Board - Regular Meeting

Call to order, Charter Township of Plymouth Board of Trustees regular meeting, Tuesday, August 26th, 6.30 p.m.

Roll call.

Bill Ikes.

Here.

Kim Gitteka here. Supervisor Kearney.

Here. Bob Dorchevitz. Here.

Sandy Groth. Here. John Stewart.

Here.

We have a quorum.

All right. Pledge of Allegiance. So the agenda, before we approve it, we're going to make some modifications. Item five will be removed, which is an employment agreement. And then we will move item seven and eight, which has to do with the trustee appointment, resignation and appointment. We will move that up to number seven. two so that we have at least one person who isn't feeling well and they may have to leave early. So anyway, so I'm requesting a Motion to approve the agenda with the two changes, deleting five and moving seven and eight up to number two.

I move that we approve the agenda deleting item number five, making item number seven item two, and making item number eight item three.

Okay, we'll call vote.

Second.

I think Chuck made the motion and Sandy second.

I think I had to make the motion.

Oh, you made the motion, sorry, okay. Second, John, sorry about that. Okay. All right, roll call vote. Bob Dershowitz.

Yes.

Sandy Groth. Yes. John Stewart. Yes. Mark Clinton, not present. Chuck Kermie.

Yes.

Bill Ikes?

Yes.

Tim Gatica? Yes. Motion passes.

Approval of the consent agenda, which the minutes are handed out in hard copy and also were sent out by email, right? Correct. The minutes from July 21. They were somewhat condensed from the first the initial board packet, is that right? Yes, and some corrections were made.

I have something I would like to say. I was gonna address this to Fire Chief Conley, but he's not here. So what I was gonna say is that I noted in the monthly report that Fire Station Two was closed for 81 hours in July, and I'm aware it's also been closed some in August. I sent him an email and requested the total number of hours. that the station has been closed so far in August. And I wanna state that this brings to mind another issue. It has come to my attention that Mr. Robert McCurdy has requested and received through FOIA, a copy of what I believe to be the draft proposal slash report from ESCI that this board contracted for last September. That agreement had a timeline of six months, which would have been March, 2026, an additional five-plus months after that date, we, the board, are still waiting, yet the public has already seen the draft. Can anyone explain to me why this report has been available and not presented to the Board of Trustees for review, consideration, and potential action before this time, and why it is that I, as a board member with fiduciary responsibility, as well as everyone else sitting here, has to learn about this after it's been placed in the hands of a citizen? I'd like to know what the problem is and what we're going to do to fix it because we have got to straighten out our priorities and do what needs to be done.

We were approving the consent agenda.

Yeah, well, that was my comment to the employer chief during the consent agenda, but he's not here, so you guys got to hear it instead.

The schedule is September 22nd for the company to come here and review the results. And that was a draft that shouldn't really, technically drafts are not allowed to be foiled, but... And how long has that been in the hands of our fire chief? Don't know.

Since June or July?

Not the, the original draft, yes. Well, I don't know whether it was June or July, but anyway, it's September 22nd.

It's not acceptable.

Well, I think you'll accept it once you'll see it.

I THINK IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH IT, SUPERVISOR KERMEY.

YES. ALL RIGHT. APPROVAL OF THE CONSENT AGENDA.

CAN WE APPROVE THE MINUTES?

WELL, THAT'S PART OF THE MINUTES, AND I CALLED THAT ATTENTION TO THE NEW ONES. SO ANY OTHER QUESTIONS ON THE CONSENT AGENDA BEFORE WE APPROVE IT?

I MAKE A MOTION THAT WE APPROVE THE CONSENT AGENDA. for the August 25th, 2026 meeting.

Do we have a second?

Second.

Roll call.

Sandy Grove? Yes. Don Stewart? Yes. Bob Dorchevitz?

Yes.

Kim Gatica? Yes. Bill Iks?

Yes.

Chuck Cermy?

Yes.

Mark Clinton is not present. Motion passes.

Next item is public comment. You have three minutes to talk on anything you want.

