By Tom Gilchrist
For The Advertiser
CARO — Jack Laurie, chairman of the Tuscola County Road Commission Board, said he looks forward to Monday’s meeting with county commissioners — who are exploring taking over Road Commission operations from the board headed by Laurie.
Laurie took issue with the Road Board’s critics and with two articles in the April 19 Advertiser regarding longevity “bonuses” given certain Road Commission employees, use of county vehicles by six Road Commission workers and a workers’ pension program that is underfunded by about $1.5 million.
“I’m not sure that the things that were brought up to the commissioners were exactly brought out in the right context, nor were they portrayed that way in the paper — that pretty effectively made the (road) board look like a bunch of scoundrels,” Laurie said at Thursday’s Road Board meeting.
“I, quite frankly, resent that,” Laurie added. “This board has worked really hard to address the efficiencies. I think we’ve done a pretty good job. I have all the confidence in the world in our management team.”
The five elected Road Board members — Laurie, Gary Parsell, Mike Zwerk, Pat Sheridan and Julie Matuszak — plan to meet with Tuscola County commissioners and Administrator/Controller Michael Hoagland at the commissioners’ Committee of the Whole meeting at 7:30 a.m. Monday at 125 W. Lincoln St., Caro.
Millington Township Trustee Robert “Bob” Worth has questioned the Road Board about paying out “over $44,000 in ‘longevity bonuses’” annually to a number of Road Commission employees. The Road Board in recent weeks talked about cutting or doing away with a $25,000 allowance given to each of the county’s 23 townships for road work, but decided not to do so.
Laurie described the longevity payments — which increase as employees gain seniority — as “raises” and not “bonuses.” Employees in public school districts also receive extra salary based on their longevity, Laurie said.
“It’s no different than probably 95 percent of the schools do,” Laurie said. “When they’ve been there so long, they get an increase.”
Worth has questioned who pays for the gas for county-owned vehicles that a number of Road Commission workers are allowed to take to and from home and work.
Longevity pay to some Road Commission employees, and use of county-owned vehicles by employees is “standard procedure” for road commissions, according to Road Board member Parsell. Employees aren’t allowed to drive the vehicles for personal use, according to Laurie.
“In our case, the vehicles are a condition of employment,” Laurie said. “They’re not a bonus or a perk.”
“Because you want (workers) to go from their bed to the job,” said Jim Miklovic, a retired Road Commission administrator who is Almer Township supervisor.
“It’s the response time. It’s important,” Matuszak said.
“I don’t want somebody to get an emergency call, and before they can answer the emergency, they’ve got to run into Caro and get a county pickup that’s got a radio in it, so that they’ve got communications with everybody else,” Laurie said.
County resident Ken Dunton, who is a former road commission employee, said he has talked with readers of the April 19 Advertiser articles. “And they comment that ‘Boy, those (Road Commission) wages are awful high,’ and I said ‘Well, I think you go out and look in the private sector, and you’ll find out that they’re probably underpaid,’” Dunton said.
Though the Road Board is an autonomous (self-governing) board running the Road Commission, the Tuscola County Board of Commissioners could take over the Road Commission’s operation if county voters approve it.
At a meeting earlier in April, Board of Commissioners Chairman Thom Bardwell said “Maybe it is time we brought the Road Commission under our control.”
Laurie said the Road Board had “excellent cooperation” with county commissioners when there was better communication between the two groups. The Road Board has a “liaison with the Board of Commissioners whose responsibility it is to attend these meetings — these (road) board meetings. And it doesn’t happen,” Laurie said.
Laurie said the liaison is county Commissioner Roger Allen.
Allen isn’t able to attend a most of the road commission meetings becaue that board meets at the same time and date as the county commissioners do.
“We asked (county commissioners) to come in when we meet with the township supervisors,” Laurie said. “Last year we didn’t get a single (commissioner).”
Miklovic said county commissioners didn’t ask for the Road Board’s take on the financial issues at hand.
“Well, the (Advertiser) did the same thing,” Dunton said. “They didn’t ask for the other side of the story before they printed it, and I blame the newspaper for that.”