On the Agenda: Approval of Agenda begins at 1:02 Approval of Minutes - September 7th, 2021 begins at 1:27 Special Orders: 1. Set Public Hearing for 2022 General Fund Budget for Wednesday, November 3rd, 2021 begins at 2:10 2. Set Public Hearing for Zoning Ordinance 21-02 Text Amendments - Food Trucks for Wednesday, November 3rd, 2021 begins at 3:33 Presentations: 1. Introduction of CEDAM Fellowship employee Michelle McGregor begins at 5:05 New Business: 1. Board Appointment of Brandell Adams begins at 9:57 2. Police Officer Oath of Office Larrisa Fuester begins at 15:33 3. Police Power Ordinance Food Trucks begins at 18:00 4. Equipment Purchase - Bobcat begins at 21:08 5. Exmark Mower Update begins at 23:00 6. Firearm Disposal begins at 23:56 Accounts Payable Checks 68639 through 68756 $811,812.17 begins at 25:18 Police Department Report begins at 27:38 Fire Department Report begins at 30:15 Manager's Report begins at 33:00 Board Member Comments begin at 39:07
I would like to start with a big Welcome to Michelle McGregor, Brandell Adams, and our newest police officer Larrisa Fuester! Good Job Chief Duffett on our newest officer, I like her!!
There is a lot of information in this meeting and lots to comment on, but I will just focus on just the appointment of our newest board member, Brandell Adams.
It sounds like Augie Tausend says that no other community members applied for the open board seat? He talks about how we are a small community and have problems recruiting people to be involved. He mentions that the notice was sent out in their constant contact email service about the open board position. The only "notice" I could find was a mention in the minutes from the September 7th board meeting that Heather Wilson was resigning her seat on the board. So I guess if residents read the minutes from the meeting they would be aware of the open board seat. I saw an article in the Birch Run/Bridgeport Herald about the opening on the board, about two weeks before they were planning on filling the position. Maybe if the township had put in a bit more effort to reach out to the residents there would have been more applicants? I tried to reach out to as many township residents as I could to let them know there was an opening on the board. Just one of my posts reached over 1,000 of our fellow residents. I find it very disappointing if it is true that no residents applied for that board seat. Augie Tausend said that Mr. Adams has worked on elections with him so they know each other. Augie said though that the clincher for him in selecting Mr. Adams for our board was his endorsement for the position by Vanessa Guerra. Vanessa Guerra was briefly a member of our township board. She left before her term was up here on our board to become a Michigan Representative for the 95th district. If I remember correctly, she was absent often from our board meetings and never had much to say when she was here. My impression was that her being on our board was nothing more than a launching position for her future political career, to serve herself more than to serve our township. I could be wrong.
Mr. Adams seems to be a very involved community member, very involved in outreach and politics. He does some good things for the entire Saginaw County community. You can do a simple search on the internet and find tons of information on him, I will share a few here in this post. It seems to me, just my opinion, that Mr. Adams has an eye on political office for his future. He ran for Vanessa Guerra's former seat in the Michigan Legislature in 2020 but didn't win.
Mr. Adams has a Facebook page that our township residents can follow:
His page is very professional and informative. If Bridgeport residents need to go searching all over the internet for information on any upcoming elections etc... then hopefully they can go to Mr. Adams page to find it. At least on his page you won't have to deal with personal drama and nasty partisan politics, like on the township clerks page, to find information that should be posted on the township website but hasn't been in the past. Maybe Mr. Adams can post updated and accurate voting information for the residents like about absentee voting?
Here are a few more links to information about Mr. Adams where you can see his qualifications, education etc.. and all the work he does. Hopefully Mr. Adams is on our board with intentions to stay, to truly serve our residents, and not just use this position to launch a future political career.
They didn't use the microphones very often during this meeting and some of the people speak very softly so sorry if you can't hear everything. I couldn't hear everything even while standing in the same room with them.
From the Beautification Sub-Committee - The flower pots will be coming back again next year. You could argue the pro's and con's about that, like it is a lot of money and that money could be spent elsewhere in our community; and on the pro side - I Love The Flower Pots!! End of discussion!
Next from the sub-committee was talk about looking into the Asphalt Art Initiative, and they are looking at possible grant money for that. They are thinking about it in the Dixie/ Bearcat Blvd. area, the Dixie/State St. are and possibly around the bridge area I think. I like this idea! I am assuming this is the program they are looking at: Asphalt Art Initiative
You can see the photo at the top of their page is from right here in Saginaw County at Ojibway Island.
