Sumpter board OKs union membership for dues-paying employee

On the fourth time the subject was brought before the Sumpter Township Board of Trustees for consideration, at its July 23 meeting the board finally approved union membership for a part-time employee who was paying union dues and getting no benefits.
The vote was unanimous, with Trustee Don Swinson absent and excused.
Erica Campbell, the clerk in the treasurer’s department, was approved for an American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME #1882) union part-time position, working 21 to 29 hours per week.
When she was hired, it was for a 20-hour position at $18 per hour. Treasurer Kenneth Bednark, who was elected in November, said nobody told him there was no such position and that they had to follow the township’s contract with the union for a part-time position of 21 to 29 hours at a pay of $20.79 per hour. It either had to be that part-time position or full-time, according to the contract.
Human Resources Director Michelle Bellingham said every union question should be answered by the union. She said the 21-29 hours is just for those part-time employees and those with less hours can be covered by the union without benefits.
“It doesn’t make sense to pay union dues and not have union benefits,” Treasurer Bednark said. “Human Resources had not brought AFSCME to light when I was hiring my clerk.”
Bednark said the employment of part-timer Bud Morgan was made before he came on the scene and he doesn’t know the details of that.
Bednark said Human Resources would not answer his calls. He said AFSCME representative Mike Petrowski put it in writing and he read Petrowski’s email endorsing Campbell’s part-time employee union membership.
“It’s being churned into butter…” Bednark said of the situation.
Trustee Matthew Oddy said the board didn’t slow walk anything and that Bednark tabled it at the first meeting when it was brought up and then Supervisor John Morgan wanted to learn if this position is a legal position. Bellingham did not attend any of those meetings and Supervisor Morgan said he wanted her input.
Former Township Treasurer Peggy Morgan said she wanted to explain the Bud Morgan situation. She said the board agreed to it. Senior Director Mary Ann Watson was in a pinch and needed a driver. He does not want to be in a union, she said. She said the late Sybil Buchanan brought a union contract to him and he said no. She said it saves the township from giving him benefits. When the union gets a raise, he would get a raise. He’s very happy with the number of hours he’s working and he doesn’t want to work any more, she said.
“If it’s not in writing, you have to go by the contract,” Oddy said.
Former Treasurer Morgan suggested a letter of agreement might work. She said she just wanted the board to know the situation.
Attorney Rob Young said all the township has to do is execute an opt-out by Bud Morgan and he’s out of the union. “It’s not an issue… No union dues and not a part-time employee,” he said.
“I have no problem with this,” said Trustee Tim Rush, “but with the track record of the treasurer’s office, I’m afraid in a few months she’ll be working full time.”
Bednark said Campbell worked 23 or 24 hours a week, but has not worked 29 hours, and the payment for those extra hours over 20 was approved by the board.
“The board will address it if it happens,” Bednark said. “Currently, we are budgeted. Let’s take it one step at a time.”
Paquette joins union
In a related union matter, Malissa Paquette was approved transferred from “at-will” employment status to membership in the AFSCME union.
Public Safety Director/Police Chief Eric Luke said Paquette has been a full-time employee of the township since June 14, 2000 when she was hired as a dispatcher at Central Dispatch Network in Belleville. When CDN disbanded in 2006 and dispatch services were brought home to Sumpter, she was promoted to dispatch supervisor in 2007. That lasted until dispatch services were contracted out to Huron Township in 2012.
All five Sumpter dispatchers were then terminated and on March 28, 2017, the township created an “at-will” position for Paquette and entered into an employment agreement with her as the police department’s Administration and Operations Coordinator. As such she was not covered by the AFSCME collective bargaining agreement of April 1, 2017.
Chief Luke said Paquette has decided that she would like her employment to be covered by the AFSCME agreement. thereby altering her agreement with the township.
She will begin at day one membership with AFSCME, but her township seniority of 19 years would stand as it pertains to all contractually mandated yearly benefits, including retirement.
Under the union contract her hourly wage will be $23.41 and additional longevity pay would be $1.90 per hour and she would be entitled to overtime compensation for over 40 hours of work per week. She will get 200 hours of vacation a year and will participate in the defined benefit pension plan of the union, instead of the defined non-union contribution MERS plan in which she was enrolled.
