BY MIKE KILLLBREATH
CCN Executive Editor
CLAYTON TWP. (CCN) — Ted Henry was voted off the Genesee County Board of Commissioners in 2022, returned to win the Clayton Township Supervisor race in 2024 but is in political trouble again in his new role.
Donning a sweatshirt that read "It Is The Duty Of The Patriot To Protect His Country From Its
BY MIKE KILLLBREATH
CCN Executive Editor
CLAYTON TWP. (CCN) — Ted Henry was voted off the Genesee County Board of Commissioners in 2022, returned to win the Clayton Township Supervisor race in 2024 but is in political trouble again in his new role.
Donning a sweatshirt that read "It Is The Duty Of The Patriot To Protect His Country From Its Government" — Rod Shumaker packed the Clayton Township Hall with supporters Thursday night (Nov. 13, 2025) after two weeks of reaching out to Clayton Township residents about Henry inflating his salary and allegedly steering what he calls "no bid" contracts to friends and his own son's company.
"Taxpayers are outraged when they find this out," says Shumaker about revelations revealed on social media and on Metro Flint News/Talk Radio's Morning Gazette Radio Show that Clayton Township's new Supervisor is making $117,000 in salary, according to township documents.
Treasurer Shelly Thompson is the board member who first pointed out Henry's salary in the tiny Genesee County township with only about 7,300 residents.
Henry reacted at the time by saying she was a "lone board member with no support" and that the issue of his pay had been voted on by the entire board.
Henry said he's doing extra duties usually paid with much higher salaries around the county for building inspector and code enforcement duties in addition to his elected position.
"I bet Ted Henry was surprised we packed this township hall to hear about their budget," Shumaker said. "They are accustomed to nobody showing up which is how they pushed these things over on the people."
Shumaker told CCN that he is considering a recall after he met with a group of community leaders from around the county three days before a recall could happen to pitch his thoughts about staging it to remove Henry from office. Recalls are not allowed in Michigan during the first year of four-year terms. Henry was elected in November 2024.
Henry's reaction to a packed township hall and word that Shumaker may indeed file a recall to remove him from office resulted in shrugging it all off, saying, "I'm 77 years old. I don't care. I'm working hard for my township."
Shumaker admitted he has also talked with many residents of Clayton Township and other individuals that include a township attorney, a police chief and prosecutors. "They can't believe this and they think it's something that should go to the Genesee County Prosecutor's Office," he said.
Citizens also voiced yells of "recall" several times from the audience at a board meeting on Thursday when the board opted not to consider passing the proposed budget. Thompson reported that the new budget calls for giving an additional $5,000 in compensation to Henry.
The first-term Treasurer asked, "The votes have been 4-to-3 and I wonder if it's legal that he can vote for all this extra money for himself?"
Shumaker said he has asked local lawyers and prosecutors for verification if this is true, and he said, "They told me they needed to check but that they believed it was not allowed under state law to vote on anything that effects yourself."
Thompson revealed a few weeks ago with her social media post as follows: "People in Swartz Creek and Mundy township have been asking for transparency, well how about Clayton Township.
Perhaps Clayton Township is hiding the fact that their elected supervisor who collects a full-time position salary of $42,000 also collects a full-time position salary as building inspector and head of the building department for Clayton Township $55,000. He also collects payment for zoning inspector $10,000 and $10,000 code enforcement. He is also the building inspector for the surrounding village of Lennon. How can one man have and be paid for two full time positions and three part-time positions? $117,000 a year is ridiculous for a township with 7,500 residents.
And oh yes one month after being elected Supervisor and refusing to give up his building inspector position, we needed to create a deputy supervisor position with a $20,000 annual salary while the other deputy positions receive $6,200 per year. This year’s budget also includes a raise for the building inspector of $5,000 and a raise for the deputy of $5,200."
Henry and three fellow board members voted to hire former Treasurer Rick Caruso as the Deputy Supervisor.
"Clayton Township is a grave yard where defeated politicians go to get paid big money," said Shumaker, noting that Henry was voted off the county board in 2022 and Caruso lost his local election in Clayton Township last year.
PHOTO CAPTION: Pictured above this story is Rod Shumaker who urged residents to attend Thursday's Clayton Township Board of Trustees meeting.
BY MIKE KILLLBREATH
CCN Executive Editor
GRAND BLANC TWP. (CCN) — To say Bob Centilli was a popular and well known face in the Metro Flint regional area is a huge understatement.
Friends and family are mourning a man who transcended the local business, political and sports scenes. He was 91.
Centili passed away Wednesday (Nov. 12, 2025) afte
BY MIKE KILLLBREATH
CCN Executive Editor
GRAND BLANC TWP. (CCN) — To say Bob Centilli was a popular and well known face in the Metro Flint regional area is a huge understatement.
Friends and family are mourning a man who transcended the local business, political and sports scenes. He was 91.
Centili passed away Wednesday (Nov. 12, 2025) after a short bout with dementia.
Centilli is a former Burton City Councilman who was elected to three four-year terms after he retired as owner of Centilli Cement, and he was elected by his peers to be President of the council. He also served more than 20 ears on the Burton City Planning Commission.
One of his proudest achievements after retirement was building the Burton Memorial which is the most spectacular tribute to veterans in in the entire Metro Flint regional area.
It was an act of volunteering hundreds of hours to create a special tribute to the men and women who served in the military. It's located near the Burton City Hall off Center Road, between the court building and the police station.
He was best known, however, as a business owner who became a huge sponsor on the local youth baseball scene.
Cement was not only a local concrete contractor who supplied foundations, slabs and driveways for residential and commercial needs but he gave back to the game he often credited with shaping his competitive spirit in business.
