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HOLLY TOWNSHIP, Michigan – How Holly Township officials divvy up an additional $104, 352 in state shared revenue funding was the topic of conversation during the board’s Dec. 21 Holly Township Board of Trustees meeting.
Supervisor Jesse Lambert said the additional funds are the result of an increase in population as reported by the 2010 Census. From now until the time of the next Census in 2020, the township will receive the additional annual funding.
Township officials held a budget workshop on Nov. 2 in which they hashed out the details on how the additional funding would be budgeted for 2011-2012 fiscal year.
“Roughly half of it or 50 percent of it – I would consider, assuming we spend all this money from now until June, 50 percent of it is actually going right back into becoming an asset for the people of Holly,” Lambert said. “For example – dry fire hydrants, a recycling program, a few more thousand dollars for township clean up days, and tornado sirens are also listed there.”
Additionally, the budget amendments include a 4-percent salary increase across the board for the supervisor, clerk, deputy clerk, treasurer, and the deputy treasurer amounting to $8,724 of the total amount, which also includes pension, health and life insurance premium increases.
“Just for the record, we have had a pay freeze for the past six years,” Lambert said.
Treasurer Mark Freeman questioned two of the bigger ticket items including purchase of two tornado sirens for $15,000 each, and two dry fire hydrants at $8,000 apiece. Freeman asked if it would perhaps be better to fund only one of each this fiscal year, and leave the other two for next year.
“I understand where you’re coming from on that, but I’d rather have this money budgeted for something because by law, obviously we have to have it budgeted for something,” Lambert said, referring specifically to the tornado sirens. “I’m figuring that if we’re going to do one, it would probably be just as easy to do two at once.”
Trustee Janet Leslie said she was satisfied with the resolution, and was prepared to move forward.
Freeman then shifted the discussion to the deputy treasurer’s cost center, maintaining that it was not the same as the deputy clerk’s cost center, and that the two should be equal. Prior to the suggested 4-percent increases, the full time deputy clerk earns $24,410 per year with full benefits while the part time deputy treasurer earns $20,000 per year without benefits.
Freeman’s original request for equal funding was nixed by the Holly Township Board of Trustees during its May 4 meeting in which 2011-2012 budget proposals were discussed.
On Wednesday, Freeman stuck to his guns, this time presenting board members with a Michigan Township Association Compensation Survey showing deputy treasurer salaries for 18 different communities, and a packet of emails sent to Lambert containing salary comparison information for employees of neighboring municipalities.
“As you can see in at least 90 percent of these cases, the pay methods between those two cost centers are either identical or very similar,” he said.
Freeman said the two cost centers in Holly Township were the same until 2007 when revenues began to “tighten up.” “The deputy treasurer at that time was not utilizing the funding in the deputy clerk cost center,” Freeman said. “I don’t know why, and so the previous board decided to reduce the funds for the cost center.”
While Freeman’s original request in May was to increase the deputy treasurer’s salary by $4,410 to make it completely equitable with the deputy clerk’s salary, this time around he offered a compromise.
“In effect what I’m recommending is actually a gradual reinstatement of funds to the treasurer’s cost center,” Freeman said. “As a compromise, as I stated previously also, I think it could be done on a gradual basis rather than in one fell swoop – to soften the blow as we move forward.”
Freeman recommended boosting the deputy salary’s 4-percent increase as stated in the budget amendments to 10 percent. Freeman said the 4-percent increase results in an $800 per year increase, while a 10-percent boost would amount to an additional $1,200.
“The position would remain part time with no benefits attached,” he said. “I believe that is a reasonable first step toward an eventual restoration of full funding.”
Trustee Steve Ruth used the calculator on his cell phone to crunch the numbers.
“It looks to me right now that the deputy clerk is working 30 percent more of the time, but wage-wise per hour, it makes it only 20 percent more,” he said.
“Again, I’ll have to remind you that this is a funding issue,” Freeman said. “Here again, you’re trying to convert it into an analysis of workloads and productivity and that isn’t the role of this board, nor do we have the authority to do that.”
Leslie reiterated what was discussed during the budget workshop.
“We arrived at a proposal that was, in fact - without increasing anyone’s hours, a pay increase for the supervisor, the clerk, the deputy clerk, the treasurer, and the deputy treasurer of 4 percent each,” she said. “I think that was agreed upon because those wages had been frozen,” she added. “There seems to be no evidence that anything major has changed in anyone’s responsibilities in any of those areas that would warrant an unusual increase in salary, so I hope that you would proceed by asking for a motion on the resolution we have before us.”
Freeman’s attempts to further argue his point were cut short by Lambert.
“Is there something more going on here than meets the eye?” Freeman asked. “Because I have not heard a legitimate, factual reason why there should not be equal funding between these two cost centers.”
After reiterating Leslie’s point, Lambert asked for a motion to approve the budget amendments as provided in Resolution 2011-31. Leslie obliged with Ruth seconding the motion. In a vote of 3-2, the budget amendments passed, with Freeman and Lambert casting the dissenting votes.
Following the vote, Freeman asked to read a statement into the record.
Among the points made in his three-page statement, Freeman maintained that strictly from a funding standpoint, the two cost centers should have equal funding and equal benefit packages. “The majority of this board did not agree and voted to continue this funding imbalance.”
Freeman backtracked to 2007 when former Treasurer Bernice Alexander was unable to complete her responsibilities, and as a result, the clerk’s department took over some of those responsibilities. “I do not know why this happened,” Freeman said. “The correct procedure would have been for a fully trained and experienced deputy treasurer to have assumed those responsibilities.” Freeman said Clerk Karin Winchester has since assured him that all of the treasurer’s responsibilities have been returned to the treasurer’s department.
“If the previous treasurer had utilized a fully trained and experienced deputy treasurer, this whole situation could have been avoided,” Freeman continued. “As I stated before, I have the greatest respect for the previous treasurer and am sure she had the very best of intentions.”
Freeman closed by referencing the Nov. 2 budget workshop in which he proposed a compromise in the matter. “A majority of this board refused to compromise,” he said. “The reasoning that the majority of this board continues to use to perpetuate this funding imbalance is flawed, unfair, and disingenuous,” Freeman said. “All I can do is assure this board and the taxpayers that this issue is not going to go away until it is resolved.”
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