I'm Estella Olianski. I am the Republican candidate for Senate for Plymouth Township. And I just wanted to let the board know that from the way that I see it, we need to have the empty seat filled by a Republican. The people elected a Republican board, and the first criteria for anyone who wants to be on the board should be that they're a Republican. I have asked people in my neighborhood. No one knew that there was even an open seat, so the communication about open seats did not go out to everybody. There was no e-message, and if you happen to be somebody in the know, you're lucky enough to know there was a seat open, but I don't think that the board did their due diligence in letting township residents know. And if you want to go back because you don't have any Republicans, go back, and I have a copy of that if you need to see it, of the votes that Republicans got, and the next one in line for a seat would be Dan Callahan. It really isn't fair to consider someone who is not of our party because the people in Plymouth overwhelmingly elected a Republican to be on this board. Thank you.

So are you saying the four that are under consideration are not Republicans?

Pardon, well, as far as I know, that's the rumors I've heard, so yeah. Mm-hmm.

Good evening, members of the Board. My name is Joe Riley, and I'm asking for your support and your vote to fill the vacant seat on the Plymouth Township Board of Trustees. I believe every decision this board makes should answer three questions. Is it fiscally responsible? Is it fair to the residents? And does it protect the character of Plymouth Township? These are the three principles that would guide me in every decision I make as a trustee. For the past seven years, I've been proud to call Green Meadows neighborhood home. Prior to that, I graduated just down the road at Eastern Michigan University. Since then, I've spent more than a decade building my career in operations, financial accountability, and high stakes negotiations. As the operations director in an automotive industry, I oversee teams and operations across the country. I am also on site each week at the transmission plant down the road and Michigan Assembly plant in Wayne. I carry full financial accountability for these teams in these operations and lead major contract negotiations with the UAW. This work has taught me how to navigate high pressure situations, listen carefully, and protect the long-term interest of the organization. Beyond my professional career, I currently serve as the vice chairman on the... You're out of time.

So, finish it up. You got five seconds. I don't think you restarted. I don't think I restarted. You started right? Okay, sorry.

One more minute. One more minute. I didn't reset it. I apologize.

Through this service, I have gained firsthand experience in our ordinances, our public processes, and the responsibility of making decisions that directly affect our community's homes and neighborhoods. Lastly, my fiance, Helena, is here with us tonight. We are like so many others that live here, a couple who intentionally chose Plymouth Township as a place where we want to build our lives, raise our family, and invest in our future. My goal is to help bridge the generational gap that called this township home, not by changing what makes Plymouth Township special, but by protecting it while preparing responsibly for this future. Thank you for your consideration. I respectfully ask for your support and vote. Thank you.

Thank you. Good evening. My name is Stephen Bassett. I chair the Zoning Board of Appeals. And I'm here to talk about Joe and encourage you to consider him to fill that empty seat. I encourage you to consider him to fill that empty seat. My work with him for about a year now has been great. What he said about his understanding of the community and importance of the community and how to deal with the community is very true. He's always very prepared. He always goes to each site and sometimes even talks to people who are there. He's very considerate, very patient with the applicants. It can be very frustrating for them. They get a little irritated sometimes. That's the nature of what we're doing. But Joe shows leadership, shows the ability to think through problems, consider solutions, consider ways to compromise perhaps to help a property owner. So I've appreciated working with him. He's very good. He's very knowledgeable. He's very patient. He's very dedicated. I can tell he's fully representing the Zoning Board of Appeals very well. So I would encourage you to consider him for the MCC. However, I'd be a little upset because I'm losing a good member of my board, but hey, it's good for the township, I guess, same way. Thank you. Thank you.