Chief Luke said this change would give her the job security an employee of 19 years deserves. He said he has spoken to the local AFSCME representatives Michael Petrowski and Randy Lynch and Human Resources Director Bellingham about it and they all support the transition.
In other business at the July 23 meeting, the board:
• Approved the Senior Alliance Multi-Year Plan for 2020-22;
• Approved the purchase of a budgeted 2019 Ford F-250 SuperCab 4×4 pickup truck for $33,732.24 from Atchinson Ford to be used in the Water Department;
• Approved the promotion of six-year Police Patrol Officer Joseph Balowski to the rank of sergeant. This fills the sergeant’s position vacated when Chris McGlynn retired after 27 years of service;
• Approved with regrets the retirement of Mike Beaudrie from the fire department, effective immediately, after about 15 years of on and off service;
• Watched Chief Luke give a slide show on a property cleaned of blight after the township went to court. The cost of the two-day cleanup by a bulldozer and steam shovel will be put as a lien on the property. “There has been much said about the blight ordinance on the social media,” Luke said. “We’re not coming for you for changing your oil in your driveway.” Attorney Rob Young said the ordinance was only changed on the enforcement, which allows the team to write civil tickets or go the misdemeanor route. The ordinance has existed since 1987, he said;
• Heard Karen Mickens say the free pizza to the homeless project will be Aug. 13 and any money left over from that will be donated to the Gabby’s Games event;
• Heard Trustee Rush say the township is fully Storm Ready and is endorsed by the National Weather Service. There will be a five-minute ceremony at the township board meeting on Sept. 10 when a plaque will be presented;
• Heard Bednark ask for a performance review of DPW Director Ken Kunka to see if he’s doing every thing he’s supposed to do in managing that department. He said there is $400,000 in overdue water bills and he’d like to know how the figure got that large. He said he had a meeting with Kunka and others and then started writing policies and procedures for water bills. “Why are there so many unpaid water bills?” he asked, noting he was getting heat from some of the guys in the Water Department for making them take action. “Whether these are sins of commission or omission doesn’t matter,” Bednark said. Bednark stepped back from being in charge of a water employee located in his office and Young said they can figure out the best way to do it, but he doesn’t want this controversy to interfere with the upcoming audit. “Without a proper audit, the township would get a conditional audit” which would reduce the bond rating;
• Heard Luke say the township was in contact with the county’s Emergency Management on July 17 and got on a list as a cooling center and he put it on Nixle and the police department website. The heat advisory was through that Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. unless someone needed additional hours. Only one person called for information and nobody came in to be cooled, he said. “We could have put it on the township channel,” Luke conceded. He said they had a warming center last winter for four days and nobody came to that, either;
• Heard Sam Cumberledge say the township’s channel 12 isn’t worth turning on since the video goes black every five seconds. He said he did the video for the township for 12 years with a $300 camcorder and a $50 camera. He said Trustee Oddy didn’t want to talk to him. Trustee Don LaPorte listened, but the only one who listened with a full heart was former Trustee Sheena Barnes. He said the township spent $63,000 on something that doesn’t work. “I resigned here four years ago. John (Morgan) and I locked horns. He took me off the TV station and I resigned… I did work for Esther [Hurst] and John and even got John a spare TV to watch while I fixed his.” He said he was paid $75 per event and showed over 600 videos. He offered to look at the present equipment to see if he could do something with it. Trustee Oddy said the problem was with Comcast, not the township system;
• Heard Mary Ban say she read the letter in the Independent that said the new library in Belleville looks like a prison because of the dark brick color. “It’s a shame,” she said. “I thought it was going to be red… It’s not becoming for a new building.” She said she sure hopes they don’t paint the library building in Sumpter charcoal. She also commented on the high vegetation at intersections and the poor condition of the Sumpter Road surface between Hull and Bemis; and
• Heard Ronald Barrington Robinson say he called the state and a person from the Michigan Department of Agriculture said Sumpter was using Roundup to spray around the fire hydrants. He said the representative told him they sent investigators out here and told the township not to use it or to get training. “I hope those spraying don’t get cancer,” he said, suggesting they hire kids with weed whips to tackle the tall plants hiding the fire hydrants instead of spraying them. Oddy said Kunka checked it out with the state, but Robinson said that wasn’t true and in the past two township officials lied to the public about it.