Businessman John Chapman curses before Sumpter Twp. Board

John Chapman, who for many years has owned an auto mechanics shop on Sumpter Road, just south of Willow Road, got up to speak at the Sept. 24 meeting of the Sumpter Township Board of Trustees.
He was angry over the township putting a cloud over his title so he can’t sell his business, saying, “… there’s a cloud on the title of my f—ing building…” He used the “f “word a second time in his remarks and started to use it again.
Trustee Tim Rush called out “point of order” and Chapman was asked not to curse.
Chapman said the township put a condemnation order on his building in 2002 and everything was cleared up, and, “Why hasn’t the cloud been lifted?”
Supervisor Tim Bowman said he didn’t know anything about the issue.
“Is my building condemned?” he asked, asking Supervisor Bowman if he could meet with his real estate agent and if Bowman could set up office hours to do so.
Township attorney Rob Young scolded Chapman for expecting to talk three minutes and have people know what he’s talking about. The board has a 3-minute limit on public comment, but often lets people speak as long as they want.
He said Chapman is talking about a notice of condemnation in 2002 that no longer is valid and that can be corrected easily. He asked Chapman to submit his paperwork to the clerk’s office.
Chapman said he has been in the community for 35 years and he has master’s certificates on automotive and truck repair. He has had a state license since 1993 and the state has not prosecuted him.
“You are not going to take away my rights,” he said.
He said the township has been messing with his business. The township finished the inspection and under the ordinance they “shall” issue a business license, he said.
Chapman said he is a neighborhood mechanic who charges reasonable rates and now is the last one on Sumpter Road between Milan and Five Points in Belleville.
As he finished his remarks, he put a bag on the podium and left the building.
The board asked the township manager to check the bag and remove it from the podium. Township Manager Anthony Burdick checked the bag, said there was no fuse, and removed it from the podium.
Trustee Rush said he has never heard such foul language and he hopes they can mute the foul language on the videotape because it needs to be done. “I’ve never heard anything like that … outrageous.”
[The posting of the video was delayed by almost two weeks and the comments were left in space, with a big warning posted about how the language may be offensive to viewers.] “We need details about what he’s talking about,” said Trustee Matt Oddy, asking Young to look into it.
Young said he doesn’t like to be at 3-minute meetings where people pose a lot of illegitimate questions. He said sometimes people have legitimate things to say.
Then, Young said he just remembered that he was asked to draft termination of a lein from 2002. He said he remembers drafting the lein and coming into the township parking lot with it 7, 8, 9, or 10 days ago while a township employee was out in the parking lot talking to Glenn Silvenis, Chapman’s real estate agent.
“It’s so ridulous to throw this at us when it’s already been solved,” Young said.
“It took me 15 minutes to think about it,” he said and then he remembered what Chapman was talking about. This was after Chapman had left the building.
Young complained about the 3-minutes open forum and said people can come in to tell the board off in any way they want instead of coming into the township hall and finding the truth opposed to lies.
“I wish I would have recalled that,” Young said, of the termination of the lein he had recently written.
Board members pointed out they could have warned Chapman about his language and if he did it again have the police escort him from the building, but that didn’t happen.