The Cleveland Township Board this week adopted salary resolutions proposing new pay levels for the township’s top three elected officials - resolutions that township voters will have the opportunity to approve, disapprove or modify if they attend the township’s Annual Meeting slated for Saturday, March 22 at 10 a.m.

Township supervisor Tim Stein said he’d consulted with officials of the Michigan Townships Association, conducted a comprehensive comparative study of elected township officials’ salaries in Leelanau County and throughout the state – and made a set of recommendations to adjust pay for the treasurer, clerk and supervisor.

Stein said the township board had erred in previous years by adopting salary resolutions that added tax collection fees on a “per parcel” basis to the treasurer’s annual salary. The combined pay formula resulted last year in treasurer Bess Musil’s salary being set at $14,620 – a level considerably higher than treasurers receive in other municipalities with similar numbers of parcels, Stein said.

Because the pay of incumbent elected officials cannot be reduced during their terms, Stein explained, Musil would continue to be paid at her current level through November when her current term expires. If she is re-elected – or if a new treasurer is elected – Stein recommended that after November 2008 the treasurer receive an annual salary of $12,275. He said that amount was an increase over the treasurer’s current “base” salary of $10,710 not including the additional payments for tax collections that are not authorized under state law.

Musil disagreed. She said Stein’s proposal amounted to a pay cut for the treasurer – whether she serves beyond November 2008 or someone else wins the seat in the next General Election.

“Nobody will do this job for $12,275,” Musil said. “There’s a lot of work, and whoever takes this position will find out,” Musil said.

The rest of the board agreed with Stein, voting 4-1 in favor of adopting the salary resolution as presented.

A resolution to increase the clerk’s annual pay about four percent from $10,710 to $11,210 was approved in a 5-0 vote of the board. In addition, the board voted 5-0 to increase the supervisor’s salary about four percent from $8,350 to $8,675.

Stein noted that neither the clerk nor the supervisor had received a pay increase for three years.

In other business at its regular monthly meeting Tuesday evening, the Cleveland Township Board:

• Noted receipt of a letter from Leland Public School superintendent Michael Hartigan that the township this year will continue to receive a fee of $2.50 per parcel for summer tax collections conducted by the township on behalf of the school district.

• Reviewed a copy of a letter from Leelanau County Building Official Robert Meyer to Cleveland Township property owner Robert Steven Saffell, whose decade-long homebuilding project in the Scenic Mountain View Estates subdivision has worn out the patience of neighbors. Meyer notified Saffell that his structure had been inspected, but that Saffell must still act upon some correction notices.

“The good news here is that you now seem willing to proceed and we are encouraged by this progress,” Meyer wrote. He also wished Saffell “good luck with your treatments.”

Stein explained that Saffell is currently being treated for cancer. Stein also noted that township attorney Michael Kronk had advised the township to take a “wait and see” attitude for now, and consider taking additional action to resolve issues surrounding the Saffell property, if necessary, sometime in the spring.

• Learned that the township will receive $5,812 from the federal government in the current fiscal year as “Payments in Lieu of Taxes” (PILT) for services provided to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Stein credited Glen Arbor supervisor John Soderholm for his recent efforts to change the distribution of PILT payments from the county to the townships in which the national park is located. The township will apply the PILT funding to its budget for fire and rescue services provided on park property, Stein said.

• On Stein’s recommendation, reappointed Nello Valentine, J. Kenneth Cerny and Dennis Ferguson to the township Board of Review for two-year terms.

• Agreed to place an advertisement seeking candidates to fill a vacancy on the township Planning Commission.

• Received an annual crime and traffic safety report from Leelanau County Sheriff’s Deputy Duane Wright. Wright also introduced deputy Ben Krzyminski, who was hired to replace recently retired deputy James O’Rourke.