Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


More requests for changes to past meeting minutes were discussed by the Genoa Township Board of Trustees on Monday night - along with the recent interview process for an open board seat.

Trustee Bill Reiber disputed the draft minutes, expressing he wanted more detail and revisions for what he felt was a “better flow”.

The meeting in reference was December 15th. A total of six applicants were interviewed for a vacant seat, with Jodi Valenti being appointed. She works for Brighton Area Schools and is the director of the Senior Center and Enrichment. She’s a 21-year Genoa resident.

For the proposed changes to the minutes, Reiber said he cut and rearranged sentences and moved them around so it looked more like a conversation. He asserted he was not asking to change the content but rather the flow to add details in he felt were “missing and important” – saying the minutes read “bumpy and jumpy” so he moved around some sentences. Reiber also had what he said were some corrections to the record regarding what candidates he nominated and a spelling error.

Former board member Jeff Dhaenens spoke during call to the public. He was among the candidates seeking the recent vacant seat; and had a back and forth with Reiber during the meeting on the 15th. Dhaenens, and another member of the public, stated they didn’t like the way the interview process went.

Dhaenens thanked the board for the opportunity and considering him to fill a role he had previously. He said what transpired during the meeting interviews with Reiber interrogating him “was so odd” and “Bill bullied people” regarding references, and had members reveal nominations. Dhaenens said he only applied for the position at the urging of others from the ZBA, Planning Commission, Rec Authority, and Fire Authority – “but to be treated that way was un-cool”. Dhaenens went on to say “I will continue to offer my support and help for the board and be behind you guys for the decisions you have to make for Genoa Township but until Mr. Reiber wants to apologize for his professionalism to the community and the way he treated candidates; I’m so disappointed”.

Reiber did not respond to the assertions at the meeting.

It was reminded that minutes are meant to be a synopsis, not a play-by-play.

Clerk Rick Soucy commented that minutes are just a synopsis of what took place – saying they don’t have to flow and are not a court reporting. He noted that videos with details of meetings are already available on the township’s YouTube channel for people.

Trustee Todd Walker said “This is a lot, and a two-page page Word document to kind of redo a section of the minutes, I’m not crazy about and it’s a lot to process when we’ve had ample time to go through the minutes. The minutes are supposed to be an accurate synopsis of the events that took place”. Walker further noted Reiber left out that he submitted his candidate choices two days late – which was never in the minutes but a correction he was going to request be made.

The minutes were amended to include Reiber’s and Walker’s proposed changes, but not anything related to the reflow.

It was stated that proposed changes to minutes have been happening more regularly at meetings and need to be submitted earlier for appropriate review time.

A link to Monday night’s meeting video is provided.