I attended the Township board meeting last night (Wed). I had heard that the Village and Township boards do not get along. This was evident in a stark manner at the meeting as Mr. Bean and Mr. Kruse had several harsh exchanges. The first was precipitated by my question (see following), during the public comment time, to the township board as to whether the Village and Township should discuss collecting data to determine if there are enough cost savings to combine DPW departments, and if not, explain to the taxpayers why it won’t work. The heated exchange between Mr. Bean and Mr. Kruse happened after Mr. Bean stated he had looked at such an idea and that, in his opinion, it was not “workable”. No specifics were offered by Mr. Bean so I don’t know if any meetings or data collection took place to support his opinion. Mr. Kruse and Mr. Bean then started their exchange regarding my inquiry as well as several other issues, those being perceived offensive comments by Mr. Bean about village affairs and Mr. Kruse’s strident questioning of Mr. Bean’s inferences. Three words come to mind regarding their exchange---rude, unprofessional, and stubborn on both their parts. As I stated earlier, I can now see why such animosity exists between the two entities which is too bad since they both are charged with doing the people’s business. The Village president indicated he is willing to discuss it but both parties need to be amenable to it. Upshot--- No action will be taken on this issue. You can see it all at the CL News website as Melissa was recording it. Please consider exploring Sam’s idea of combining DPWs from Village and Township to see what cost saving might be realized by both entities, if any. You will need facts about personnel, equip., jobs, etc. but rejecting it out of hand without a factual basis does not serve the people’s business. Many public entities are now doing this for cost savings (such as school district business practices run by a local ISD for many schools). Gov. Snyder also encourages public bodies to look at these types of consolidation issues for cost savings and efficiencies. This is an opportunity to maybe save money, foster cooperation and hopefully, improve services. It’s worth a try and if the consolidation will not work, it should be explained to taxpayers why it won’t work. Joe Renner
Posted on: Thu, 18 Sep 2014 15:36:56 +0000
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