Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

no this is very nice Thank you.

Thank you. . . . . .

Yes. Right now. Thanks. Sure.

There you go.

Okay.

All right.

Okay, we'll start out with the approval of the agenda.

We do have a couple of things to add. From the Planning Commission, we were supposed to be looking at the landscape waiver for St. Louis Church. So I would suggest adding that at the end of the business. The Military Research Council Also wanted to give us a report out. We talked about it a few months ago. We're planning to get together and learn a couple more things. So I would suggest that is the first report. And then the final item is discussing a potential FOIA attorney. If we put that in between the FOIA policy update, the FOIA appeals, it seems to fit in there. It kind of goes under the FOIA updates, but just to be clear, I was going to spell it out separately. So I'll make a motion to make three amendments to the agenda, the Middle Creek Research Council report, FOIA 20, and landscape waiver on Safe Lands Church under new business.

Support. It's a motion on table. add to the agenda um and second all in favor say aye aye all opposed is there none moving on okay approval of the consent agenda

We'll move to the approval of the consent agenda as submitted.

Do I get a second?

I'll second.

Okay, we'll move and second to approve the consent agenda. All in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed? Seeing none, moving on. Start out with public comment. Public comment, you all have three minutes. And when you please stand up, say your name and your address. Now, first public comment is usually anything that has to do with the agenda. So do we have any public comment? Yes, ma'am.

Denise Schwartz, one more question. I am here in support of Richard Cox for the position of trustee at this time. I feel like we need to have some people represented that are new to the township as we move forward. My second question is, I'm here to object to the repeal of the Lives from the Broadcast. I feel that that's something that's important to have, so people that can't be here have a chance to see what's going on and hear it word for word.

Thank you. Thank you. Anybody, any other public comment? Yes, ma'am.

Hi, I'm Chelsea Childs. I'm from Patterson's for the Trust 12. I am one of the applicants for the Trust League and Trusting Commission. I'm a newer resident, I moved here with my husband in April, and while I am new to the community, we made it a long-term, we made it a choice to live here long-term because of the rural nature of the community, the really deep thread that it has, and the neighborly commitment that it has here, and I hope to continue that. I think it would make an excellent candidate as trustee, and I thank the board for considering my application, I've been an attorney for 15 years, and I recently stepped away from my full-time practice, but I have a lot of experience advising my former clients who were board of directors of mutual funds. Mutually, we would use regulatory matters, and I think that that would really bear well to my contributions as a trustee. And finally, I know as a newer resident, there are many people who have been here longer than I have, and have deeper roots. I would reach the role of humility with that in mind, and then also just a good sense of intended, and that's probably where you're in the situation.

Any other public comment?

Yeah, please.

I have three concerns about tonight's agenda. My name is Michael Drew and I'm the Atlanta Township President. May I reclaim your 10 seconds? I have three concerns about tonight's agenda. All three have really the same problem, access and transparency. First, I ask this board for ADA confirmation because I cannot hear your meetings. Two weeks later, your response is to try to use the ADA itself as a reason to eliminate the live stream. And you're wrong about the law. In April, the U.S. Department of Justice extended WCAG's 2.1 compliance deadline for small public bodies like Lima Township to April 26, 2028. Fix the audio. That fixes the live stream. Don't respond to an ADA complaint by making your government less accessible. Second, I am one of the applicants for trustee vacancy. I expect to see candidate materials in the public bag if they were not there. I could not compare my qualifications with other applicants. And so residents would also not see who the board was choosing from. Instead, the packet says the resumes will be given to the board members outside the public packet. It's bad enough that you dump a 98-page packet on the public just hours before the meeting when you tell us some of the information you're actually using tonight was left out. So now I have to file yet another FOIA request just to see the same materials you already have. You are creating FOIA work for yourselves yet again. Third, the FOIA policy update listed as an action item. But the packet gives us the old FOIA policy. If you have a proposed new policy, publish it before you vote on it. Transparency rules should not be adopted without transparency. These are not three separate problems. They are the same problem. The board gets the information, the public gets less access, later access, or no access. That is not open government, and that is not good government.

Thank you for your comment tonight. Any more public comment tonight? Yes, ma'am.

Sue Ross at 9th St. Place, Township. I'm voting for Richard Tox to be your trustee. He has made a life and an honor here with this community and with deep gratitude with his and his white poster, what he did when we were facing we unfortunately had someone attend that meeting, which I think really turned the tide. And I think we owe him a deep gratitude.

Thank you. And you want to ask a public comment? Yes, sir.

I also support Richard Cox as a businessman, He has plenty of work in the department of public, financial statements, managing his bottom thing. He has a lot of experience, which would qualify, obviously, to work with lawyers. His whole business life. So, as well, he's a great political professor as well. So I think it'd be an excellent choice to help move this Township.

Thank you. Anyone else for public comment?

Yes, sir.

I'm Walter Holt.

I also am running for Township for just recently retired from the Mannequin-Smith group.

We served there for about 20 years as a subsidiary and one of our consultants. special works on any large $1 million projects. We did authority outreach for the last 20 years. So bring a lot of experience with projects. City of Chelsea for several years. The last 15 years.

Thank you, sir. Any other public comments?

Yes, sir. Duane Millick, 10745 Jackson Road. I'm here to show my support for Richmond guys.

I noticed that he moved into the township. He's a very capable businessman, knows how to deal with people. He's done buildings on his property, new and really valid. He's restoring the Weisman farm, so he knows about restoring old buildings too. And I think he's a good candidate for the position here. And also, he had the first meeting to repel a power plant and get his house open, his house open property to get people there to get together. I really appreciate that. And don't forget the Russian festival is this weekend, 19th to 20th, Russian organized township. It's really a good time.

Thank you. Anyone else for a public comment? Yes, ma'am.

Any other public comments?

Yes, ma'am.

