By Shelby Stewart
Staff Writer
Brandon Twp.- The board voted 6-0 Tuesday night to reduce the administrative fees on special assessment districts from 7 percent to 5 percent. Trustee Kris Kordella was absent with notice.
“Whatever we decide here, I want it to be the same for all homeowners,” said trustee Dana DePalma. “I feel that any improvements you do to your lake is the same as one road if they used to have a dirt road and they decide to pave it, that benefits the township. So I want the SAD percentages to be the same across the township.”
Residents expressed their displeasure with the change, and many asked for a more reasonable fee than five percent. Clerk Candee Allen proposed a 2.5 percent, but the motion failed with a 3-3 vote.
“The average per parcel fee across the [Oakland County] municipalities is $5.22 per parcel,” said Lake Louise Lake Improvement Board President Dwight Woodbridge. “Brandon’s 7 percent proposal is $36.71 for that same service.” 

Other trustees agreed that dropping the percentage to one percent or less was too low for the services provided by the township offices.
“So what you’re coming down to is you have one group of people saying it’s not fair that I live on a lake and I have to pay for a SAD, the fee that I don’t agree with, that I think is too high, as opposed to what the township wants to charge,” said trustee Bob Marshall. “I’m sorry, I’m not buying the argument that it’s not fair, because you’re living on a lake property.”
The 5 percent administrative fee will be a yearly fee collected on property taxes, and other special assessment districts in the township will stay at the 7 percent until they renew their SAD contracts.