By Tom Gilchrist
Staff Writer
DAYTON TWP. — Dayton Township Supervisor Robert Cook questioned the ethics of fellow Board of Trustees member James Satchel on Monday night, reading a letter of complaint about Satchel from Joseph E. Peet and asserting he can’t find any evidence supporting Satchel’s allegation that Satchel was harassed by a township resident after a board meeting.
Cook read parts of an Oct. 7 police report written by Tuscola County Sheriff’s Department Patrol Command Sgt. Ted Hull. In the report, Hull wrote that Satchel alleged resident Janett K. Meyers approached Satchel after the Oct. 6 township board meeting and “made some statements that (Satchel) felt were threatening.”
The report states Satchel alleged Meyers “told him to stay off her road, don’t drive by her house and (said) ‘I’m going to deal with you.’”
Meyers denies having any contact with Satchel after the meeting, denies making such statements, and maintains she left the Oct.6 meeting before Satchell left it.
Cook, at Monday’s meeting, said he has received letters from numerous people regarding Satchel’s allegations.
“I’ve found nobody — nobody — that can back (Satchel’s) story up,” Cook told the audience.
“Thank you,” Meyers, sitting in the audience, told Cook.
“So what are you saying, Robert?” Satchel asked Cook.
“That you’re a liar,” Meyers told Satchel.
“I stand on that report that I gave to the officers, and I’ll still stand on it,” Satchel said.
Satchel has said that the complaint to police about Meyers “is not a James Satchel complaint, it’s a joint complaint of (alleged) harassment.” Robert Adams spoke up at Monday’s meeting, saying “I’ll stand on what the (police report) said; we’ll see who goes where.”
Hull wrote in the police report that “I felt the information (Satchel) provided me was basically a freedom of speech issue.” Hull wrote he consulted with county prosecutors but that a charge of harassment “would not be possible because there is no actual crime.”
Later during Monday’s meeting, Cook read a letter of complaint about Satchel from Joseph E. Peet, son of Jack Peet who recently lived in a mobile home at 4281 Shay Lake Road east of Plain Road. Satchel and township resident Rod Merten allege Cook broke the law by allowing the elder Peet to reside in the mobile home without a building permit, and by not requiring skirting around the base of the dwelling, among other alleged violations.
Joseph Peet, however, wrote in his Nov. 4 letter that he and Satchel exchanged words at a gas station at M-24 and M-46 after Joseph Peet told Satchel he “thought (Cook) was doing a good job and that (Satchel) should start doing his job that he was elected for and (to) leave my Dad’s place alone.”
Jack Peet no longer lives in the mobile home due to declining health, according to Joseph Peet, who alleged in the letter that Satchel told him he needed to clean up the dwelling.
“I said it is in Dad’s name and he was unable to do anything now because at this time it is not his residence,” Peet wrote. “(Satchel) then became very irritated and told me that I was just a teacher who wouldn’t listen to him. I responded by telling him that as a trustee it was his job to listen to the public not go head-hunting for citizens so that he could get Bob Cook.”
Satchel declined comment about Joseph Peet’s letter, but said following Monday’s meeting that “The problem is not so much with the Peet family, but with the supervisor flagrantly violating the law.”
Merten has said Cook also allowed approval of an improper electrical permit at the mobile home, and that Cook didn’t file for a building permit until more than a year after Jack Peet was placed in the mobile home.
“You became God and almighty, and you put the Peet family in jeopardy,” Satchel told Cook at Monday’s meeting.
Cook took issue with Satchel’s treatment of Joseph Peet.
“Then to approach one of the finest people in Dayton Township, and to jump up and down on him in a public place, right at the cash register, Mister, I’m telling you …” Cook told Satchel.
“Bob, it’s about you,” Satchel answered. “You tried to put the blame on me. You’re the one that violated the law.”