community

Two Paint Creek Cider Mill Concessionaire Proposals Reviewed with Board of Trustees 1/9/25

Bob Yager , , , ,

Edited 1/10/25 – correct attendance names; remove statement that I will render opinion on choice

Edited 1/11/25 – add statement at end encouraging comments on this website as means to communicate with Township Board

Edited 1/12/25 – add pastry photos

This item will likely be on the Tuesday 1/14/25 Board agenda, possibly for a decision or more likely, I predict, a Board member will propose a subcommittee to study this further.

I attended the 10 AM session today 1/9/25 where the two food service company owners reviewed the written proposals they had submitted to the township in the RFP (Request for proposal) process. Board members asked questions. The four members of the public present were allowed to ask questions and comment. Present were Trustees Jeanne Langlois, Emily Campbell and John Casadei, Treasurer John Giannangeli, and Clerk Dave Mabry. Board members Trustee Jack Elder and Supervisor Robin Buxar were not present. Also present was Parks and Recreation Director, Ben McLoskey, Parks Commissioner Cathy Rooney and Deputy Clerk Meggan Brown.

The proposals are attached here. I obtained copies via FOIA from the Township Clerk immediately after the meeting and scanned them to these PDF files.

Silver Shamrock ProposalDownload
Cannelle ProposalDownload

Not mentioned in the Cannelle proposal, but discussed at this meeting with the drawing below is their proposal to remove the north wall in the existing space and take over the small room. (The one with paneling and a fireplace.) This would provide additional restaurant seating for 36 people as shown in this drawing which I slightly modified to show the wall to be removed and clairfy the orientation.

Cannelle Proposed LayoutDownload

Photos below of sample French pastries brought to meeting by owner Matt Knio of Cannelles.

If you comment on this post it is an easy way to communicate your thoughts to neighbors and our Board of Trustees, who usually read these posts. In this format one must click on “comments” to see them. As I write this there is one comment below. Unsigned anonymous comments; comments with personal attacks or with known errors of fact, won’t be approved for posting.

Getting Voting Representation on Rochester Hills Public Library Board

Bob Yager , , , ,

If we want voting representation on Rochester Hills Public Library Board, we must convince our legislators to revise the Michigan State Law titled Act 164 of 1877. Rochester Hills Public Library Board cannot legally allow it under current law even though in 2018 they wanted to.

Note that this “old law”, as some have characterized it, has been amended at least 15 times since 1877, most recently in 2014.

Our Library Board under leadership of former President Michael Tyler (resigned August 2024) has attempted to get this law changed. They first approached our state legislators. Legislators were uninterested to the point they did not respond to several emails, snail mails, and hand delivered messages on this topic. Our Library Board then sought support from our Township Board of Trustees; asking them to approve a resolution supporting the Library Board’s position and forwarding it to legislators.

President Tyler presented the Library Board’s case to our Board of Trustees at their October 23, 2018 meeting. Our Township Board declined to take action. See their minimal minutes below.

 You should view  the 30 minute discussion (1:56 to 2:27) including three public comments on the meeting video at agenda 7/5 at this link: BOT – 10/23/18 – October 23, 2018. I urge you to watch this if you have any interest in this topic.

My terse summary of Board and public comments follows.

Trustee Frank Ferriolo felt is was unnecessary to have a seat on RHPL Board as there were no problems and we have great power as a customer of RHPL. There are other options if we don’t like RHPL in the future such as Lake Orion library. He very strongly objected to the phrase “taxation without representation”.

Trustee Robin Buxar essentially supported Ferriolo

Treasurer Jeanne Langlois said the Library Board is fully authorized to request changes in legislation and saw possible confusion with the proposed arrangement.

Trustee Lana Mangiapane supported President Tyler’s request.

Supervisor Michael Bailey, Clerk Karen Reilly and Trustee John Giannangeli did not comment.

Three citizens who spoke all supported Mr. Tyler’s request

Henry Carels (also Library Board member)

Reg Brown – frequent library user

John Markel – follows the Board closely and comments often

Proposed 2025 Oakland Township Budget Available, Comments from you are invited at Board 11/12/24 Meeting or before.

Bob Yager , , ,

The proposed 2025 budget for use in the legally required public hearing is posted on the Township website at this link.

Click to access 2025%20Oakland%20Township%20DRAFT%20Budget%20For%20Public%20Hearing.pdf

Or go to the bottom of the home page and click on the “Township Financials” picture to see this and also lots of past years’ budgets and audit reports.

I think Steve will be interested. Yes I mean you, Steve.

I have not found time to review it.

I’ve also thought a gigantic excel workbook with 20-25 years of history in categories of interest would be useful in seeing trends, up, down or steady. I’ve found time to do that. Maybe someone will volunteer to start the Budget Committee of Oakland Township Citizens Advisory Board and put all this data in a form they think is useful. Usually no one comments at the public hearing and the board unanimously approves it immediately after the hearing.

There is no reason you can’t comment to the Board before the meeting by email.

Go to the Board of Trustees page (shown below) and click on:

“Please Click here to email the entire Board of Trustees”

A Possible Vision for Continuously Improved Township Government thru an Oakland Township Citizens Advisory Board

Bob Yager , , , ,

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.

    Michigan Township Planning Recommendations for Oakland Township

    Bob Yager , , , ,

    The Michigan Township Association has a “Township of Excellence” program described in their brochure at this link:

    Click to access toe_application_brochure_form_resolution_checklist_dec_2017.pdf

    At one time former Trustee Maureen Thalmann suggested that we pursue this. Clerk Reilly suggested that pursuing it might result in no real improvements but just trying to get the award. I am unable to locate the minutes or video with their comments, so you will have to trust my memory, I will admit that that is what happens in some industrial quality certifications. One can fake compliance without substantial improvements.

    However the items suggested make a lot of sense to me, especially this paragraph.’

    I am unable to locate any information on strategic planning on the MTA website, but retired local resident Marty McQuade is an expert from his time as Vice-President and General Manager of Dupont Automotive Products. He put together a format and starting point draft for an Oakland Township Fire Department Strategic Plan in about 2017. His efforts were an offshoot of his help to Chief Paul Strelchuk in formulating a long-term capital budget at a time when we were between Township Managers and the Board was critical of Chief Strelchuk for unbudgeted large capital requests for expensive equipment. A Board subcommittee was formed to study Mr. McQuade’s proposals and it died there. The subcommittee was eventually disbanded. Perhaps Mr. McQuade could be persuaded to help.