What they say—What they don’t tell you

• What they say - “Filed lawsuit against township receptionist resulting in wrongful firing”

What they don’t tell you - In July 2007, the receptionist, J. Yancey, former clerk Bielec’s granddaughter, physically assaulted me resulting in a shoulder injury. I was out of work for over 8 weeks. After being released from the emergency room I filed assault and battery charges.  Yancey pleaded no contest & was sentenced to one year probation, mandatory anger management classes & community service. The Township Board voted unanimously to fire her for workplace violence, this being only one of such events.

• What they say - “Filed complaint against a township board member”

What they don’t tell you - In January 2010, I and Trustee Tobler filed complaint with the State Police that former Supervisor Jackson violated the Open Meetings Act, and made a decision without the Township Board's knowledge that cost $407,000 in uncollected connection fees from a developer. You can read the story in the Ann Arbor News (click here). Board members Hafler, Jackson, King and Lula (all pro recall) voted to not investigate the allegations which were based on over 130 documents, including written and verbal statements by then Supervisor Jackson.

• What they say - “Filed complaint & restraining order against township resident attempting to access records”

What they don’t tell you - The resident’s name is CJ (Jim) McDonald.

McDonald’s personal stalking and harassment resulted in a Personal Protection Order (PPO) issued by Washtenaw Circuit Judge Archie Brown.

Mr. McDonald’s behavior grew more and more threatening after he settled the counter lawsuit with the township agreeing to pay the township $5,000.00 of the $11,000 for attorney fees from his frivolous lawsuit and signed the consent judgment barring him from requesting information after his over 200 frivolous freedom of information requests during his wife’s campaign for the office of Clerk in 2008.

He was arrested by the State Police for not leaving the Township Hall when he was asked to leave and then he was ordered to leave because he was in violation of the provisions of the Court Order.

Included in the “evidence” that Mr. McDonald brought to the PPO hearing was a video tape of him following Clerk Giszczak to her home. Actually evidence of his stalking, a felony in Michigan.

• What they say - Sued township board for $11,000 for the right to do the books, not a statutory duty of clerk”

What they don’t tell you – In 2005 I proposed to bring the accounting books back in-house to the Clerk’s office.  Quite the contrary to the recall proponent's claims, the Clerk’s duties over the accounting functions are set by statutory authority in the Michigan Compiled Laws, specifically MCL#41.65. This is also clearly supported by Case Law in Michigan, both of which were presented first to the Board. The Board has no authority over an officer's statutory duties, and their actions were blatent violations of Michigan law. The court agreed and awarded me attorney costs.

The clerk shall be responsible for the detailed accounting records and prepare the journals and ledgers. Since 2007 I have saved $50,000.00 per year by doing our books in-house myself. Previous clerks, including recall supporter Iva Bielec, spent hundreds of thousands of your dollars using outside companies to do this work for them.

• What they say - “Threatened to sue township board when board considered clerk’s budget reductions”

What they don’t tell you – At a budget meeting the board discussed cutting the clerk’s budget below what is needed to carryout the statutory duties of the clerk’s office. The law is clear that the board must provide adequate funding to carry out those duties. The board was informed that one of the consequences to cutting the clerk’s budget to inadequate level would be a complaint, a lawsuit, filed with the Courts of the State of Michigan, to require the board to set adequate funding levels. At the same time, Supervisor Hafler solicited approval to hire a Deputy Supervisor, which is not required under Michigan statutes, to perform many of his job duties performed by previous supervisors without a deputy.

The board finally approved the Clerk’s office budgets.

• What they say – “Refused to honor FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests forcing board to settle resulting lawsuits”

What they don’t tell you – Requests to ‘view’ originals of Township Minutes are honored by appointment through the Township approved Freedom of Information Act Request (FOIA) form.  Copies are instantly available on the township website and in the township hall lobby.

In one 4-hour appointment, McDonald arrived soaked in rotten fish guts which sickened employees.  In other appointments that he made, he stormed out in a rage before completing his review, or he was a no-show to the appointment he made.

Two other FOIA lawsuits involved the FOIA Coordinator, then Supervisor Kathleen Jackson. The first was when she allegedly conspired with then former Supervisor Richard Dietering to settle out of court (over $7,000) FOIA requests that she did not provide to the requestor nor forward to the Clerk’s office for help to answer the requests. They (Deitering, Jackson and Dew) used this series of events to falsely file a recall against Clerk Giszczak in 2006.

The second involved our current Supervisor Pete Hafler when at the time he was a resident and Kathy Jackson was the Supervisor. The Clerk first heard of Pete Hafler’s FOIA request when he hand delivered his letter to the Board that warned he was going to file a complaint in court since Jackson had not satisfied his FOIA request (Jackson was the FOIA coordinator with this legal responsibility). The Clerk, after receiving the letter at the board meeting, prepared copies of the documents requested by Pete Hafler and delivered them personally with a request not to file a lawsuit. His response was that he was “gonna show Jackson she can’t get away with this.” I personally pleaded with Pete Hafler letting him know that the settlement money does not come out of her pocket it comes out of the tax payer’s general fund. He filed his lawsuit, the Board settled out of court and the taxpayers did pay him over $2,000 and he did get all of the information he had requested.

