Bridgeport Township Board Meeting October 5th, 2021

 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:

https://www.facebook.com/FriendsofBrandellAdams

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.

5 vying for Democratic nomination to replace Vanessa Guerra as 95th District rep

Brandell Adams Michigan House, District 95, MI

New Saginaw coalition localizes national concerns