Brandon Twp.- The first meeting of the newly formed township parks and recreation subcommittee was scheduled at 9 a.m., Oct. 16 and ended less than 15 minutes later in confusion and anger.
‘I am absolutely upset that they can’t get their crap together,? said Jay Reynolds, a travel soccer coach who has been actively involved with recreation and took time off work to attend the meeting. ‘Everyone left upset and this is exactly why they provide crappy rec service, they can’t get it together.?
On Oct. 6, the township board approved by a 5-2 vote to form a new parks and recreation subcommittee consisting of Township Clerk Candee Allen, Trustees Dana DePalma and Jayson Rumball, Ortonville Village Manager John Lyons, and village resident Bob McArthur, the former fire chief who hopes to model the new subcommittee after the fire authority board.
McArthur called the first meeting of the new subcommittee and it was posted Oct. 15 by Allen; however, she was the sole committee member not in attendance at the Oct. 16 meeting and did not tell the others that she had decided not to attend.
Instead, Allen was at the Edna Burton Senior Center, attending a Community Development Block Grant meeting to finish the flooring project at the center, a meeting which had been scheduled three weeks prior. On Wednesday, Allen said she had looked in the Michigan Township Association book on Oct. 7 and confirmed that according to the law, the supervisor must be on every township subcommittee as the ‘ex-officio.? She apologized for ‘the mess? and said she did not tell other committee members she would not be at the Oct. 16 meeting because she has been ‘buried with CDBG and the upcoming election.?
‘I have talked to Kathy (Thurman) about (the MTA law) on a daily basis since Oct. 7,? said Allen. ‘She and I have had the conversation that I would pull myself off the committee, because I didn’t want Jayson (Rumball) or Dana (DePalma) to be removed. If she had to serve on the committee, I would pull myself off, because you can’t have four members of the township board on the subcommittee because that constitutes a quorum.?
Because Allen was not at the meeting, there were only three township board members present? Thurman, Rumball and DePalma, but Village Manager John Lyons said the meeting ended before it got started when Rumball said they couldn’t continue because there was a quorum. A quorum for the township board constitutes four of the seven members being present.
‘The village needs to move forward with a parks and recreation master plan, and this subcommittee would have been a good catalyst to get the township and village together to do this document and we didn’t even get to talk about it,? Lyons said. ‘The village needs to press on. There is certain criteria to meet to get grant funding, we need this parks and rec plan in place and it’s obvious now that is not going to happen, they don’t even know what a quorum is. They didn’t have a quorum there. We should have had the meeting.?
Rumball said he and the other subcommittee members believed Allen was on her way to the meeting and her arrival would have constituted a quorum. They did not learn she wasn’t coming until everyone had left the meeting.
‘In the eyes of the board, nothing has changed,? said Rumball. ‘What Kathy and Candee talk about behind closed doors? the board has no idea.?
He pointed out that the township attorney was at the Oct. 6 meeting when the board approved the new subcommittee and didn’t object to the board’s motion. Rumball said he has read the law that Thurman refers to, but disagrees with her opinion on it.
‘It says she can be on the committees unless delegated to someone else, and it is my opinion that the board delegated to someone else by a 5-2 vote,? he said. ‘This is another power grab by Kathy. This is what happens when you try to run a township as a dictatorship. I don’t understand why Kathy thinks she can do whatever she wants to and contradict board motions. If she had an issue, should have brought it to the board, and not just showed up before the meeting. Her favorite thing to say is things should be resolved before meetings, and then she just shows up to the meeting and won’t leave.?
Thurman said she is in the process of gaining an opinion from the township attorney and will return to the board with clarification, most likely at the township’s next workshop meeting, set for 6:30 p.m., Oct. 21, at the township offices, 395 Mill St.
She said she suggested contacting the township attorney to DePalma and Rumball on Oct. 16 at the aborted meeting, but they did not pursue her suggestion.
Thurman said she was unsure if the committee was renamed as an ‘authority? or ‘commission? if, as supervisor, she would by law be required to serve on those boards.
‘It’s unfortunate that the trustees felt they couldn’t continue with the meeting,? she said. ‘Our township policy also says the supervisor shall appoint committee members with approval of the township board. That didn’t necessarily happen at our last meeting either… There is a lot of confusion here that needs to be cleared up on what can and can not be done.?