Sumpter Township Police Department switches to CLEMIS

At its regular meeting on May 14, the Sumpter Township Board of Trustees approved the request of Public Safety Director/Police Chief Eric Luke to approve an agreement with Oakland County’s Courts & Law Enforcement Management Information System (CLEMIS) for police department consortium services.
CLEMIS is also used by the police departments in Van Buren Township and the City of Belleville.
At the Feb. 12 meeting, Chief Luke said
he attended a meeting of the consortium for the police department CAD system his department uses, which is SEMIA with an OSSI system.
He said it originally had 13 members which has fallen to eight members. There has to be an increase in fees to cover the costs, for the members remaining. He said Central Square bought the OSSI system which will force Sumpter to pay $10,000 to $20,000 for maintenance and a share of $100,000 for cost.
Chief Luke said the township needs to go with the CLEMIS system which started 40 years ago. Romulus pulled out of OSSI and Huron Township is looking at doing the same. Since, Huron Township does dispatch for Sumpter, Sumpter will be forced to join on their tail, Luke said.
All departments at 34th District Court will be in CLEMIS, he said. The cost will still be a lot, he said, $88,000 compared to $30,000, and there are costs for changing — $5,000-$6,000 to get the information out and $5,000 to $10,000 to put it into CLEMIS.
The brunt of the cost will be paid by Huron Township because they have the 911 system, Luke said.
In other business at the May 14 meeting, the board:
• Approved the May 15 resignation of Dawn Hadyniak from the position of deputy clerk and then approved hiring her as of May 15 to fill the union position of assistant in the clerk’s office. She will keep her seniority of Aug. 7, 2017 for vacations, paid time off, and sick time. She will be allowed to continue her third year of training for Michigan Association of Municipal Clerk certification to benefit the township. Her wages will reflect her May 15, 2019 hire date into the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees union and her longevity calculated on that date;
• Approved the appointment of Anthony Burdick to the deputy clerk position to be paid $25.08 per hour effective May 15, pending a background check. Burdick said he had lived in the township for 15 years;
• Approved the closure of Sumpter Road from Judd Road to Dunn Road from 11:30 a.m. until the parade ends on Saturday, May 25, for the Sumpter Country Festival parade;
• Approved the first reading of an ordinance amending and restating the blight ordinance. Township attorney Rob Young said this amendment is at the request of Chief Luke. Ordinance misdemeanor tickets take a while to work their way through the court. This will change them to civil infractions as other communities do;
• Approved the addendum to the Sumpter Township Emergency Management Plan to include the Storm Ready and SKYWARN spotter programs;
• Approved the application to the National Weather Service for the Storm Ready Community program;
• Approved amending the fee schedule to include USB drives for Freedom of Information Act requests for copies of the board meeting off the audio-visual system in the board room at a cost of $5;
• Approved having Hennessey Engineers request bids for drain repairs to the fire station;
• Heard attorney Young explain in the prosecution of a blight ordinance, the court ordered a lien of $5,000 to clean up the blight and bids came in at $5,825 and $6,500. The lower bid was approved;
• Heard Chief Luke say 12 people turned in assessments of flood damage to the county, saying their properties were “affected” up to “destroyed.” Another from Washtenaw County turned in an assessment because they get their water from Sumpter. He said these are all preliminary and his assessment was there was more flooding than normal, but it was minor to moderate flooding in the township. These assessments to the county were not to pay money but to turn over to the state. The State of Michigan sent five teams out to assess the flooding damage, but they only went to Dearborn Heights, Ecorse, and Allen Park. He said it will be months down the road before money will be released. He said the county deals with the state and the state deals with the federal government;
• Heard Treasurer Ken Bednark report there is $1.6 million in the tax fund and they are still in the process of untangling the furball in his office. He said there have been three treasurers and four deputies in one year, which led to the present situation which is being worked out;
• Heard Kari Ford, from the auditor, report she’s been at Sumpter since April 25, for 25 hours per week doing the former finance director’s job. She said they have made progress. She said the deputy treasurer is capable, but needs to be trained and, “That’s what we’re working on. She said they are working on taxes to the county and it’s probably OK to let that go to the county. She said she’s in the finance director’s office and she’s done a significant amount of accounting. She said there are a couple of good applications for finance director and she urged the board to hire a person as soon as possible. She said they have until September to get the audit to the state. The former financial director was on duty through April 30. She said she wouldn’t say everything is smoothed out, but she’s confident they can get it all taken care of;
• Heard attorney Young say he has no further updates on the situation that keeps retirees from getting their money. He said bids are being posted for upgrades to the hexagon building to turn it into a library facility. They will coordinate with the district library, but Sumpter is doing the upgrades alone;
• Heard Treasurer Bednark say the recent Emergency Response Training led by Jamie Goode moves the township forward in the area of emergency response;
• Heard Richard Harrison of Odyssey Drive say Wayne County has dumped dirt along Bemis Road. He said they used to have a 2-3′ shoulder of gravel along Bemis and now if someone drops off the road they are in the sod. “We’re at the end of the line out here” for service,” Harrison said. He urged everyone to call the road commission with complaints;
• Heard former Treasurer Peggy Morgan ask when Hadyniak turn in her letter of resignation and when did she apply for the new job. Clerk Esther Hurst said Hadyniak applied for the new job when it was posted and she was selected as the best applicant by a committee. Morgan asked if anyone filed an EEOC complaint alleging discrimination and she was told Sheena Barnes filed such a complaint and Young was not handling it, but it was being handled by Stacy Belano. Morgan also said she had a problem with her pay raise for 2018. She found the three male trustees made the same amount and Barnes didn’t make that amount. Young said all the trustees make the same basic amount, but there are increases for medical insurance buyouts;
• Heard Sherry Olds say the attorney was supposed to sit at a desk on the floor of the meeting room but he continues to sit at the board table. She said she has been to many townships in her job as a real estate agent and she has never seen attorneys sitting with elected officials. She said in her opinion this is compromising to the board. Supervisor John Morgan said, “We may do it within the next three months.” He said they hadn’t made arrangements for desks in the audience and, “Karen’s in charge. I’ll have to check with her,” referring to his deputy Karen Armatis. “A lot of us like the seating arrangement. You don’t find that to be a bit petty?” he asked Olds. She replied that the elected officials sit at the board table and that is compromising to their positions. She said Young should be sitting in the audience. “I’m surprised he has not removed himself,” Olds said;
• Heard Mary Ban say she likes to have Young up at the board table to give information to the board. She asked about the closing of Martz Road in Ypsilanti Township by the Ypsilanti Community Utilities Authority (YCUA) and attorney Young said they are always doing maintenance. She said the road has been closed for more than two weeks. She also complained about traffic in front of Keystone Academy on Bemis Road that sometimes is backed up to Elwell Road. Chief Luke said it was a bad design 20 years ago. He said he suggested expanding the parking lot. They may be looking at staggered pickup times next year; and
• Heard Karitha Hanible announce a Detroit Institute of Arts bus will pick up children in Sumpter and take them to the DIA for the day at no cost. Also the back pack giveaway will be Aug. 24 at Graham Park; and
• Heard Jay Bardell ask if there was a possibility of extending the landfill hours. Clerk Hurst said she would look into it.