Good evening. I'm Jack Dempsey, 42-year resident and taxpayer here in Plymouth Township. And I'm here not to talk about board openings and vacancies, but a particular item as part of the master plan. And I was very encouraged to see coverage of the issue of woodlands and tree canopy. This is a nonpartisan issue. This is a quality of life issue. And pages 34, 35... basically talk about some goals and some proposals for how to, I would say, increase the tree canopy as development has reduced some aspects of our tree canopy in this township. There have been steps taken such as the residential tree program and then this payment in lieu of arrangement with some developments where trees have been contributed or cash has been contributed, so trees could be acquired and planted. But I think this is something that the Board, no matter who's on the Board, needs to be very cognizant of and supportive of, to take specific steps, real steps, every time something is considered, a development's considered, there's an issue with open space, an issue with parks, is to think about how one of the distinctive features of this township is its wooded nature. We only have to go next door to another township to see that even though there are subdivisions that have been in existence for 42 years and more, the tree canopy that they have is still very poor. And that's, I think, undercuts the whole idea of the beauty of a community. I really relish the fact that here in this township, we have a lot of trees. We have a lot of tree areas, woodlands. We have Miller Woods. We have all of this. But unless the board consciously looks at this issue every time it comes up and approves the master plan with an awareness that this is something we have to focus on, we will not be in this position 10 years from now or 20 years from now. And we'll look back and say, it's too bad we didn't take steps to make sure that we're going to have this same look, this same quality of life. So I encourage you to be aware of that. And I hope that you will approve the master plan as updated and proposed by the planners and then work to implement it. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Lisa Campitina and I actually serve now on the Wayne County Board of Canvassers. For those of you who don't know what that is, I'm part of a board that actually takes all of the election material after the day of the election and we review poll books, all of the ballots, the AV ballots, trying to make sure that all of that material is within plus or minus one, two, one or two ballots to make sure that things are as they should. And what I came here tonight to do was to congratulate Clerk Gaidica on how things went in Plymouth Township. Considering she took this position right before a major primary, which is not an easy task Everything went very very well a little glitch in the very beginning with a ballot style and all things considered Plymouth Township ended up on the right side as we went through that canvas. It was very smooth She showed up at trainings she showed up at the public accuracy test and she was there downtown at the canvas and every single time with a smile on her face. So I wanted to thank you and congratulate you, your team, as well as all of the inspectors that showed up to serve, because we really need you this November. So please consider serving again. And again, thank you, Clerk Gattaca.

Thank you so much.

Anyone else? Any topics? Anyone else? Any topic? All right.

Good evening. Once again, I do not plan to speak this evening. but after hearing some discussion about some things, I thought I'd speak. I just wanted to address quickly the whole process, if you're allowed to explain it, electing the next trustee, because I think a lot of us have heard a lot of conflicting information. I was told today that... I communicated with some on the board and they said it wasn't a done deal. However, when you look at the agenda page, it looks like fill in the blank, there's one person already selected. Then the supervisor stated there's four people. So how are the people here, anyone interested, know that this was going on? Can someone answer that today or maybe in the future? Or is that confidential information? Because you stated four people.

I didn't say it's four people. I thought you did. That was him. I know we look a little alike.

No, no, you stated that four people were under consideration. You said that when you sat down. I thought I heard that.

There's seven that I know of that expressed interest. Seven.

I'm just curious how you went about finding that people were interested, as I think this woman said here, Elaine, I mean, I'm sorry, that people didn't even know that there was a position open. So maybe someone can, one of the board members, fill the public or myself of how you went about this process. I know I was in touch with you and you instructed to contact trustees and explain, you know, your interests, but then I felt like... Maybe it was a done deal already or you were selecting somebody else from, I don't know, somewhere else. I don't know. Are you able to answer that or not?

I'm not going to talk about that right now.

Thank you.

Anyone else? All right. Next. Let's move on to item number one under new business. which is the annual budget presentation from the Western Township Utilities Authority, which in here there's a great history. It goes back to the 1980s. The 50s.

Pardon?

The 50s. Well, the early thoughts, right. But WTUA was formed out of necessity because there was a restriction on building in Canton, Plymouth, and Northville townships. and it has resulted in a very efficient operation. It only has four employees, and it transports sewage from the three townships to Ypsilanti, uphill, literally, to Ypsilanti, and that's where it's processed and put back in the Rouge River at a much cleaner rate than if it was sent to the Great Lakes Water Authority facility in the city of Detroit. So there's a lot of winners. The environment, the residents who are experiencing a substantial savings in sewer costs. All right. Susie.

I don't know if you can shrink that down a little. I noticed it was cutting some of it off.

Yeah, it's a little.