Centilli's company famously handled cement work for every major developer who built subdivisions in the out-county during the massive and sprawling growth outside the City of Flint during the 1960's and 1970's.
Centilli was a star athlete at the old St. Matt's who was a feared pitcher and hitter on the baseball team.
"Baseball shaped who I am," Centilli would often tell people who would question why he spent thousands financing local youth teams.
"I grew up a poor kid on the north end," he would explain. "But I learned on the baseball diamond that I could be as good as anybody if working harder than them and developing team work by being an example of what happens when out-working everyone."
Lanny Valentine, long-time owner of Mullins Sporting Goods in downtown Flint, remembered how Centilli had a standing account at his store. "It was his mission to make sure no team of boys didn't have a sponsor," Valentine recalled. "He often would have Centilli Cement shirts and hats on at least one team at every center in this county back when there was a center at almost every school building's baseball diamond."
His teams tat the 18-&-under level later became well known statewide by developing a national reputation for winning.
"I got involved at the Connie Mack level to create a team that every young man could strive to someday play for and I made sure my teams had the best of everything," Centilli often told friends. "Everyone knew we didn't take trouble makers, only good kids who worked hard and wanted to be the best. I'm proud of all the future big leaguers but I'm more proud of all the good family men and good citizens we produced."
After the late Walt Head guided Carpets by Smith to the area's only national title in 1974, Centilli teamed up with Dick Smith to co-sponsor the team as Centilli and Smith. Head's assistant coach, Ted Mahan, would eventually pull away and launch a Connie Mack team of his own under the sponsorship name of Centilli and Grossii.
Both teams joined the famed City Baseball League-West at Broome Park to pick up valuable experience by playing with the area's elite adult men who followed standout careers in thigh school and college.by competing in the old CBL-West. "We had to let them in because they were all-star teams that nobody else in Connie Mack ball could compete with," said the late Tom Cole, who was the long-time Commissioner of Flint baseball during the game's heyday here.
Cole became close friends with Centilli and remembered how they often discussed ways to make Broome Park a better place for baseball. "I once told Bob how it would be nice to have a pavilion for people to watch games under and enjoy meals together," Cole once recalled. "The next day, here's Bob pouring cement and building a pavilion. Not supervising guys building a pavilion, I mean building it himself."
Centilli fondly remembered annual visits with Cole to the downtown Flint mansion of Charles Stewart Mott, co-founder of General Motors.
"He would write us a check to fund the summer paycheck on a center supervisor for every ballpark to direct kids in youth baseball all over this county to keep them out of trouble all summer," he said. "I remember how this man with millions would be so generous to help kids, yet once he got up in the middle of a conversation with Tom Cole about how much funding he needed that year, and he stops talking in mid-sentence, gets up and walks all the way across the room to turn out a light, saying how he hated to waste money."
Centilli said one of the highlights during his life was taking Centilli and Grossi to Farmington, New Mexico for the Connie Mack World Series with the best teams across America, including future big league players such as Barry Larkin who would go on to star at the University of Michigan before becoming an all-star shortstop with the Cincinnati Reds. "I will always remember the parade before the tournament and how the whole town embraces baseball," Centilli said.
The 1981 Centilli and Grossi club finished third at the Connie Mack World Series and his 1982 team was runner-up, getting a game-winning hit only to have a celebrating player get tagged out before the run scored to win the game.
Both teams were later inducted into the Greater Flint Sports Hall of Fame when Centilli and wife Joyce were honored at the event.
"It was a special day in my life that I will always remember," Centilli woud say at the time.
He gave credit to Mahan who was a former star catcher for the Michigan Wolverines before coaching under Head in a career that included leading Davison High School's varsity baseball program, becoming an assistant coach at UM, then landing a job as head coach for the Michigan State Spartans. He later backed Mahan in a carpet store business on Fenton Road.
Mahan's quote about his Hall of Fame teams was included in Centilli's obituary published today.
“Every kid was from Genesee County and that is amazing, to play with teams from around the country and every kid is from Genesee County,” Mahan said. “It was the cohesiveness of the unity. They didn’t care who got the big hit or the big play as long as we won. We were talented too, with about eight or 10 players going on to play in Division 1, but I’ve coached for almost 40 years and that summer with those guys was special.”
"Just think, I sponsored teams with coaches that went on to the top of this game in college baseball for decades," Centilli often recalled.
Mahan spent 10 years in the Big 10 as head coach at MSU after being an assistant at U of M, the led Olivet College for another nearly two decades. Head became the all-time winningest coach at Saginaw Valley State University, and remains number one on the all-time victory list for Great Lakes Collegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) history during his 32-year career there.
The obituary notice also paid tribute to Centilli's long=time friend and neighbor Doug Serrels who coached for his teams.
Funeral mass will be held at 11am on Saturday, at Saint Mary’s Church in Mount Morris where he attended with wie Joyce. Father Carl Simon will be officiating and visitation will be held at 10 am until the time of service on at the church.
Entombment will be at Crestwood Cemetery in Grand Blanc Township.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Saint Mary’s Church or to the Alzheimer's Association.
Centill is survived by his beloved grandchildren Matthew Zahn, Ashley Stevens, Natalie Melvin, Jason Johansson and Jennifer Johansson; wife Joyce Centilli; brothers Stanley Centilli, Richard Centilli and sisters Lillian Bigelow and Linda Bidelman; and children Roberta (Mike) Bracy, Robert S Centilli II, Wendy (Michael) Austin, Julie (David) Goldsworthy; and great grandchildren Addison Melvin, Austin Melvin, Talon Serrato, Beckham Serrato, Gunner Andrews, and Chase Andrews.
He was preceded in death by his parents Stanley and Dorothy (Harman) Centilli; sisters Virginia Hack and Evelyn Farrar, son Christopher Centilli, and son William Wright.
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