Sumpter Township attorney Rob Young corrected several misinformed claims made by a resident during the Jan. 10 meeting of the board of trustees.
During the public comment portion of the agenda, Randy Miller accused the board of violating state law regarding the sale of township property, claimed that Supervisor Tim Bowman should have recused himself from voting on a property matter due to a conflict of interest and alleged that the board had awarded a $400,000 insurance contract without the required bidding process.
Young immediately responded and apologized to the trustees for speaking out of turn on the agenda but said he felt correcting the false claims and assertions was necessary. Miller apparently believed that the township insurance agents, Burnham & Flower were being awarded a contract for a $468,611.88 small group insurance policy premium. Miller chastised the board for what he mistakenly interpreted as the awarding of a contract without proper bidding procedures. He went so far as to imply “corruption” on the part of the board.
Young explained that Burnham & Flower was the insurance agent for the township and the responsibility of the agency every year is to solicit bids from as many insurance providers as possible. The agency then brings the bids to the township and an appointed committee representing the employees reviews the proposed plans.
“The committee meets with representatives of the unions to discuss a plan consistent with the union contracts and within the budget,” Young explained. He reiterated that Burnham & Flower is a facilitator and is not the insurance provider. Young said the committee members recommend the entity that provides the best plan for the employees in the township.
“Burnham & Flower provides a service. They provide information to allow the board to make an informed decision,” Young said. He reminded the board members that Burnham & Flower is currently the agency used by, “probably 67 percent of the communities in the tri-county area. Their expertise has given us the ability to make a smart decision,” he added.
As for the claim that the board violated state law by meeting in closed session regarding the sale of township property, Young said under state law the board members “most certainly have a right to discuss the sale or purchase of property in closed session under certain circumstances.”
Young said the law clearly allowed the board members to have a discussion of offers in closed session and to decide if the township is going to accept any proposal. “We can't have those discussion of offers in public in front of the very people making the proposals. Common sense would dictate that,” he said.
Young then addressed the accusation of a conflict of interest vote by Bowman. He noted that a board member can only recuse himself from voting with permission of the board. “It's up to the elected official to determine if they have a financial interest in whatever matter is before the township board,” he said. “I have yet to see an issue here where that has been violated, ever. If so, I have a duty to report that and I would do so,” he said.
Trustee Matt Oddy also corrected Miller’s false assertions noting that there is a great deal of misinformation that “ends up in the paper and then we have to correct it at the board table.” Oddy went through the last three sales of property by the township and detailed the public meetings and discussions.. He explained that there had not been a closed session on any of the three. “I didn't attend any closed sessions and I haven't missed meetings,” he said.
“You are not entitled to your own facts,” Young said. “When you say Burnham & Flower was awarded a $400,000 plus contract, that is not accurate. That can't stand. We cannot let that roll out anymore. We used to and it got blown out of proportion, printed in the newspaper and it turned out to be false.
“Misinformation has to be corrected,” the attorney said.
