Tag Archives: Trustee Keyes

Supervisor Gonser retracts his slanderous statement against former Township Trustee

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At the January 27, 2015 Oakland Township Board meeting, Supervisor Gonser retracted the slanderous statement he made at the January 13th Board meeting against a former Oakland Township Trustee, and now private citizen.

His slanderous January 13th comments were made at the same meeting where he:

Gonser’s retraction may prevent further legal action that could be taken against him for his slanderous statement.

Here is a video of Gonser’s retraction statement:

Here is the background information:

At the January 13, 2015 Oakland Township Board meeting, Supervisor Gonser made a slanderous statement toward Judy Keyes. Judy is a former Trustee who resigned in September of 2013 due to concerns she had regarding the ethical behavior of several of the Board members.

Gonser publicly said to Judy:

“You are the most disruptive person I have ever met.  You have lied on this Board, you have cheated on this Board, you have stolen money on this Board.”

At the January 27, 2015 Board meeting, Gonser retracted his January 13th statement with the following statement:

“In the heat of the moment, I lost my composure and I made statements suggesting that Mrs. Keyes lied on this Board, cheated on this Board, and stole money on this Board.

I want to make a full retraction of each of those statements.  To be clear, I have no proof that Mrs. Keyes lied, cheated or stole money on the Board, and my statements to the contrary were made in the heat of the moment and were a mistake.

I apologize to Mrs. Keyes and offer this full retraction in good faith”

He went on to say:

“I apologize to the community for the comments I made.”

Treasurer Langlois stated:

“I would like to add, so that the record shows, that the Board was not silent on this matter.”

She then made a motion, that was unanimously approved, acknowledging the Supervisor’s retraction and apology to Mrs. Keyes.

In June of 2013, the Township Board passed a “Principles of Township Governance Excellence Policy”.  The development of that Policy statement was led by former Trustee Judy Keyes.  As previously reported on this website, the Board approved it.  However, only two members of the Board agreed to sign the document (one of them was Judy Keyes, the other Sharon McKay – neither are currently on the Board).  Trustee Thalmann refused to sign it.  Supervisor Gonser indicated that the Board members did not have to sign it.

Principles of Township Governance Excellence document

What follows is a copy of the “Charter Township of Oakland Conflict of Interest and Code of Ethics Policy”.   

Charter Township of Oakland conflict of interest and code of ethics policy

Ideally, a community should not need these type of documents.  It appears that, even if they do exist, they have no impact on the actions of our Supervisor.

Here is a video of Gonser’s January 13th comments:

Why is this important to the citizens of Oakland Township?  Slanderous comments are criminal and are never acceptable.  Having them come from  an elected official in Oakland Township not only reflect on Gonser’s character, but the reputation of our Township.  The citizens of Oakland Township, as well as the Board, have the duty to hold him accountable for his actions.

It appears that Gonser’s actions are ‘catching up with him’.  His comments and discussions at the January 13th meeting have apparently put him in an “attack mode”.  The saying “The best defense is a good (??) offense” appears to be his game plan.

Both Gonser and Trustee Thalmann continue to argue for a “Strong Supervisor” type of government in Oakland Township.  Gonser’s actions are a clear example of why we do not want a “Strong Supervisor” system in Oakland Township. This appears to be yet another ‘offensive” move (two interpretations possible and meant).

Another issue that needs to be clarified is whether the Township paid for the legal counsel Gonser received in developing his retraction. The citizens of Oakland Township must not be held accountable for his slanderous accusation.

Gonser’s actions cannot go unchallenged by the citizens of Oakland Township.  We certainly must remember this in the 2016 elections.

  • Can we trust the other Board members to hold Gonser accountable to his sworn oath of office and the “Principles of Township Governance Excellence”?
  • Have the citizens had enough to warrant a recall of Gonser?

Let us know your thoughts!

