Bingham Township residents this week appeared to be in one of three camps as voters geared up for a Feb. 27 election in which they will decide whether to recall township supervisor Robert W. Foster or allow him to remain in office

People speaking up at public meetings in recent months, those writing letters to the editor – and many just chatting with their friends or neighbors – seem to fall into one of two camps. Some seem to believe fervently that Foster is the best supervisor Bingham has had in years. Others seem to believe just as strongly that Foster can’t be trusted and deserves to be removed from office immediately.

Retired school administrator Ralph Sleight of Bingham Township may fall into the third camp.

“I just don’t know what to believe – or whether anybody’s really telling me the truth,” said Sleight. “Mr. Foster apparently sent letters to nearly everybody in the township – I know I got one. And I’ve been reading the paper. But, otherwise, I don’t know a whole lot about what’s going on and haven’t been following it that closely.”

Bingham Township trustee Mary Bush said she doesn’t believe there are many people in the township like Sleight who fall into a “third camp.”

“People have been coming up to me to tell me that they just can’t wait to vote on this recall question next Tuesday,” said Bush. “Some others have been asking how they can get absentee ballots for a spouse who’s out of town or for their kids who are away at college so they can vote too. This is a very big deal in Bingham Township, and I think most people have very strong feelings about it,” Bush said.

Bush did not offer to reveal how she plans to vote on Tuesday. However, she said, the “vast majority” of township residents who’ve talked to her about the issue have indicated they’re voting “yes” to recall Foster.

Bob Steiner of Bingham Township is not one of those.

“I support Bob Foster because he has brought a much needed sense of order and discipline to the township administration,” Steiner said. “We broomed the previous administration in the last election because they were like a bunch of teenagers in need of adult supervision – something Bob Foster is now providing,” Steiner said.

“I haven’t the foggiest idea how this election is going to go, though,” Steiner added.

Another Foster supporter, Zona Mebert, said she believes Foster “has done a lot more for the township that the two previous supervisors ever did. I think he’s doing a good job.” Mebert said.

Since last summer, former Bingham Township supervisors Harry Sanborn and Midge Werner, both Republicans, have made a point of showing up at Township Board meetings, often offering “public comment” – much of it critical of Foster, a fellow Republican. Sanborn stepped down from his post for health reasons just prior to the end of his 14th year in office in 2000. He was replaced by Werner, who had served as a trustee for 18 years.

Werner was elected to a four-year term as Bingham Township supervisor in 2000, but lost the August 2004 Republican Primary election to Foster by seven votes.

One of Foster’s most outspoken opponents is Robert J. Walton, who recently helped set up a web site at www.recallbobfoster.com. Among other things, the web site contains the entire text of the “reasons for recall” filed by Foster’s opponents as well as a verbatim recitation of Foster’s own “justification of conduct” – language appearing on the Feb. 27 ballot in Bingham Township.

The anti-Foster web site also contains a point-by-point rebuttal of Foster’s “justification of conduct,” along with newspaper clippings and “documentary” evidence.

At this week’s Bingham Township Board meeting, Walton presented documents he said were indicative of Foster’s continuing “pattern of mistakes” during his term in office. Walton had obtained a copy of a bill mailed to Bingham Township for a pad of absentee voter applications that had been shipped to Foster’s home address at his request for his personal use.

Walton had also obtained a copy of a Jan. 10, 2007 letter Foster mailed to his supporters in which Foster said he intended to “direct mail” absentee ballot applications to likely backers as part of his campaign to stay in office.

“The fact that Mr. Foster used the township’s account to order these applications for his own campaign, and the fact that he paid no sales tax on them because the township is exempt from paying sales tax is, at best, legally questionable,” Walton said.

Responding to Walton at the Monday evening meeting, Foster said that he’d immediately paid the bill himself after it was received at the township hall. Foster said he had ordered the applications in June prior to the August 2006 “farmland preservation” vote. He said the supplier, Fidlar Election Co. of Rock Island, Ill., was at fault for mailing the $18 bill to the township clerk rather than himself.

“This had absolutely nothing to do with Bingham Township and I have no idea why the invoice was sent here,” (to the township hall), Foster said.

Foster called an Enterprise reporter Tuesday to say that he had since ordered a new, corrected invoice from Fidlar.

“That fits perfectly with Mr. Foster’s pattern of mistakes,” said Walton. “He won’t rectify his mistakes or even acknowledge them until they absolutely come to a head.”

Pre-election campaign finance statements for the “Recall Bob Foster” campaign and the “Committee to elect Robert Foster, Supervisor” were filed in Leland by a Feb. 16 deadline, according to county clerk Michelle Crocker.

As of Feb. 11, Foster had raised and spent $2,755 for his campaign. During the same reporting period, the Recall Foster campaign had raised $1,320 and expended $382.

by Eric Carlson
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