I suppose I should start this tale with a brief history: Lee Carpenter was the Bridgeport Township Clerk from 1988 to 2000, and then again from 2004 until he was recalled by the voters in 2011. He did run again for election for the clerk position in 2012 but the voters said NO. I thought the message from the voters sounded like "We sent you packing before, take the hint you are not welcome back".
Fast forward to 2019: Darlene Miller had been a member of the Trustee Board since 2008 and she became the township clerk after the recall and had remained the clerk until she turned in her resignation at the March 5th Township Trustee Board Meeting. Her resignation was effective as of March 13th, 2019.
Here is the news article in the March 13th, 2019 edition of the Birch Run/Bridgeport Herald about Darlene Miller's resignation:
just click on any photo here to see larger version
I was surprised to learn that Darlene Miller had resigned, especially before her term was up. I was told by several people that she resigned because of the township's rule on nepotism/hiring of relatives. A family member of hers was hired for a position in the township but could not have been hired if Darlene stayed on as township clerk. I think the nepotism rules are a good thing and should be in place and I can see where they could also be expanded. Here are the rules for hiring within Bridgeport Township:
When I found out that Lee Carpenter had been brought back as the township clerk I was upset as some of you may have noticed if you have been reading my blog. I had not been attending any township or school board meetings in about one year so I was behind in keeping up with the news and events here. After I found out that Lee Carpenter had been voted in/hired as the clerk at the April 2nd, 2019 meeting I started attending the meetings again. I attended the May 7th township board meeting and after the meeting was over one of the people from the township government had a talk with me. It was about them bringing back Lee Carpenter and my stand against it. The conversation didn't go well and I walked away. You can see what I had to say about this "conversation" in this blog post:
http://bridgeportmusings.blogspot.com/2019/05/my-feelings.html
During this "conversation" I questioned their search for a qualified person for the position of clerk. I thought it was said during this conversation that they had "posted" the position for clerk. I was told that only two people applied, one of them being Lee Carpenter and that the other applicant had no prior experience. I must have been mistaken about the "posting" for the position part. I started doing some digging. Assuming that they probably knew at least about the chance that Darlene Miller would be leaving before she actually turned in her resignation on March 5th, I went back through old editions of the Birch Run Bridgeport Herald. You can find old copies at our local Bridgeport library if you are interested. Bridgeport and all the other local townships in our area post their legal notices in the Herald, usually in the back few pages. I went through the Herald editions from February 27th to April 3rd, 2019. I could find no posting for the township clerk position opening. The ONLY thing even closely related to it was the article from the March 13th edition about Darlene Miller resigning.
I sent the township several FOIA requests under Michigan's Freedom Of Information Act, pertaining to the posting of the township clerk position. My request was for the following information:
I am requesting the following information:
- The actual clerk position opening posting as it appeared for publication.
- Information
on where all the clerk position opening was posted, ie: local
newspaper, the front door of the township offices, etc…
- The date the clerk position opening was first posted and duration of time that the position opening was posted for.
- If
possible I would also like the names of any applicants that applied for
the position and the dates they applied, and the names of any finalists
that were interviewed for the position of Township Clerk and the dates
they were interviewed.
The response I received stated that
"According to the Michigan Township Association Rules it is not necessary
to post the open positions of Board Members due to resignation or
death. This has been our past practice. We had two people fill out
applications for the clerk
position when Darlene resigned. The applicants were Lee Carpenter and XX" I have the other applicants' name but am not sharing it since I have not spoken to this person and received permission to share it. I did some Google research on this person and they appear to be a life long Bridgeport resident and in my opinion is qualified for the position mainly because they have never been recalled or rejected by the Bridgeport voters, A Big Plus for any applicant!!
Here is a copy of the rules from the Michigan Township Association in their FAQ section that was provided to me by Bridgeport Township:
So this article says they have 45 days to fill the appointment. It also talks about how any interviews conducted by the township board for the position should be done in an open session of the township board meeting.
I remember when Vanessa Guerra won a seat in the State government and her trustee position was open, they interviewed all six of the applicants for her former position in an open board meeting. You can see this in the December 16th, 2014 board meeting here:
http://bridgeportmusings.blogspot.com/2014/12/bridgeport-township-board-meeting_18.html
Walter LaShore was the township treasurer when he passed away on April 14th, 2015. During the May 6th, 2015 township board meeting they appointed trustee board member Jim Secord to replace Walter LaShore as the treasurer and then during the June 2nd, 2015 township board meeting they appointed Calvin Williams to replace Jim Secord as a trustee member of the board. There were no interviews given during these meetings to any applicants. I don't know if there even were any other applicants
or if the openings were posted at all.
