Sumpter hires finance director, audit firm in special meeting

At a special, 15-minute meeting on Aug. 1, the Sumpter Township Board of Trustees hired Michelle Cole, CPA, of Ann Arbor as its new financial director and Post, Smythe, Lutz, and Ziel of Plymouth as its new auditor for this year and next.
That Plymouth CPA firm is replacing Post, Smythe, Lutz, and Ziel of Wayne, which has been the auditor for decades, for those two audits only.
Trustee Donald Swinson was absent from the meeting.
The township has been advertising for a finance director since Scott Holtz resigned with one week’s notice as of April 30. The posting for the position, at a salary of $60,000, began running on May 6 and the township received 14 applicants.
Cari Ford of Post, Smythe, Lutz & Ziel of Wayne, which oversaw the hiring process, said they chose only to interview seven of the 14. She said the applicants they chose not to interview were either asking too much money or had a business administration background with very little accounting.
Of the seven selected for interview, one withdrew his application the day after the interview because he said he was “shocked” at the $60,000 salary offering, two accepted other positions (one shared that he accepted Assistant Finance Director for Eastpointe at $82,500), three were impressive professionals, but did not have governmental or BSA software experience, she said.
Ford said, “I would expect that I would spend a year training and assisting them even though I expect they would be requiring more salary…”
The last interviewee, Michelle Cole, was originally interviewed at the end of May, Ford went on to say in a memo to the township board.
“In our negotiation process it was determined that she would not be available on Thursdays, so she would only be at the township four days a week,” Ford wrote. “At that time, we decided to continue to look for a qualified candidate who was available five days a week.
“We have been unable to find a candidate anywhere near Michelle’s qualifications,” Ford wrote. “She has extensive governmental, budgeting, and BSA software experience. She reached out to me last week after seeing that our ad was still running, to let me know that she was still available in any capacity to help me out.
“The hiring committee is recommending the hiring of Michelle Cole at a starting salary of $65,000,” Ford wrote. “She is by far the best candidate for the position who should need minimal assistance from me. She seems to be a real go-getter who has vowed to fulfill her duties as finance director and is very excited to become a part of the township.”
Ron Traskos of Post, Smythe, Lutz, and Ziel of Wayne, shared Ford’s letter with the board before joining in the recommendation to hire Cole.
Cole’s resume shows 20 years of progressive municipal finance experience, starting with Plante Moran and moving on to division finance officer for the Genesee County Water Authority in Flint, 2009-2012; workforce management consultant for KRONOS; regional territory manager for New World Systems, Troy; chief financial officer for Huron-Clinton Metropolitan Authority, 2016-17; and consultant from 2012 to the present.
She will begin work at four days a week starting Aug. 12.
Treasurer Ken Bednark voted against hiring Cole. He had invited Plante Moran in for a recent presentation on how they offer financial director services without a community having to pay benefits for a full-time employee. He did not comment on his “no” vote on Aug. 1.
Audit firm
For the other item on the agenda, Traskos recommended hiring Post, Smythe, Lutz & Ziel of Plymouth to perform the audits for fiscal years 2018-19 and 2019-20 because his firm — Post, Smythe, Lutz & Ziel of Wayne — could not do the audits for those years because it had been involved in helping out Sumpter’s financial office and couldn’t audit its own work.
Treasurer Bednark said that Plante Moran withdrew from the audit bidding because they were just going to do finance director work and then found they couldn’t do that.
Traskos said one bidder, Rehmann of Ann Arbor, did the audit for Sumpter about 15 years ago when there was an issue and his firm had to be finance director.
The bids submitted by Post, Smythe, Lutz, and Ziel of Plymouth call the firm PSLZ LLP of Plymouth and Bloomfield Hills, with no reference to the longer name.
Traskos recommended Post, Smythe, Lutz, and Ziel of Plymouth, the low bidder, to do the work. That firm bid $14,000 for the first year and $14,000 for the second year.
Rehmann bid $21,000 to do the first audit and $19,000 for the second audit.
Traskos said the two firms — Post Smyth, Lutz and Ziel of Plymouth and his firm Post, Smythe, Lutz, and Ziel of Wayne — separated 12-13 years ago and “functionally we are separate. … We have been two different firms.”
Traskos went on, “There is no collusion. We gave them the same information as Rehmann,” noting 13 years ago Rehmann’s fee was $13,000 for the Sumpter audit.
“They committed to deliver Sept. 30,” Traskos said. “It won’t be a problem and we can move forward.”
Trustee Don LaPorte asked why Rehmann had to take over for Traskos’ firm in the past.
Traskos said his office has done Sumpter’s audits “for eons.”
He said his firm came in to do the audit preparation work because the financial director at that time didn’t post anything.
“They filled in when we couldn’t do it,” Traskos said of Rehmann.
Sumpter attorney Rob Young said the names of the two firms are identical and he wanted to make sure that when the two companies separated they had a dissolution of employees.
“These are two separate companies? But people will say you’re hiring yourself. There’s no ownership crossover?” Young asked.
Traskos said that Post, Smythe, Lutz, and Ziel are all dead. When they separated into two firms they kept the name because, “The name carries weight,” he said. He added that it’s the same name, but one is of Wayne and one is of Plymouth.
“There is no connection in any manner whatsoever,” Traskos said. “Zero connection.”
Trustee Tim Rush made the motion to hire the Plymouth firm for the two audits and Trustee Matthew Oddy seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous.