Sumpter selects new township manager on split 5-2 board vote

After three special meetings to interview candidates for the open township manager position, the Sumpter Township Board of Trustees selected Ken Marten on a 5-2 vote.
This was at the end of the regular meeting agenda on March 11. Voting no were clerk Don LaPorte and trustee Matthew Oddy.
A special 5 p.m. meeting was set before the March 11 regular meeting to interview Marten, since he was out of the country when the other candidates were set for interviews.
The board accommodated Marten, who just returned from a vacation trip, with four nights in China and four nights in Taiwan.
Marten had his initial interview with the board on March 11. Finalists Adam Kline and Kevin Dunbar had two interviews each. Gregory Elliott of Tecumseh was cut from the list after the March 4 interview and Matthew Best withdrew as a candidate when he was hired elsewhere.
Trustee Oddy conducted the three interview meetings and Marten had been cut from the list because he wasn’t available to be interviewed with the rest. At the March 6 meeting, the vote to reconsider Marten was 4-3, with those in favor saying their support was based on his high score at the initial scoring.
Trustee Tim Rush said the March 6 meeting was the “toughest meeting I’ve been in since I’ve been here.” He congratulated fellow board members for the way they conducted themselves.
“We did it peacefully,” trustee Oddy agreed.
At the March 11 special meeting, Marten said he was hired by Hometown Newspapers in 1999 and covered local government, gavel to gavel, for the Milan Times. “I reported on everything that happened at the meeting,” he said. Then he moved to newspapers in Royal Oak and Ferndale and then became managing editor of a small chain. He said newspapers were going by the wayside and that’s when he decided government might be a career for him.
Marten said he got a master’s degree in public administration and served in Lathrup Village and has been Bingham Farms manager for the last six years. He said Bingham Farms is a small village and he’d like to be in a larger government. He said he applied at Sumpter two years ago when the position was open.
After a surprise board vote to turn down the selected candidate in 2022, deputy clerk Anthony Burdick was chosen for the position and he began July 1, 2022. Burdick is retiring as of March 31.
In other business at the regular March 11 meeting, the board:
• Opened with a prayer by Eddie Marco from River of Life church;
• Approved promoting police sergeant Brian Steffani to lieutenant;
• Approved a proposal from Carlisle & Wortman Associates, Inc. to offer consulting services to the building department;
• Approved renewing the annual Cyber Security agreement with SenCy including the additional $13,500 Penetration Test Service;
• Approved the new utility billing policy and procedures;
• Approved hiring Ronald Tabor, effective March 31, as DPW Director at a base salary of $90,000 per year with standard benefits and pension, as recommended by the interview committee. This stipulates successful completion of background and drug screening and the attorney drafting a standard employment agreement;
• Approved extension of the part-time status of assistant clerk Gabreilla Massel for 60 days, beginning March 23;
• Heard treasurer Bart Patterson pass on a message from resident Mary Ban who said she is thankful for the services of the police and fire departments when her husband Barney had his recent stroke; and
• Heard trustee Rush remind everyone that they are urged to attend the Skywarn Training at 9 a.m., April 5, at the fire hall.