Hi, my name is Tara Renan, formerly Van Rykberg. I live on Jerusalem Road. Everyone in this room, I was raised with you. I was raised with your children. I just want for us to remember at the end of the day, we are neighbors. And that's the thing that matters is supporting each other. Tomorrow morning, I'm going to be a postal pickup. It doesn't matter if it's in the day or night. Parents don't like each other. What happened in the past? We all have to be neighbors and friends. And it's fine to have questions and to want to address issues. It's not okay when our kids are scared to go outside because they're scared of things that are going on in the community. And I just want to Please ask all of us to remember at the end of the day, we are neighbors. I've lived here my entire life. We are like 6 generations. I take so much pride that my children are raised here. And I just, I love you guys all so much. And I just want to remember that that's what's most important at the end of the day. Whoever's on the board, whatever we decide, we can have open conversations. But let's just remember that we've all been here for a long time and support each other.

Thank you.

Anyone else with a public comment?

Yes, sir.

I'm Rich Packer, small 50 down the road of the Weisman Place. I want to thank everybody for saying kind words about me. If you don't know me, I started my business in 1994. I'm ready to stay. I'm involved in virtual real estate. All of that is a style township. I've been very involved in planning and zoning for my opportunity to stay in the style and do the process multiple times. And I'm sure if I fire a thousand people who are stepping forward to take this position, I think it's exciting to see this fallen and it's awesome. So over to me and .

Okay, it's more public comment. Yes, sir. I'm Nigel . I'm also a trustee.

I've been with the alignment township for 20 years now. I got involved in the township board review in 2015. I was also the CAFRE for the alternative township up until the last 2024. I was on the board chair. We got us out large in the first place. I'm also on the planning commission, the zoning board, the deals. I'm in the left direction too. But I've been involved in the township. I just thought it would be one step further. Thank you.

Anyone else for public comment?

Yes.

Yes, ma'am. Hi.

I am . I want to give a nod to all of those who were . You have to take it on your chin when you're in the public's eyes to see . I worked with my husband on a domestic farm in West Liberty, just so you're familiar with it. So we built that business from ground up, so I have some business experience there. I also, prior to that, referred GMAC findings and read the brand review session division. So I've been working with firms in regards to revenue issues, financial issues, or finance, and for a long time. Thank you. Any other comments? I guess I better put my glasses on. Okay.

Sure. Okay. We're moving on to reports. Okay. First report up is the history of the Mill Creek. I think, Carly, is that you?

the Elk Creek Research Council, which started in 1965. The board has given us previous permission to, the board has given us previous permission to put this display on one of the walls here in the town hall. If this does not continue to be the town hall, it will be movable so I can go to another town hall. This is a map of the project. The project, this is, Sorry, guys. I have about six members of the Mill Creek Research Council here. We are the remaining of the 12-member board from the founders in 1965. This is a map of the Mill Creek watershed. And that is Mill Creek, you see in blue. The large project will be 48 inches long. So this is in scale. It will be 40 inches high and 48 inches long, and we'll go on the back walls, hopefully. Next to this, we'll be two flags on either side, one that gives the history of the organization, and another will give the list of 22 founders who many of them are not with us anymore, most of them. They fought, if none of you know, they fought in 1965, the damming of Neal Creek to make a reservoir, which would fill a huge portion of the township in water. It was finally disbanded in 1970, I think it was. They turned to the Metropolitan Park Authority, and they tried to set it up for a metro park. and they would have flooded again. They would have dammed up, they would have had ball courses, recreation areas that would have been entered at Fletcher Road. So all of our homes and open space would have been owned by electric policy targets already. So with these people desperately on every single end that they possibly think of, historically, agriculturally, everything, and they need it. So the testing into what we have done to find a township here, and we've gone to a lot of the people that did this. And so we will do that. Our fabricator is here, Jeremy Jock. You see right there, he's our designer and fabricator. And he has done this mock-up for us to show you what the actual map will look like with the two side pieces. So I'll leave that for you guys to look at after you've done that one.

I want to thank you. You guys did an awesome job, and I remember that fight very well. Very well.

We'll be dissolving the organization because it's been going on for so long. So it was grass to begin with. We might have continued it if we had to keep fighting the consumerist power, but most of us are pretty tired. Thank you so much.

You guys set a standard for us. I don't know if you remember that. That's why we did the consumer product. We set a standard. We are fighters here. We don't walk away. Okay. The treasury report went out.

Oh, today was the last day for property taxes in case anybody forgot. I will be in the office tomorrow. And we had three CDs kind of during the month of August. I actually added another one. I added money to the others. And that's why the report looks a little bit What's the interest rate? Any questions for Nanette? Thank you.

for your report, and thanks for doing a good job.

No, you're not getting a raise.

Okay, now we're moving along to Don Joanie and demonstration. Marianne.

You guys have the station with my report. We were down a little bit from August, but we did work quite a bit on April 17th, and then They all received their site plan approval for the projects. And I'm looking forward to hearing about your decision on treating people with both of them. Okay.

Any questions for Mariano? Thanks, Mariano. Moving on. The next report is

wave yes but he was talking about their we are going to be drafting from this eventually anyway because of the district that they serve yeah this area may not mean a lot of scholarship for us because there's a larger represented more than just fine but i haven't been updated on last night i think that we'll still get reports from the board of Yeah.

Yeah.

Something.

Yeah.

So, okay. Chelsea Reconstruction Authority.

Ann. There was no meeting. The next meeting is this. All righty.

Cemetery report.

Dale. Everything's going as usual. Okay.

Is Patricia here tonight from Chelsea District Library?

I think she emailed the report.

No, I read it. I just thought she was going to be here to get it. Okay. Everybody got our report, so I'll give it to you tomorrow. Okay, planning commission, what now?