So what I am gathering from my research and the answers to my FOIA requests is that they never posted this 2019 open position for township clerk, anywhere at anytime. The article in the Herald is the only clue that anyone in Bridgeport would even have that the clerk position was open. I don't know how many subscribers the Herald has in Bridgeport or how many copies of it are sold each week at the stores, I do know that I personally know of only two people that subscribe to it, and others that I know only pick up copies from the store when there is something in particular they are interested in it like the local high school sports. The rules from the Michigan Township Association states that they are not required to post the open position, BUT,
"doing so may attract a larger or more capable pool of candidates".
DUH! The failure to post this open position could lead people to question if Bridgeport was even looking for any applicants for the position or did they already have someone in mind?
Part of my FOIA request was about when these two applicants for the clerk position applied and when they were interviewed. Here is their response to this question:
"Lee turned his application in on March 26th and XX turned her application in on March 23rd. There were no formal interviews". This second applicant seems to have just been dismissed off hand because they had no prior experience, was not even granted an interview. Was every member of the township board aware of the past history with Lee Carpenter? Perhaps if they had done formal interviews that could have been brought up. Lee Carpenter they stated was hired because of his prior experience. Like I stated in other blog posts, someone that has been recalled by the voters once and rejected a second time does not have the kind of experience that our township needs or wants.
Bridgeport had at least several weeks to seek out applicants for the clerk position. Review the timeline of events -- On March 5th, Darlene Miller turned in her resignation. On March 23rd applicant XX turned in her application. On March 26th Lee Carpenter turned in his application for the position. On April 2nd the township board voted to hire Lee Carpenter as the clerk.
What was Bridgeport doing between March 5th and April 2nd? What were they thinking was going to happen? Why did Bridgeport not post this position? Why did they make no apparent attempt to find other qualified, experienced applicants for the clerk position? Were they just sitting there on their hands waiting for the Township Fairy Godmother to just drop a qualified applicant into their laps?
These are the questions that the Bridgeport residents need to be asking their elected officials in Bridgeport and the Bridgeport Township Manager.
Lets go back to the rules against nepotism & the hiring of family members. Bridgeport's rules only deal with "blood relatives". Perhaps they should be expanded to include other familial relationships such as in-laws, like the Township Supervisor's relationship to Lee Carpenter is. They are in-laws since their children are married to each other, or so I am told. Perhaps the hiring rules should also include people that are long time good buddies with members of the township elected officials and employees, like Lee Carpenter is to several members of the township board and employees of this township. Perhaps the hiring rules should state that no person that has been recalled by the voters can be hired by their friends back into the township unless the voters themselves give the approval at the ballot box?
Lets look at the most generally accepted definition of Nepotism, Cronyism, and Favoritism:
"Nepotism is the granting of favor to relatives in various fields, including business, politics, entertainment, sports, religion and other activities. Nepotism refers to partiality to family whereas Cronyism refers to partiality to a partner or friend. Favoritism, the broadest of the terms, refers to partiality based upon being part of a favored group, rather than job performance."
The township board may not have violated their rules on hiring of relatives but did their actions smack of Cronyism or Favoritism?
The Michigan Township Association website states:
"Michigan's townships are the form of government closest to the people. The epitome of local democracy, elected township leaders are truly "neighbors serving neighbors," offering accountable, effective and efficient representation and services to their residents."
In my opinion the Bridgeport employees and elected officials failed to live up to these standards when they brought Lee Carpenter back into our township government. The Bridgeport residents deserve better. They deserve elected officials that respect them, truly represent them, and listen to their voices, like when the residents spoke and voted to remove Lee Carpenter from office.
I personally like some of the members of our township trustee board but I will never vote for a single one of them again because of their vote, twice, to bring back into our government a person that the residents voted to recall.
FIRST TIME -- During the December 18th, 2018 township trustee board meeting the members voted to appoint Lee Carpenter to the Zoning Board of Appeals. These members voted to approve his appointment - Supervisor Tausend, Treasurer Secord, Trustees Wilson, Williams, Gutierrez and Thayer. The Clerk Darlene Miller was absent for this meeting.
SECOND TIME -- During the April 2nd, 2019 township trustee board meeting the members voted to hire Lee Carpenter as the township clerk. These members voted to approve this action - Treasurer Secord, Trustee Gutierrez, Thayer and Williams. Absent from this meeting was Supervisor Tausend and Trustee Wilson.
It is not only members of the township board that share responsibility for bringing Lee Carpenter back, it was also township employees, but township employees are not elected by the voters so we have no chance to hold them accountable. The best we can do is to elect the kind of township officials that will live up to the standards they are supposed to, the kind of officials that would not vote to bring back someone the voters threw out of office.
To view all the posts I have here on the history and hiring of Lee Carpenter back into the Bridgeport Government, you can use the search function on my blog page or just click this link:
https://bridgeportmusings.blogspot.com/search/label/Lee%20Carpenter