As a side note, at that time the Clerk offered to be, and was appointed to be, the Freedom of Information Act Coordinator. In 2007 the Clerk resigned as the FOIA Coordinator because the Supervisor and Treasurer refused to operate within the FOIA statute. The Clerk stated that she would be willing to resume this role only when the full cooperation of the elected officers and board was assured, which has never happened to this day. Supervisor Hafler is currently the FOIA coordinator and fails to legally satisfy most FOIA requests, and then tries to shift the blame to the Clerk.

• What they say – “Participating in firing of deputy treasurer resulting in a “Whistle Blowers” lawsuit.”

What they don’t tell you – The Treasurer released Deputy Treasurer Janice Blair from her duties as Deputy after more than three warnings not to lose her temper with customers and staff. Janice Blair did file a “Whistle Blowers” lawsuit that is pending.

• What they say – “Refused to provide Income Statement for Budget purposes”

What they don’t tell you – This is not true. Income Statements are provided to the Board quarterly in the first three quarters and monthly for the last quarter. It is the Supervisor that is responsible for providing the Board with the Budget data.

• What they say – “Refused to provide keys to the township outside display cases”

What they don’t tell you – There are two outside display cases that have one key. These display cases are the public bulletin boards used by the Clerk to do her statutory duty to post public notices related to board business, elections and other statutorily required postings.

The Supervisor wanted one of the Bulletin Boards and demanded a key from the Clerk. Because there was only one key the Clerk suggested the Supervisor get a locksmith to change the lock on one of the Bulletin Boards. Eventually the Supervisor discontinued complaining at the board meetings and had a locksmith change the lock on the one display case.

It is important to note that this does not release the Clerk from posting required notices for the public.

• What they say – “Refuses to distribute mail as directed by the Township Board Policy”

What they don’t tell you – There is no Township Policy and no Township Policy can negate the Clerk’s statutory duty with regard to the Township Boards mail.

Supervisor Hafler has and continues today to complain that all mail with his name on it should be delivered to him. The reason that this is not true is because “all mail is township board mail.” It does not matter who it is addressed to. All mail is delivered according to which “department” should get the original. The mail is also copied by email to all board members to keep them informed of the correspondence received. The only items not copied to the Board are invoices etc because the board approves them at board meetings.

• What they say – “Has not allowed access to the General Ledger since 2004”

What they don’t tell you – Since 2006 my office has promoted installing the general ledger on the Supervisor and Treasurer computers so that they would have direct access to information. In December 2007 the Clerk and Trustee Bill Tobler met with the IT company owner Mike King and his technician to develop a proposal of costs associated with the security issues to install the general ledger onto the officer’s computers. Throughout 2008, an election year, the project was stalled by Supervisor Jackson and Mike King running for trustee that year. After the new board took office in a new IT company was hired to replace Mike King’s company due to conflict of interest. Treasurer Sherbine made an appointment to work with the Clerk’s office to have the software installed on her computer with Trustee Tobler’s help and Supervisor Hafler refused to make an appointment. For the Supervisor it is very important to have general ledger information to be able to prepare the Budget for the Board. As of this writing it appears that after almost two years the Supervisor will have this installed on his computer next week.

• What they say – “Refuses to assist township board in preparation of the Annual Budget, leaving the meetings early or not attending”

What they don’t tell you – The Clerk provides budget requests for the departments that the Clerk is responsible for (and much more!). The Budget is the Supervisor's responsibility to draft and present to the Board. This is due from the Supervisor no later than December 1st per Michigan statute. This is not the Clerk’s responsibility and the accusation is unfounded. The Supervisor was a "no show" to a budget appointment with the Clerk in December 2008, the month after the Supervisor took office. This appointment was to review the budget process and budget files for the benefit of the Supervisor (this is not a Clerk responsibility by law). The master budget files were delivered later to the Supervisor from the Clerk on two separate occasions and on both occasions the Supervisor was informed to keep these files available because they would be needed each year.

• What they say – “Intentionally creates red tape and hoops for people to jump through at her desire”

What they don’t tell you – The Clerk does not have the authority to establish the rules for processing applications. The process is established through the Boards approval. The “red tape” refers to the Clerks office diligent adherence to the “rules” of processing. It is fair to all applicants to follow the rules consistently with every applicant. I very often say “it does not matter what I think of your project, my job is facilitate every ones application as efficiently as possible through the process.” A side note: the Planning Commission and the Board worked to reduce the red tape as much as possible with the new 2007 zoning ordinance and new applications.

• What they say – “Antagonistic, tries to incite people to anger or physically act out”

What they don’t tell you – I am a professional. I expect my fellow board members and staff to act professionally. I encourage self awareness and self responsibility. I suggest that the statement is a clear picture of how they relate to others.