BY MIKE KILLBREATH
CCN Executive Editor
FLINT TWP. (CCN) — Voters in Flint Township will weigh in this November on whether to change the municipality’s name to the Charter Township of Oak Hills following a 5-1 vote by township trustees.
Treasurer Tom Klee was absent and Trustee Gene Leverette Sr. cast the lone dissenting vote about putting t
BY MIKE KILLBREATH
CCN Executive Editor
FLINT TWP. (CCN) — Voters in Flint Township will weigh in this November on whether to change the municipality’s name to the Charter Township of Oak Hills following a 5-1 vote by township trustees.
Treasurer Tom Klee was absent and Trustee Gene Leverette Sr. cast the lone dissenting vote about putting the controversial issue before voters for an advisory vote. The board is not bound by the vote of residents and would study the issue further before making a change if voters provided a yes vote to the idea.
The board voted down a resolution to put the issue before voters in an advisory vote four years ago.
Former Treasurer Lisa Anderson, a black woman, sided with opponents of the idea who consisted mostly of black residents who felt divorcing itself from the City of Flint would be viewed as "racist" by their community.
Community activists and officials in the City of Flint spoke spoke out at the time — calling it a matter of "civic pride" to be associated with the City of Flint's history as a leader in such items as fair housing, giving America its automobiles, developing the concept of community school programs and being the birthplace of America's labor movement with the UAW's famous sitdown strike in 1937 that developed strength for unions..
The vote to turn down placing an advisory vote before voters four years ago came after a series of committee meetings chaired by Jerry Preston.
"We studied every side of the issue from all angles," Preston said in an interview on The Morning Gazette Radio Station on the morning before the vote to approve putting it on the ballot.
Preston stayed neutral during committee meetings that began six years ago but he's now a leading proponent of the concept.
"Our business community is still battling from the stigma of the water crisis to this day and the violence in the City of Flint hurts our community from having Flint in its name," Preston said..
Restaurant owners complain that they have never been able to come back from the concerns about their water and more restaurants have closed in Flint Township since the Flint water crisis than all the other municipalities across Genesee County combined.
Bill Stiff, owner of the Dive Shop, pointed out that his business is down more than 50 percent after the Flint water crisis.
He once declared: "Who wants to come to Flint to take diving lessons with the bad water all over the national news?"
Some restaurants still post signs on their windows saying they don't use Flint water since Flint Township gets its drinking water from a different source than the City of Flint.
Preston points to the success of a name change more than a quarter century ago in nearby Oakland County's old Pontiac Township.
Near the City of Pontiac that was experiencing tremendous upticks in crime and boarded up buildings dominating the Pontiac Township landscape, changing the community's name to Auburn Hills and adopting cityhood did the trick to improve the business climate. The Palace of Auburn Hills located there with the Detroit Pistons as their main tenant and it wasn't long until Auburn Hills became home to more corporate world headquarters than any other city in Michigan.
"That's a perfect example of what can happen with a name change and the proper marketing.
Leverette, the lone vote against the measure, questioned the board’s focus on the rebrand, stating that township leaders should prioritize pressing community issues instead.
"As a trustee, I have been elected to do and make the best decision for Flint Township," Leverette said. "I think all of that energy should have been put forward to assist the items or things that happen in our communities."
Under the approved resolution, voters will directly decide whether they think officials should drop "Flint" from the township’s official title. Board members noted that putting the issue on an existing general election ballot avoids extra costs for the municipality of roughly 31,000 residents.
Trustee Tenesia Todd-Lloyd made the motion to advance the measure, with Trustee Barb Vert seconding. Supervisor Karyn Miller and Trustees Todd-Lloyd, Vert, Debby McIntire, and Tom Triplett voted in favor, while
"Five people do not get to speak for 31,000," Trustee Barb Vert said during the meeting, arguing that residents should have the final say on the rebrand.
The proposed name, "Oak Hills," stems from a previous community survey of 500 to 600 residents. Efforts to rename the township have circulated since 2014, with a previous attempt to place a referendum on the ballot failing in a 4-2 vote in 2022.
Miller noted that while board members hold varying personal opinions on the proposed name, putting the resolution before voters aligns with the board's duty to let residents decide.
Township officials faced a July 28 deadline to submit the official ballot language to county election authorities. If approved by voters in November, municipal officials plan to phase in the name change gradually to minimize transition costs.