They are also talking about having a Fall cleanup on October 15th at 1pm. I will post more when it is available. This is another nice idea I like!
Next up was the equipment purchase discussion. My understanding of the discussion is they will be purchasing a piece of equipment that they will use for snow removal on some sidewalk areas and places like the bridge and trail. I'm not clear if this equipment will also be used for other things. It sounds like the DDA and the township will be splitting the cost. I think this also has to go to the regular town board for approval? They do have a long and informative discussion about this subject during the meeting that you can watch here in the video.
This is another subject you could argue the pro's and con's on. First it is again a lot of money, and money that could and probably should be spent elsewhere and on more important things in our community. I argued against this when it was proposed several years ago. On the pro side: At this point in my life I am just damned tired of seeing the mess our sidewalks are every winter. We have so many walkers that try to walk year round in the downtown area, kids from the schools walking, but sadly in the winter time many of these sidewalks are not safe to walk on. I'm not sure which sidewalk areas would be cleared by the township, I doubt it would be in all the neighborhoods. That is a nice dream though! Some of you have probably seen me out trying to snow blow off some of the sidewalks in the downtown area over the years. I tried to keep the ones going to the post office clear for all the neighbors that walked there, especially our elderly residents. I am not physically able to do that very often anymore, so yes, at this time, I would like to see these sidewalks kept clear by whatever means is available. Buy the equipment!!
During the board member comment section Jeff McNally mentioned that their business, McNally-Nimergood Cranes will be having an open house to show their new facilities on October 1st. Not sure if it is open to the general public,
First I should note that they did attempt to improve the sound system and you can hear them better than usual and I Thank them for that! If everyone would speak up loudly and clearly then we would really be in business.
They did hold the public hearing for the Truth in Taxation and there were no members of the public that came to hear it or speak up for or against it.
They announced the resignation of board member Heather Wilson due to the conflict with her job that requires her to travel out of town often. I am sad to see Heather leave but wish her well in life!
They claim to have 30 days to fill her position and plan on having it filled by the next board meeting on October 5th, 2021. I wonder if they will be posting notices for the opening, will they have public interviews in a board meeting if there are any applicants? Guess we will find out on October 5th.
Any township resident that is not in default to the township and is a registered elector can apply for the open board seat. Information can be found on this link: Employment Opportunities
For townships to receive money from the ?? fund they have to have conflict of interest policies in place. Bridgeport updated theirs to also include board members.
Mark Schluckbier has been appointed to the planning commission.
During the Managers Report segment she talked about updates on the Dixie Hwy project and mentioned that Tri Valley was one business that was involved with bringing top soil for the project. If this is Tri Valley Landscaping & Tri Valley Construction companies run by members of the Gilbert family, maybe Bridgeport needs to vet the companies they do business with better in my opinion.
There will be a ribbon cutting ceremony for the Dixie Hwy project with Senator Horn on Monday September 20th at 9am in the parking lot at the governmental center.
The CEDAM Fellowship position has been filled by Michelle McGregor, a resident from Saginaw Township. Welcome to Ms. McGregor!
She also gives updates about grants and funding. Updates on community outreach like her Coffee with the Township Manager at Big Boy on September 9th and the 23rd at 9am. They may also be hosting two open houses for the temporary governmental center, one on Wednesday, September 15th, and another for Tuesday, October 19th. No other information on those events yet.
During the board member comments something was brought up by Augie Tausend that is somewhat of a controversial issue across the country right now. He talked about the moratorium on rent/evictions that has now been ended. He said there is talk about possibly extending that at the state or county levels, and if that does come about then maybe there is something that the board will look at.
** I almost forgot to add that there was a Bridgeport resident that spoke at the end of the meeting. Because of the severe weather we were having at the time of the meeting, the residents were late getting to the meeting and missed the public comment period. The resident is a member of a Neighborhood Watch group from the Studor Rd. area. I am always glad to see residents speak up at meetings and glad to know there are still active & concerned residents involved that care about our community.
The meeting agenda has been posted for the upcoming September 7th, 2021 meeting of the Bridgeport Township Board. There will be a board resignation of a trustee member. Sadly it won't be any of the members I would like to see resign. So it appears there will be an opening for a new trustee for the board.
I checked the August 25th and September 1st editions of the Birch Run/Bridgeport Herald and saw no notice in there for the board opening. I checked the Bridgeport Township Facebook page and the website, no mention on either of those sites about the board opening. Hopefully they will be posting it somewhere so members of the township can apply for the position, unlike how they handled it when the township clerk position opened up. Sometimes this township will post openings and interview candidates, and sometimes they just appoint them, On the township website they have the requirements posted for board members and also a link to apply online. It is under "Employment Opportunities".