There we go. There we go. That's good. Yeah, so dating back to the 50s and 60s, the sewer system in southeast Michigan was very inadequate. When it rained, there was more water than what could fit into the pipes. They came up with this super sewer concept, which was to incorporate parts of western Wayne County, western Oakland County, and parts of Washtenaw, including Ypsilanti. Wayne County built the Rouge Valley system in the early 60s. And then, if you want to go to the next one, in the 70s and 80s, Ypsilanti opted out of the super sewer concept. They developed YCUA and built a treatment plant. They originally planned to discharge under the Huron River and Belleville Lake. The EPA DNR was issuing building moratoriums preventing growth in this area until the issues with the sewer system were dealt with. and the communities associated with the Wayne County system were ordered to pay, it was going to be a $1.4 billion project aimed at ending the sewer overflows. If you wanna go to the next one. Originally, Canton, Plymouth, and Northville townships tried to get into the Brownstown Township plant and they had contributed funds toward the planning. They were told by officials that they were instead being forced to use the Rouge Valley system that Wayne County had built. And ultimately they filed a lawsuit and ended up winning their planning money back. And the three townships started looking into different alternatives for their sewage problems. There was a committee, I think it's on the next slide, that was allocating costs of this huge construction commitment that they needed for that system and wanted the three townships in western Wayne County would bear 2 3rds of the incremental costs of the initial expansion of that system when the flows were only totaling around 8%. So the three townships got together and formed WTUA in 1986. and they were looking into the possibility of hooking the three townships into the Ypsilanti plant. It was operating at less than 50% capacity. It was only four miles from the Canton Township border, and it allowed our three townships to avoid the huge cost increases that were associated with the Wayne County sewage system. The construction started in the 90s. It was complete in, I believe, 94. So in eight years, we developed a cost-effective sewage system. We don't actually treat the sewage. We send it to Ypsilanti and it's treated there, but we have saved money and accommodated the growth in this area. We continue to do that. There were further expansions after WTUA was developed. The Lower Rouge expansion project was in the late 2000s. And that was because the initial construction was limited due to funding and because the area was still relatively undeveloped. And then when we finally exited the Wayne County system for good, we see sending flows there in 2017. Prior to that, we had been sending some to Wayne County and some to Ypsilanti. We executed the termination agreement with Wayne County in 2020, and the first year after doing that, the three townships combined saved approximately $5 million. We continue, we haven't kept track of the amount of money that we would have saved in the years after that, but it's a growing number because the infrastructure in the Wayne County system still needs a lot of work. Moving on to our budget, the overall increase on the budget this year is 2.85%. 75, roughly, percent of our budget is sewage treatment costs that are passed to us directly from YCUA. If you add in the cost of electricity, that becomes about 80% of our budget between electric and sewage treatment. If you go two more pages down, it breaks down the sewage treatment costs. So Ypsilanti's rates are up 3.5% this year. When you factor that in with our portion of their debt payment, their industrial pretreatment charges, and there's one other thing, the debt. Oh, our contribution to their pension. The overall sewage increase is 3.5. The O&M costs are up 1.3 overall. The budget was already reviewed and passed by Canton Township and Northville Township. The WTUA Board actually reviewed it yesterday and passed it contingent upon Plymouth Township's approval tonight. So unless you have any questions, that's all I have.

A budget under 3% is pretty good, considering the amount of inflation that is in the system today. It's a testimony to the efficiency of creative, fiscally conservative people managing operations.

I had one question on 80% of the cost on electricity. There are solutions that exist, right, to clean and condition electricity coming into facilities, number one, and to use P wave magnetism, number two, to reduce what's consumed.

The 80%, so sewage treatment makes up 75%. If you also add in electric with those charges combined, they're about 80%.

Okay, thank you for that clarification.

You're welcome. So what you're talking about is an idea to further reduce the 10% of the energy cost by conditioning it.

Sure, correct.

So that means what, making the sine wave as perfect and the voltage as perfect as possible?

It means cleaning the noise that comes on the signal from DT, which is called dirty electricity. Power factor is typically less than 100%. There's ways to increase it. So if you increase your power factor from 90% to 95%, you will use and pay for 5% less electricity. So I'll be happy to reach out to contact you to share that.

That's definitely something that we could talk to our director about. I'm an accountant, so that's outside of my knowledge base. Makes her head hurt.

Edison versus Tesla.

Yes, AC versus DC, and it turns out Tesla was right, even though they used DC chargers today.

Any other questions from the board on this budget? No? Then somebody has a motion to, are we going to, do we receive and file, or, well, there's a proposed motion.

You'd have to approve it, yeah.

So somebody can make the motion on page 102 of the packet, F1.

Move that the Board of Trustees approve Resolution 2026-08-25-56, adopting the 2026-2027 WTUA budget per the recommendations of the WTUA accountant. Second. Give me a second.

Is that Bill? Yes. Thank you. All right, roll call. Bill Eichs?

Yes.

Chuck Cermy?

Yes.

Kim Dedeke, yes. Sandy Groth? Yes. Bob Dershowitz? Yes. John Stewart? Yes. And Mark Clinton is absent. Thank you. Motion passes. Thank you.

