Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
IRONWOOD TOWNSHIP — Monday’s Ironwood Township Board of Trustees meeting began with the addition of Treasurer Jyl Renee Olson-DeRosso’s resignation to the meeting agenda.
Following a closed session to discuss personnel issues, the board accepted Olson-DeRosso’s resignation, effective Aug. 22.
In addition to accepting the resignation, the board also voted to ask the Michigan State Police to begin an investigation in order to “assist (the township) in resolving discrepancies in the audit that the we could not resolve ourselves,” according to the language of Trustee Steve Boyd’s motion.
During an update on the preliminary audit figures, it was reported approximately $55,000 was unaccounted for from the township’s water and utilities funds.
The report also stated the township’s general fund was in good shape and the township was expected to end the fiscal year with a $40,000 surplus.
“The last couple years (the fund balances) went down a little bit, now it’s good to see them go back up,” Trustee Kevin Lyons said.
Olson-DeRosso said it had been a pleasure to serve the township as treasurer.
“It’s been a great 18 years and I have been very privileged to serve the people of Ironwood Township, but I need to take care of myself right now,” she said, her voice cracking. “The timing is really bad because, obviously, if I was going to make this decision beforehand my name wouldn’t be sitting on the ballot.”
Olson-DeRosso had filed papers to run for re-election and her name will appear on the Aug. 2 primary ballot.
Later in the meeting, Boyd said he wanted to make clear that the state police investigation is not the result of what he believes is criminal action, and simply is a means to find the financial discrepancies.
“This is not because we are looking at something illegal that is going on at all, but they’re free,” Boyd said. “So I’m hopeful we can use their good services and get this resolved so we are able to move forward in a constructive way with our audits and budgets.”
Boyd pledged the township would make the results of the investigation available to the public once it received them and said residents could check with the township offices for updates if available.
He also said the issues with the township’s audit weren’t new.
“We’ve had some issues in the past with (irreconcilable) issues within the audit, and we wanted to really kind of get a handle on it this year,” Boyd said; referencing the purchase of additional software, changing procedures to allow for more oversight and hiring a firm to help prepare for the audit.
“We still have the same issues where everyone, in good faith, is trying to work through this and trying to resolve these issues,” he said, “But it hasn’t worked with our current auditor either and so we decided our best bet was just to go with the next step and go with the state police.”
Following the meeting, Olson-DeRosso said she was proud of the projects the township had accomplished while she was on the board and she felt like she was leaving Ironwood Township in a good place.
She told the Daily Globe she had contemplated not running for re-election and that she was “burnt out on politics,” saying 18 years was a long time to serve.
