By Tom Gilchrist
Staff Writer
DAYTON TWP. — A Dayton Township resident said a comparison of Dayton Township and Vassar Township governments “shoots holes” in Dayton Township leaders’ contention that their township hall is too small to house the supervisor, clerk and treasurer.
Robert Adams spoke at the Dayton Township Board of Trustees meeting Oct. 6, telling them he visited the Vassar Township hall at the corner of Saginaw and Caine roads, where at least one township official is present each weekday for at least three hours and up to six hours.
“You should go out and look at (the Vassar Township hall) — it’s no bigger than this place right here,” Adams told Dayton Township leaders.
Dayton Supervisor Robert Cook, Clerk Mike Mocniak and Treasurer Eleanor Kilmer work out of their homes and not out of the township hall along Hurds Corner Road. Adams said he’d like Cook to work out of the township hall at least eight hours a week, and that the clerk should work out of the township hall as well. Adams suggests Kilmer hold regular office hours at the hall one to two days a week, and be there for additional hours during tax-collection times.
“It doesn’t have to be eight hours a day, but at least four to five hours,” Adams said. “I’m not trying to be unreasonable because I know people have things to do, but a job is a job.”
Kilmer said township Trustee James Satchel — also a supporter of township officials working out of the hall — is misguided.
“He has no idea how much work we actually have to do,” Kilmer said. “There’s no way we could get our work done in two hours a week (at the hall). And here at my home, they can call me most any time. I will look up whatever they need to know.
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If all my stuff was over at the township hall, I’d say ‘Sorry, can’t help you.’”
Kilmer said if she, Cook and Mocniak had to move computers, desks, chairs, filing cabinets and boxes of records into the township hall “you’d be lucky to get through there.”
“My home has been my treasurer’s office for 34 years and there hasn’t been any problem until certain people brought up such an idea,” Kilmer said. “The people who come here to my home say that ‘You’re almost always here, you’re always available.’ And I couldn’t be if I was over at the township hall.”
Adams, however, said the township hall is the place where the people should conduct their business. Though the township pays a portion of Internet and phone bills for its clerk and treasurer, according to Kilmer, she said she doesn’t receive any money from the township for use of her home.
“I never have,” she said. “I help with the heat, the lights and the utilities. So it has to be cheaper for us to have our offices in our own homes.”
Adams said Vassar Township isn’t the only municipality in the area with a small building used to serve the public.
“You’ve got five other places that have the same situation,” he said.
“I think that shoots holes in the story about ‘We’re too small and this building’s too small,’” Adams added.
Vassar Township’s population is about 4,093 while Dayton Township has about 1,848 people. Vassar Township’s supervisor, clerk and treasurer each receive an annual salary of $10,506, according to Vassar Township Clerk Michael Clinesmith. Those workers don’t receive mileage payments for travel within the township, though Dayton Township officials are reimbursed for mileage within the township.
Dayton Township Supervisor Robert Cook receives $6,621 in salary, along with $2,000 as zoning administrator and $2,000 as blight enforcement officer, in addition to monies received for land splits and as zoning application fees, according to a document presented by Adams at the Oct. 6 Dayton Township meeting. Cook didn’t dispute the numbers.
Kilmer receives an annual salary of $13,857 while Mocniak receive an annual salary of $11,373, according to Adams’ document.
“We don’t know how many hours (Kilmer or Mocniak) work or when,” said Adams, who maintains handicapped residents can’t negotiate steps leading to Kilmer’s home.
Kilmer collects both winter and summer taxes, though, while Vassar Township’s treasurer collects only winter taxes, according to Clinesmith. Kilmer said residents know that if they have trouble coming up her steps, she’ll go to their cars and get their documents or information, take it to her home for necessary processing and return it to them in their vehicles.
“This isn’t a 9-to-5 job any day of the week,” Kilmer said. “People are here at my home on Saturdays. They think Sundays I should be open, too. Holidays? It doesn’t matter to them. I’m here.”