At a 56-minute meeting on June 25, the Sumpter Township Board of Trustees voted unanimously to promote Rachel Scott to a full-time position in the Department of Public Works at a AFSCME union pay of $28.83 per hour with union benefits.
Trustee Don LaPorte, board liaison to the fire department, said Scott has been part time with the township since 2019 and she also is on the paid-per-call fire department where she works very hard. He called her an asset to the community.
DPW Director John Danci said the hiring committee conducted interviews for the recently posted full-time position. After discussion, he said he recommended Scott, who has worked for the DPW 28 hours weekly since last January.
He said the committee interviewed three other candidates and Danci interviewed a fifth candidate. He said all applicants did well during the interview process and have resumes that could benefit the township in future DPW roles.
AFSCME Local 1882 is part of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees union.
In other business at the June 25 meeting, the board:
• Removed from the agenda, on a 4-3 vote, approval of the bid by Diversified Excavating in the amount of $56,400 to lay a concrete pad for recycling, which would be paid by American Rescue Plan Act federal funds. Another bid was from Davenport Brothers for $51,790. Bids were opened May 17. Trustee Matthew Oddy asked that since all the ARPA funds have been allocated that they remove funds from some other project to make sure this dispersement is covered. The bid had been tabled from the last meeting, as well. Supervisor Tim Bowman said these things should be worked out before being brought to the board. Votes to remove the item from the agenda came from Rush, Oddy, Morgan, and Hurst; votes to leave it on the agenda came from LaPorte, Patterson, and Bowman;
• Approved unanimously the mileage reimbursement policy;
• Approved unanimously AFSCME’s request to use July 5 as its floating holiday. The request was signed by 13 AFSCME members and Randy Lynch’s name was marked “medical” and unsigned;
• Approved unanimously renewing the Provident Accident & Health Policy for the fire department with a premium of $5,295;
• Approved unanimously the proposal of Jan-Pro Detroit of Farmington Hills to clean Banotai Park restrooms twice weekly at a cost of $395 per month;
• Heard Finance Director Scott Holtz announce the landfill royalties were down 3% in May of this year at $190,925.77 from May last year at $215,447.43
• Heard DPW Director Danci report that he has five design tickets from the county specifying drain cleaning thoughout the township. Trustee Oddy said unless the drains in Monroe County are cleaned the Wayne County drain water has no place to go, as discussed in the recent Council of Western Wayne meeting. Danci said he would talk to Monroe County officials on the issue. Danci also commended an Eagle Scout named Wyatt who lives on Sherwood Road who has repaired fences at Banotai Park;
• Heard planning commissioner John Honey introduce himself and say he is running for trustee and would like their votes;
• Heard township businessman John Chapman said he got an unfair bill for personal property tax and he is not going to pay it. He said he has less than $100,000 in equipment in his car repair business and so does not qualify for that tax;
• Heard Joe Richert of Huron Township introduce himself as president of Special Tree Rehabilitation Center, saying he is running for county commissioner in the 11th district;
• Heard Heather Smiley, candidate for U.S. Congress, introduce herself, saying she is challenging Debbie Dingell and that the government is spending money it doesn’t have;
• Heard Mary Ban give a promotion for Todd Robinson, part of Pharmacare Drugs in Sumpter, saying he put food in the township’s food closet and his pharmacy does home deliveries of prescriptions. She also complained that there is no workshop again so the board doesn’t know what it’s doing because it needs discussion. She asked about political signs and Trustee Rush told her there used to be rules but in 2021 it was determined it was unenforceable because of the First Amendment and rules were removed. She also voiced approval on the Independent printing the Sumpter police awards. Then there was 16 minutes of discussion on the Independent and whether Sumpter was breaking the law by not following the newest state law on printing of legals, as alleged by Trustee Peggy Morgan; and
• Heard township manager Anthony Burdick report a focus group meeting was set for June 27 on ARPA fund spending, volunteers will work on the Banotai Park playscapes on June 28, and they are trying to bring back the turkey shoot, which is one of the more missed township functions.
Editor’s Note: For the most recent law on publication of legal notices see: https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Laws/MCL?objectName=MCL-691-1051