Beliger & Dockett Fail to Kill Land Preservation Committee

By David Gordon

June 27, 2017

Supervisor Marlene Chockley presented a balanced $1.6M General Fund budget to the Board of Trustees on Tuesday evening but ran into a wall of complaints from Trustees Jacki Otto, Janet Chick, Wayne Dockett and Tawn Beliger.  Despite an hour of bickering, the budget was approved “as is”, without any changes.

The Trustees vowed to remove the funding for multiple services and amend the budget at the Board’s July 11 meeting.   Beliger expressed concern that Chockley would somehow ignore the Trustees’ budget cut request, insisting the minutes reflect the desired action.  Dockett later added “I don’t trust the Clerk or the Supervisor”.

“I am dismayed by the lack of trust,” said Chockley at the end of the three-hour meeting.  “I think we are going to take care of our employees…and we’re going to do the right thing for our lands and our community.”

The General Fund budget needed to pass or the township government would have shut down.  The General Fund pays for all township operations such as:

  • Road maintenance and upgrades.
  • The new Township Manager, his/her staff & benefits
  • The Planning Commission
  • Elections
  • The Board of Review
  • The Community Center
  • Legal & professional services and assessing
  • Grounds & maintenance
  • Debt service
  • Street lighting
  • The Clerk, Treasurer and Supervisor and Trustee, staff salaries and benefits.

The most expensive line item in the General Fund budget is for road maintenance at $506,163; about $100k of that is for regular maintenance and the other $400,000 will cover balance of the $1M non-motorized path through downtown and replacing a culvert

The second highest expense is $135,027 for 11 months of the Township Manager, a new position that was created in 2011.   (Click here to view Supervisor Chockley’s Powerpoint budget presentation).  The Board is still in negotiations with a potential hire at between $60-75,000, plus benefits that could run about $15,000 or more.

The Trustees insisted that the Board not include money for any employee raises.  They also called for removing the funding for the Parks & Recreation Committee, the Land Preservation Committee and the “People’s Express” service, which provides transportation for low-income residents.

They argued that each committee must appear before the Board every year to request funding, and therefore these items shouldn’t be included in the budget.  The Trustees had no problem, however, including $135,027 for the “yet-to-be-hired” new township manager, staff and benefits.

“This is a very tight budget,” said Chockley.  “We had to trim back many requests,” she said. 

“This is not how a budget is done, to my way of thinking,” said Treasurer Lenore Zelenock.  She said the time to raise issues was at the previous meeting when the budget was discussed, and later added “I don’t believe it’s a good idea to balance the budget on the employees….these people do a very good job for us.” 

During the final “Call to the Public” at the end of the three-hour meeting, Jim Nelson and David Gordon charged that the manager’s $135,000 budget was the direct cause of the budget cuts.

Chockley has repeatedly volunteered to take on the former manager’s non-statutory duties at a savings to taxpayers of about $50,000, but the Trustees have rejected her offers.  She has been doing the manager’s work, free of charge, for more than six months and the Trustees have refused to pay her.

Dockett argued against giving raises to any township employees or helping People’s Express.  He criticized spending on People’s Express, saying “nobody is giving me $10,000.  I’d like the Board to give me $10,000.” 

Dockett gets paid $2,500/yr for attending meetings and has cost the township an undisclosed amount above that because he refused to be paid by direct deposit or a “pay card”, as do all other Trustees and township employees.  (We have made a FOIA request to learn the extent of legal costs incurred by accommodating Dockett’s “special needs”.)

Dockett also said he hopes the township “will have a new leader” by the time the budget returns to the agenda, referring to a new manager.  The manager’s job description, however, dictates that the manager “follows” rather than “leads” the Board’s directives.

Otto, Chick and Dockett all served on the previous Board (2012-2016) and spent nearly half of the township’s “Rainy Day” savings account during their tenure.  The savings account dropped by $737,000 during 2015-2016 alone, according to Chockley’s budget presentation.    

During their last term, Otto, Chick and Dockett lost $300,000 selling township bonds and another $150,000 in unearned interest.   The decision to take the $450,000 loss was recommended by the previous manager, Howard Fink.

A rupture has taken place since the November campaign when incumbent Trustees Otto and Chick campaigned together on the same ticket with Supervisor Chockley and Clerk Kathy Manley. 

Since December, Otto and Chick have joined with Dockett and Beliger to strip the administration of any authority other than those duties mandated by the State of Michigan.  This schism clearly played out over the fight to hire another manager earlier this year.   