We approved the final for St. Vladimir's with conditions and also convening that we're deciding on tonight about the streams. Again, let's see. David Rossi was in here on River Watershed for the presentation for the fertilizer ordinance. He said that Dexter Township does put theirs into effect. They just adopted one. And we'll discuss the PDR ordinance, and we need to give them some feedback so we can So what's on the next media record? I don't know that we're adding one.

It's kind of ugly air.

Yeah, right now there's PDR and fertilizer.

Okay, any questions for Minette?

All right, seeing none.

the area planning commission. That's our 425, which is open.

Yeah, and there was no meeting on that one. The meeting for that was September 23rd.

There'll be the Western Washtenaw County Regional Recycling Authority. Nanette?

Yes, I guess there are quite a few comments at the public hearings. I didn't go to either one of them. The people were upset about the price going from $31 to $35 a year. They also were not happy because there weren't enough raffle locations. And we're purchasing, actually, a new truck, which should be in this month. And with the money that was left over in the bond fund, we're most likely to be able to take that truck. So our next meeting is September 23rd. And then we have the Chelsea offices in Chelsea.

I got questions.

They're not going to open the other one up.

No. What are they going to do when Ronnie says he doesn't want to go in there?

Is that what he's going to say? He's going to go in there. Somebody has to step up. I don't know if they're going to put him in here.

That's been brought up.

I mean, it gets really messy.

It's just a matter of, I don't know what it is, man, but everybody thinks that they just dump everything. I've seen toys, swings, furniture, everything. They need to dump junkyard.

They should be better just because it's kind of off. It's not off the highway.

But it has to be on a non-permeable surface, you know, cement pad for them.

Okay.

So I think that needs to be brought up at our next meeting to see if it's something we're going to address. I think that would make sense. It's basically every other place around.

It's on gravel up there, isn't it? Yeah.

Is that on Galaxy Road?

Is that on gravel? Okay. Thank you. We are in the process of hiring another chief.

We have two current chiefs right now. We just got another one.

We hired Jim.

back in for the fare service and daily services because John was kind of falling behind with administration and the firefighters that were really fired up on. The attitude has changed a lot. It won't be long. I guess there's 12 applications for firefighters and they're going to start going to that most definitely in this tomorrow at nine o'clock. We won't see a new fire chief probably in December, January. But the two that we've got are doing a really good job. They get along. Everybody's getting along good. So these two, we're going to give them the authority tomorrow to start interviewing for firefighters to fill this fire station that we're paying taxes on. So that's what I have to say about CAFA. Other than that, I think they're doing really good. Okay.

So the August primary did not have any elections or any audits from the county because there's not enough time between August and November to get them done. So we have a ballot brief. For the upcoming November election, the ballots should be arriving sometime this week. They'll be mailed out as soon as we can get them ready sometime next week, I would expect, or end of next week. And available on September 24th for anyone who wants to pick one up in the office. There was a panel discussion in Chelsea District Library. I voted in one-on-one last week, and Deputy Clerk Clark and I were there, along with the Cleveland Township, Linden Township, and City of Chelsea, to answer questions on voting. And the clerks had their quarterly meeting last week as well, and I'm going to discuss the upcoming November election. There's one other thing we've been trying to get information on. We've received a request to renew a Metro app We've gotten several new Metro assets that have been here, but I've never had a request to renew. So the county attorney is looking into that for me. It looks like their permit expired, so they may have to just reapply. Yeah, I'm going to need to set the election commission meeting sometime for early October to set election workers for November. And we're looking at scheduling the public accuracy test before we move on to the election requirements. And well, she was on the back of my foot to point in the packet.

Questions for him. Supervisor report. Then write my last report, but we're going to rename WWRIG to Western Washtenaw County Council of Governments. What this is since the time consumer's energy was coming through, we formed a government that consists of Kyle Township, Linden Township, Freedom Township, Bridgewater, Sharon, Manchester, Dexter, Chelsea, Lima, Sylvan, Linden, were the whole group. And then we had a meeting in Manchester at the Manchester Township Fire Station. And that was all of them, all the commissioners, Debbie Dingell, What we're doing is we're going through and comparing ordinances and getting all of our ducks in a row. So our little township, believe it or not, there's smaller townships in the area, and we're going to protect each other by doing this. And like Jeff Harness had brought up when we met with him about creating a nonprofit. We're not creating it, but we're going to utilize nonprofit organizations like They have the high-ranking environmentalists and stuff. Get them their namesake on it so we can utilize them on our website. So when you get a corporation that comes in, see who you're backing this, and it's not some little guy, they're not going to look who's backing them. They're going to realize that we can't be walking them. We're going to put up a fight. They didn't know that in Lima Township, but we did it anyway. But this group has really turned out. I mean, we have formed a great group with all these people. And a lot of these guys, I talk to them daily, and I never met them before in my life. And the next meeting is in Dexter. And the next meeting, we're bringing our planners. So our planners can sit down and discuss all of our ordinances. Because with our ordinances, you can think you have an ironclad ordinance. but it could be the wording of that ordinance that could stumble up anything that they come in and like to read. Because I found that out by reading other townships' ordinances and trying to understand why they did it, and I see why. So that meeting went real well. I've been in several other meetings, a lot of Zoom conferences with EVO, SEMCOG, the National Township Authority approved the Sierra Club. I met with Barney Lennock, Washington Atlantic Conservancy. Our outages, I was on the phone with ETE for probably two hours. I had several people call asking, trying to figure out why we had so many ETE outages when it was consumers we were fighting. And so we filed through the government. I can't remember who it was, but I was informed on how to do it, so I went ahead and did that, and several other residents did the same thing. So there was a record that they'd been notified, and this is beginning to be ridiculous. Okay, I went with and signed up for four different grants in the past month, roads and bridges. It's not on paved roads. It's all rural roads and bridges. national rural roads and safety. Talk and meeting with some people tomorrow. So that's basically what I've been up to as your supervisor. And so moving on, any question? See you.

