Recall petition seeks removal of Raisin Township Board
On Tuesday during a clarity and factual determination hearing, the Lenawee County Election Commission approved the wording of a new recall drive targeting the entirety of the Raisin Township Board of Trustees. The trustees named in the recall are Larry Crittenden, Tom Hawkins, Dale Mitchell, Debra Brousseau, township clerk Betty Holdridge and treasure Kami Johnson. One of two reasons cited for the recall states trustees “Voted for purchases of a fire truck, costing in excess of $400,000 without advertising for and obtaining competitive sealed bids.”At a special meeting held on March 17, a full board approved a $22,000 trade-in of a 1996 truck that trustees concurred was problematic and unreliable, and an additional $20,000 from the public safety equipment fund, with a five-year plan to include payments of $84,000 per year and an interest rate of 2.95 percent. The fire truck cost $408,982.Raisin Township Supervisor Jay Cavanaugh was the only dissenting vote. “This is the first meeting where we’re having discussion about a fire truck and spending $84,000 per year and no one here knows if we can afford it,” Cavanaugh said at the March 17 meeting. “That money should be budgeted with a plan laid out before us showing how we can afford this — how that money is going to be used.”Crittenden said that truck “has been on the board’s mind a number of times and talked about for the past several months.”“Can we afford it? Absolutely,” responded Hawkins. “We have millage coming in that more than adequately can pay for this and continue to fund future equipment.”Assistant Fire Chief Eddie Mathis of the Raisin Township Department of Public Safety led on researching and comparing costs of the used truck with different companies. The second reason cited for the recall is that “the Board eliminated the opportunity for citizens to comment at the conclusion of board meetings.” An appeal of the clarity and factual determination hearing must be filed within 10 days of the original hearing.The language of the recall petition is valid for 180 days, according to documentation from the Michigan Secretary of State’s Office. Individual signatures are only valid for 60 days. Five hundred ninety signatures are needed to force the recall election. This differs from the 655 needed for the recall drive targeting Cavanaugh because the state recall election rules dictate the number of signatures necessary for a recall be 25 percent of the votes casts in the most recent gubernatorial election. For the Raisin Board of Trustees, Lenawee County Clerk Roxann Holloway said she was instructed by the Bureau of Elections to use the 2014 election results. The petition was filed by Raisin Township resident Thomas VanSickle, who has voiced his opinion at many township meetings, most recently on the special assessment for roads.Cavanaugh’s recall drive started in October after the Lenawee County Election Commission approved a recall petition against him. The petition was filed by Raisin Township resident Sherry Beaudin.The petition states three reasons for Cavanaugh’s recall:• “Failure to carry out his statutory duties under MLC Act 359 of 1947, 42.9 by refusing to sign documents required for the purchase of a fire truck after it was approved by a majority vote of the board of directors at an open public meeting held March 17, 2014.”• “Unprofessional conduct during the February 10, 2014 township board meeting, when he verbally attacked township employees, [Public Safety] Director Scott Lambka, Assistant Fire Chief [Jake] Warner and Assistant Fire Chief Ed Mathis, who were responding to a direct question by a township trustee. He then instructed the deputy clerk, Samantha Hoffman, not to include information related to his verbal attack in the official minutes of the February 10 meeting.”• “To protect and use appropriately, funds collected by an approved millage specifically for fire equipment capital improvements, that were reaffirmed at a regular board meeting held Dec. 10, 2012, by diverting $150,000 dollars towards road repair projects from the 2014 budget.”The petition against Cavanaugh has to be returned by April 13 with valid signatures.
Tecumseh Herald
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