Well, next item, we're jumping to item seven and pulling it ahead. This is accepting the resignation of Mark Clinton, trustee. We need, nothing becomes effective until it's actually accepted, so a letter doesn't, it kicks off the process, but it must be accepted by this board, a majority, and it'll be effective today. So I'm requesting a letter Somebody make a motion, as shown on page 207, right there on the screen.

I move to... F7. Yeah, I know. I move to... What am I moving to do? I move that the Board of Trustees hereby accepts the resignation of Mark Flynn from the Charter Township Board Chair of the Township of Plymouth Board of Trustees is effective immediately. Do I have a second?

Second.

Okay, roll call vote. Chuck Cermy?

Yes.

All right, Clinton is absent. Sandy Grove? Yes.

Bob Destrovitz? Yes.

Kim Gatica, yes. John Stewart?

Yes.

Bill Iks?

Yes.

Majority voting. Motion passes.

So item FA, which I'm sure many of you came here to talk about or hear. We are using tonight a process that is one of the recommendations of the Michigan Townships Association It is completely legal. In fact, it's their preferred way of doing it. And it is essentially the board can take a nomination, somebody seconds it, they can deliberate, and if they have four votes, then that person becomes elected. new trustee. We have used both methods over the years the soliciting resumes and we have and this method both ways got low performers in the same rate so I don't expect much change in that past experience. This is, I know, difficult for people. We've had a lot of changes. But interestingly enough, a lot of people want to be on this board. Apparently it provides some satisfaction to be serving your community and using your skills kind of like what George Washington did. He left his private sector business and he used those skills to run our government. And that's what we're doing here on a very small scale. Plymouth is not a large community of 28,000 people with a $25 million budget. And those of you who work in the auto industry, $25 million is not very much money considering what is spent on product development and tooling and machinery in the auto industry. So, but you can take those principles that you learn and use them here. So what I'm going to do is request nominations from the township board and we will deliberate or if somebody has a second, we will then vote.

Okay, I would like to say a few words, if I may. Sure. So we had... When people approached Chuck or any of us, he said, contact all the trustees and see if you can get a meeting. And I took a meeting with all four of the candidates that we considered. And they're all really good candidates. There wasn't one that I automatically objected to, so it's a really tough decision. But the one that I settled on was for one reason, and that is that we're in an unprecedented situation. When I leave in January, there will be four members of the board. The board will be governed by a majority, none of whom have ever received a single vote in any election in their lifetime. So it's fortunately, so it's not representative of the community, but it is what it is. In addition to that, there'll be potentially five members who have never served on an elected board. Sandy's been on the board for two years, and she's had a short learning curve because she understood it. But there's a long learning curve, and it's not going to... It's not going to be simple. So I don't think that the candidate that I chose has the support. But I think for those reasons, we should consider appointing Richard LeBlanc because he's held elected positions for 30 years or over 20, including his former state rep and the clerk in Westland. So that's my two cents worth. Okay.

I just wanna say, I value what you're saying. And I understand what you're saying because Mr. LeBlanc does have extensive history also as the clerk in Westland, but he has budgetary knowledge and he understands the financial aspect. We are going into a budget for next year. And I think that type of background would be very helpful.

So I'll nominate Richard LeBlanc. Pardon? I'll nominate Richard LeBlanc.

I'll second it.

So that means now we vote. Yep.

All right. All right. So roll call, Richard LeBlanc. Richard LeBlanc. So roll call vote.

He had an emergency procedure. He texted me about an hour before the meeting. So he had an emergency.

Okay, we're going to start with the roll call vote. Chuck Carmi?

No.

John Stewart? No. Kim Gatica? No. Bob Dershowitz? Yes. Bill Ives?

No.

Sandy Groth? Yes. Yes, okay. We have four nos and two yeses. Motion is defeated.

So now we continue to deliberate and nominate people.

So I would like to nominate Joe Riley, and I move that the Board of Trustees appoint Joe Riley to the Chartered Township of Plymouth Board of Trustees, filling the vacancy created by the resignation of Mark Clinton for the remainder of his term expiring November 20th, 2028. The appointment shall take effect immediately.

Second, and I call the question. Okay. What does that mean?

We don't know what that means. Let's vote.

