2012/2013 Budget Presentation

 

At the December 7th, 2011 Board meeting, we discussed the proposed budget for the fiscall year April 1, 2012 to March 31, 2013.  It occurs roughly 16 minutes into the meeting.  You will see a presentation of our accomplishments year to date and an outline of the fiscal health of the township.  The video can be viewed at http://wbrw.pegcentral.com/player.php?video=181a14374606c1db48b1c34f3f52b231

 

 

Actions Taken During Board Meetings This Year to Date

  • Announced the opening of the new Boys and Girls Club at Stoney Creek Church on 26 Mile Road in November 2011.
  • Closed out our first year of positive financial results in our Building Inspection Fund in its history (it was insolvent when we took office).
  • Signed a contract to begin taking credit card payments and internet payments for utility bills and taxes by the end of the year.
  • Received the annual audit report indicating continued aggressive cost management.
  • Added a deputy to the police team without any tax increase.
  • Approved proceeding with engineering of repairs on the tired Hayes Road Sewer line to avoid complete replacement at much higher cost. Awarded a contract to repair the pipe at several hundred thousand dollars less than the original budget.
  • Issued a new Hunting ordinance that improves hunting rights yet reinforces safety.
  • Modified the Master Plan to allow for potential medical facilities in strategic areas of town.
  • Garnered public opinion regarding changes to the Village District Ordinance.
  • Altered Firefighter contract to allow assistant chief and fire marshal positions to be combined and to increase effectiveness of other key positions.
  • Chose new vendor to replace remote water meter reading devices.
  • Altered Van Dyke sidewalk plans to cut project costs by several hundred thousand dollars.
  • Conducted IT review to identify significant control risks.
  • Commenced ISO study to reduce township wide insurance costs for customers.
  • Passed on to our customers less of a water rate increase than Detroit Water and Sewer charged to us since Washington had cost controls that offset Detroit cost increases.
  • Added ordinance governing solar panels.
  • Improved process for defining parking requirements for new developments.
  • Added more members with business backgrounds to the Planning Commission and ZBA.
  • Made it easier for minor site plan changes to be approved for businesses.
  • Coordinated 26 mile water main project with County road project to reduce costs and disruption to local businesses.
  • Swore in the new Fire Chief - Dan Last.
  • Approved cooperating with the County to get 2 miles of limestone applied to roads.
  • Announced extension of non-fire union contracts for 2 years without pay increases.
  • Approved a Civil Infraction Ordinance which makes ordinance enforcement easier and cheaper for both the township and the business owner and not as threatening to businesses (focus is fines, rather than current approach of threatening business owners with fines, misdemeanors and 90 days in jail).
  • Announced that Washington had a 32% population increase per the census.
  • Approved the marketing of land for $40,000 that was acquired for $900.
  • Approved extension of waste hauler contract for 3 years by a 6 to 1 vote (I dissented since I felt it was more appropriate to test the market through a bid process).

 

The Boys and Girls Club Now Opening

 

On the Monday after Thanksgiving (November 28th), the new Boys and Girls Club will open at the Stoney Creek Community Church at 26 Mile and Jewell. Kids age 6 to 18 can sign up for a mere $25 per year and receive the benefit of supervised but fun club experience. Boys and Girls Club provides mentoring, tutoring, health and life skills training, leadership training, character training and more. Kids routinely attending a Boys and Girls Club are far less likely to have problems with police, pregnancy or drugs and alcohol. The club will initially be open from 2:30 till 6pm Monday through Friday. This chapter of the Boys and Girls Club was made possible through the efforts of Stan Babinski, a small group of volunteers, Brett Tillander of the Oakland Boys and Girls Club, and the good people of Stoney Creek Community Church. The chapter will be named after Stan’s son Stanley who lost his battle to cancer last year. I was happy to speak at the Founder's Luncheon for the new club which can be see at http://wbrw.pegcentral.com/player.php?video=40b675ab9bfd43ce990e9923076c1939

 

If you would like to support this great new effort please send your gift to “The Boys and Girls Club of Oakland and Macomb Counties” to 1545 E. Lincoln, Royal Oak, MI 48067. Please note on your check that the contribution is for the “Washington” location. For more information about the Boys and Girls Club and the programs it will provide or how to volunteer call 248-544-4166, Ext. 103. 

