Sumpter Township board gives finance director $5,000 raise

A proposal to extend Finance Director Scott Holtz’s contract for two years and give him a $5,000 raise each of those two years was considered by the Sumpter Township Board of Trustees at its regular meeting Feb. 12.
After extensive discussion, the board approved, on a 5-2 vote, giving Holtz a $5,000 raise as of October 2019 and a standard raise for the second year of the contract which will end in November 2020 when a new board is elected.
He was hired in October 2017.
The township policy is to have all appointed positions end with each regular election so the new board can make appointments and not be saddled with appointments from a previous board.
Voting against the motion were Treasurer Ken Bednark and Trustee Tim Rush. Holtz was not present at the meeting.
Treasurer Bednark had asked the board to table any raise until after the upcoming budget meetings, so the budget can be scrutinized before spending any more money. He said the township has upcoming big expenditures that have to be considered.
Also, he had there are overlap duties between his office and Holtz.
“I can’t attest personally if he is good, bad, or indifferent,” Bendark said. He said he noted the number of 215 hours taken off over a 12-month period, which is almost six weeks worth of time.
He said the treasurer’s office has an annual current budget of just $133,000.
Bednark said Holtz was hired at a salary of $60,000 and with a $5,000 raise for the first year, it would grow to $65,000 and with the proposed $5,000 for the second year, that would put him at $70,000.
This would give Holtz an 8.5% annual raise. Bednark said his deputy treasurer, with similar duties to Holtz, makes $25.08 per hour.
“It’s unheard of to ask for a $5,000 raise in one year,” he said.
Bednark said in preparation for the budget session, each department has been asked for a “pro-forma” projection of future costs for the next 24 months.
“We are having escalating costs and declining revenue,” Bednark said. “It is poorly timed asking for a raise right now.”
Clerk Esther Hurst said the $5,000 raise doesn’t come into play until October, after the budget hearings.
“I believe he deserves it,” she said.
“I don’t have any problems with Scott, but I’m very disturbed about upcoming needs,” Trustee Tim Rush said.
He said there are major repairs needed on the main fire station, the water department needs work on its system, and other expenditures coming up.
“We could go through half of what’s in our budget,” he said, asking why it would hurt to wait another couple of months to consider the October raise.
Supervisor John Morgan said that Holtz earned the time, but Bednark said he hasn’t seen the original contract to know how much vacation and sick time he has coming.
“He gets over six weeks,” said Supervisor Morgan, who recommended the raise and put the item on the township board agenda. He said a performance review was held in November by him, Clerk Hurst, and Human Resources Coordinator Michelle Bellingham.
Trustee Don LaPorte said he couldn’t believe the township got Holtz for the cost it did and there is zero discipline in his record, showing he was not disciplined for violating any rules. Trustee LaPorte said he gives accurate reports and he spells things out so they can understand the reports.
“I agree with Mr. LaPorte,” said Trustee Matt Oddy. “He was a deal at $60,000. The last one was $106,000 when he left. He’s $16,000 below other finance directors in the area. We don’t want to lose the guy.”
Resident Jay Bardell said this is an 8% raise and the police department does an excellent job and they get 1%. He pointed out Holtz has been at Sumpter Township just a year and a half.
“We don’t need a speech,” Supervisor Morgan snapped, cutting off Bardell’s remarks.
Resident Adrian Slaughter said the previous director was at Sumpter for 10 years and started at $40,000. Holtz started out at $20,000 more than that.
“You’re supposed to have some parameters,” Slaughter said.
“There was ten years difference. I want to make sure you understand,” Supervisor Morgan said.
Slaughter replied she’s having a hard time putting it together that you get six weeks vacation and sick time after one-and-a-half years. She said, however, everyone deserves a yearly raise or bonus.
Trustee Oddy said the reason the part-time person for the treasurer’s office was discussed was because they wanted to make sure the township allocated the funds already scheduled for a part-time person.
Slaughter said to Oddy, “You are the one. Every time I say something, you are the only one who ever says something.”
Bednark pointed out that he is the treasurer of the township and wants to be fiscally responsible and careful with spending township money.
“I do not want to saddle the new board with tentacles of this board,” Bednark said. “There are much, much bigger issues here. When you start hearing what is happening you’ll understand why I as treasurer am so frugal.”
In a written report to the board, Holtz indicated the raise was not in the budget, but will be budgeted for future years, if approved.