The Trustees spent 40 minutes at the meeting rewriting the labor attorney’s “draft” contract for the new manager.   Most of the changes stripped Chockley of any non-statutory power, giving the “Board” ultimate say.  Labor attorney Stacy Belisle warned that not allowing Chockley even small administrative powers could result in delayed decisions on time-sensitive issues.  Her advice was ignored.

The Board divided 4-3 on the hiring of a manager six months ago, with Chockley, Manley and Treasurer Lenore Zelenock opposing the expense.   The Trustees voted as a block and as a majority, forced the issue. 

The Trustees argue that the manager is actually a cost savings because in 2012, the salaries of the Supervisor, Clerk and Treasurer were reduced from $40,000 to $12,500/yr, a “savings” of $82,500.  However, the last manager cost more than $100,000/yr because he hired an assistant, who is still on the payroll.

Attorney Belisle mentioned a $70,000 salary for the current manager candidate, and $15,000 is included in the budget for the manager’s health coverage.  Salary negotiations have yet to be finalized and the Board hopes to cap the figure at $75,000.

Only 3% of all Michigan townships have a manager, according to the Michigan Townships Association, and prior to 2011, our township never employed one.

So many changes were made that the re-written contract, which also attempts to outline duties, responsibilities, goals and objectives, could not be adopted and will be brought back at the July 11 Board meeting.

The cost for Belisle’s work on the contract was not discussed and our request for that information went unanswered by the Trustees.    We have made a Freedom of Information request for the figures which, according to township sources, runs into the thousands of dollars.  

In a surprise move, Beliger tried to disband the Land Preservation Committee, which was created only six months ago.  She motioned that it be dissolved on July 25th.  Dockett supported the effort, but it failed on a 5-2 vote. 

Beliger was unhappy with the $5,000 in the budget for the Land Preservation Committee.  She claimed to support farmland preservation and parks, but said spending tax dollars would constitute a “redistribution of wealth”, and insisted that private donors should pay for parks and preservation.   

At the conclusion of the three-hour meeting, Beliger recommended everyone read “Behind the Green Mask” by Rosa Koire.   Koire’s book claims, according to reviewers, that the environmental movement is a sinister conspiracy devised by the United Nations to strip Americans of their freedom.

The Land Preservation Committee’s “business plan”, requested by Otto, sought $10,000 in funding to hire a consultant and for community outreach.   Otto didn’t speak to the business plan other than to question the cost, and asked that the Committee come before the Board to plead its case.  Chick added that “$5,000 is a lot of money”.  (Click here to view the Land Preservation Committee business plan) 

  

Meeting Documents:

 

 

 

2016 05 24 Northfield Township DDA Liquor License Signage 688w422h 60pct

Township Manager Howard Fink's vision of Northfield Township was viewed with embarrassment at the May 24th Board.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Patrick Sloan 350h275w

Township Planner Patrick Sloan

 

by Jim Nelson
 
Trustee Janet Chick has attacked the writers of this NewsBlog on the Northfield Area News Facebook page.  She has attempted to imply that because she doesn't like the tone of some of our less lauditory comments that everything here written should be ignored.  
 
This is nothing but a red herring, a logical fallacy favored by former Township Manager Howard Fink.   It is a crude attempt to divert attention from the real issue, Northfield Township's financial fitness.  Whether the tone of our occasionally frustrated reporting is nasty or lauditory does not change the facts underlying the Township financial miseries or the ugliness of the disagreement over hiring of a Township manager.
RedHerring 340w47h
 Some of you have asked why Northfield Neighbors Today did not endorse Janet Chick in the last election.  For anyone who has used the LiveAgendas to watch meetings, the answer has been staring you in the face since July 2015.
 
Here is my answer, in the form of some facts about Janet Chick's performance in office.  Draw your own conclusions.  I believe that they show how little credibility she should be given.  Whether the evidence points to a lack of either moral fitness or mental capacity to hold this position of public trust is for you to decide.
 
For almost five years, Janet Chick has been the Township Board of Trustees representative to the Planning Commission.  She is a liason, tasked with reporting Board directives to the PC and vice versa.  But she has been caught repeatedly cross-misrepresenting the actions and decisions.  This should be better known.  
 