 

 

Financial Report Received

 

The Township’s auditors, Plante Moran, issued their audit report on the Township’s year ended March 31, 2011. Once again, your township board managed to work its way through difficult times. Governmental revenues were negatively impacted by a drop in property taxes of $551,000. However, our revenues went up from grant money received for our fire station construction and census-driven growth in sales tax revenue sharing from the state. In addition we have reduced programming expenses by $257,000 through continued staff reductions and other efforts on top of the massive cuts achieved in the prior two years. Your board continues to control costs downward while finding ways to redirect spending away from bureaucracy salaries and into key infrastructure needs that directly benefit taxpayers.  

 

 

Romeo District Library Issues

  

I have made some very provacative statements about the Romeo District Library over these last few years. Particularly I am concerned about the impact of its perpetual millage, which voters never get to reconsider or re-evaluate as economic and technological realities evolve. I believe perpetual millages add to financial irresponsibility as evidence by some poor results at our local library. You can hear those comments for yourself by observing the Washington Township board meeting that occurred on October 18th. The video is available at http://wbrw.pegcentral.com/player.php?video=53ed476e5ab8aa794b009ae9c7714e68

 

Fast forward to the 1 hour 33 minute and 15 second mark and push the volume up.  

 

Note the following:

 

  • The library is a $2mm per year operation. Washington spends less than $900,000 on police.
  • Perpetual millages prevent taxpayers from re-evaluating and re-balancing all local millages to respond to changing economic and technological realities.
  • Our library has $1.7 million in unfunded post employment benefits.  That is irresponsible.   
  • Statistically, the library cost structure compares negatively to statewide averages and would be worse had post employment costs been funded properly.
  • Our library director’s $80,000 per year salary is very cushy compared with State averages despite the fact that the financial portion of her duties were stripped away and given to a new $35,000 per year part-time finance person (a person apparently hired without a posting process).
  • Staffing levels are higher than state averages.
  • The millage rate is on the high end of the 381 libraries in the state.
  • The library recently spent $500 per day on an interim director.
  • The library spent $120,000 to repair a porch on the Kezar library.
  • Appointed library boards tend to fall under the spell of the director rather than the town boards that appoint them.
  • And much more.

 

The long and short is that perpetual millages that allow libraries to go unchecked do not serve the public.  Libraries with perpetual millages have costs per capita that are 46% higher than libraries that have renewable millages.  Expect this issue to be focused on in the near future.

 

 

 

Interview with WXYZ

 

WXYZ did a story contrasting Highland Park's failure to properly use firestation grant money vs the fine job done by Washington Township.  

 

http://www.wxyz.com/dpp/news/region/wayne_county/highland-park%27s-fire-department-sitting-on-multi-million-dollar-grant

 

 

Speech at the Romeo Area Tea Party

 

In March 2011, I was the "warm up" speaker at the Romeo Area Tea Party for a fascinating gentlemen who spoke about global warming.  I encourage you to listen to my speech which begins roughly 16 minutes and 25 seconds into the video but I also encourage you to listen to his fascinating presentation which starts shortly thereafter.  You can see the entire video at 

 

http://wbrw.pegcentral.com/player.php?video=1f1aa0705283ad978bc10e2a3a4e277c

 

 

Fire Station Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

 

We built a badly needed fire station, brining it in under budget and on time - in fact the first in the nation to be completed under the grant program we participated in.  View the ribbon cutting ceremony for the new fire station at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnyI-kPkr6E .

 

 

Fire Station Ground Breaking Ceremony

 

It was an exciting day when we broke ground on our new facility.  See the ground breaking ceremony and the incredible support we had from great people to get the job done.  http://wbrw.pegcentral.com/player.php?video=6abafcaa9123a85d3d58d9e00402374b

 

 

New Washington Township Website Launched

 

Our team did a fine job upgrading our website to make it more user friendly.  See this video tour to learn how to use it.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVUlgzo3q7A