The Dorr Township Board Monday evening voted along the familiar 5-2 line to adopt a policy on “representation” of the board by each individual member.

As expected, Trustees John Tuinstra and Patty Senneker voted against the policy.

Clerk Brian Boot read the policy, which said, in part, “A township trustee’s statutory duties relate to the trustee’s role as a township legislator. A trustee may not represent nor implicitly nor explicitly imply that the trustee is representing or acting on behalf of the township unless the trustee has in hand a signed copy of the minutes where the township authorized him (her) to do so.”

Tuinstra said the policy is “limiting or reducing the township trustee’s involvement, and I think that’s the wrong way to go.”

Township Supervisor Jeff Miling replied, “I have seen trustees do things they were not authorized to do.”

Tuinstra added that, “No member of the board has a signed copy of the minutes in his hand… it puts an added burden on the trustee that it doesn’t for supervisor, clerk or treasurer.”

Senneker also objected, saying, “Why do we need a policy?

Boot said it clarifies the role of a single board member as opposed to the board as a whole.

Tuinstra then said, “Does a custodian or an office manager then need a signed copy of minutes when they make a purchase?”

Miling responded, “We should know our jobs, but sometimes we don’t.”

One example of what Miling and Boot may have been getting at was two years ago when Tuinstra single-handledly and without board authorization halted the ordered demolition of buildings on the Graczyk property, which was purchased for developing and expanding a recreational park, but he had a different vision, of a kind of rural museum.

PHOTO: John Tuinstra  Patty Senneker