Cleveland Township electors who attended the Annual Meeting Saturday decided that their township treasurer will not earn as much money next year - no matter who the treasurer is.

An election year such as 2008 is the only time that township residents eligible to vote at an Annual Meeting can reduce salaries for elected township officials.

It was not clear following the Cleveland Township Annual Meeting whether longtime treasurer Bess Musil would run for re-election in November after voters endorsed a salary resolution that would reduce her compensation from $14,620 this year to $12,275 after the November 2008 election.

“Nobody will do this job for $12,275,” Musil said last month while casting her vote in opposition to a salary resolution adopted by the township board in a 4-1 vote.

At the Annual Meeting, Cleveland Township residents in attendance voted 20-15 in favor of setting the treasurer’s annual salary in keeping with the board’s salary resolution at $12,275.

Technically speaking, the Cleveland Township treasurer will not see any drop in “base salary” for the position after November, but will actually receive a 12.8 percent increase in “base salary” from $10,710.

Township supervisor Tim Stein explained that, in previous years, the township board had improperly included additional “per parcel” pay to the treasurer’s salary for summer tax collections, raising her actual compensation to $14,620. He said this year’s salary resolution brought the pay formula for the treasurer into line with state law and with rates of pay offered to treasurers in other comparable townships.

During a public discussion about the salary resolution for the treasurer, some township residents pointed out that Musil had served in her post for more than 40 years and therefore deserved a higher rate of pay.
Others pointed out, however, that salaries for elected officials are based on the requirements of the position, not on the needs or qualifications of the person filling the position.

The vote on the treasurer’s salary resolution was the only one that required a count of hands at Saturday’s meeting. In separate votes, township residents overwhelmingly approved salary resolutions increasing annual pay for the township supervisor by about four percent to $8,675 and the clerk’s salary by about four percent to $11,210. Neither the supervisor nor the clerk had received a pay increase in three years.

Also during this year’s Cleveland Township Annual Meeting, residents heard a “state of the township” update from Stein. Township residents learned that:

• Stein recently had an informal conversation with the prospective new owner of Sugar Loaf Resort, Brad Lutz of Omena. Stein said he was hopeful that Lutz would acquire the resort from Kate Wickstrom.

• The township will receive $5,874 in “Payments in Lieu of Taxes” (PILT) money from the National Park Service for the first time in many years following an agreement between Leelanau County, which has collected the PILT for many years, and several other townships that should have been and are now receiving a portion of the PILT money. Stein said the money would be applied to funding fire and rescue services the township pays for on National Park Service land.

• Cleveland residents will be able to participate in county recycling programs this year, and will be given another opportunity to vote on a proposed $25 per household fee to support recycling programs in the August 2008 Primary Election.

• New, energy-efficient windows had been installed in this historic Township Hall, and that the sale of the antique glass in place for nearly a century had garnered about $150.

Township residents also heard a brief report on activities of the township Planning Commission from trustee Cynthia Shimek, who represents the township board on the commission. In addition, Stein gave a brief overview of this year’s Board of Review proceedings; and Musil discussed the progress of this year’s tax collections.

Following the Annual Meeting, the township board conducted a public budget hearing during which Stein outlined a $158,161 spending plan for the township based on $222,707 in anticipated revenues. Stein said it was likely that a portion of the township’s growing fund balance would be applied to pay for road improvements in the township sometime in the coming fiscal year.

Stein also noted that development in the township was next to nil, pointing out that although taxable values were up 3.1 percent in 2007, the consumer price index was up 2.3-percent. Real growth, therefore, amounted to less than one-percent over the past year, Stein said, reflecting a flat real estate market and a looming nationwide economic recession.