where do we get this information?" Deb says you can call anybody, come up to the office and ask.
[1:26:40] Chris Carey - "52 years, we solved the lawncare epidemic from last month... it's what you badgered about for quite a while. Glad somebody got the job... glad we finally found the cop, like to know how much he's starting out at, full time guy? Months back it was like $28/hr if I remember right... Somebody on the board last month was like 'oh you guys don't understand we don't really have the money to do what we do' alright, well, seems like you found it tonight, ykwim? We found the money, whoa, and for me, 55, 75k for a police officer is kinda pathetic in my book. I make that and I do construction. Hell I might as well ask them to come work for me, might give them a little bit more. Other than that, learning a lot, this probably my sixth meeting. I do heckle, but I don't understand half the stuff that's going on, so other than that, have a good night." Trustee Brown makes a comment " they risk their lives, how much do you guys make an hour? Look at that... compared to what they do...being called racist when I don't even know the guy, that was my first meeting ever, coming to here, and that still haunts me to this day, so there you go. "
[1:29:45] Kathy Jarr - "It bothers me a bit when it comes to spending money when you hear a board member say it is in your budget. Well, where do you think your budget came from? Our pockets, and we do not have endless pockets so please spend the money wisely, and my other comment is that horrible place on the corner that you own, you owe us an explanation as to the cleanup and the improvement of that... it's not my property, it's yours [referring to Mike Bye in the audience]"
[1:30:50] Renee Prighter - "I understand what you say about budgets and where money comes from but in a position I do think there should be some sort of authority given within reason, if it's 1200-1500 I think Tracy and her position is capable of making those kinds of decisions. If only discussion was needed this evening on it, I think that's something that could have been done during office hours and I feel as if that was done just trying to make Tracy look bad or question her abilities and I think that's wrong. Second, if you want to know what's being done, you can ask Mike about his building but permits are needed to go further, there has been cleanup done inside as far as taking trash out, but you're limited on what you can do without permission from people and authority."
Eric Anderson tries to go up again but he can't, as he's already given a comment.
[1:32:50] Anita Dougherty - "I've been coming to these meetings for a long time, I'm glad to see you guys are taking initiative and getting work done, however to be concerned about somebody spending money in their own budget and calling it the taxpayers money, what about the money that was wasted in an out of court settlement that shouldn't have happened in the first place? That was a lot of money, someone that was hired that shouldn't have been hired in the first place and we need some answers on that. Thank you."
[1:33:50] Board Comments
[1:34:00] Jim Mead - Be careful w the weather that's coming up. word of remembrance for George Taft, whose son owns the Duffys Party Store. "George Taft operated at one time through Mr. Don's restaurant here in Battle Creek, I got to know [him] as a customer first, then later on he became a customer of mine... I've never really met a nicer person to do business with. he treated everybody equally...if you've never had Mr. Don's onion rings you don't know what you're missing."
Juhnke agrees w Mead, "I didn't always agree with him but he was a big part of this township."
[1:35:55] Stephen Titus - "just like to say I appreciate everybody coming out tonight, I definitely appreciate everybody's input... being involved with the process. I think it gives us more insight."
[1:36:25] - "I don't have much to say other than I want to see the ethics ordinance thing happen, it was one that several other townships have used. It addresses a lot of things that I think by having one in place a lot of other things might not have taken place previous. I just wanted to clarify I'm glad the RFP thing is done for at least one year, Tracy mentioned that she didn't really wanted to score bc she knew 3 of them and I didn't want to be into it bc I knew two of them, so I didn't want my opinion put in there but I'm glad that got done for the year. Happy new year."
Comments
Post a Comment