The most recent example of this was Chick's April 11, 2017 misrepresentation to the Township Board that the Planning Commission had not recommended the Downtown Planning Group "concept plans" for the North Village project on the former Van Curler property surrounding the Post Office on Main Street.  Chick had tried spinning the middle/compromise or synthesis plan as an unendorsed necessary default.
 
At the April 19th Planning Commission meeting, PC Chair Roman questioned Chick's April 11th Board reporting.  He emphasized that the PC had indeed already endorsed the DPG's work and concepts as a whole, with no narrowing of choices or options.  He said that other interested parties, like the Downtown Planning Group, had to make the final decisions.  Due to that pressure from Planning Commission Chair Larry Roman, Chick was forced to "clarify" this at the April 25, 2017 Board meeting.  She admitted that the PC urged further public input as a means of finalizing a plan from among the several suggested.  If this seems confusing, you've been paying attention.
   
The misrepresentation I am documenting below is more serious and less equivocal.  
 
You may remember that in mid 2015, Township Planner Carlisle-Wortmann asked for some small fee increases, their first after years of working for the same price.   The PC responded by opening the Planner position to competitive bidding.   At the June 25, 2015  meeting, it was revealed that Carlisle-Wortmann said in a letter to the PC that they would not participate in the bidding process, effectively resigning. The four Planning Firms that had submitted proposals presented their firms and answered questions at a July 14th public meeting.  
 
In a July 15th vote, the Planning Commission selected McKenna Associates as its first choice for Township Planner.   In a second July 15th PC vote, Planning Commissioners selected Beckett & Raeder as their Second Choice, to fill the position of planner in the case that McKenna was not available or could not be hired.  These selections and the order of preference were unambiguous.
 
Chick was present and voting at that July 15, 2015 PC meeting.  Yet in her July 28-2015 report to the Township Board, she misrepresented the PC's choices and votes of a replacement planner.  She told the Board that Beckett & Raeder and McKenna were equal choices, that McKenna was an alternative only.  At that July 28th meeting Trustee Wayne Dockett protested that what Chick had said was not true.  (Wayne had been in the audience at the July 15th PC)  The Board ignored Dockett and voted to hire Beckett & Raeder.
 
At the following meeting of the Planning Commission, August 5th, PC commissioner Ken Dignan had the official Minutes of the July 15th PC meeting amended to pretend that Beckett & Raeder had always been a co-equal choice for Planner.  Watching the video shows that nothing could be further from the truth1.
 
Beckett & Raeder lasted only a few months.  At the January 12, 2016 meeting at which Beckett & Raeder's resignation was announced, Trustee Chick told the PC that she had no idea why the Board had hired Beckett & Raeder, that McKenna had always been the Planning Commission's first choice.

In other words, Chick contradicted her 7-28-2015 report to the Township Board in which she told the Board that the two firms were equally preferred alternatives.  She admitted knowing the real intent of the 7/15/2015 PC vote naming McKenna their first choice 

 At the next Board meeting McKenna  was hired at a 50% premium over the cost of Carlisle-Wortmann.

 
1 Compounding the perfidy, in an almost fantastic coincidence I hadn't noticed before today, this was the meeting at which came to light Mark Stanalajczo's attempts to order Recording Secretary Lemble to strip descriptive content from her spare and elegant Meeting Minutes.  This spurred a contentious debate.  FYI, that was the moment at which the LiveAgenda was born to counter Stanalajczo's attempt to reduce transparency.
 

 

 
It's all documented on video.  You can used the LiveAgendas below to watch the fifteen or so relevant minutes of meetings.
 
Timeline:   
 
7-1-2015: Township Planner Carlisle-Wortmann's No-Bid announced at 7-1-2016 PC meeting.  This is in effect Carlisle-Wortmann's resignation.
 
 
 

 7-28-2015 Northfield Township Board of Trustees LiveMeetingMinutes

 
 

 

Planner Beckett & Raeder's abrupt resignation is announced at the January 12, 2016 Board meeting - NNT's report

 
 
McKenna was hired to replace Beckett & Raeder at the 1-26-2016 BOT meeting.   This was the meeting at which Janet Chick "fell ill" and was carted away on an ambulance.
 
 

 
  1. Four Trustees get what they want, what they're willing to pay for, and utimately deserve
  2. 6-13-2017 Northfield Township Board and Budget Hearing
  3. Zoning Changes Recommended at 6/7/17 NFT Planning Commission meeting
  4. Ordinance Change Eliminating Signs Notifying Neighbors of Conditional Use Hearings Not Approved
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