I am hoping that there are members of our community that would like to step up and serve as a trustee on the board, and hoping that they will not just be appointing another "buddy", but rather giving members of the community the chance to serve. If they do just "appoint" one of their buddies to the position, hopefully it won't be another previously recalled board member! Hopefully they aren't hoping to get the old band back together 😏
And hoping I won't have to be writing another post like this one:
This is a post I have been wanting to write for over a year
and figured it is finally time! It is
actually past time for me to write this, and past time for a new township
clerk! Bridgeport residents deserve competent, honest, government officials. I will list just
some of the problems with our current clerk.
We will start back from the time just over two years ago to the present
day.
1 – Back on July 10th, 2019 I wrote a post about
the “inaccuracies” of the township clerks profile page that is on the township
government website.As of this writing,
that profile page is still up and no corrections have been made to the
information.You can read my post here
about the “inaccuracies” of his profile:
Some people might just call those inaccuracies outright
lies.I still today have to ask the
question “Is Lee Carpenter that confused?Is he suffering from memory loss?Is he attempting a little "revisionist history" to try and
mislead the residents and voters?”Does
he, and other township officials, believe the residents are so stupid they won’t
know the difference between the truth and their version of the truth?Do they even care?The fact that this “misinformation” is still
posted on the township website makes me question whether he is even honest
enough to be trusted with one of our most sacred rights, the right to vote?If
he can’t even remember what years he was in office before, before he was
recalled by the voters, is he even competent enough to run our elections?
2 – Since Lee Carpenter was installed as the current
township clerk back in 2019, there have been no updates on the townships
official website about any election information. Nothing!!In February of 2020 I posted a brief update
for residents so they could go to Saginaw County’s website to look up
information concerning upcoming elections.2020 was an important and busy election year but Bridgeport Township
residents were left in the dark.There
has only been one election committee agenda posted online back in October of
2020.No minutes are posted so I don’t
know if that meeting ever took place.On
the regular township clerks page they have some information about things voters
need to know concerning voting here, but that information is years
outdated!The absentee voting requirement section has
not been updated since the laws changed in 2018.I repeat, 2018!The township website says you must be over
the age of 60 and there are multiple requirements for applying for an absentee
ballot.The current law is that any eligible
voter is able to apply and there are no requirements or reasons needed.Was any resident unable to vote because they
read that outdated information, or had no access to any information concerning
when and where to vote etc…?
A screenshot of the current township voting information page:
Here is a link to the current Michigan Secretary Of State page with information about voting and absentee ballots:
3 – I did finally find some election information posted for
Bridgeport residents online, not on any official township page, but on Lee
Carpenters personal Facebook page.He
did post updates there.I guess only if
you are one of his friends, or knew who the clerk was and how to access his personal Facebook page, did you have or deserve access to voter and
election information. It is fine if he
wants to share official information from his page, but it should first be
posted on an official page for ALL residents to have access to.Now if his personal Facebook page is being used
as an official government page, then there is a real problem with that.Has anyone ever looked at his personal
Facebook page?
Here are two examples of voter information updates from Lee Carpenter's personal page that should have been being shared on an official township government page for all residents to see:
It appears that all his
posts are set for “public” so that anyone can see them.The problem lies with the other posts that
the public would have to wade through to find any official township news. He posts very Anti Conservative, Anti Trump, Anti Trump Supporters, Anti NRA items and the lists goes on. His political bias, and it seems hatred of half of the country, is not appropriate to be shared publicly by a government official. Here is just a small example of some of them, and these are just the memes:
July 2019
July 2021 - He likes this one so much that he has posted it twice, this past May and then again several days ago
These are some from April of 2019, right after his buddies snuck him back into office:
He is free to post whatever he wants on his personal page,
but when that page appears to be used also as an official government page,
those posts are a problem.First they
could be very offensive to many people in our township.Secondly, I feel that those kinds of posts
would cause concern for the integrity of our elections and the clerk’s ability
to run a fair and honest election. Those posts are very inappropriate for any government official to be posting for the public to see.
There have been government employees and officials that have had to step down from their positions for less offensive posts than Lee Carpenter shares. Lee Carpenter would never step down from office because he knows his buddies up there have his back. He does not have the integrity to step down from office, thus he does not have the integrity to be in office!
