By Megan Kelley
Editor
mkelley@mihomepaper.com
INDEPENDENCE TWP. — During its meeting on Aug. 13, the Independence Township Board of Trustees heard a presentation and discussed the potential for the township to hire a superintendent to handle day to day operations within the township.
The agenda item, which was brought to the board by Treasurer Paul Brown and Trustee Sam Moraco, featured a video presentation with government officials throughout southeast Michigan and in-person presentation from Independence Township resident Joette Kunse.
The transition to a council-manager system of government is one that is not necessarily new to the area. The City of the Village of Clarkston operates under a council-manager system with Mayor Sue Wylie working as president of the council and Manager Jonathan Smith overseeing city operations.
Advocates for this form of government believe that a superintendent or manager would bring in more expertise than that of someone running for political office.
“Competent management makes all the difference and I think that the only way to guarantee competent management is to have the professionally trained people who know the terminology, who understand how processes work, who can navigate all the complications,” said Karen Majewski, Mayor of the City of Hamtramck in the video presentation.
During her presentation, Kunse maintained that the board hiring someone to fill the superintendent role would, in turn, take most of the politics out of the job and allow for tasks to be completed even if they are unpopular during an election year.
“The benefits of hiring a township superintendent is that he oversees the day to day operations. There is insulation between the administration and their political influences and the departments and employees in the township. Hopefully the township superintendent is that steady hand – no matter what happens, he’s the one that keeps things going because you could lose your whole board. We just had an election, we kind of know what the board is, but we could have had a brand new board. It’s more efficient, there is no learning curve, it’s cost effective and there is greater accountability,” said Kunse.
While some residents agreed with some of the points in favor of this form of government, there were also several that had concerns especially when it came to the timing of the request and potential cost.
“I know the surrounding townships that we have currently do not use that (city-manager form of government), Waterford being one which is twice the size of us as far as population and money they take and they do not use a superintendent. Honestly, my biggest concern – I don’t know what your plan is to implement this now, it should wait until the next board comes in,” said David Hayward, who won his primary for township trustee and will run unopposed along with three others on the Nov. 5 ballot unless someone files to run as a write-in.
Brown spoke to give some perspective on the matter, stating that there was a reason there weren’t any requested motions on the agenda item, because the presentation was meant to start a discussion on the topic, not make a decision right away.
“I think a number of folks had some very good input. There’s a reason why there’s no motions on this. I did that on purpose. It started out, there were going to be some motions on it and before it ended up being put out and published, I thought this isn’t something you rush through. This is a giant change for the township if we did something like that and you don’t just do that willy-nilly,” Brown said. “If this is going to happen, it will be at some point in the future if the board elects to do so and I think there was a lot of good information shared and that was the intent.”
Trustee Jim Tedder, who was at the meeting via video call, spoke in favor of keeping an open mind to the idea but also agreed they should hold off until after the election.
“I do support, at the very least, that we hold off until the election to discuss this. I understand that the optics weren’t ideal but as I’ve seen and (in) doing my research, this is an idea that’s been floating around for close to 20 years,” Tedder said. “I remain open-minded to the concept. My key focus is continuity and what that means for township employees.”
Tedder also noted that he reached out to the Michigan Townships Association, an objective authority for townships across the state, and found that there are 49 townships in Michigan that currently do utilize this form of government.
The conversation took a turn when some public comment began to stray away from the topic and accusations were thrown toward Moraco regarding his personal opinion of Supervisor Jose Aliaga. Moraco denied that his previous issues with Aliaga had anything to do with the presentation, stating that the presentation was coming from his belief that township management has been on the decline for at least four years now.
“We are being under managed and under represented for the money we’re paying and everyone always complains about how much money we’re paying. Buy a bunch of stock in a company where the CEO is the programmer and see how far it goes. It’s no ones fault that you don’t know what you don’t know,” Moraco said. “Managing municipalities is a person’s profession, they have experience in it, they bring a lot to the table. The employees in this township and the morale is pathetic. Everyone is distraught, there’s no leadership, they’re all struggling, no one knows what’s going to happen, the place has been in turmoil for the last four years.”
Aliaga responded to Moraco’s claim and gave his opinion on the matter, saying that he felt the township was doing well.
“In one and a half years, I think we have accomplished a lot of positive things, even though sometimes you want to disagree with me,” Aliaga said. “In the end, we worked together and we brought good results to the township. So, when it’s about my experience, we have good directors and that helps me a lot because when we have a problem I ask the director…basically, what I want to say is that I think overall the township is in good shape and we’ve done good work overall.”
The board did not take action on the item but will likely revisit the topic after the General Election on Nov. 5.