No, I would like to ask the reasons why, what are your reasons without being, I don't want to be critical of any other candidates, but what is your thought process? I seconded the motion and I called the question. I think we- It's time to vote. The supervisors indicated that we could discuss it.

All right, so if somebody wants to say something, they can.

Clerk Gattaca, can you tell us why you are nominating Mr. Riley?

So I met with all the individuals that had reached out to me, and as Bob said, they all had positives, but I felt that Joe Riley rose to the top of all the candidates. I'm a firm believer in having... generational representation of a board as well as community representation. Joe lives in the east side of the township. We have a majority of our trustees are living on the west side of the township. And so I look at geographic balance as well within the township so that we have a good cross representation. From a generational perspective, I think it's important that we recognize that we have a lot of experienced individuals on this board and who all bring unique backgrounds and it's important to recognize that we want to, as Joe said in his comments earlier, to preserve what we value in this township, why many of us moved to this township to raise our families and also the fact that We also have a lot of young families continuing to move in this community. And so it's important that we engage and have individuals that are representative of our future for this township and have someone that is interested in preserving the things that we all love, but also looking to the future. And so those were some of the things. And then the other last piece that I'll mention is that I've had an opportunity to serve with Joe on the ZBA. and was very impressed with how he handled issues of individuals who have bought property and have requested changes in the zoning for their property to be able to build a home for their families. Some of the requests we would question on the board, but he handled a lot of those questions with integrity and also came up with solutions that was a win-win for the neighborhood and for the individual homeowner or future homeowner, I should say, on the property, as well as for the township and the community as a whole. I just appreciate his ability to lead as well as to think thoughtfully before taking action and really trying to understand a way to help this community and individuals in this community. So those were the reasons that I am selecting Joe Riley.

Thank you.

So we are bringing people to the board who have some experience elsewhere in the township. Bill Ikes was on the Planning Commission. Joe Riley is on the ZBA, Zoning Board of Appeals. So we're trying to provide some experience to offset, I know, the concern about not having run in an election before, and elections are brutal and expensive. So that... provide some offset that we're not, we're trying to take some experience into, direct experience into account. So any other questions or comments?

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Supervisor. I'm not here to debate. A couple months ago, you identified this gentleman. And I'm going to again refer to your word. Inordinate amount of time The Stewart Bureau of Investigation went into full swing two months ago.

Really encourage our voters to take advantage of participating in early voting, especially if you're not able to vote on election day, again on November 3rd. And for those who are on the permanent absentee voter list, we will be mailing out ballots by September 19th. So watch for your ballots. You can also bring your ballot into early voting if you want to run it through the tabulator. So that's another opportunity if you prefer to actually see your ballot go through the machine before the election day. versus mailing it back. I do encourage all voters, if you do vote by absentee, 14 days prior to the election, I would say drop off your ballot here at the drop box at the clerk's office drop box or the one on Port Street versus mailing it back because the chances of it arriving by 8 p.m. on election day is less likely to occur if you Wait, 14 days out.

As Bob just pointed out. Especially if the Supreme Court ends up.

Correct. So now, and then, yeah, Bob just mentioned the Supreme Court case that's out there. And right now, we are going to continue to follow the process of mailing out the ballots based on the Secretary of State's deadline. until we get actual notice that we are not allowed to do that. So the case is still pending, and so we're following that. But for right now, we're gonna continue to proceed in accordance to what currently is the law. And unless the president's executive order does stand, then we'll certainly try to get communication out as quickly as we can, and we'll have to pivot. until we're told that we cannot mail them out, we will continue to proceed.

Will you give us the background on this case for those of us that may not know what the executive order was about and the Supreme Court ruled two days ago on this?

Correct. So the president issued an executive order, actually I think it was prior to the primary election, to basically force the U.S. Postal Service to not mail out absentee ballots. Not deliver them. Not deliver them, excuse me. Not deliver. Not to deliver them.

Unless your name is on a list.

Correct. And so... Our Secretary of State has withheld that list and is continuing to withhold that list. And so essentially, there was lawsuits filed, which then basically prevented the executive order from being implemented fully. And then the Supreme Court recently ruled. And I haven't actually read the whole ruling. I think there are some issues with standing with the executive order, but I think there's also, I think they may have, I don't know.

It was perceived as a win by the president. So there may be some big confusion in a couple weeks.

