Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


More items related to the clerk’s department discussed by the Genoa Township Board at Monday night’s meeting.

The board earlier voted to appoint Trustee Rick Soucy to the role vacated by former Clerk Janene Deaton – who resigned alleging a toxic work environment and referring to the township as “Dysfunction Junction”. Deaton served in the role for almost a year after being elected to the position in the November 2024 General Election. She brought a previous 23-year real estate background.

Current Trustees Bill Reiber and Candie Hovarter have been publicly vocal in their support for Deaton, raising concerns and an alleged a lack of supports that forced her out.

During Monday night’s call to the public, Hovarter read a letter aloud from a resident praising herself and Reiber that made accusations against other board members for “putting their allegiance with employees over constituents”.

Reiber also spoke at call to the public about what he described as the “strange process of appointing a new clerk”. He also questioned why anyone from the township did not reach out to Deaton and ask her to stay until a new clerk was appointed. Reiber went on to voice concerns about the process, alleging it was rushed through hastily – further referencing what he felt were plans to force her out and not allow her to finish her two weeks’ notice.

At the meeting in question with Deaton leaving; due to language included in her resignation letter, the board accepted her resignation “effective immediately”. A search then ensued for a replacement, with Soucy later being appointed. There was a time crunch involved as the Township can’t function without a sitting clerk as state law requires all payments and billing to receive two signatures; one from the clerk’s department and one from the treasurer’s department.

Supervisor Kevin Spicher previously stated “our Clerk quit on us, we did not quit our clerk. We’re very sorry that happened, we have volunteers here - not prisoners. So it was up to her, we didn’t ask her to leave”.

Clerk Soucy responded to the resident allegations read by Hovarter at the end of the meeting.
He asserted “I did not run on any agenda and I made it very clear from day one that I was running for trustee at the time to do my civic duty and be involved…I did not have an agenda...I’ve been the same person all the way through”.

Spicher addressed the “somehow concept you have to pick between employees or the taxpayers”. He said I think “we’re all on the same team and rowing in the same direction”, adding may employees are taxpayers and providing taxpayers with best level of service possible is the goal. Others added “regardless of who anyone voted for”.

The board also discussed some budget amendments needed for the clerk’s department that were said to be oversights by Deaton and needed to be adjusted. Those were related to staffing, wages and salaries; trainings/conferences; and miscellaneous items. It was stated Deaton had requested the items but never came back to the board for the appropriate budget amendments - which were now required as items were over budget and needed to be corrected to get through the fiscal year. Those were all approved.

It was stated during the meeting that an in-depth township wage study is underway as it is “way below” others in the area. Supervisor Spicher relayed that in their search for a clerk, they found the reason they didn’t draw a ton of applications was the amount of pay.

A separate discussion was held regarding a memo to the board from Reiber requesting information, costs and services, and general case information about township pending litigation to be better informed.
The memo ended with “I would like to discuss the best way to share the above information with all
board members as quickly as possible, to determine which information can be shared with
the residents and the safest, most legal way to do that”. The full memo is in the board meeting packet.

Treasurer Robin Hunt raised some concerns with that statement, stressing they can’t share any information with residents regarding pending litigation. It was further clarified at the board table “it’s not about being not transparent but following the law and protecting constituents”.

It was stated a list could be put together of complaints filed, which is public information, and Reiber could always follow up with attorneys if desired.

It was relayed there are five pending cases; two were inherited, one is assessing related, and two are land-use related. It was further noted expenses for general legal were approximately $11,000 and litigation legal were under $4,000 – both of which are within budgeted amounts.

Separately, the search process for the open trustee seat vacated by Soucy is underway. It was stated 12 applications have been received for board members to review and rank for interviews. Those individuals are not being named to board members to avoid any potential bias. Candidate interviews and an appointment are expected at the board’s December 15th meeting.