Recall Documents
The recall petition for the Yates Township Clerk was successful and an election has been called for Tuesday May 3, 2022. Two candidates will be on the ballot. The current Clerk who is being recalled is Romayne Hollis-Raines and is automatically placed on the ballot. The second candidate who has filed to run is Barbara McGregory . We will post the campaign literature, along with a fact-check, for each candidate as it becomes available.
The successful recall petition for the Yates Township Clerk has the following language:
“We, the undersigned, registered and qualified voters the Township of Yates, in the County of Lake, and State of Michigan, petition for the calling of an election to recall Romayne Hollis Raines from the office of Clerk, Yates for the following reason(s): Has not maintained township financial records according to state standards as evident by the June 2021 statutorily required auditor’s report and auditor’s subsequent email to clerk in September 2021. Has not, since Dec 2020, provided other Township officials with the materials they need to perform their jobs, this includes not providing board packets on time to Board members as required by the Township Board and Administrative Policies Manual Section 2.18 and also not providing requested documents to the Planning Commission and the ZBA. Has regularly dispersed township funds since December 2020 without prior board approval.”
WHAT IS A RECALL? Click for an introduction.
The following represents just some of the information that has been assembled by the recall petitioner and members of the community on the reasons for this recall.
Click here for a short handout which may be downloaded that describes the reasons. See more detail below.
REASON 1:
Has not maintained Township financial records according to state standards as evident by the June 2021 statutorily required auditor’s report and auditor’s subsequent email to clerk in September 2021.
- “Material Weakness: 2021-001 - Preparation of Financial Statements in Accordance with GAAP”. Note GAAP stands for Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.
- “2021-003 – Unfavorable Budget Variances”
Auditor’s response to budget vs actual expenses
- “The Township is required to account for its records on an accrual basis, not cash basis.”
- “There is no doubt that the Township is required to use the modified accrual method of accounting. There is also no doubt that the Township uses the cash basis method of accounting. That being said, I have seen Township’s try to use the accrual basis of accounting and it just confuses matters and makes the audit process a disaster. So I wouldn’t say you are necessarily doing anything “wrong”, but I can certainly see why in this situation it is causing an issue. "
- Note that even though the auditor pointed out the error and suggested a solution the Clerk didn’t resolve the matter immediately, didn’t address it until the second board meeting after she was notified and still didn’t resolve it until over a week after the board voted to amend the budget to include additional funds for the Zoning cost-center (which includes Zoning Admin, Planning Commission and ZBA). The Clerk needed to allocate a portion of that to the Planning Commission specifically which she didn’t do on-time or as-promised, preventing the Planning Commission from meeting and conducting business.
- A document from the Clerk that falsely alleged that the Planning Commission was over budget. This is what the auditor addressed in his letter that pointed out the Clerk’s error. This Clerk’s report is what prevented the Planning Commission from meeting because it falsely indicated that the Planning Commission was $1,160 over budget for meetings and $722.30 over budget in total.
REASON 2:
Has not, since Dec 2020, provided other Township officials with the materials they need to perform their jobs, this includes not providing board packets on time to Board members as required by the Township Board and Administrative Policies Manual Section 2.18 and also not providing requested documents to the Planning Commission and the ZBA.
A document from the 2 Township Trustees stating that they have not been receiving their packets as the Township Policy requires and that they will no longer accept items on the agenda against policy.
Not providing the Planning Commssion with the Township documents that were needed to perform their duties.
- Information needed to verify recently discovered zoning documents
- Information needed to verify recently discovered zoning documents repeat request
Not providing the Zoning Board of Appeals with the Township documents that were needed to perform their duties. The Clerk, as secretary of the ZBA was responsible for producing the minutes within 8 working days. They have never been produced and it has been over a year.
Not providing the Planning Commssion with the Township documents that were needed to perform their duties. The Township’s version that they discuss does not seem to follow the law.
A summary of requests that were the responsibility of the Clerk but were not fulfilled as of July 26, 2021.
Not providing the Planning Commssion with the Township documents on the formation of the Planning Commission which were/are needed to perform the Commission’s duties.
One of a series of notifications warning the Clerk that the Camping Ordinance which the Township was publicizing on the Township website was incorrect and had been for over 6 months. This is the direct responsibility of the Clerk’s office. The Planning Commission,the ZBA,and the public needed the correct ordinance to follow and the Clerk failed to provide it. Additionally, the Lake County land auction used this incorrect ordinance to make claims about land being auctioned in Yates as available for camping, which was/is not true.
REASON 3:
Has regularly dispersed Township funds since December 2020 without prior board approval.
An instance from a recent fall board meeting where a check was improperly issued by the Clerk between meetings without board approval.
A community writeup on how payments are required to be approved as opposed to how they are.
GENERAL
A record of a courtesy communication to the Clerk (and Supervisor) of concerns expressed by the community from over 4 months before a recall petition was submitted.