Raisin Township supervisor faces recall

Language for a recall petition for Raisin Township Supervisor Jay Cavanaugh received approval on October 15 by the Lenawee County Election Commission. The petition was filed by township resident Sherry Beaudin. Three reasons are listed on the petition for the recall, all of which Cavanaugh call inaccurate. The first accusation reads, “Failure to carry out his statutory duties under MLC Act 359 of 1947, 42.9 by refusing to sign documents required for the purchase of a fire truck after it was approved by a majority vote of the board of directors at an open public meeting held March 17, 2014.”Cavanaugh said that he did not refuse to sign the contract, but “typical township contractual problems caused the delay,” adding that the Raisin Township Board of Trustees had to hold the meeting again after Township Attorney David Lacasse said the original meeting where the purchase was approved violated the Open Meetings Act. “I signed it as soon as I could,” said Cavanaugh. The second reason for the petition accuses Cavanaugh of “Unprofessional conduct during the February 10, 2014 township board meeting, when he verbally attacked township employees, [Public Safety] Director Scott Lambka, Assistant Fire Chief [Jake] Warner and Assistant Fire Chief Ed Mathis, who were responding to a direct question by a township trustee. He then instructed the deputy clerk, Samantha Hoffman, not to include information related to his verbal attack in the official minutes of the February 10 meeting.”According to Cavanaugh, Lambka and Mathis orchestrated the grandstanding event at the meeting in question, saying that the idea of a hiring freeze for the Public Safety Department was inaccurate. Cavanaugh said around that time an officer left the township police force while the township was drafting a new employee manual for hiring. Cavanaugh added that he had reached out to Lambka to review the draft before its approval before hiring new public safety personnel, which Lambka agreed to over text messages. “It’s been completely fabricated,” the township supervisor said. Cavanaugh said the complaint that he asked Hoffman to change the minutes to omit the confrontation from the meeting’s minutes is “blatantly and utterly false. I’ve never asked anyone to change minutes.”Hoffman declined to comment on the accusation. The final accusation states Cavanaugh failed, “to protect and use appropriately, funds collected by an approved millage specifically for fire equipment capital improvements, that were reaffirmed at a regular board meeting held Dec. 10, 2012, by diverting $150,000 dollars towards road repair projects from the 2014 budget.”Cavanaugh said that the supervisor only has the power to move up to $3,000, adding that the board re-appointed the $150,000 in a 6-0 vote, with Hawkins absent from the meeting.“I’m happy to reaffirm my position in the township,” said Cavanaugh. “I appreciate the people that support me and I hope people can see through the underhandedness of the board and township government.”Six hundred fifty-five signatures are needed to force the recall election. That number is 25 percent of township voter turnout at the last gubernatorial election, which is needed for the recall to move forward. The deadline to submit signatures is April 13.