State Law of Advanced Notice Denies Officials' Salary Raises
Clark Township
By Amy Polk

Clark Township electors will not be able to vote on trustee salaries at the Saturday, June 30, annual meeting, and officials will not get raises this year.

Trustees overlooked a deadline and did not adopt salary resolutions in time for the annual meeting. Michigan law requires the board to adopt salary resolutions 30 days before an annual meeting is scheduled, and the board adopted its raises June 21, only nine days before the meeting. Supervisor Linda Hudson said Michigan Townships Association told her the salary resolutions adopted June 21 will be "null and void" because of the error.

"Owing to a procedural error, the electors will not get a vote on it, and there will be no raises," Mrs. Hudson told The St. Ignace News Friday, June 22, shortly after learning they missed the deadline. "The raises were adopted as part of the annual meeting procedure, and because of the procedural error, salaries will now continue as they were previously."

Trustees at the June 21 meeting proposed for each of the township's top three officials - supervisor, clerk, and treasurer - $5,000 raises, and the other two trustees $72.08 raises. Raises for supervisor, clerk, and treasurer were to equal approximately 25%, increasing each of their annual salaries from $20,028 to $25,028. The additional $5,000 was proposed compensation for "facilities administration and management," and adopted as such for each official. Mrs. Hudson explained at the meeting that each official is responsible for managing township facilities in addition to the statutory duties assigned their positions. In Clark Township, the supervisor's office manages the sewer, public works, and building and zoning departments, for instance. The clerk's office is responsible for three cemeteries, Clark Township Community Center, sewer billing, and administering the townships' fire and ambulance services. The treasurer's office manages the municipal airport in Hessel, and the docks, launch ramps, and marina in Cedarville and Hessel, and facilities trash collection and transfer station. Each official also serves on various township committees.

Supervisor, clerk, and treasurer have no set hours to work at Clark Township Hall and are not required to work any number of hours as part of their statutory duties. Deputies work regular hours from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday, and officials are usually available during those hours as well. The hall is open extended hours on Mondays from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., when Mrs. Hudson and Treasurer Katie Carpenter staff the office. Clerk Cathy Nordquist and the other officials said they are available by appointment anytime they are not at the office.

The trustees' salary was to increase by 3.24%, from $2,225.28 to $2,297.36 a year, plus $75 per meeting. The board budgeted for about two meetings a month for each trustee, or an additional $1,800 each. The two trustees also have additional duties. The board voted 4-1 in favor of the supervisor, clerk, and treasurer raises, with trustee Dana Leach voting against them. Questioning whether the trustees' salaries would increase, Mr. Leach was told there was no increase for trustees this year, so he voted unanimously with the others in favor of adopting the proposed salaries. The board learned after the meeting adjourned, however, that the proposed adopted salaries are higher than last year's.

The annual meeting will continue as scheduled at 10 a.m. Saturday, with the same agenda that was adopted last month, including discussion and advisory votes on changing Clark Township's name and whether the township should become a charter township. The board will also present information about how Clark Township taxes are spent, and will discuss the salaries in lieu of an election.

If proper procedure had been followed, Clark Township voters could have voted against the salary resolutions adopted June 21 and set different ones, but could not lower existing salaries. Elected officials' salaries cannot be lowered during the terms of the officials, but can be lowered in new terms. Michigan law states that if voters at an annual meeting fail to vote on the salary resolutions, the board will receive the salaries set by board resolution.

Annual meetings are a way to let township residents act on officials' salaries by approving or changing the salaries officials set for themselves, said Catherine Mullhaupt of Michigan Townships Association. Since Clark Township Board of Trustees officially set an annual meeting where salaries were to be voted on, the salary resolutions adopted June 21 are indeed void, she said. Had there not been an annual meeting, the raises would have been valid, as in previous years.

"The mandate for adopting salary resolutions 30 days before the annual meeting is to give the electors adequate notice of the salaries officials are proposing," she added.

The only other way the public can act on officials' pay, she said, is by petitioning to put salaries on a special election ballot within 30 days of a board adopting salary resolutions.

Because of the potential for a referendum, she said some townships adopt salary resolutions at least 30 days before the end of the fiscal year.