Can I ask a question about roads and bridges that was part of your report?

Sure.

Okay. I'm curious as to, I think I started the, We were working on Gunther Road Bridge in the county in 22, and we kept getting put off and put off. Then it was promised for 25. That didn't happen. In 26, they're not doing it either. They're going to leave the embuntments, and they're going to put a new top on Gunther Road Bridge. We're replacing the whole bridge. Yeah.

Well, I haven't heard anything about it.

What's the schedule?

Well, the thing about this is, and how it is, it's not a lottery or anything like that. It not only goes county, but it goes statewide. I can't remember how many thousands of bridges are in there. Okay, I know that. But my argument with this whole thing is especially visiting some culverts. Some of these culverts are half the price, and some of these culverts are bigger than what we have on bridges. And why are we not utilizing culverts?

I do it in Wisconsin, but my question is, we gave them 25,000. for the engineering team. Believe me, it's... And I, they just, I don't know who's been in contact with them, if you have or someone on the board, but they need to give us some, a real price. They never did that.

And it was, it's in three years. In three years is what, I went and took their Washtenaw County 103 class or 101 and took that class and met with several of them since then. Met with the road commissioner, At this meeting the other night, me and her had a little howl on our roads and especially some of these service drives and find out that it's a state. So we got to get, I got to do a little bit more chain yanking with them.

I just don't want them not to attend to it because it's in bad shape. Oh, yeah. It's going to fall off and.

I mean, we got . Yeah, we got a ways to go here. So the building committee, Ron .

OK. Since the last board meeting in August, the building committee has done several things. Reagan and I got together. We went through all the documents that each of them had. new town hall back in 2020, and then the this town hall, I think, 2024 timeframe. For those of you who don't know, Craig Stocker is the CEO of Breivar up in Brighton. It's a design and construction company. They're offered to do our cost analysis of both plans for both this building and the new town hall. So we sent the documents to Craig back in, let's see, 831. Additionally, we did go up to New York Township, Baltimore, and New York Township, Baltimore area, I think 2015 Franklin, but there was no similar sized township. I reviewed what they had there. It's pretty standard, you know, square ripped into a building, but it was good to see what other people had. We did meet with Craig and his cost estimator, Brian, last week, just to answer the question they had on the file. We sent them, and they get feedback from them. The next step is to come out with some of their tradespeople, take a look at this building, and the design for the addition for this building, and also expect to have something back from them. I would expect that to be timeframe. Any questions?

Moving on. We're going to go on to unfinished business audio for the meetings. What was the price?

I know there's another bid coming in.

We've got to put a price on what we want to put in it and from our background and all the things looking into it. $30,000 is the Right about where it's at, it could go higher. Sylvan Township was $50,000 and that was about seven years ago, eight years ago. We've got to have a price we can have. Just crawling around, that's the number. It could be a lot less than that or it could be more than that. What the situation is, it's not going to be a system that's selected. It's going to be one that's backed up in the case model. That's what increases the cost. If it was left here, it would remain for mounting and everything that we've done. So I'm looking for someone to set a budget on what we want to spend on something like this. We've got another guy giving me a quote. It'll probably be Wednesday. But I just want to know where we stand on what you want to spend, because it can be an Amazon $1,200 microphone.

I guess the question is, can we know if something like that would work?

That's what you find out.

Well, I'm worried because I'm with the Echo, and I don't even know if the Echo is with the Apple iPhone, but it's like, you know.

We never had one until the last meeting.

It just started at the last meeting. I got somebody looking at it. Well, yeah, but we've already got three different. If you want to get a bid on it, go ahead. But I'm just saying that we've

Got two so far.

What are you talking about putting in? Like I've heard people say, you made a acoustic tile. Who puts in the floors and the plaster and the ceiling and the high ceiling?

It's all about the corners. Oh, so just the bottom of the floor. You tape them up. Just like you do in the recording studio. You play around with it. We don't spend much time doing it. Do you have to give us any hints?

Your brother, will you give us any hints? I don't know.

Yeah. That's actually perfect.

No, I didn't get a bit.

I mean, would you recommend, I mean, you seem to know something about it.

Well, yeah, but Ken Klauski's son, Ken Solano gave me the reference on it, and he's getting back to me too, because he did.

You can open up his township residence, right? Yes. Yeah, we can.

Jack is a resident too, but anybody who wants to look into it, yeah. I mean, I just don't feel that we need to spend a ton of money. We got a perfectly good echo right now.

So I think in order to try something, we need a budget. And I think that's kind of where we have another one. So you're saying that probably a much cheaper.

Some stuff in my studio later on.

So $5,000, we could probably do something that's acceptable for this room that we have for $5,000. I'm against that law.

That is something small. You just need to take the people out and make them stop. It's a paper whole to stop. I've been really part of that.

But then I don't know if we need to spend that. That's like for the sound that we need in the room, and then we'd still need microphones and speakers somewhere.

Yeah, that's what we've already gone through there.

So we want to at least say that we're willing to spend up to, what, $3,000, $5,000 into it. So if we have something to prove, it might get something.

Maybe we ought to compare it to some other number we just announced.

tell them a number out there because I don't want it to just all of a sudden, no, it's going to be through the roof. I want something, and I think we all agree at this point.

I'll move to make a budget for this audio system, a budget of no more than $5,000.

Okay, do I have a second?

I'll support.

Okay, so motion on table, set a budget of 5,000, seconded by Ann. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed? Seeing none, moving on. Okay, move this. Okay, trustee vacancy response appointment. Talks with MTA and how to go about doing this with the board. and what we'll do is the board each board member will pick out their three top contenders and and go with it from there because you got to think of it if it goes three to one affordable two to two but you've got to know who you want to vote for and i don't know how else to go about doing it to make it fair and because it's a board that's kind of decides, depending on the next, what is it, two years, year and a half?

