Sumpter sells disputed property to wife of township trustee

Robin LaPorte, the wife of Sumpter Township Trustee Don LaPorte, submitted an unsolicited offer of $53,500 for a 9.32-acre piece of township property near their home on Sumpter Road and the township board accepted the offer on a 3-1 vote at its regular meeting Feb. 13.
Robin LaPorte said she wants to build a new events center. The approval was contingent on getting site plan approval.
Trustee Peggy Morgan cast the only no vote after pointing out this was the property that Corey Blue and his neighbors wanted to buy and was told by the township the sale had to be through a bidding process.
The Feb. 13 meeting, with only a bare quorum present, was chaired by Trustee Tim Rush in the absence of Supervisor Tim Bowman, who was absent and excused, along with Trustee Matt Oddy who was reportedly in Florida on a family emergency, and Trustee Don LaPorte who was recovering from his second knee-replacement surgery.
Trustee Morgan said her concern is that there is a policy when property is sold, everybody bids.
“I do not agree with doing it this way,” she said. “Everyone should have the same crack at it.” She said her opinion had nothing to do with the name [LaPorte].
She said years ago, a group of neighbors wanted to buy this property that was attached to their properties, but they were told no, it has to go out for bids. She said this property really should be added to a new list of properties the township wants to sell. She said selling the property this way is opening Pandora’s Box.
Treasurer Bart Patterson said this is an unsolicited offer on property that had been out for bids and both bidders withdrew their offers, including this bidder.
However, he recommended refusing Robin LaPorte’s second, last-minute offer on the medical center because it is with a Realtor.
He said Multi-List has a history on the property and this is “not in a back-door way.”
Morgan asked how many properties the township is selling in this manner?
Patterson said it is a landlocked property with an easement and everyone knows it’s been up for sale.
“I don’t know that everyone knows,” Morgan replied, and Patterson insisted that everyone knows and it’s on his phone on the Multi-Listing site, like Craig’s List.
Morgan asked township attorney Rob Young how often the township has done unsoliticted sales.
Young said this is not tax-reverted property, but it was given to the township, “sold to us,” when the county no longer wanted to run the medical center. He said there was a request by Supervisor Bowman to do this differently and use real estate agents and there was some success in this and two or three applied to rebid on this one and then both withdrew their bids.
“This property has been across the cycle quite a bit,” Young said.
“Is this the same property, many years ago, Corey Blue tried to purchase?” she asked.
Young said Corey Blue and neighbors heard that an outside storage facility was planned. He said LaPorte met with some of those guys and they suggested the township sell it to them and cut it up. There were issues with four-wheelers. Nobody made an offer, Young said.
Patterson said if it is sold by a real estate agent on Multi-List there are commissions of $3,000 or so. He said the site plan process is not done.
He made a motion to accept Robin LaPorte’s unsolicited offer on the property and reject a second offer on the medical center. This was seconded by Clerk Esther Hurst and passed on a 3-1 vote.
The sold property was listed as #81-016-99-0014-715.
In other business at the 47-minute meeting, the board:
• Learned that Public Safety Director/Police Chief Eric Luke and Police Lt. Patrick Gannon had given 60-month notice (5 years) of their retirement as part of a MERA DROP program to allow employees and employers time to plan for the transition;
• Set a 6 p.m. public hearing on the 2024-25 budget for March 12;
• Approved the recommendation by the Cemetery Committee for revised cemetery fees;
• Approved the reappointment of Maria Beaudrie to the Zoning Board of Appeals with a term to expire March 10, 2027;
• Approved the recommendation from the Election Commission to set the election workers hourly wages at $18 for chairperson, $17 for co-chairperson, and $16 for workers;
• Approved hiring Rachel Scott for the DPW seasonal, temporary, part-time position at a pay of $16.04 per hour, expiring April 24;
• Approved using federal ARPA funds for a $74,985 payment for the BS&A Cloud and Dashboard Modules Agreement;
• Approve the contract with SenCy Inc. to assist the township in developing and implementing a cyberhealth plan and the monitoring of its cybersecurity-related activities at an annual cost of $10,800. A final sentence in the agreement that extends the agreement for another year, each year, was removed with agreement from a SenCy representative who was present at the meeting;
• Approved posting a notice that resumes will be accepted for a part-time clerk position for up to 29 hours a week;
• Received no oral reports from the supervisor’s office, attorney, police/ordinance, fire, or building department following a “receive and file” motion for all reports;
• Heard Trustee Rush announce at the beginning of the meeting that they were having a consent agenda and yet a vote was taken on each separate agenda item as with a regular agenda; and
• Heard resident Mary Ban report that her road finally got graded by the county so her husband could get to his doctor’s appointments. She said his neck is fragile and can’t be jarred. Besides his doctor’s appointments, he was unable to attend a VFW meeting. Ban said Sumpter residents pay the same county taxes as other residents, but, “They neglect us in Sumpter.” She also said she is praying for Deputy Clerk Karen Armatis who broke her ankle.