Oakland Township appears to have been subsidizing developers

At the July 28, 2015 Oakland Township Board meeting, the Board revised the contract with the Township’s legal firm, Giarmarco, Mullins and Horton P. C. The monthly retainer fee was reduced by $750. Treasurer Langlois stated the reduction was done for a ‘more proper’ allocation of expenses regarding legal services. Trustee Bailey indicated that there were some legal service fees that were put ‘erroneously’ into the General fund that should have been billed to ‘other people’.

The change to the contract is welcomed. The legal service fees for our Township have almost doubled since the new Board was elected in 2012. This recently discovered error explains a portion of the reason for the higher expenditure, but does raise several questions regarding to what extent has the Township been subsidizing developers, and whether we can retroactively recover those costs.

The Board also missed an opportunity to clarify an issue that had been repeated raised by former Trustee Thalmann regarding ‘double coverage’ for legal services for the Parks and Recreation Commission.

To read more about this issue, please visit the following website posting:

Oakland Township Watcher’s website