Richard Michalski

 

TRUSTEE KEYES RESIGNS AT OCTOBER 22 OAKLAND TOWNSHIP BOARD MEETING

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At the October 22 Oakland Township Board meeting, Trustee Keyes resigned her position as a Trustee of Oakland Township.  This came after months of significant differences between Trustee Keyes and Supervisor Gonser and  other members of the Board. 

Here are excerpts of the speech she gave when announcing her resignation:

“I have been threatened, intimidated, berated and demeaned on more than one occasion as a tactic to try to silence, control and force me into line and have been told, more than once, that I, as a Trustee am on a ‘need to know’ basis. These tactics have permeated my personal life and that of my family as well.

It is time for me to end my time as a servant to the community and return to the people’s podium where my hands can stay clean and where the ultimate authority and ability to hold the Board accountability lies. Ultimate authority does not lie behind these seven microphones.”

Here is a video of her total resignation speech:

Please read the following post to learn more about the most recent attack by Supervisor Gonser on Trustee Keyes.

https://oaklandtownship.info/2013/10/18/supervisor-gonser-attacks-trustee-keyes-for-doing-her-job/

Why is this important to the citizens of Oakland Township?  If you have been watching what has been going on in our Township since the new Board was elected, you probably have concluded that Trustee Keyes is a very principled person and had the Township’s bests interests in all of her actions.  Losing a person of principle on the Board, for what appear to be ethical issues by other Board members, makes one wonder “Who will become the conscience and ethics guardian on the Board?”

Supervisor Gonser attacks Trustee Keyes for doing her job!

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At the beginning of the October 8th Board of Oakland Township meeting, Supervisor Gonser spent seven and one half minutes attacking Trustee Keyes for doing her job.  He accused her of wasting the Board’s time by raising issues that he thought were “trivial to trite and insignificant”.  He refused to allow her to respond to his attack.  He told her she could respond at the end of the meeting.  Five hours later, when she was allowed to respond, after almost all of the residents present at the beginning of the meeting had left, he tried to limit her comments to 2 minutes.

Supervisor Gonser attacked Trustee Keyes for challenging the accuracy of two vote counts from previous meetings that were confirmed to be wrong. 

He attacked her for raising issues because  he is not following the outdated Township Bylaws.  Yet earlier this year, Trustee Keyes made a motion to perform a review of all Township policies and procedures.  That motion was not approved by the Board.  Her intent was to identify issues, and update the policies and procedures as needed.

He attacked her for challenging several bills in public, and wanted the Board to raise billing questions outside the Board meeting and the public eye.  Yet Trustee Keyes’ previous questions went unanswered by Supervisor Gonser and Clerk Reilly for a month,  only to find out that Supervisor Gonser had indeed inappropriately authorized the work that was in question.

In Supervisor Gonser’s closing comments during the attack, he stated:

“I hope and pray that future meetings will be conducted professionally without attacks and the bludgeoning of consultants, staff and residents in a public forum.”

Supervisor Gonser violated his own statement by his treatment of Trustee Keyes in the October 8th meeting!!

Here is a more detailed review of the events described above:

Supervisor Gonser stated that Trustee Keyes questioning the vote count for the first reading of the parks rezoning at the September 10 meeting was “much to do about nothing”.

  • Supervisor Gonser stated that the vote count was 4 to 3.  Trustee McKay confirmed at the October 10th meeting that she had voted in favor of the motion making the vote count 5 to 2.
  • Even though the outcome did not change, Trustee Keyes was correct, and Supervisor Gonser was wrong.  It is the Chair’s (Gonser’s) responsibility to make sure the recording secretary gets the proper vote count.
  • Proper vote counts are very important in our governmental processes.
  • Trustee Keyes was trying to correct the error.

Supervisor Gonser accused Trustee Keyes of “bludgeoning” the auditor and questioning the accuracy of the vote count for the approval for filing the audit at the September 24th meeting.

