Original post 11/13/24; updated 12/18/24 – revised headline and name of organization; corrected Board Officer salaries; minor errors; 9/8/25 – revert to the original proposed name of the proposed organization; some minor editing; ad idea of one current Board of Trustees member being on this Board.

What is wrong with what we have now?

Simply, our Board of Trustees has too much to do.

In the next paragraph is a partial list of issues in Oakland Township that our various Boards and committees must deal with. Most of this is ultimately the legal responsibility of our seven-member Board of Trustees. The items over which other Boards have some or complete authority beyond just making recommendations to our Board of Trustees are in bold italics.

Budget, Building Inspection, Communication, Emergency Management, Historic Preservation, Law Enforcement, Library, Monitoring state law proposed changes for effect on township, Older Persons Commission, Ordinance Enforcement, Parks and Recreation, Planning and Zoning, Roads, Safety Paths, Sewers, Taxes Assessment, Traffic Safety, Water, Wireless communications facilities, Zoning Variances

(Note: There is considerable disagreement about the relative authority of the Board of Trustees and Parks and Recreation Commission (also elected). This stems from a poorly written and very old law.)

It is my opinion, based on my attempts over an 11-year period to understand Township issues, that our seven-member “part-time” underpaid Board of Trustees simply cannot rationally put in the number of person-hours needed to study all the issues adequately, unless they are willing to spend all waking hours on Township issues and ignore their families. Trustees are paid $300 per quarter plus $100 per meeting. In 2023 there were 24 meetings. Supervisor, Clerk and Treasurer make a flat $13,000, $9,000 and $9,000 per year regardless of number of meetings. They need our organized help.

A Township Manager cannot be an expert in all of these areas.

The issues to deal with in our modern township are too many and too complex for an 1846 (Township Act) or 1947(Charter Township Act) small township government. In the change from the old system of annual township meetings of all voters to a small 7-member Board of Trustees we are now asking too much of too few. Perhaps 7 people was enough in 1846 or 1947, but not in today’s complex world.

I suggest this:

• provide high quality, comprehensive advice from residents to our elected and appointed officials through a new non-profit Oakland Township Citizen Advisory Board

The essence of my concept is a large (1% of voters), very well-informed, volunteer, unpaid, well-organized, trained, Oakland Township Citizen Advisory Board with such high credibility with voters that their advice is taken very seriously by elected and appointed officials and residents. Members would specialize in a subject of their choosing. Subjects could be very narrow. Perhaps one or two people would be experts on stop signs, for example.

We do not need to elect different people to our Board of Trustees in order to get better government. That is a futile approach. Our current Board members will do just fine, if properly informed by our Oakland Township Citizen Advisory Board. If there is a truly unqualified member, we can always remove them by recall in their second through 3rd year, but not first and last.

The missions of Oakland Township Citizen Advisory Board would be:

1. Create comprehensive, accurate, complete, easily understandable (by all) reports of information on current and future issues.
2. Create an “encyclopedia” of comprehensive, accurate, complete, easily understandable (by all) reports of essential, useful information about all key township topics. Which include but are not limited to the topics listed at the beginning of this posting.
3. Make recommendations to our elected Board of Trustees. Parks and Recreation Commission, Library Board, and appointed Planning Commission, Safety Paths and Trails Committee and Zoning Board of Appeals and Township Manager.
4. Be a source of future Board of Trustee candidates.
5. Create a resident “concern resolution system”. We would assist a resident with a concern to get it resolved to their satisfaction or tell them they are “all-wet”, whichever applies.
6. Work on and champion improvement projects
7. Help the Township create comprehensive plans and goals for all departments such as Fire, Police, Building, etc.
8. Help the Township Board create a managing system so they know what is going on and are not surprised (Think – Cider Mill Contract issues that were apparently unknown to them).
9. Consider what elements of the Michigan Township Association, “Township of Excellence” program would be a priority to pursue.

How would Oakland Township Citizen Advisory Board do this? A starting point list of principles would be:

1. Create by-laws governing all activities
2. Form expert subcommittees for subject areas.
3. Elect a governing board to deal with #1 and other issues that might arise.
4. Use disciplined thinking processes (Kepner-Tregoe) to prioritize issues, uncover all facts, and compare all possible alternatives in a disciplined manner.
5. Conduct lots of resident surveys using Survey Monkey
6. Gain a high level of support from other residents for any advice
7. Provide “minority reports” for recommendations that have less than 100% support.
8. Allow any Oakland Township registered voter to volunteer and participate
9. Find volunteer lawyers to assist
10. Maximize transparency
11. Study Oakland Township Association, Inc. (1970-1982) actions for advice
12. Strive to find people who disagree on future actions to take; but are willing to find and summarize all relevant factual information.
13. Maintain a list of projects being worked on.
14. Maintain a website for communication

If you are interested in being involved in starting up Oakland Township Citizens Advisory Board, contact me at yagerra@comcast.net and I will set up a meeting of those interested to decide the first steps. I think the first steps will be to find an up to twenty members willing to serve on the governing board and create the comprehensive plan for this organization, including priorities, by-laws, etc. We may want to invite one Township Board Member to be on this Board.