Yeah, November 30th.

Do you have a printout of this, of what they said? What's that? You said you talked to MTA. Do you have a printout of this? No, I don't.

A printout of the resonates?

No, no, no, no, no. The way about doing it, because what I got from them was, It's, if you have a tie vote to no vote, so I don't know how to, I don't have, they didn't really have a solution. Their solution to it, to me, was we're going to have to work it out a lot to find a way to do it.

Well, they said that's when we would debate it, to pick out the pros and the cons of each individual.

Well, were you saying take the seven that we have? get it down to three and then go from there yeah

We all have the chance to read all the applications.

Yeah, we have a lot of good choices. Well, it's hard to base in that book. Yes, it's hard to base .

It's a very broad range. So, I mean, it's hard to take it. I don't know. The reason why it's difficult is it's a voted position. It's not an applied application for a position. So that's what makes it a little unique.

I'm going to go ahead and say the support I had, as you all already know, because I nominated him last meeting.

was for Richard Cox, and I think there's a lot of support here as well. And I was surprised to have, and impressed to have more applicants. But I think that he's done a lot for this township, really wants to get involved. And I think that he will, it's evidence that he will fight to support our better needs and For example, of course, as we all know, the power plant that he really stuck his arm out there for us and had meetings about it. But I just think he's also good minded for farming and the preservation of the farms and the work that he's done for that and moving in and wants to support that. I would like to go with, I would like to appoint Richard Cox as the climate township board, effective immediately for the remaining of the current .

I'm gonna have to step in, because I looked at history. I looked at, Nothing against Richard, nice guy, a lot of them since we've dealt with the consumers, but I'm looking at the history of others that we have here who have been a part of the township for years, if not decades. I know people say about new blood, but at the same time, I want, I think that shows of being a part of it in the past, shows that they It didn't take a disaster to bring them forward. And so to me, I would either go with Ron Houdyshell or Denise Priole, just because I've looked at the past commitments and the past of the township.

I would formally withdraw my candidacy and support Richard Cox.

So you can, I've taken the law off your plate. I will not serve a collective.

But that's the way I look at it. I'm sorry, but Richard seemed like a nice guy, but that's how I look at things as who I've seen in this place before in the past. We probably do have a ton to offer. The same with Chelsea, the same with all of them. um but i know you say the new blood but that's up i guess that's up to the board to decide right now like see the direction um Because I've never sat down and talked to many of these people in the past. I don't know if anybody else has. I know you have. I don't know if you have. But to me, it's a commitment. When I took this job, it became a bigger commitment than I ever expected. And I expect the same out of any board member.

So to me, it's like,

and how Mr. Drew has pulled it out. That makes it harder, doesn't it?

Oops, I didn't notice.

We're not going to have anything to say.

Just that over the weekend. We're going to make a decision.

But whoever gets sit on this board, it's not just coming to a meeting once a month and picking up your back. It is a part of being a commitment to everybody that's sitting around you right now. They're going to come to you for questions and answers. And I think right now, seeing how, okay, these were turned in on Friday.

That was last day.

Okay.

Well, this whole, This whole appointing and that brought up that the way we did the clerk was interviewing students. So if you want to go through all this, we're interviewing seven people. So that's what we're on. Sorry about that. Sorry. So it makes it a little easier, like you said. So that's what it is.

We'll table the election for tonight, and we'll set up an interview system for the board members to interview them, each of us, at a, I don't know if you want to call a special closed meeting, a work session.

If we're going to do it, then I would say we'd have to do it at a special meeting, because if we're talking to all six, that's going to take a while.

But it's going to have to be a closed session.

No.

It doesn't? No.

I know you mentioned today, maybe pick three, each of us could pick three.

We could either pick three and then do a longer interview with each of those. Or say there's six candidates, maybe we have 10 minutes per person. That gives everybody a chance without eliminating anybody, just based on paper. And it still would be about an hour. Do we want to actually schedule it?

Yeah. We're still within the time. It's 45 days from the date that we accepted his resignation, which is August 31st.

So we're still on the show. So there's time still. All right. Is there anything next week? The 22nd? Then we have to make sure all the candidates are available. I think we have all of them here. Tuesday, the 22nd? Tuesday?

What was the question?

Tuesday, we'll do that with everybody here first. Tuesday the 22nd at 6 or 7 p.m. Anyone? It doesn't matter to me. It's Tuesday. All right, well, this... I'll make a motion to schedule a special meeting on Tuesday, September 22nd, 6 or 7, I don't remember. 7. At 7 p.m. to interview the sixth trustee candidate. So let's move on to the question.

Sure.

Well, I mean, we can continue with just five minutes of them saying a little something. It's a couple questions. All right.

That sounds good. So there's a motion on the table. And I'll second it. So the motion on the table is seconded. I have a special meeting Tuesday. I did. The 22nd. So at 7 PM here. All in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed? Any non? Do we have a second? Second. Second. Sorry folks, this isn't something we run across every day, especially when you're on a five-year-old member and you run into this. Okay, we're at four year policy updates.

Two things here.

The policy is from 2015.

I believe that Elaine pulled this from the MTA standard policy. And so that it was pointed out that FOIA policy specifically said that it designated the clerk as a FOIA coordinator, and since we have since designated our office manager, in order to bring out the line, I think we need to at least, at a minimum, for now, modify that section. Section will interfere in draft forms. But then the question is, should we also update the FOIA policy? I'm told there's new FOIA laws that are in place in 2015. I think APHA, I was told, also just, did they update their FOIA policy recently?

Somebody did. I believe earlier this year, yeah, our FOIA recommended that their APHA policy be updated to current language, so updated to 2026 language versus what we have in 2020.

