Several members of Lake Orion’s Parks and Recreation Committee told village council members on July 28 they’re not happy they weren’t notified about plans to change the committee into a task force.
‘If this continues to happen, you’ll run every volunteer out of here,? long-time committee member Lisa Simpkins said.
Committee member Jerry Richards called the lack of notification ‘totally disrespectful.?
Simpkins also said information about the committee’s activities given to the council by LO Village Manager JoAnn Van Tassel was wrong. She asked the council to reconsider the restructuring.
Hearing the complaints, council members decided to investigate the accusations and asked to be given committee minutes from the last 18 months.
Based on a recommendation by Van Tassel, the council agreed two weeks ago it would be more efficient to restructure the committee into a task force that met with the manager three or four times a year.
According to Van Tassel, the committee didn’t always have a quorum, was slow on giving her recommendations on Green’s Park improvements and it was difficult to receive information about what the committee was doing.
Long-time committee member Lisa Simpkins told the council there has been a quorum at every meeting, two pages of Green’s Park improvements were given to Van Tassel in March and that every funding issue of parks and rec has been addressed.
Up until earlier this year, Van Tassel had attended committee meetings and had taken minutes. Then the committee decided she didn’t need to come to any more meetings and the committee’s secretary would take the minutes.
Simpkins said Van Tassel had told them she was spending a lot of her time at meetings and asked to be compensated somehow for her attendance at the parks and recs meetings.
‘That’s when we told her the secretary could take the minutes,? she added.
Richards became a committee member as an Orion Township representative last year in May. He said he was excited about the joint adventure and it was important to open communication between the village and township.
‘I have no knowledge of any lack of performance and accountability,? he added. ‘I have been frustrated on when projects were going to be completed.?
According to Richards, some projects took a long time because decision making was broken up into several different (village) committees.
He thinks it doesn’t make sense that a group meeting 12 times a year can’t get things done while a group (task force) meeting three or four times a year can.
Lauri Bussell was on the committee for two years before resigning in May. ‘It was a wonderful committee to work on,? she said.? We created wonderful opportunities, both active and passive.?
She agreed with Richards that there was too much overlapping of various groups trying to make decisions.
‘This group was committed. At times I felt we didn’t have the support, even of this council,? Bussell added.
She wondered why the council didn’t do any research on Van Tassel’s proposal before they voted. ‘You should have had a lot of questions that you should have been asking,? she added.
Councilman Tom Albert, who voted for the task force, agreed. ‘We acted in haste. I felt the members should have been notified. Lisa brought up some good points,? he said.
Council president Bill Siver reminded the council that Van Tassel’s restructuring proposal included asking all parks and recreation members if they wanted to be appointed to the task force.
‘I didn’t see it as a different kind of committee,? he said. ‘I voted for it (task force) because I heard about the disarray.?
But he did admit there was some discrepancies ‘from what we heard at the last meeting.?
Simpkins wondered what type of disarray Siver heard about. ‘The only disarray was from having too many layers of government.