Clerk Nancy Conzelman Censors Trustee Comments, Eliminates Public Comments

The Plymouth Township Clerk has taken yet another step to eliminate transparency in local government. In a disturbing new move, Clerk Nancy Conzelman has decided that there will be no mention of comments from the taxpayers and residents of Plymouth Township in the official minutes of this elected body. Further, she has decided that she will screen the comments of the elected Trustees of this board as well.

I first noticed this when I perused the board packet before the April 15th meeting of the Plymouth Township Board of Trustees. In the official minutes, the area under Public Comments And Questions had a statement that read: Supervisor Reaume invited any members of the public who wished to address the Board to do so at this time.

Well, for as far back as the official minutes are listed on the Plymouth Township website, which is 2005, all public comments are listed by name, and what their comment was about. This is the correct way to present the official minutes of a public meeting. This is the lawful way to do it.

So why did she suddenly decide to change something that has been in effect since at least 2005, and most likely since before Nancy was born?

The answer is simple. Clerk Conzelman just doesn't like criticism. Neither does Supervisor Reaume, or Treasurer Ron Edwards. I am pretty sure that Nancy didn't do this unilaterally. I am pretty sure that this “Magnificent Threesome” collectively schemed this up.

This threesome is getting hammered regularly by angry taxpayers at board meetings, and it gets worse every single meeting. Folks are fed up with their condescending behavior, they are fed up with the outrageous way they spend the taxpayer's money, and they are fed up with the secrecy that this threesome shroud themselves in. So what did they do to further cloak themselves? They completely eliminated any public record of resident's comments.

Normally I would think this stunt unbelievable, but for this crew, it is right in their wheelhouse.

And now, on to the shenanigans with the Trustee Comment section. It seems that instead of just refusing to post Trustee comments as presented, Conzelman is apparently going to censor them, and simply post the comments that make her threesome look good.

An example of this was at the last meeting. The posted Trustee Comments reflected that Trustee Curmi objected to the township salting, plowing, and filling potholes in the roads. It was followed with a comment by Treasurer Edwards stating that it was for safety purposes, and that it was also so that police, fire, and ambulances could get through to help folks.

This made it look like Curmi was the bad guy, uncaring about the safety of Plymouth Township residents, while Edwards was the knight in shining armor, with only safety as his main concern. 

 The truth of the matter was that Curmi mentioned this, because his concern was that the budget may need to be amended to reflect the cost of this work, and he also had liability concerns with township workers on county roads. Both legitimate concerns. Clerk Conzelman spun his words in the minutes, and it was a pretty amateurish move to be honest.

Another thing that Clerk Conzelman did, was to conveniently leave out Trustee Curmi's question about $37,000 that Treasurer Treasurer Edwards can't seem to reconcile. It seems that Mr Edwards has a $37,000 discrepancy in the audit, and that is a pretty embarrassing thing if you are the Treasurer. Curmi simply asked if it had been found, and it hadn't.  Last I heard, Edwards was still looking for the $37,000.  

Curmi challenged Conzelman on this issue at the April meeting. He indicated that, “For the future, if I have questions that create positive news, that's great, but if I have questions that create negative news, then we should report on that also, we need some equity.” He further indicated that “It's great when you have positive news, but when you have bad news, you can't screen it out.”

Trustee Curmi hit the nail on the head. This trio of Reaume, Conzelman, and Edwards are doing everything they can to drown out dissent, and if they can't drown it out, they have taken the audacious step to simply leave any kind of dissent or critical opinions out of the official minutes of the Board of Trustee meetings,

I took the time to check Canton Township, Livonia, Northville Township, and the City of Plymouth. They all are very specific on accurately reporting public comments in their official minutes. I was a Trustee on the Board of Education for Clarenceville School District in Livonia, and we always made it a point to accurately reflect public comments in our official minutes, both positive and negative.  There was never any question that we would do this.

I'll leave the Trustee comments alone for now, as they are elected officials, and have the platform at the board table to stand up for themselves, but the complete elimination of comments made by our taxpayers is an outrageous act of cowardice, and arrogance.

Nancy Conzelman may think that she can erase the voice of the people, but she is dead wrong. If our Plymouth Township Clerk refuses to do her job, I will step in and do it for her.

I will step up to the plate, and handle the job that Nancy Conzelman is refusing to do. I will accurately post the Public Comments from the Plymouth Township Board of Trustees meetings right here at Patch until such time as our elected officials decide to start doing the job that they are paid so handsomely to do.

Transparency matters...