Progress since I have been in office on my 2012 (underlined) Goals. 

1. At the very first meeting after three new elected officials joined the Board, the culture began to change. Less “up-and-down-head-shaking” and more genuine deliberation. There continues to real deliberation with “yours truly” usually standing up for the citizens and for prudent use of taxpayer money. Unfortunately trustees Otto and Webber vote with the Supervisor and Clerk consistently, in favor of whatever the Supervisor or Clerk proposes. Martin occasionally differs with the others. Tuinstra and Senneker often differ with the majority and differ with each other more than any other group on the Board. This might be a good place to mention that I am the only trustee that consistently looks at invoices each month before voting to approve these. Senneker has done this somewhat and also questions some of these at the meeting. To my knowledge two other trustees have never looked at the invoices before approval. The amounts typically exceed $50,000 per month.

2. We have written and collected policies into one notebook for ready reference. I have written much of the new policy. I have proposed many others.

3. An important policy on competitive bidding for items over $5000 was found in a file drawer. Unfortunately, after I reminded the Board of it, and attempted to clarify it so we all knew it applied to purchases, another board member (Boot) moved to clarify it so it clearly did not include purchases. This area needs some work, so that we get the best deal for the taxpayers and so we maintain the trust and respect of the taxpayers.

Some of My 2014 General Goals  for the next few years (underlined), and progress. 

1. Records on every cent of income and expense should be available by internet to the people of the township. I proposed this policy in June of 2016 and 5 board member voted against it. It would have required a few (2-3) pages of reports, that are consistently prepared for Board meetings anyway, to be uploaded to the township web-site. It could have been done in about 5 minutes per month by the office manager. Senneker and Tuinstra voted “Yes”. Boot, Miling, Martin, Otto and Webber voted “No”
2. Services or products needed should be advertised on the Township web-site and volunteers work should be strongly encouraged. I have discussed this briefly with the Parks Commission Chair and received a positive response. I hope to propose this to the Board soon.
3. Possible conflicts of interest should be publicly acknowledged. Generally speaking, an elected or appointed official should not be acting on behalf of the citizens in a transaction with a relative or business associate. When the Supervisor proposed that his son be hired for a maintenance position, I talked with him privately to discourage it. When he would not change his mind, I said publicly that we, as elected officials should act in such a way as to avoid any appearance of favoritism or cronyism and act according to an ethical standard that promotes greater public trust. I suggested that the best way to handle this was for the Supervisor (Miling) to ask his son to withdraw his application, but he refused. I also lived up to this standard when the board was looking for an office manager in 2013. I knew my daughter was looking for a job and I did not mention the position to her. She found out about it elsewhere and applied. Though she was well qualified, (with a BA degree and experience in a similar position at VanderBilt Hospital even working with Dr Ben Carson from time to time), I refused to recommend her or give her resume any special treatment. In the end we hired the deputy treasurer who had been filling in temporarily. Only after the hiring decision was made did I point out my actions to the Board.
4. Expenses over $5000 should be advertised for bids, with preset specifications, with sealed bids opened during a meeting open to the public. I proposed a Policy on Prudent Purchasing which would require 3 price quotes, and items over $2500 would require specific Board approval. Action was postponed on this and I plan to bring it up again at the July meeting. I have repeatedly proposed similar motions as amendments to the Budget, but these were voted down also.
5. Decisions on spending over $10000 should be advertised to the citizens several weeks with an invitation for input on the decision. This was a 2014 goal, and I still believe it should happen. Again, when I tried to clarify that a $5000 limit was already in place, the usual 5 “big spenders” on the Board voted to clarify that it would not apply to purchases, only to services.

6. More and more information should be placed on the township web-site, so citizens know what is happening and can influence their government accordingly.This is improving.

7. Ordinances should restrict the power of government, protecting citizens from excess government encroachment on their freedom. This is the general theme of the U.S. Constitution and I still favor it. The will and the best interests of the citizens should be seriously considered. When Boot proposed spending $16,500 on the fancy new sign in the front yard, I randomly selected 100 names from the voter registration list for Dorr, looked up as many phone numbers as I could, and called as many as I could. 100 % of those who responded said they would rather have the money spent on roads than on the sign, yet the usual 5 people voted against the will of the people, with Tuinstra and Senneker voting with the peoples’ responses. Part of the argument against my viewpoint was that the $16,500 would not make a significant difference on the roads. Good data and good math shows that it would have bought 165 loads of gravel. I have noticed a few bumps that could use it.

8. Decisions should be made more by written policy and less by the whim of the officials. We have made some progress on this but more needs to be done.

9. Spending needs to be tightened up. As my son says, “OPM is addictive.” (OPM stands for Other People’s Money) It is too easy to spend it “less carefully” than one would spend his own money. Whatever money we can save on other purchases can be used on something constructive, like improving our township’s gravel roads.