Sumpter Township brings back former financial director

Scott Holtz, former financial director of Sumpter, was reinstated in his position with a wage of $80,000 with a 6-1 vote at the Jan. 11 regular meeting of the Sumpter Township Board of Trustees. He was scheduled to begin work the next day. The board directed township attorney Rob Young to draw up a one-year contract.
Trustee Peggy Morgan voted against the motion to hire Holtz, who had resigned with one week’s notice in April 2019 to take a job with Lenawee County at an office a few blocks from his home in Adrian.
At the time of his resignation, Trustee Morgan, who was then former treasurer, said she was so happy Holtz was leaving. She said he messed up her retirement benefits and he kept postponing things that needed to be done.
Holtz replaces Michelle Cole, who resigned Nov. 29 with one week’s notice.
When he first was hired on Oct. 16, 2017 he replaced the retiring Jim Glahn, CPA.
The hiring was not on the Jan. 11 agenda and was discussed at the workshop and then added to the agenda at the regular meeting that followed.
Clerk Esther Hurst said Holtz is no longer at his previous job and maybe he could be financial director for Sumpter.
Trustee Morgan was surprised because this had never been discussed publicly. Then she said she realizes everyone else on the board knew, but they didn’t tell her.
She suggested having Plante Moran handle that position and Clerk Hurst said she would prefer having someone inside the office being finance director.
Trustee Matt Oddy said they discussed it at the committee level raised the salary to attract a candidate.
“This is fantastic,” Trustee Oddy said. “Scott was exemplary. Plante Moran has a cost of $175 an hour and it would cost three times more than having on inside.”
Clerk Hurst said her office is handling the pay process and other things the financial director had handled. She said over Christmas the paper checks didn’t get to the township. She said her staff is getting burned out. They also need someone to handle human resources.
Oddy said the committee agreed they needed to hire a township administrator with human resources ability.
“We keep going back to the same thing,” Trustee Morgan said of a township administrator. She said Cole did her job but she wasn’t supported.
Oddy said she told everyone she loved working here. He asked if that wasn’t true.
Morgan said the township shouldn’t even have an administrator and Oddy said that’s her opinion.
In other business at the Jan. 11 meeting, the board:
• Approved the proposal by Burnham and Flower for the Blue Care Network Medical/Rx at an annual cost of $414,775, VSP Vision at an annual cost of $2,148, and Delta Dental at an annual cost premium increase of 0.88% per enrolled employee, effective Feb. 1;
• Approved PSALZ,LLP to conduct the 2021-22 financial audit at a cost of $15,400 and, if required, the Single Audit (A133 Federal Funds Compliance) at a cost of $10,000;
• Approved terminating the employment of probationary fire fighter Jacob Kosikowski, who had been with the department four months before leaving for the military and asking the department to hold his position while he was away;
• Approved promoting fire Lt. Jamie Good to captain. Public Safety Director/Police Chief Eric Luke said when the fire chief was promoted it left a vacancy and Good passed the promotional written test in December. He said Good is an asset to the department;
• Approved training of a union employee to serve as backup to the Water Billing Clerk. BS&A training was quoted at $1,125 for the day and all employees were invited to participate. Treasurer Vincent Warren said the goal is to cross-train his staff so they can fill in for each other when necessary;
• Added to the agenda at the meeting and then approved an opting out resolution as required by state law if a municipality is not contributing
• Approved adding to the agenda at the end of the meeting, as moved by Trustee Matt Oddy, and then passed, 6-1, a motion to move forward on advertising for a township administrator. Former financial director Cole had also been deputy supervisor. The deputy supervisor job was taken off the job description. The salary should be commensurate with experience, Oddy said;
• Discussed in the workshop that B&M Crane is moving its crane into the back location behind the DPW/Recycling area. They will do the work they need to do and then leave. The township insurance company said it was OK as long as they had insurance;
• Heard Clerk Hurst say, during the workshop, that she wants to have a policy on the pay process and handling, which involves ACH and PaperCopy Checks. She said her office can only do so much and, “I don’t want to wear my staff out”;
• Heard Oddy try to add another item to the agenda: the planning commission’s recommendation to approve a text change in the zoning ordinance that allows used car dealerships. The owner of the slaughterhouse on Bemis Road, next to Fox Auto and Insurance Auto Auction lots, wants to add used cars to use of his property. Attorney Young said this hasn’t been put into resolution form yet and Clerk Hurst said usually they have a resolution and a number. She asked if anything was pressing and when told it wasn’t, she said, “I’d like to see a resolution”;
• Heard Supervisor Tim Bowman announce that 50 stockings were given out for the Christmas event for children, the township hall would be closed Jan. 17 for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and Sumpter Township got a perfect score for the assessing done by WCA Assessing Services;
• Heard Oddy thank the supervisor and clerk for keeping board members informed with reports coming out of the supervisor’s office;
• Heard Young report all the municipalities in the 34th District Court jurisdiction now are taking their juvenile matters to the district court instead of downtown Detroit. He also said the township is in court on a number of issues with the ordinances and they are leaning on property owners. There are a number of dangerous buildings that were discussed at a Dangerous Buildings hearing, but most didn’t require demolition. He said many complied with the ordinance, but it’s never 100%;
• Heard Public Safety Director/Police Chief Luke report that there were no homicides last year and an incident that was initially misreported was on their list but shouldn’t be. He said the average police response time is less than three minutes. He also reported the township runs a warming/cooling center at the community center and offers 24-hour shelter, if necessary. He said Sumpter is one of only nine communities of 43 in the county that offers this. He said the person who complains that Sumpter should put its warming/cooling center service on the township sign, instead of on the website or Facebook, “makes me angry” because the letter writer gives “bad information.” The person who is critical says many people in Sumpter do not have computers and many don’t even have phones, but they do drive by the community center;
• Heard Trustee Don LaPorte make a motion for an item not on the agenda, seconded by Hurst, to have the supervisor’s office do six-month performance reviews on DPW Director John Danci and Fire Chief Rick Brown. Trustee LaPorte said it was just a formality; and
• Heard Trustee LaPorte remind residents that there are free smoke detectors at the clerk’s office and fire department.