Almost forgot this one also from 2019. The Irony!!:
We could try to recall him again, but what is the point in that? Our current elected township officials have already shown that they will disregard the will of the voters and just bring him back again. Nothing will change until we can vote them all out!
Bridgeport residents need to educate themselves about our officials etc... and you need to get involved.
This will be a long post that will cover the DDA board
meeting and other items I feel a need to comment on. First I would like to apologize for the poor
quality of the video. My camera is good
but the lighting is dismal in the meeting room so the video comes out grainy
and blurry. Most of the members there
have no microphone, they can barely hear each other, and I can barely hear them
at times. It will be very hard for the
public to hear some of the conversations, and the nuances that I could hear and
see in person.
First let’s start with a history of DDA boards:They were meant to be temporary and the focus
was supposed to be on reviving failing historic town centers and
infrastructure.They were supposed to
have sunset clauses written into them, they were never meant to be a permanent
part of any local government.Their
original purpose has been ignored and abused for so long now that it has just
become accepted practice.DDA board
members are not elected officials, they are appointed.The DDA board answers to the township trustee
board; and the DDA Coordinator answers to the Township Manager, the Township Manager
is also the DDA Director, a point that someone seems to not understand.The township board and the DDA board should
act as two independent bodies with that chain of command.My problem is that it seems that the two
boards act as one entity, answerable to no one.I believe it is required by law that the Township Supervisor sits on the
DDA board, and that should be the only overlap between the two in my opinion.
Here in Bridgeport we have two other township trustee board members that also
sit on the DDA board.It is my personal opinion
that creates a conflict, especially when you have half of the DDA board members
not even show up for meetings and votes.How many people really run this township and make the decisions that
affect the lives of the residents?
Some of the people on the DDA board, and in the township
offices, that I know and like very much.Some
I don’t know at all so I don’t have an opinion on them.Some like Augie Tausend, I find him a
likeable person, and he can be very easy to get along with.We don’t speak any longer, but I have no
problem with our interactions in the past.At least to my face he has never been disrespectful to me, unlike a few
others.I do have respect for him on a
personal level, but would still like to see him gone from office for numerous
reasons. There are some other township elected officials and employees that I
would like to see out the door today!
Another thought before I move on back to the DDA board
meeting:Any employee or official of our
township that deals directly with the public should never be abrasive, arrogant,
condescending, confrontational, or a bully!And no township employee should ever be privately contacting members of
the public that post opinions online about the township, and trying to get them
to stop their “negativity”.That is
extremely inappropriate.
** If you watch this on YouTube, it will show you what times what segments start at, and you can watch it in theater mode.
Now onto the actual DDA board meeting:This was another very interesting and
informative board meeting.I hope
everyone will take the time to listen to it all from beginning to end.I will only be focusing on one part of the
meeting – The non-motorized trail along Fort Rd.
This plan has been talked about for many years I
believe.My reaction has always been a
big eye roll.I have never seen that as
a viable option.They say they would
have the wider paved trail from the gravel parking lot on Fort Rd./Fayette St. going to the dike, then from the dike to Dixie
they would have a regular sidewalk. First problem is you have the people’s
homes.Some are very close to the road
and the sidewalk will go right through their front yard, too close to their
homes for my comfort if I was a resident there. I took a quick drive over there
this morning just to refresh my memory on the layout.One problem I saw was close to Dixie there is
a utility pole and there is not enough room between the road and the pole for a
sidewalk.I guess you would have to move
the pole to make room there.Then down
where the culvert goes under Fort Rd. into Davis Park, I don’t think there is
enough room between the road and the once beautiful pond, now destroyed, for
the wider trail they are talking about. Wasn’t that section of Fort Rd. washed
out a few years ago from flooding?We
are in a flood plain, we will always have flooding.What will happen to the “trail” in another
bad flood?Will it wash out and need to
be repaired?How many times will that
happen?How much time and money has this
township wasted on things they have put in the flood zone that just ended up
destroyed?I believe the flooding is
worse in that area due to several factors.One being that there used to be two culverts that ran under that road
into Davis Park and one has been removed.I don’t believe the one alone can handle the water flow in times of
severe flooding. I believe that is also part of the cause of the damage that has been done to this area. Bill Wheeler mentions the
“ditch” that runs along Fort Rd. from the once beautiful pond over to the
river.That is NOT a ditch, that is a
frigging man-made disaster of this townships making!!Way back when in time, this township dug that
ditch/canal as a canoe launch from the pond out to the river.Is the canoe dock still in the pond?No it is not!Is the pond still there?No it is
now destroyed.Is the canal still
there?Well technically it is, but it is
usually dried up and at other times just a nasty mucky mess.The river is still there but damaged.Why do people think that sand bar has formed in
the river at the end of that canal from hell?Some of us that have been here much longer than some of these officials
and employees of this township, and have actually been alive longer than some
of them; we remember the beautiful pond, and the wetlands, and the river, that
have now been destroyed by just one act of this township. Some of us actually
give a damn!!