Correct, because I think the Supreme Court, I don't know if they said, and I don't want to speculate, so I have to read it, so I don't know all the details, but we are going to review the recent decision, but I've talked to some other clerks about it, and until everything is final and resolved, we're going to continue to move forward.

What is the magic, what is the list that they're talking about?

They're talking about the voter list, and it has something to do with ratifying.

No, there's a list. What the executive order said was that Department of Homeland Security would provide a list of all the citizens in the U.S. and you have to be on that list in order for them to deliver your ballot. So the post office would have to sit there, okay, is Dwayne Zantopas president? Yeah, we'll deliver his ballot. OR A CITIZEN, AND IT IS ABSOLUTELY ABSURD AND NOT POSSIBLE TO DO. BUT HOPEFULLY THE SUPREME COURT WILL DO THE RIGHT THING AND KICK THAT THING OUT.

ALL RIGHT. SO OKAY. I KNOW A LITTLE BIT OF THE BACKGROUND, THEN. SO THERE WILL BE SOME POTENTIAL IMPLICATIONS HERE IN PLUMMETT TOWNSHIP. Okay, for me, the wood playscape that we've decided to refurbish, we have a $75,000 grant, not a grant. We're sharing some of the millage that we send to the county comes back to us, and it's being used to refurbish this 1995 resident-built facility that to tear down and duplicate would cost nearly a million dollars so and the recommendation from many people the so-called experts said tear it down but I didn't believe that and we're going forward it's been ruled to be very sound structurally and we're going to rebuild it especially since it's so loved by a couple generations of youth and Bill Ikes and our two park employees, Mike, and I don't know his last name, he's a relatively new person. He's wonderful and very, very skilled, and he has moved it along very quickly. The Ann Arbor Road, one lane closed under the CSX Railroad. will be closed until October 15th. They have run into trouble with finding there was two structures that were not on the drawing that were buried for years. There were drains and luckily they cleaned them out and it may improve the situation where there's constant standing water in that lane. They were filled with essentially dirt. So anyway, we're working on that. I'm disappointed. I expected it to be done by originally September 1st. That was the promise date. But in construction, there's almost no such thing as the word promise. The sidewalk in number five section, which is the far west end of the township, Our desire is to have it completed by September 15th. That will be the earliest ever if it happens. Then it will give the opportunity for the treasurer to invoice in time to allow 30 days to pay before it goes on the tax roll. I prefer that it not go on the tax roll because it's essentially an interest-free loan that the township is giving to anyone who's having sidewalk repairs done, and that there's carrying costs associated with that. And we may move away from interest-free when we start back over in Section 1 next year. The program is a real challenge to get quality work done on time, so a lot of residents get very frustrated. And we have empathy, but we're doing everything we can to make it smooth, but it's not going to be... Perfection, because the people involved in flat work are not what you call the top-tier construction companies. Flat work is considered simple business. The Legal Services RFP is out on BidNet. Thirty-five law firms or individuals have downloaded it, and we were working on, over the next two months, selecting companies. a list of law firms to negotiate with and potentially engage. Can you send us a copy of that? Yeah, we'll do that. Sheila Acker will get that. Yeah, thank you. In fact, we'll want a subcommittee of this board to be involved in the selection process. We'll talk about who that is so we get some names. We can't have more than three, of course. Mm-hmm. We're in the budget planning process. The budget is a big squeeze to try to not spend more than we bring in. So it's big work and we'll do a lot of work on that in the next few months. Remember that our next board meeting is Thursday, September 10th, Thursday. not Tuesday. And we did that so that our employees and others do not have, and our consultants do not have to scramble on the day after Labor Day to get things together. I think we'll provide a more smooth and well thought out. We're going to try. We've never done that, but we're going to try Thursday. So keep that in mind. Thank you everybody for being part of this process. We're gradually trying to build a team of people who can add high value to the township. People here don't get paid a lot of money to do this. Most of it is essentially donated, especially commissions and things like that. And it's testimony that people who live in this community have a vast talent of skilled trades, highly degreed people, scientists, engineers. So we want to tap into those people. So thank you.

Motion to adjourn.

Motion to adjourn. Second, third, fourth. Let's go.

You need a vote? You got to have a vote. Will you finish, Chuck? Yeah, but you got to do a voice vote. So all in favor? Aye. Opposed?

Let's say adjourn at what time?

Adjourned at, oh, got to do the, adjourned at 8.40 p.m.