Sumpter Twp. Board approves financial audit with top rating

Rana Emmons, CPA, of Post, Smythe, Lutz & Ziel of Plymouth, presented the annual financial audit for Sumpter Township for the 2018-19 fiscal year, ending March 31.
The budget is about $9 million, according to figures released in March.
She said Sumpter got an “unmodified opinion” which means it is a clean audit and a top rating.
At the regular meeting of the Sumpter Township Board of Trustees, Emmons said property taxes were up 1.7% because of taxable value increases, state shared revenue was up 4.9% to $30,000 (it had been 2% for years), and interest is $19,000 more (1.5 times what they took in last year) because rates went up some, and building permits doubled from the year before.
She said the building permits were mostly from Rawsonville Woods “and another development.”
Emmons said things were stable in the police department except for the $111,000 up in pension. She said the general fund was stable and came in $500,000 under budget which was added to the fund balance.
She stated figures for the Water and Sewer Department, with depreciation alone some $700,000 and cash flow increasing. She said last year they were $68,000 down and this year they went up.
There is no new debt and $460,000 in principal has been paid.
Emmons said the township has $9.6 million in total pension liability and $7.3 million in assets, leaving $2.3 million in net pension liability.
She said the stock figures are tested on Dec. 31, 2018 and the stocks were down that day, leaving a net investment loss for that day.
She said the township has 76% funded in the pension fund, “probably exceeding most communities … You contributed more than what the state requires … and put in extra every month, adding $260,000 extra this year.”
Township attorney Rob Young said the Water and Sewer Department had $692,860 depreciation loss and they really should back that out which makes for $460,000 cash flow.
“It’s a bookkeeping loss,” Young said. “Not out of pocket.”
And, he said, as to the December 2018 stock prices, he said MERS makes that investment and the township doesn’t define where it goes.
Treasurer Ken Bednark said the single largest revenue is Carleton Farms landfill and the revenue has been declining year after year and he wanted it on the record.
Emmons said she didn’t have those figures with her.
Treasurer Bednark said the revenue from the landfill is down a couple hundred thousand dollars.
Trustee Matthew Oddy said the numbers should show revenues up from the landfill. He said the income has been up since 2011 and now decreased for the last two years.
They asked for a report on the landfill revenue for the next meeting.
At the March 12 township board meeting, Scott Holtz, who was township financial director at the time, told the board that the landfill royalties that are $2.6 million in the budget, currently were down 12%.
Trustee Don LaPorte said the police department retirements raised the pension loss.
The board unanimously approved the audit as presented by Emmons.
In other business at the Sept. 24 meeting, the board:
• Approved the Building Department Fee Schedule to be effective Oct. 1;
• Approved assignment of the deputy clerk and the clerk’s assistant as administrators of the Sumpter Township Website;
• Approved nine Parks and Recreation Commission members to attend the Michigan Festival and Events Association convention from Oct. 31 to Nov. 3 at Double Tree by Hilton Hotel in Bay City, with costs not to exceed $3,500. Attendance was approved for Mark Argo, Dawn Argo, Richard Pokerwinski, Sharon Pokerwinski, Don Swinson, Holly Swinson, Krystal Tackett, Faith Tackett, and Drusilla Allen;
• Approved a memo of understanding between Sumpter Township and AFSCME Local 1882 concerning the use of a temporary employee in the office of township clerk. The employee is filling in while the regular employee is on maternity leave. Hourly rate shall be $16.85 and the temporary employee shall not work more than 40 hours a week and no more than a total of 90 days;
• Approved paying warrants totaling $2,410,848.19 with a roll-call vote;
• Heard Trustee Tim Rush announce National Weather Service training at 6:30 p.m., Oct. 24, at Fire Station #1;
• Heard Clerk Esther Hurst announce Zywicki Greenhouse again has brought potted chrysanthemums to decorate the township hall’s front door for fall. She expressed the township’s thanks for the gift;
• Heard Adrian Slaughter invite the public to watch the board meetings live on Facebook. She sets up her cellphone on a tripod at each meeting and sends it out to township residents unable to attend the meetings because many do not have Comcast, where the township posts its meeting, or have problems with the Comcast service. She said people can comment on the meetings and she will bring the comments back to the meeting and ask the questions. She also asked if the township had a drone ordinance since one flew over her property. Public Safety Director Eric Luke told her she does not own the airspace above her property so they have no rules on drones. He said the FAA has rules around airports. He said laws have not caught up to technology. “I’ll deal with that on my own,” Slaughter said and Luke said, “Please don’t take a shotgun” and Slaughter assured him she wouldn’t;
• Heard Slaughter also urge residents to support the UAW members who are on strike. She said she is a UAW member and supports the strikers. She said when residents go by a picket line to blow their horns or say nothing, but don’t say nasty things. She said residents can donate at the picket lines or at the union halls to buy food for the strikers. She said the closest picket lines are at the GM facilities at 2625 Tyler Rd. in Ypsilanti, 50000 Ecorse Rd. in Van Buren Township, and at Romulus Transmission on Ecorse west of Wayne Road. “There are a lot of auto workers in Belleville, Sumpter and Van Buren Township,” she said. “They spend money in the communities … and they won’t have money to spend if they don’t give us what is promised,” she said of GM;
• Heard Miss Harris ask how she could get a videotaped copy of a past meeting. Deputy Supervisor Karen Armatis said the meetings are not archived and that night’s meeting is the only one she could get if she asked. “I guess I’m out of luck,” Harris said; and
• Heard Mary Ban praise the previous Saturday’s VFW celebration of its 75th anniversary of Post 4434 on Bemis Road. She said the man who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam gave a moving speech and she thinks young people should hear this history. “Socialism? Communism? They haven’t a clue,” Ban said. “PTSD is real for these people. Young people are making a mockery of our country.” She also said about a third of her mail in Sumpter continues to be addressed to Van Buren Township. She asked what this 48111 situation will do to affect voting patterns or the census or finances or other things. “He hasn’t been challenged by his own board,” Ban said of VBT Clerk Leon Wright who initiated the 48111 change. Ban also said she saw Paris Drive being paved the day before and Armatis told her the county had money left in the budget at the end of the year, so they did Paris Drive. Ban also said Willis Road is now smooth. She has been trying to get Sumpter Road resurfaced from Hull to Bemis for two years since it is splitting apart.