  • Trustee Keyes had made requests to accept the auditor’s offer to provide training to the Board on the audit process.
  • The auditor failed to respond to her written requests.
  • Clerk Reilly indicated that her staff was “too busy” to schedule the requested training session.
  • One of the reasons Supervisor Gonser voted against approving the audit for filing was that he was unfamiliar with the audit process. (training??)
  • Once again, the recorded vote count was wrong.  Supervisor Gonser announced in the meeting that the motion had passed, but did not state the count.  He asked the recording secretary “Did you get the votes?”
  • The following day, at Trustee Keyes request, the staff reviewed the video of the meeting, and determined that the motion had actually failed in a 3 to 3 tie vote, contrary to what Supervisor Gonser had announced at the meeting.
  • Once again, proper vote counts are important in our governmental processes.  Trustee Keyes was trying to fix an error.

Supervisor Gonser accused Trustee Keyes of raising bylaw procedural issues since the bylaws were outdated and not being followed.

  • Trustee Keyes recognized that the bylaws were not being followed.
  • That is why earlier this year, she requested an audit of all of the Township’s policies, practices and procedures.
  • The Board did not support her initiative.
  • Trustee Keyes offered copies of the bylaws to all of the Board members several months ago.  Only Trustee McKay accepted her offer.
  • Apparently, the Board members (with the exception of Trustees Keyes and McKay) have been operating for almost one year without having either a copy or an understanding of the Township bylaws.
  • By having outdated bylaws, Supervisor Gonser feels empowered to make unilateral decisions, as evidenced by his October 8th assertion that:

“Meeting protocol is established by the Chair!”

Supervisor Gonser accused Trustee Keyes of having a ‘gotcha’ mentality because of her desire for public viewing of the bills.

  • Fiduciary accuracy is a major responsibility of the Board.
  • Supervisor Gonser indicated that questions by Trustees on billings should be raised and resolved prior the meetings.
  • However, at the August 13th Board meeting, Trustee Keyes asked a question regarding several bills.
  • Supervisor Gonser, Treasurer Langlois, Clerk Reilly and Superintendant Creech sat silent for 20 seconds.
  • Trustee Keyes had followed up with e-mails to Clerk Reilly asking for an answer to her question.
  • Clerk Reilly did not respond to her e-mail.
  • Clerk Reilly then sent a letter to the Board, the day of the following month’s meeting, asking the Board to approach the staff if they have any questions on billings.
  • It was not until after questioning by Trustee Keyes, in that Board meeting, that her question from the previous month had been answered.
  • The answer to the question was that Supervisor Gonser and Clerk Reilly had approved the actions that Trustee Keyes had questioned the previous month.
  • The approvals that Supervisor Gonser and Clerk Reilly had made were not appropriate, since those approvals should have been made by the Parks and Recreation Commission (Marshview Connector Park parking lot).
  • In the October 8th meeting, Supervisor Gonser stated

“All questions on bills have been satisfactorily answered!”

  • It was not made clear for whom, besides Supervisor Gonser, had the questions been satisfactorily addressed.
  • Questions on the appropriateness of the Township paying for Supervisor Gonser’s legal advice for his personal request for an Attorney General opinion on the Blossom RIdge matter still existed when Gonser made this statement.

Why is this important to the Citizens of Oakland Township?  Having accurate vote counts is a fundamental necessity for a governmental body. Considering their accuracy as “trivial and trite”, is not something we should expect from our Supervisor.   Making sure our Township is governed by a set of established procedures is critical.  We cannot have them established by the “whims” of the Supervisor.   The outdated bylaws should be updated as Trustee Keyes attempted to do earlier this year. The Supervisor’s efforts to “cover up” his own deficiencies by attacking a Trustee for raising good questions is totally unacceptable.  Supervisor Gonser appears to be attacking those who point out his own leadership deficiencies.  This from a leader who ran on “transparency”.

Richard Michalski