I tried to get it from Castle, but I didn't find it in type. It was meaning to compare. So at a minimum right now, I'm suggesting that we modify that first paragraph to state that the Township Board, acting pursuant to the authority of MCL 1536, shall designate a FOIA coordinator. If he or she designs the Township Clerk as designated, or if he or she designs work, otherwise is no longer employed by the Township, the Township Clerk is designated FOIA coordinator, coordinator until the board convene to designate a new FOIA coordinator. So basically, the board picks somebody to be the FOIA coordinator, and in the meantime, the clerk would be responsible until the board can officially apply for new ones. So that's my recommendation for today. We can talk to somebody to give a more official update on the overall policy. So I'll go ahead and make a motion to modify section one, paragraph one, to say that the employer shall designate a FOIA coordinator, and should that person be no longer employed by the township, the FOIA coordinator will report its designates another.

Second.

Okay, it's a motion on the table by Ann. making modifications to the policy. Move and second. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll take a vote. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed? Seeing none, motion carried.

Okay, for your attorney.

Yeah, so following along from that, When I was at the library with the other clerks, I spoke to them about how they handle FOIA. And I've also heard, what happened was that Linden Township recommended their attorney, which is a good boss for the SWIFT, her name is, if I can get the last name right, Ann Cernich. Ann Cernich. Lyndon's clerk spoke very highly of her. I found out after it was run that this is also the same attorney that the fire equality uses. He's the one that updated their policy. Today, I'm receiving an engagement letter from her, which I've given to all of you. So Fred, for our general purpose, municipal law attorney, my junior lawyer, not been completely helpful with my specific FOIA question. I don't have a legal background. I don't know serious FOIA. You know, so I am suggesting that we be signing a letter with this attorney. Her rates are similar to her hourly rate. But she provides the function of getting a much reduced rate from her regular rate. She would say that The rate for this year would be $262 per hour for the remainder of 20.6 at least, which isn't . And we would be able to make sure that we're handling all the soy ash correctly. is this a motion on the table to hire swaps or switch that's just anybody with any questions i can make a make a motion to office motion to authorize the supervisor to sign an engagement letter with in syria fostering swift dated september 14th

no second okay it's already in discussion open second in discussion all in favor say aye aye all opposed motion carried okay let's tighten up for bid

Okay, the repeal of the live streams. And the reason why we talked about it.

We got to talk about this later. Okay. To the FOIA request that were sent estimates have been formally appealed by the requester. The process is that The supervisor brings it to the board for a vote. And the packet is a letter that we received. Appealings. I did ask the MTA to process on this one because I've done this before. They said that the law does not specify a process, so there is no formal process. The board needs to discuss it. And they said 10 days from the time it's addressed, an answer needs to be provided to the requester. You guys can ask. So as the person that put the estimate together, I can't vote on it. If any of you would vote on whether you want to make any changes to it, waive fees, modify fees, deny the appeal, or I suppose to take further . But we do have to give the response .

And ask for approval, right?

And if you want me to say anything on how the estimates were put together, I can do that. Please.

If you click, please.

There's two requests in question. One is FR 2616, and that one was asking for 10 years of maintenance records. The appeal letter multiple times talked about how there's not many records to be found. The expectation is that we don't have many maintenance records because they assume that we didn't do any maintenance on it But FOIA challenges for the search and the effort, not the quantity of documents found. Since it's 10 years of records, it's not just searching the one file. We don't have a specific file that is found in fall maintenance records. We have invoices. We have current invoices. We have historical invoices in a different location. Some of them are boxed up in archive already. And so it's not just a quick search for the single file. That's the reason for the multiple hours in it. Some of it is electronic, but then there's also requests for the paper documents that, like I said, would be in multiple locations and would have to be searched.

I'm not sure what else to say.

So the FOIA estimate is the best effort at how long it would take to do the search. If it turns out that it's shorter, obviously we would require some actual costs. There's a form in here. This is a template that I got when I was kind of combined from a couple different locations from something that was sent by an attorney and something that some of the other companies are using. This is how we kind of have to break down the class with a section for the labor class to search, locate, and examine, the labor class for redaction and separation, there's labor costs for duplication and publication, and then there's prepping costs, and then additional like management costs. The majority of this one is the search, locate, and examine. I think this is the one where there is a question on the four hours of separation, and it is true that maybe my definition of separation was slightly different, so those probably should have been more examine hours rather than separation, so there could be Maybe a modification there, but I don't see the time going down. It's broken down by general labor and specialized labor. By law, we have to charge the lowest rate, or the rate of the lowest. The wages for the person paid the least is capable of doing the job. For things that need searching within BSNA, that has to be done by either me or Lynette, if we're the only server. to have the access to use it. There's only two hours there. So I think that might be a little low. And then the general neighbor would be more something that we could have more help doing, searching all of the files and boxes in the background. Do you have any questions? So the second one was for bridges. Most expenditures five years of actual expenditures that Washington County agreements, individual loans receiving work and rich projects. This one was I think it was on TV, but then it's also For the bridge projects, I did say denied that one of the responsive records for bridge work in the last five years. He's objecting to the partial denial. I possibly should have worded that differently, because I believe anything that was in the bridges, like the one I mentioned earlier, would have showed up in the WCRC payments. There is no additional, I'm aware of, separate bridge work, but that one could be modified to use included in it like that like them before i said granted included in that agreement i believe the bridge projects should have been before the data as well um there was a lot of questions about labor and explain why three hours explain why you know this i filled out the estimates as i've been told to do uh you know we've been Make an estimate on how long it's going to take to do it, and that's what goes into the form. I can't really explain what we're doing next in more detail than it would take three hours of labor to search, look, and examine. I believe that most of what I have are historical. I don't know what all the land records are. That's part of the issue with some of these is I inherited a system that's maybe a little different than i would have set it up so requiring switching multiple locations uh the road commission the recent stuff i would have electronically need stuff prior to my appointment i would not and so this is either depending on how you check it i didn't see that it took us six years of So again, they would have to search through Elaine's files, find it, and scan it. Again, you know, like I said, these are our best estimate at how long it will actually take to do it. Boy, it does not charge based on what you find. It's charged based on how long it takes you to find it. somebody in the office to be searching for documents. Yes.

