3 Hartland Township Officials Receive Raises

The Hartland Township supervisor will see his salary nearly double and the clerk and treasurer will see an increase in their salaries after raises approved by residents on the Compensation Commission.

The commission said they wanted to bring the officers' compensation more in line with those in "like townships" such as Springfield, Fenton, Oceola, Green Oak, Lyon, Brandon, Marion and Milford.

The five-person commission included William Cain, Barbara Gazda, Richard Krueger, Jouni Mantyle and Joanne Pehkone.

Recommended salary increases included:

• Township Supervisor Bill Fountain, salary increase of $12,000 to $22,000
• Township Clerk Larry Hopkins, salary increase of $40,221 to $44,000
• Township Treasurer Kathleen Horning, salary increase of $40,221 to $44,000

There was no change to the Township Trustees salary of $4,000.

“We adopted the ordinance late last year that basically ratifies the state statute that provides for the process to allow an independent commission of residents that have no other association to the township organization to study the salaries of all the elected officials,” Township Manager James Wickman said. 

According to state statute, no vote was required to enact the determinations and there was no discussion from the board during Tuesday night’s Township meeting. The increases will take effect at the beginning of the next fiscal year starting, April 1.

According to Compensation Commission Meeting minutes, the five-member committee studied criteria of population, number of parcels and state-equalized tax valuation while researching their decision.