There is a phrase that really irritates me, like nails on a
chalkboard, that phrase is “Lipstick On A Pig”.I don’t think there is any more appropriate phrase for this trail plan
than Lipstick On A Pig!You want to
build all these beautiful parks, make it a livable place for the residents,
improve the townships “ratings” etc…I
call BS on that!! This township doesn’t need more parks, doesn’t need this
trail.This township needs to properly
take care of what you do have now.You
mow them, but not much else is done.You
don’t have enough money, enough manpower, enough time etc… to properly take
care of what you do have.
Oh the township cares about the environment and river etc…I call BS on that too!! .How much trash have I personally had to haul
out of these parks and river because the township was not doing it?Would the township still be burning illegal
trash down in the woods on the Davis Park “island” if I hadn’t spoken out about
it?If you truly care about creating
beautiful parks etc… for the residents, then you would fill in that canal,
restore the pond, and repair the damage to the river.Talk to experts about having two culverts
back under that road.The damage to the
wetlands on the other side of Fort Rd. will probably takes decades to repair on
its own; but the damage on the townships side should be repaired by this
township. To do anything less than that, to put in that trail, is nothing but
lipstick on a pig!
There is one other subject that I would like to give you my
opinion on, and it is just my opinion, probably the most hated opinion poster in
Bridgeport Township.This is something I
noticed mostly during the discussion on the trail along Fort Rd., but I did
notice this nuance throughout the rest of this meeting.There are subtle nuances that viewers of the
video may not be able to pick up on because of the poor video and audio quality
of this video.I will admit that I could
be wrong in my perception of what I saw there, but since I did talk to several
other people that watched the video of this meeting and they said they saw the
same thing, then I will share my thoughts on it.Remember I said at the beginning of this blog post that the DDA board
answers to the Township Board and I feel that the two act as one entity instead
of two separate entities.I also
mentioned that the DDA Coordinator answers to the Township Manager, the
township manager is their boss and has the power to hire and fire the person
filling that position.When Bill Wheeler
started talking about the Fort Rd. trail, the Township Manager/DDA Director
spoke up, and seemed upset, because this was the first time she was hearing
about this.OK, so maybe not everyone is
in sync yet, but maybe it is more like not everyone is in "the clique"??
Chain of Command.What upset me is what
I perceived as coming from Bill Wheeler towards the Township Manager as a very
dismissive attitude towards her concerning this.Don’t roll your eyes and look to the board
members, the Township Manager/DDA Director is your boss, the one that has the
power to fire or hire you.She is the
Township Manager, you are not.Like I
said there are nuances in tone of voice, body language etc… that the public may
not be able to pick up from this video.I thought maybe my perception was jaded by my opinion of Bill Wheeler
from dealing with him over several years here in the township, but others I
have talked to share this same opinion of him, and others say they saw the same
thing in the meeting.My opinion is that
he can come across as very arrogant and condescending towards others, that he
thinks other people are just idiots and he is smarter than everyone else.About the only good thing I can say about his
work is that he does a good job with the baseball games and the miracle league
over at Liberty Park, but I don’t actually know that first hand because I have
never dealt with any of that over there.I have another perception that I may be wrong about, but it seemed to me
that the DDA Board also has the attitude that they will do what they want and
don’t answer to anyone??I would love to
hear other people’s opinions on all of this.
BTW, if I was the Township
Manager, Bill Wheeler would be fired, or at least not the DDA Coordinator.Maybe there is someone out there that is more
qualified for the position, and more personable?Maybe he should spend his time focusing on
just one job, as the Parks and Recreation Director?
I could heap lots of praise on the DDA Board for things they
have done in our township that truly enrich it and the resident’s lives, but I
also have concerns about things. How much
land does the DDA Board actually own?How far has
the DDA District been expanded here in the township?I think some of these things have gone way
beyond what DDA Boards were originally set up to do.They were meant to be temporary tools to be
used for the benefit of local areas, not permanent government entities, and not large property owners and developers.
