At the August 2, 2011 Board Meeting, quoting the “official” minutes, “There was a discussion with Jim Haslock about doing some splits on his property on Davis Street in Topinabee. He would like to build several pole buildings on same. The information will be sent to Township Counsel for review, John Brown made a motion to deny his application to the board for the necessary split, seconded by Dennis Dombroski, motion carried.”
The Board was actually advised by legal counsel Mr Tim Mac Arthur, in attendance at the meeting on August 2, 2011, that if Mullett Township did not have an ordinance in effect authorizing “splits” of platted subdivision lots, they could not legally address a request for a split of said lots.
Township Clerk Rachel Osborn and Supervisor Bill Morgan conferred and agreed there was NO applicable Mullett Township Ordinance authorizing a split of a platted subdivision lots and the authorized Mr MacArthur to draft an ordinance for possible adoption by the Board.
At the September 6, 2011 Board Meeting, Mr Jim Haslock again had the same lot splits on this meeting agenda. Had Mullett Township legal counsel Tim MacArthur drafted an ordinance, ready for adoption by the Board?
NO. Someone, we assume Clerk Osborn, as she is the “recordkeeper”, although no one stood up to take a bow, had “found” a Mullett Township ordinance addressing lot splits. This ordinance, referred to only as “never” seen before by Mr Morgan is probably still not a valid, legal document. As regular readers know, the Mullett Township Board remains ethically and legally challenged and finding unknown “ordinances” in a place where the sun does not shine is further proof of this. This “found” Ordinance was then presented to the public as a legal document authorizing the Board to consider “splits” of platted lots.
Township ordinances are by definition “laws”. Laws, when enacted by a Township must be published and only becomes law after publication and recording as required by law. This is the law:
TOWNSHIP ORDINANCES (EXCERPT)
Act 246 of 1945
41.185 Township ordinance; recording and filing requirements; fees.
Sec. 5. (1) Within 1 week after the publication of an ordinance as provided in section 4, the township clerk shall record the ordinance in a book of ordinances kept by him or her for that purpose; record the date of the passage of the ordinance, the names of the members of the township board voting, and how each member voted; and file an attested copy of the ordinance with the county clerk.
Blog coordinator Carl Muscott will be making a FOIA request to Mullett Township Clerk Rachel Osborn for a copy of this "ordinance", the date of passage, the names of the members of the township board voting, and how each member voted; published date, and when an attested copy of the ordinance was filed with the county clerk. If Ms Osborn answers with her typical “DOCUMENT DOES NOT EXIST” or “UNKNOWN”, with our previous knowledge that Mullett Township has never recorded any ordinance with the Cheboygan County Clerk, we can only assume the “ordinance” is only a piece of paper that has no legal value and was fraudulently presented as a legal ordinance to the public in attendance at the September 6, 2011 Board Meeting.
People, who cannot recognize right from wrong, good from bad, ethical from unethical, cannot be expected to differentiate what is legal and what is illegal.
Please watch this blog for Mullett Township Clerk Osborn’s reply to this FOIA request for an attested copy of this “find” and other Mullett Township Ordinances.
