Less than six months after Leland Township voters rejected a millage renewal that would have brought in $215,000 of general operating dollars, the township is back to try again. On Tuesday (Nov. 2) Leland Township voters will decide whether to approve a millage that would supplement the township government’s annual budget by just under $200,000. While township officials say the millage is crucial for maintaining services and responding to years of deferred maintenance of local parks and infrastructure, a group of citizens is fiercely opposing the measure – and questioning whether the township is being prudent with its finances.

Tomorrow, Leland Township is seeking voters’ approval “to levy up to 0.3920 mills as a new additional millage for three years, 2021 through 2023 inclusive,” per ballot language. The millage would allow the township to raise an estimated $199,941.00 in the first calendar year, intended “for the purpose of providing funds for park maintenance, operating expenses, and capital improvements.”

According to Township Supervisor Susan Och, about $90,000 a year of the extra millage funds would go toward normal park operations, with another $30,000 earmarked for necessary park repairs, maintenance, and improvements. $30,000 more would be channeled toward “immediate maintenance and repair needs.” And the last $50,000 “would go to replenish our capital Improvements fund, which will be drawn down next year by sidewalk and road projects.”

Road projects include local streets like Golf View, Trillium, Valley Road, Macleod Drive, and Lake Street, which Och says will collectively cost the township “almost $300,000.” She also notes that the township currently has a package of local sidewalk repair projects out for bid, with “preliminary estimates” landing around $240,000. Another sizable project — the repair of the seawall at the Leland Library — is expected to cost $521,000.

Extra-voted millages are not new to Leland Township. For years, Leland has asked voters to support similar initiatives, usually on a year-to-year basis. In 2020, voters approved an extra-voted millage by a 554-283 margin. But in May, when the township sought another extra-voted millage to replace 2020’s, Leland residents voted it down, with 274 voters in favor and 406 opposed.

“We have been levying an extra-voted millage since about 2006,” says Och. “And the reason for it is that our allocated millage and our other guaranteed income do not cover everything that we are mandated to do by the state of Michigan – and everything that we are obligated to do because of agreements with other entities like Leland School and the Leland Library. We have 19 park areas, so we have a lot more than most townships. And we have two unincorporated villages, so that means that all those sidewalks and streetlights [fall to us].”

Och continues: “If we don’t have this extra-voted village, and we pay for everything we’re obligated to pay for, we're left with about $33,000 – which is not enough to, say, mow all the grass at the parks and cemeteries, or light the streetlights, or do any of the many extra things that people call on their township to do. If it fails, then we’ve got to deal with some chaos, because we won't have enough money to fulfill everyone’s expectations.”

But while Leland Township’s millages have always passed with relative ease, the streak ended in May – and blindsided township officials in the process. “A lot of us just assumed that the May millage was going to pass,” Och admits.

One issue in the spring was voter turnout: 680 people cast a ballot for the millage, down from 837 last year.

The other factor? A sizable “Vote No” campaign that encouraged local residents to reject the May millage. If anything, that campaign’s engine is revving even louder this time around.

The group advocating against the millage, a registered LLC dubbed “Taxpayers of Leland Township,” argues that, while the township “has been requesting extra-voted millages for years,” parks have still “fallen into disrepair,” local sidewalks “remain cracked and hazardous,” and the township hasn’t established a permanent recycling site – among other criticisms.

One of the key players behind the Taxpayers of Leland Township group is Tony Borden, a former Leland Township trustee. Borden served on the township board for eight years, but tells the Leelanau Ticker that he became “frustrated with some of the personnel there,” leading to his decision not to run for re-election last fall.

“What I had seen over the last four years is behavior that I would describe as fiscally imprudent,” Borden explains as the reason for his heel turn. “Bad commercial practices and bad decision-making that led to losses that cost the township a lot of money.”

Central to Borden’s disillusionment with the Leland Township government are two major lawsuits that he says “combined, cost the township upwards of $75,000 in legal fees.”

One was the South Beach case that the township settled this summer, in which two local property owners contended that a slice of Lake Michigan beachfront long used as a public park was in fact private property.

The other was a property tax dispute over a 23,938-square-foot home on North Lake Leelanau, which Leland Township assessed in 2018 as having a true cash value of $24 million. In January, right before the case was set to go before a Michigan Tax Tribunal, the two parties agreed on a true cash value of $8 million. The latter trial alone, Borden says, cost the township approximately $52,000 in legal fees.

Alexander Janko, one of the plaintiffs in the former case, is involved in the campaign against the millage and is listed as the registered agent for the Taxpayers of Leland Township LLC. Richard Stephenson, the plaintiff in the tax dispute case, is not involved in the group, according to Borden.

Those two lawsuits and the feeling that the township mishandled them are just some of the grievances that Borden, Janko, and their list of supporters (which Borden says numbers 375-400 residents) have against the millage proposal. Other concerns include continued millage funding for the Leland Township Library (despite the fact that the library now has its own operating millage), the township’s continued delay in the fixing the sidewalks or building a much-discussed recycling center (despite promises to tackle both), and a belief that Leland Township is already sitting on over half a million dollars in its capital account, plus additional COVID relief money.

“They can’t get stuff done,” Borden concludes. “So, why spend more money? Until [the township] can get some stuff done – and show that they can execute projects that are within budget and well managed – they shouldn't get another nickel.”

“We’re dealing with decades of deferred maintenance,” Och counters. “[Fixing these issues] is not something that happens overnight, or even in the space of one or two years. To do projects and do them well takes years, and you need to be strategic.”

Correction: A previous version of this story misquoted Borden saying the Stephenson lawsuit cost the township $52 million, rather than the $52,000 actual cost.