Pay raise for treasurer on SLT annual meeting agenda

Tue, Feb 9, 2010    to del.icio.us

SPRING LAKE TOWNSHIP — Voters in Spring Lake Township will be able to determine if the township treasurer gets a $6,000 raise when they convene for their annual meeting next month.

But they won't be able to weigh-in on recent raises given to Township Supervisor John Nash and Township Clerk Carolyn Boersma.

The Township Board unanimously approved the annual salaries for township officials at its meeting Monday night. All of the salaries still need to be approved by voters at the annual meeting of electors, tentatively scheduled for March 22.

As supervisor, Nash will be paid $15,600 for all statutory duties. Boersma will receive $30,000, Township Treasurer Jim Koster will get $12,000 and township trustees will be paid $3,000 each.

Koster's salary, which would be doubled, represents the only increase in the group.

During the public comment period earlier in Monday's meeting, a group of citizens spoke out against raises given to Boersma and Nash in October 2009. Township resident Phil Leech urged the board to put the issue on the agenda before the annual meeting, arguing that the board handled the issue poorly.

"That is the crux of the problem here," Leech said. "There was no citizen input or even advanced knowledge of what you were going to do."

The board approved giving Nash an additional $10,400, a 66-percent raise; and Boersma another $25,000, an 88-percent raise, for non-statutory duties at its Oct. 12, 2009, meeting.

Leech and former Township Trustee Norma Cook have begun gathering signatures of citizens opposed to the increases, Leech said.

Township resident Phil Slater said he had been apathetic towards the township for too long.

"I don't think it's right," he said of the pay increases. "This is not going to go away."

Reading from a statement, Nash said the Township Board's actions were public and the issue would not be revisited at the meeting. The pay rate was established several years ago, he said, and the increases to pay for non-statutory duties can only be approved by the board.

Nash also called the pay increases "the most economical way" for those duties to be accomplished — as opposed to the township adding more staff.

Nash's additional work includes attending numerous municipal and regional meetings, and Boersma's additional compensation is for Web site and cemetery oversight, Township Manager Gordon Gallagher said in November 2009. They also each have additional duties beyond that, Gallagher said.