Apparent settlement reached

By RICHARD JENKINS

[email protected]

Ironwood Township — Although the details aren’t available yet, it appears a settlement has been reached in the lawsuit between several local municipalities and their insurance companies over the lost tax money connected to former Ironwood Township Treasurer Jyl Olson-DeRosso’s embezzlement case.

During his supervisor’s report at Monday’s board of trustees meeting, Ironwood Township Supervisor Jim Simmons said the sides have reached a settlement, but he couldn’t release the specifics yet.

“Details are being worked on now as we speak, but that is of today,” Simmons said during the meeting that was held via teleconference due to coronavirus pandemic and weather that prevented it from being held outside the township hall. “Hopefully, we can get people paid in the near future. So that’s about as good news as we’ve had (on the subject).”

Simmons told the Daily Globe he hopes more information will be available sometime in the next two weeks.

The lawsuit, which was filed in the fall of 2019, involves several plaintiffs — listed in the original court documents as Gogebic County, Gogebic County Treasurer Lisa Hewitt, Ironwood Township, the Ironwood Area Schools and the Gogebic-Ontonagon Intermediate School District — seeking over $1.4 million in damages from the Michigan Township Participating Plan and U.S. Specialty Insurance Company.

The plaintiffs argue in their filing that the Michigan Township Participating Plan and U.S. Specialty Insurance Company provided seven bonds between the 2013 and 2016 to secure DeRosso’s collection and payment of tax money and the performance of her duties, which she failed to do by embezzling funds.

Olson-DeRosso pleaded guilty or no contest to all 10 counts she was charged with in March 2018. The charges against her stem from 2011 to November 2016, when Olson-DeRosso lost her re-election bid to current treasurer Maria Graser.

She was sentenced to 38 months in prison for the most serious charge she faced — embezzlement by a public official — and concurrent sentences ranging between 11 and 23 months on each of the other charges in May 2018.

In other action, the board:

—Approved purchasing a pair of LED signs for the township hall, as another means of informing residents of township information, at a cost of $3,020.

—Authorized selling a township truck to Floyd Ramme for $3,250, the higher of the two submitted bids.

—Reappointed Graser and Trustee Kevin Lyons to the Powderhorn Area Utility District Board.