That's what it comes down to.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We don't have a lot of experience in this. We didn't get a lot of guidance from our attorney. I understand that we have 10 days from today to respond, so I don't know if you want to Yeah. Legal advice. Yeah. Oh, these

they haven't been paid the bill that's been sent, and they haven't been paid.

Right, the way it works, it's the estimated over $50 we're allowed to require 50% in plastic before the work starts. And then once we've collected all the documents, we would put together the final invoice based on actual hours, and that would be sent and paid before the documents were provided.

So the change, what this appeal is the change in the touchdown, the change of targeting of what was originally cars, right?

I don't know.

My understanding is that the main, I mean, I have a hard time, but I tried to get my way in here to see what it seemed that most of it was. Okay. But I don't really know.

I don't know how to do that.

I'm in the end to get a software saying. I think 17 of them. Okay, that. The notice did not state by which the deposit must be received. That is true. I can only use the correct one. And then apparently it's going to provide the room for FOIA procedures in the new house. So we have a special move over. Next Tuesday, I think it's going to be . see further guidance from the planning for an important decision?

I think that's what we need. Let's go home. That's what we need. That's what we need. Because it's important.

So this is the first time you've received a report. I think that's possible.

This is, yeah, this is a different one.

The portfolio request can't be done right until this is searching that they're starting all right this kind of guys i'll take a motion to table this for attorney to look through it uh foster work and uh give us the information that we so need to follow through with this okay i'll just make a motion i will take a second at this time a second okay motion on table and move and second any discussion okay all in favor say aye All right. All right. All opposed? And moving on.

I didn't abstain because I think that's the person who did it.

Yeah, I think that's the best way to do it is to have a lawyer look at all of it. We're right down the line.

That would be a fight as well. Live screen resolution.

Well, I think we're going to end up taking on that. We're looking into an audio, right?

Right. And the reason that came up is the concern we're in today. And I think it's been pointed out that this particular standard that's mentioned here is not the one. It is a standard that we are still supposed to be living up to, which is a little less strict. But it's still a concern. I mean, we can table it, we can have something by the next meeting. But, you know.

Well, we absolutely, why don't we just throw it out?

What's that? We got to fix the problem before.

Right, but why don't we do it? The problem's got to be fixed.

Well, I'm hoping that we're getting closer. I'm hoping that we're getting closer and that I think we're going to have something tested before the next .

Yeah.

Okay. So you want to motion to table the last one?

Yeah, this one.

Okay.

So.

I'll second it. I don't say but say aye. Aye. All opposed? Aye. Okay. Motion carried. Next is St. Vladimir Church.

We have to force our planning commission. Anyone else about that? You saw Reggie was out there in the plant.

So if they have enough trees, why do we need to wait? What are we waiting for? requirement. Oh, yeah. So many.

They have enough, but they've already.

But the way what they have already.

I move that we grant permission to allow the committee to mention

a waiver to the St. Vladimir's Church and to accept the applicant's renewal of the landscaping plan that includes 47 existing and proposed spruce and fir evergreen trees and 16 proposed arborvitaes alongside plot lines in lieu of the 272 trees that would otherwise be required

Okay, move in second. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed? Seeing none, moving on. Final public comment. Same rules apply. Three minutes.

Timer. Right. The public environment? Yeah. Michael Drew, Lyman Township president, FOIA requester, guilty, guilty as charged. I just want everyone to understand that the FOIA requests I'm making are for the maintenance records for this building. So it's shocking that the township can't even produce, without charging me $444 or something dollars, the records that have gone into the maintenance of anything, maintaining windows, maintaining the exterior, cutting down the tree, thanks to Dale. So that's shocking. And it's also shocking, you know, the other request is only for five years of what are we doing on roads and bridges? They want to charge me a bunch of money for that too. Do you think these records would be at hand and easy to access that it wouldn't require a lot of searching? And while we're on the subject of oil requests, I've already submitted two oil requests covering the depot ranch and the two $1,500 deposits. So I'm not going to discuss those tonight. But I would forward over the new packet today. Normal financial records show that the township paid a DTE $167.43 for gas and electric on the depot on August 10th, and another $57 on September 14th. That's $224.43 of the depot utility payments after the lease began on July 15th. The lease says Enchanted Depot is responsible for separately metered gas and electric. So my question is simple. Where are those charges? Were any of those charges for the utility service after July 15th? And if so, why did the Township pay them? And has the Enchanted Depot reproduced or reimbursed the Township for those charges? And I have one other matter to address, and that is good news for all you people who want to be a trustee. I discovered this weekend that in the 2018 line across the 3,000 registered electric threshold in MCL 168.358.04, That statute says the board shall call some voters to decide whether Lima should elect two additional trustees. I can find no evidence that Lima never held that required vote. I have a detailed written analysis for you. And if you want to get it from me after the meeting, if I'm wrong, the answer is very simple. Show us a vote. If I'm right, this needs to be corrected. And we have an opportunity, if the council presidents think we need two more electors, that there would be two more electors placed on the board. And so maybe there are votes for other people. Maybe they'll go for Rich.

Thank you, Mr. Kerr. Are there any more public comments?

Yes, Mary.

Hi, Mary Holder, 1038 South Madison Road. I am so excited that so many people are interested to be trustee. And however, if there's one more, if there's two more, three more, I don't know what you're talking about, but however many that we can have, if you're not on it now, I hope that you will find a way to help Lyma Township.