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BY MIKE KILLBREATH
CCN Executive Editor
SWARTZ CREEK (CCN) — Swartz Creek Board of Education Trustee Carrie Germain has resigned, according to confirmation via text from President Chuck Melki.
"(It was) over the more meetings I recently uncovered," Melki said about the resignation.
Germain and fellow Trustee Angela Fick were censured by the
BY MIKE KILLBREATH
CCN Executive Editor
SWARTZ CREEK (CCN) — Swartz Creek Board of Education Trustee Carrie Germain has resigned, according to confirmation via text from President Chuck Melki.
"(It was) over the more meetings I recently uncovered," Melki said about the resignation.
Germain and fellow Trustee Angela Fick were censured by the board in mid-June for their actions regarding meetings they hid from other board members. They were tied to an attempt by the Flint & Genesee Economic Alliance (FGEA) to buy the district's Morrish Elementary.
The elementary school is on the southern corner of the nearly 1,800-acre Mega Site bounded by Elms, Linden, Maple and Jennings roads. The FEGA has been given $261 million in state funding to build an advanced manufacturing plant
Prominent local civil attorney Tom Pabst filed a lawsuit on behalf of Melki against the district because of actions by Germain and both current and former administrators. The civil complaint alleges they targeted him and hurt his business with untrue accusations.
"They wanted rid of me because I was in their way of doing what they wanted," Melki said. "I was elected to answer to the taxpayers, not them. They didn't want me around."
Pabst said on The Morning Gazette Radio Show that he predicts "people are going to jail for what they did" and says untrue accusations "made up" against Melki have harmed his business.
He's a businessman who owns a gun range on Linden Road in Flint Township.
Melki has said during board meetings that he has filed a criminal complaint with the Genesee County Prosecutor's office and the Michigan Attorney General's office about illegal meetings and other actions he says break state laws.
Melki is a retired detective with the Genesee County Sheriff's Department and Clayton Township Police Department as that community's first police chief when helping form the force there.
Subsequent to his public announcement about filing on them, Melki uncovered what he alleges was an unauthorized $20,000 payment to former Deputy Superintendent Jim Kitchen who became the district's interim Superintendent when Rod Hetherington resigned to take a similar job in the Zeeland school district.
The Morning Gazette Radio Show met on June 3 to seek criminal charges for this additional allegation leveled by Melki who said $152,000 in bonus payments were passed out to administrators without board approval or knowledge.
Melki exposed lies by Kitchen to the school board after Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) findings revealed numerous false statements. Kitchen then subsequently resigned and joined old boss Hetherington in Zeeland.
Swartz Creek's school board rejected a $40 million offer last week for a second time from the FGEA but Trustees Germain and Fick voted to accept the offer after previously joining a 7-0 vote to reject $40 million earlier this year.. The only difference was altering the offer to be all of the cash up front and extending a two-year lease on Morrish until a new elementary building could be constructed.
The FGEA must find a buyer by May of 2028 or turn over the property to the state. The organization, which is an arm of the Flint-based non-profit known as the Flint & Genesee Group led by President & CEO Tim Herman, has yet to find a buyer but has cleared most of the site by buying up homes and chopping down trees.
Mundy Township Supervisor Jennifer Arrand Stainton praised last week's decision after urging a "no" vote on the offer.
Mundy Township Trustee Leah Davis also praised them for rejecting the offer.
They were the only Mundy Township board members who attended last week's special meeting of the school board to join public speakers opposing the idea except for two speakers out nearly a few dozen.
This was the second time school board members have rejected a $40 million offer but this one was revised to pay all the money up front and extend a two-year lease for the building while a new school was constructed.
Stainton has been once of the most vocal critics of the FGEA and she reacted to the news of Germain resigned by saying, "More people should resign. This corruption goes further than just the school board. Look for more people to be investigated and resign.
Realtor Winn Cooper delivered the revised offer and last week's special meeting was called to give him an answer for his client by a two-week deadline imposed to accept the deal.
Trustees Ken Angle, Kim Winter and Autumn Henry again voted against selling along with Vice President Jenny Wolgast and President Melki.
PHOTO CAPTION: Pictured above this story is Carire Germain who has resigned from the Swartz Creek Board of Eduction
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