In other business at the Feb. 13 meeting, the board:
• Approved having Christopher Brinkmeier of Royal Oak as back-up building inspector. Supervisor Morgan said the regular building inspector is going to be off for a while and this one will work the same schedule. He is highly qualified, Supervisor Morgan said;
• Approved the first amendment to the Sumpter Township Solid Waste Collection Agreement. Young reported it is two years with no increase to the $2.04 per unit per month present fee and ten years with an increase of 2.9% per year, for a 12-year agreement;
• Approved creating a hiring committee for the half-time position in the Treasurer’s Office, made up of Treasurer Bednark, Human Resources Coordinator Michelle Bellingham, Finance Director Scott Holtz, Clerk Esther Hurst, and clerk Anna Winter, who as a union member would have no vote;
• Approved the Guardian Alarm monitoring agreement for the township hall at a cost of $117 per month, as recommended by Trustee Rush. “This will be a state of the art, digital system,” Rush said;
• Approved formation of a committee for recommendations to the board for implementation of the new audio/visual system in the board room. Trustee Rush is chairman, serving with Public Safety Director Eric Luke and Karen Woodington from the supervisor’s office;
• Heard Public Safety Director Luke say he attended a meeting of the consortium for the police department CAD system his department uses, it is SEMIA with an OSSI system. He said it originally had 13 members which has fallen to eight members. There has to be an increase in fees to cover the costs, for the members left. He said Central Square bought the OSSI system which will force Sumpter to pay $10,000 to $20,000 for maintenance and a share of $100,000 for cost. The township needs to go with the CLEMIS system which started 40 years ago. Romulus pulled out of OSSI and Huron Township is looking at doing the same. Since, Huron Township does dispatch for Sumpter, Sumpter will be forced to join on their tail, Director Luke said. All departments at 34th District Court will be in CLEMIS. The cost will still be a lot, he said, $88,000 compared to $30,000, and there are costs for changing — $5,000-$6,000 to get the information out and $5,000 to $10,000 to put it into CLEMIS. The brunt of the cost will be paid by Huron Township because they have the 911 system. LaPorte asked if forfeiture funds can be used and Director Luke said they haven’t historically, but he will check into it;
• Heard Trustee Rush ask about the fatal accident of a Canadian truck driver on top of Carleton Farms landfill. Director Luke said now that citizens are allowed to go to the top of the hill it’s an accident waiting to happen. He said when a worker with experience can be killed, what chance does an average Joe have? Wearing a hardhat wouldn’t save you when you get run over by a truck, he said. Bednark asked why the dump can’t set up a station at the gate to stop residents from going to the top of the dump. Township attorney Rob Young said he had a conversation with the dump that has a temporary operator now. In a couple of weeks they will have their new guy in place and, “We will sit down and address this,” Young said;
• Heard Fire Chief Joe Januszyk report that three new fire fighters passed their tests. And, another sprinkler line froze at the fire station and Balfour has to come out and clear out the wet insulation;
• Learned taxes will be collected at the township Treasurer’s Office through Feb. 28 and then tax payers have to travel down to the county to pay. Treasurer Bednark said he would like to know the whys of the numbers at the landfill, with payments to the township declining for three years. [According to township records the landfill royalty fund receipts for fiscal year 2019 show a decrease of $235,671.38.] He wondered if they were diverting trash to other landfills to cut the amount paid Sumpter. Recycling would cut the amount, too, he said. Young said a lot of Canadian trash no longer comes to the landfill and “recycling is not something cost-effective.” Redirection of the waste is possible, Young said. Bednark said he would like to see a landfill representative come to a township meeting to discuss this and Young said sometime it’s the economy. “This township is like a one-company town,” Bednark said. He said the landfill is the “mother’s milk of the community” and Young added, or, “the narcotic…”;
• Heard Supervisor Morgan say he wanted to change the official hiring date of Brad Wheelock for seniority purposes and the board approved that move;
• Also heard Supervisor Morgan say Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy came to meet with officials and her concerns are in a flyer in the back of the meeting room;
• Also heard Supervisor Morgan name himself as liaison to the Water/Sewer Department so he could work with Young on the 12th lawsuit filed by Sheldon Futernick, owner of Holiday West and Holiday Woods mobile home parks;
• Was informed that the New Boston bridge was expected to be completed in June;
• Heard Trustee Don Swinson announce that the Parks and Recreation Commission held a special meeting on Feb. 6 and after an hour of discussion voted it cannot donate anything to the Missoula Children’s Theatre, originally scheduled to take place in the Sumpter Community Center gymnasium in May. He said the commission said the funds it has are already earmarked for what’s in its budget;
• Heard Trustee LaPorte report that all the drains at the fire station have been eroding for 20 years and there is a serious trip hazard. He said the fire hall holds one of the township’s largest voting precincts, Pcts. 4 and 6. Director Luke said he went to Southgate, which had a similar problem, and will make a slideshow to show the board. “It is a hazard. Drains have eroded,” Luke said. LaPorte said it will take a substantial amount of money to repair;
• Heard Clerk Hurst announce that the Huron School District will have a May election and she is looking for election workers;
• Heard former Treasurer Peggy Morgan tell of her problems with getting her retirement pay. She said it is a problem for all the employees;
• Heard Adrian Slaughter say a friend of hers in Grand Rapids told her about the backhoe stolen off Clerk Hurst’s property in November. “I was totally shocked,” she said. “That’s the type of information this community needs to know about. Thieves stealing our equipment? We need to know.” She said people could be on the lookout for the missing items. Hurst said she filed a police report. Slaughter also noted the cable station still is not up. Trustee Rush said he took over responsibility for the AV and that evening’s meeting is being recorded and will be shown three times the next day. Slaughter said they used to have announcements on cable. The cable channel has been down for over a year;
• Heard former Trustee Sheena Barnes ask if the township will be getting its $62,000 worth for the cable upgrade. “That’s a lot of money,” Barnes said, noting they paid $32,000 to put it into the supervisor’s office. (Actually, the equipment has been moved to another location.) “My cellphone does more for me than $62,000 … It’s taxpayers’ money … It’s sad we can spend it on the board, not residents … If it’s not printed in the paper — and we almost got rid of it — we don’t know what they’re doing”;
• Heard Trustee Rush say the equipment purchased by the township is a mini television station. “Eventually, we’ll get it right”;
• Heard a resident say he is helping to form the route for the June 3 Ride for a Reason. He said he expects 2,000 motorcycles to come through Sumpter for the charity ride; and
• Went into closed-door session to discuss pending litigation — the pending Futernick case.