I'm sure we could use legal expertise, and I'm sure our people are worried.

But in conservancy, there's so many things that the people of Lyma Township can help Lyma Township move forward.

So I just want to encourage everybody to be helpful and kind in that help, and I think that we'll be able to get things done that way much better. Thank you. That's fine. I think you really need to take into consideration the amount of people that showed up here in favor of Rich. And it seems like you, Bill, have your mind set up on it. That's the feeling that I think a lot of us, and it's already been predetermined. That's my opinion. And also talk about bridges. It is very easy probably to, we need to really address Liberty Bridge. I've gone to the county and they say that the one that is not in favor of fixing that bridge. And I've been told to put it back in.

Even as a walking bridge or a narrow,

pathway of something. You know, you talk about having money come in for other things like a children's play center, like a grant. There's gotta be money that they put in in other places for walking bridges and pathways that we could have that done. It could be a part of our pathway.

Thank you. Any more public comments? I'd like to make a quick comment.

Dwayne Lewis, 40745 Jackson Road, in response to your Liberty Road Bridge. When I first got in, they had closed it for about, I don't know, they had closed it for about, I don't know, how many years?

Yeah.

Now we came out and closed a bunch of our bridges. In response to the be checking them for a maintenance policy, and they fell down on that. Now, that's why I brought up the thing about the bridge. I'm very upset. I was down there puking and screaming, save that bridge for a pedestrian bridge. Bob and I actually had a company out of Lansing that said the abutments might be fine. He said put a new tile on it, pour it back to fire. It happens all the time. Matt and I said, no, no, we can't do that. Bridge said, no, we can't do that. Then I find out there's a thing going on with Whitmer. There were so many bridges closed, they tear it out. It's not closed anymore. It was signed a political. We don't know that. And he promised me that that's the Chelsea Road bridge would be redone because it was going through mistake. Like Bill said, he's correct on that.

It was supposed to be done that year. They wouldn't have started it.

And we never got it done. And I said, well, I just saw a grain on that farm that I wanted up to full specs of weight. And it's still there, not done. They wouldn't leave limited budget. They tore that out. And so then I went down with one bridge engineer on Gunther Road real hard. And why I'm upset with them, by the way, I have to give credit to our county yard that takes care of our roof. I think they do a good job. They took our money for an estimate. And they gave us a ballpark 600 grand, either wood deck or with asphalt or concrete deck. And we never decided on that because they never came back with the real estimate. So they've been working on that 25 grand for three years. That's why I'm upset because it was personal with me. He told me we're going to get on that and it got delayed. So believe me, we tried to say that it was real great. They wouldn't hear it. Thank you.

Any other public comments? Yes, ma'am.

It's very long about time center. I just want to reiterate, I know that we've gone for a lot today, and we've talked about a lot of people who want to like forward to this township. We've got a lot of people interested in trustee, and that's awesome. That's exactly what we want to hear, right? There's so many people interested in working the township, and a lot of people working on building this community. As Tara mentioned earlier, we are a lot of neighbors, and a lot of people and that reach out and just love each other and just want this community to grow and work together. And we have to remember that when we go into these meetings, people get so heated and so frustrated, but like, I get so proud of this place when I look at this town hall, like I graduated with DL, so it's so cool to see somebody that I went to school with on the board. And I know like that when that's been fortunate, I went off on taxis and I had no bill. I also am Tara's friend, so I know that. You know, that's fun. And, like, working with Lisa Vann, I got to know her through that, and just know how hard they all work. And I think that people forget that, and that there's people, and that we have lives out there doing this, and that a lot of them, like, deal with arms, and these guys have a bunch of stuff going on, so give them some grace. And, like, often, actually, someone's offering it to each other because, again, I don't want to start living in a place where my kid and our kids are nervous about the arguments that our parents are having and are afraid to exist among each other because that's happening at this level. We came together so hard and so fast with consumers this year, and let's try to remember that sense of community when we move forward in advocacy now and know that even though we might not agree on everything that's happening in this room, and what's happening in our township, we all still have to come together and try to move forward. Because despite people having these disagreements, at the end of the day, I think we all just want a more flexible township, and we want it to be a private area. And we're not going to have that. We're not going to have anybody running for township or working on these conditions if we keep coming at these standards as far as we do. So give them some grace, give them a little bit of peace in their lives and bless them. Remember that they're humans and they aren't in workplaces and cheating and they only know what they know and they're trying to get things done.

Thank you, ma'am. Any other public comment? Yes, ma'am.

I just wanted to kind of, say a few words on that. If anyone has questions about it, we're very open to talk about it. It is a place where everybody is welcome. If we made it for Lyman's Friendship, I support all the businesses in Lyman's Friendship, and when it comes to extra citizen print, farther from that, that's when it gets questioning, and I just want everyone to feel safe, and everyone who comes to the bookstore, it has a whole party of them, four book clubs and people meeting, and anything that's ever been addressed to the council, we've handled it immediately. We've paid every fee, everything that's been asked of us, and it shows up in the books.

It's not shown in the books?

I'm sorry, I didn't talk through your time. I don't even know you, so. It's become the rest from this point again.

This is, nobody talked during your little spiel.

Yeah, I just wanted to know that it's a place where everyone is welcome and we have followed every single guideline that has been presented to us thoroughly with lawyers. And this has been a 20-year goal, a lifetime goal. I'm an avid reader. I love history. I love this community. Like, you're thriving there. I used to drive an hour to work out some adult kids in Chelsea sports. Like, it has been so amazing to go to all of my kids' things and to have someone just every day fighting it and bringing us in and calling the health department. We don't have to go there. It's just a waste of people's time. And please, just let me be a mom. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Any other public comment? Seeing none, I will take a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn. Second. I'm moving to second. All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

All opposed? Aye.