Garfield Township and the City of Traverse City are swapping assessors, with Township Assessor Amy DeHaan announcing her resignation to join the city and former City Assessor Polly Cairns – who’s embroiled in an active lawsuit against the city – receiving an offer to fill DeHaan’s role. In other Garfield Township updates, township trustees are working with Blair Township and the Grand Traverse County Road Commission to try and find a solution to fix Potter Road, while Garfield Township has taken over issuing its own soil erosion and sedimentation control permits from Grand Traverse County.

Assessor Swap
Two experienced assessors will remain working in Grand Traverse County as they essentially swap government jobs.

Amy DeHaan – who’s handled the role of valuing property for tax purposes for Garfield Township since 2011 – recently announced her resignation after township trustees rejected her request for a higher salary. DeHaan, who was earning $121,000, told trustees she had an offer from another municipality and gave $150,000 as her number to stay in Garfield Township. Trustee Laurie Lapp, who sits on the township’s personnel committee, said that figure was “well above the market range for that job in comparable townships” in Michigan. Trustees rejected the request and opted not to counter – though they praised DeHaan’s performance – with DeHaan resigning shortly after. She will remain with Garfield Township until early May, after which time she will become the assessor for the City of Traverse City, confirms City Manager Liz Vogel.

Vogel says DeHaan has been assisting the city for a few hours on Fridays (township staff work Monday-Thursday) in recent months to fill the void left by Polly Cairns, who departed the city in August. “(DeHaan’s) been a superstar helper with our team, and we’re really excited she’s coming on board,” Vogel says. The city only received a handful of applicants for the posted assessor position, Vogel says, including one who wanted to work remotely from another part of the state. The posted salary range for the city position was $100,035-$131,727; DeHaan was offered the top end of that range at $131,727 due to her experience, Vogel says.

After leaving the city, Cairns filed a lawsuit last fall alleging she was fired for refusing to sign off on a tax abatement she believed was illegal. Her two-count complaint alleges she was wrongfully discharged and that her firing violates the Whistleblowers’ Protection Act. Cairns is seeking more than $25,000 in damages, claiming “severe emotional and economic harms” caused by her termination. That lawsuit is still ongoing in Thirteenth Circuit Court. In the meantime, Garfield Township’s personnel committee recently interviewed Cairns and recommended hiring her to the township board, which voted unanimously last week to offer Cairns the job at a salary of $122,000. Cairns spoke during public comment at the meeting, citing her 15 years of experience with the city, current work assisting with assessing in Glen Arbor Township, and her qualifications in equalization, assessing, and real estate appraisal. “I’m pretty excited about this opportunity,” she told trustees.

Potter Road
Garfield Township officials are hoping to work with Blair Township and the Grand Traverse County Road Commission (GTCRC) to find a solution for repairing a half-mile stretch of Potter Road west of Garfield Road, which Township Supervisor Joe McManus called “the worst section of road I’ve ever driven on.”

The road, which trustees believe was significantly damaged by heavy truck traffic during the construction of the Potter Road roundabout, is designated a “local road” under the GTCRC. That means GTCRC can statutorily only contribute 50 percent of the project funds, with Garfield and Blair townships required to contribute the other 50 percent as a local match. Initial estimates put road reconstruction at $500,000, which would’ve required the townships to each kick in $125,000. Blair Township Supervisor Nicole Blonshine told Garfield trustees she didn’t have that kind of funding available in her budget.

McManus said subsequent discussions with GTCRC identified two options: a “Band-Aid” triple chip seal that would probably last two to four years and cost approximately $144,000 total, or a 20-year crush-and-shape fix with a newly revised cost estimate of $300,000. “The estimate came down from $500,000 to $300,000,” McManus said. While exact costs wouldn’t be finalized until the project went out to bid, that longer-term option if accurate would cost Garfield and Blair townships $75,000 each. Blonshine said she would talk about funding with her fellow trustees at their next board meeting. McManus said he may bring a funding request back to Garfield trustees soon, with the possibility the road could still be addressed this year. “Something needs to be done,” he said. “It is an awful road right now.”

Soil Erosion & Sedimentation Control Permits
Garfield Township has taken over issuing its own soil erosion and sedimentation control permits from Grand Traverse County’s Environmental Health department. Garfield is also the only jurisdiction that does its own building code inspections rather than using the county’s Construction Code department. The transition was a somewhat abrupt one, with County Administrator Nate Alger recently telling county commissioners that the county never received direct notice from Garfield Township of its intention to take over permitting and only learned about it from the state. A county offer to provide legal assistance and create a process for transitioning permits from the county to the township was turned down, Alger said. “It may be that they just want to be autonomous,” he told commissioners.

Because Garfield Township took over permitting effective immediately following a trustee vote, the county has been working to quickly move nearly 50 permits and applications over to the township. Deputy Health Officer Mike Lahey tells The Ticker that the final permits requiring township signoff are expected to be completed this week. “We took an extra step to ensure that we were properly transferring these to the township and ensuring that those permit holders also heard from us at the county health department of these changes,” Lahey says. “We do also plan to do some outreach and education this spring at the health department around these changes as we are approaching the busy season for this program, and we want to ensure our community is aware of these changes and where to go to seek services.”

With Garfield Township representing one of the busiest construction areas in Grand Traverse County, the transition is likely to represent a significant increase in permitting work for Garfield Township’s zoning office. More details on permitting and Garfield’s new ordinance for soil erosion and sedimentation control are available on the township’s website.