Board questions the objectivity of trustee Lederle.

The Leland Township Board removed trustee Nicholas Lederle from the township’s emergency response facilities committee because of his statements at a Leland Board of Education meeting in December.

At its three-hour meeting Monday, the board approved 4-1, with Lederle opposed, a motion by clerk Jane Keen and supported by trustee Steve Plamondon to remove Lederle from the committee over concerns about Lederle’s ability to remain objective while serving on the committee.

The emergency response facilities committee was formed in August 2007 and charged with investigating all immediate and future needs of the Leland Township Fire and Rescue Department. Part of its charge is determining whether the department should continue to have separate fire stations in both Lake Leelanau and Leland.

Lederle and committee member Thomas Aemmer spoke at the Leland Board of Education’s Dec. 17 meeting about the committee and its purpose. Lederle said Monday that he and Aemmer both made it clear at the school board meeting that they were there as citizens of the township and were not representing the facilities committee.

Lederle said they talked about one idea being considered by the committee concerning future facilities. He said the committee has discussed eliminating both Leland and Lake Leelanau fire stations and building a new central station near Hoeft Road along M-204.

Apparently, Lederle’s and Aemmer’s talk upset some members of the school board who contacted township board members to report the two men’s actions.

“I was completely and utterly shocked. I can’t imagine what precipitated this action,” Lederle said.

According to Lederle, the facilities committee met on Jan. 2 and asked him and Aemmer to resign as a result of their actions. Both men declined, and the committee voted down a recommendation to ask the township board to remove Aemmer and Lederle from the committee. Instead, the committee sent a request to the board to make the public more aware of its meeting times and its goals. The committee’s regularly scheduled meeting date and time is the first Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m. in the Leland fire hall.

Plamondon, the board’s appointed representative on the committee, said he understood Lederle’s and Aemmer’s motivation for reaching out to other public bodies to keep them informed. But he took issue with the pair presenting just one idea the group is discussing.

“We’re not even remotely close to making any final recommendations, or have even narrowed the field to any one choice. We’re a long ways from making any decisions,” he said.

Keen said she was encouraged when Aemmer said at the Jan. 2 committee meeting that he apologized for his actions and would talk about all options when discussing the committee’s work at future public meetings or get-together.

Lederle also apologized for his actions at the committee meeting, but rescinded the apology at the township board meeting Monday. He said as a board trustee he feels it is his duty to bring issues to his constituents, adding he didn’t believe the committee’s work has been adequately brought into the public eye. When questioned further by Keen, Plamondon and supervisor Harry Larkin about his actions, Lederle responded, “I will not be pilloried for my effort to inform the public.”

Lederle said he considered actions of the committee up to this month as “secret” because most of the public was not aware of the committee’s work. Board members denounced Lederle for using the term “secret.” “I just want the public to know what I’m doing and what my intentions were,” he said.

After the board voted to remove Lederle from the committee, it approved a motion by him to print the committee’s mission statement in the Leelanau Enterprise as soon as possible. The vote was 3-2, with Keen and Larkin opposed. Plamondon said the committee made the request but also wanted to have some additional information published with the mission statement.

That would delay the publishing of the statement for about a month while the committee developed wording and sought approval from the township board. Lederle said the township should run the mission statement as soon as possible, then publish it again next month with the additional information.

In other facilities committee matters, the board unanimously appointed township fire chief Mike Fandel to the committee. Fandel said earlier in the meeting that the fire department is forming its own facilities need committee as well to help the township’s committee make its recommendations as to fire department needs.