Goodland Twp. hopes to have orderly meetings

Trustee Dockham vents her frustrations

 

GOODLAND TWP. — Frustrations hit a boiling point at the most recent board meeting May 12 leading one board member to read a prepared statement, aimed largely at Supervisor Mike Eckardt.

The township board and other committee members attended a recent Michigan Township Association conference and it was there board member Julie Dockham spoke with MTA officials and gathered information regarding meeting procedures.

At the May 12 meeting, when time was given for board member comments, Dockham read a lengthy statement, pointing out lack of control at meetings, allowing the public to speak out openly whenever they wanted and the length of meetings.

“We’ve had meetings that have gone three hours,” Dockham told the board. “Part of that is letting the public comment on every agenda item we have. MTA people told me that was wrong. Public should only comment during their specific time and they, like I, feel they should only have one spot on the agenda to speak. That’s all that is required.”

Dockham continued, “As an example, that April 13 meeting about the schoolhouse, that was just embarrassing. This whole board was frustrated. You (Eckardt) lost control of that meeting and allowed everyone to just speak when they wanted. It was a free for all. They (public) took over the meeting.”

The frustrated board member said MTA officials told her the public time is not a “back and forth” time with the board. Adding, “they do not have any right for input on everything we discuss or take action on.” She called Eckardt’s running of meetings, “ineffective and inefficient.”

Dockham called for Eckardt to do a better job with running township meetings.

“You need to follow the rules and not let the public interrupt us. There needs to be protocol on how the meeting is supposed to go. There was a lot of frustration that night (April 13), between us and the public.”

Board Trustee Michael Puzzoli agreed with Dockham, saying, “It is truly frustrating, for sure. I agree with Julie. That meeting, it was especially bad and it’s a bad look for the township.”

The sore spot of discussion for weeks and months has been the schoolhouse and on-going renovations. Work has been underway for several months and at times, funds ran low and the township looked to the Lapeer County Land Bank for assistance.

Still, the project was dragging on with limited funds, due partially to the township not asking for every detailed item on their request to the Land Bank.

There have been two sides with the issue. One group of citizens and some board members wanted to push on and complete the project, while others wanted to wash their hands of it and consider a third-party be involved with the project.

Puzzoli told Eckardt the meetings, “are disjointed and not organized. We don’t have all the info we need before our meetings. We‘re getting things at the last minute and then expected to make a decision when we haven’t had time to look at the information.”

He added, “ A lot of things could be done easier, simple things. A lot falls between the cracks or we end up tabling things because we do not have enough information.

Supervisor Eckardt listened to the comments without responding and departed the township hall shortly after the meeting adjourned.