Meeting Events

Meeting: fxq9s6pmvmo.2026-6-15_freeport_township_meeting

Meeting date: 2026-06-15

Meeting type: township_board

This is a deterministic derived artifact, not official meeting minutes. Related records may be grouped for review while complete machine provenance remains in the JSON artifact.

Decisions and Votes

• Approval of minutes from June 1st, 2026 meeting — Passed

  • Summary: Motion to approve the minutes for the June 1st, 2026 meeting.
  • Attribution: governing body
  • Evidence: “The first total business is the approval of menace for the June 1st, 2026 meeting. I need a motion for the second, please.”
  • Evidence: “So motion, Wilken?”
  • Evidence: “Seeing that there are none, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries.”
  • Source timestamp: 00:35

• Approval of bills payable — Passed

  • Summary: Motion to approve bills payable.
  • Attribution: governing body
  • Evidence: “So moved. Second.”
  • Evidence: “Seeing that there are none, Madam Clerk, please call the roll. Motion passes.”
  • Source timestamp: 01:31

• Approval of Benning Group audit presentation

  • Summary: Motion to approve the presentation of the audit from the Benning Group.
  • Attribution: governing body
  • Evidence: “The next order of business is the presentation of the audit from Benning Group. I need a motion and a second please.”
  • Evidence: “So moved. I’ll second it. Motion to approve the presentation of the audit from the Benning Group.”
  • Source timestamp: 02:13

• Adjournment until July 6th, 2026 — Passed

  • Summary: Motion made to adjourn the meeting.
  • Evidence: “I intend a motion to adjourn until Monday, July 6th, 2026 at 4:30 PM”
  • Evidence: “So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?”
  • Source timestamp: 22:04

Procedural Actions

• Approval of bills payable

  • Summary: Discussion regarding the approval of bills payable.
  • Attribution: governing body
  • Evidence: “The next of the minutes is approval of bills payable. Are there most in the second, please?”
  • Source timestamp: 01:24

• Motion to approve item

  • Summary: A motion was made on the floor regarding an unspecified item.
  • Evidence: “Alright. So Mike, we need a. We have a motion on the floor to approve. It’s been made and seconded.”
  • Source timestamp: 12:49

• Discussion before calling roll

  • Summary: The board allowed for discussion following the motion.
  • Evidence: “Do you need any discussion? Yes, any discussion.”
  • Source timestamp: 12:57

• Calling the roll

  • Summary: The Clerk was directed to call the roll.
  • Evidence: “Okay, Madam Clerk, you can call the roll.”
  • Source timestamp: 12:57

Financial and Contract Events

• Financial statements opinion
  • Summary: The auditors gave an unmodified opinion, meaning the financial statements are clear in all material aspects, based on a threshold review.
  • Evidence: “So we have to give an opinion on your financial statements. We give what’s called an unmodified opinion, which means that the financial statements are clear in all material aspects.”
  • Source timestamp: 07:07

Presentations and Reports

• Audit findings by Benning Group

  • Summary: Kyle Davis, a CPA with Benning Group, presented the audit findings.
  • Attribution: Kyle Davis (Benning Group)
  • Evidence: “My name is Kyle Davis. I’m a CPA with Benning Group here in Bigfoot. I’ve been doing the audit for a long time, right, Patrick? Yes. A long time. Our team did the audit over the last month.”
  • Source timestamp: 02:43

• Annual financial report status and audit findings

  • Summary: The formal audit report is available, and the township is in the process of preparing the annual financial report for the comptroller’s office. The official audit report contains a letterhead titled ‘independent auditors report,’ stating an unmodified opinion on the financial statements.
  • Evidence: “Okay so then the thicker copy that you have they’re all bound together that’s our formal audit report so we’re still in the process of preparing the annual financial report that goes to the comptroller’s office I believe that just opened up for filing last week so we’re in process of that but this is uh this is the official audit report from us so if you get past the table of contents there at the start you’ll see the letter that’s on our Letterhead. It’s headed independent auditors report.”
  • Source timestamp: 07:07

• Cash deposits security

  • Summary: All cash deposits are secured by FDIC insurance at the bank or collateral pledged to secure those deposits.
  • Evidence: “On page 16 it talks about your cash deposits. All of your cash deposits are secured by FDIC insurance at the bank or collateral that they pledge to you to secure those deposits.”
  • Source timestamp: 10:27

• Supervisor’s report on food assistance numbers

  • Summary: The supervisor is gathering total numbers of people assisted through food banks, noting 3,200 helped by the Salvation Army and around 2600 with Joseph Pantry.
  • Evidence: “Alright, the next item is the supervisor’s report. I am working on gathering numbers for how many people we assisted through the food bank when we did the funding to help with our pantry. So I’m running numbers down. We already know that we helped 3,200 with the Salvation Army. I’m looking at around 2600 with Joseph Pantry.”
  • Source timestamp: 13:34

• Expenditure of the budget report

  • Summary: The speaker presented the expenditure of the budget report and noted that the first disbursement for real estate tax should occur at this meeting or the next.
  • Evidence: “before I pass over to me, I’ve got to hand out the expenditure of the budget report. Thank you, because Liz would be very upset. Thank you. That wouldn’t end well. You don’t want to pack a bandana at you. We don’t want that, so yeah, thank you. That wouldn’t end well for me. So please take a look at our expenditure of the budget report. At our next meeting we should have maybe our first disbursement, either that meeting or the next meeting we should have our first disbursement. Disbursement of what? Real estate tax.”
  • Source timestamp: 16:39

• Assessor’s Report on Property Tax Appeals

  • Summary: Two properties—one residential and one commercial strip mall—filed property tax appeals with Board of Review; the assessor recommended a full appraisal for the commercial property, which would be split in cost with the county.
  • Evidence: “So after Board of Review, we had two properties, two owners that filed their property tax appeal board. One was a residential, one was a commercial, one of the strip malls that we revalued this past year. And Board of Review and IA3 is in our best interest to get an appraisal done on that one, a full appraisal.”
  • Source timestamp: 17:37

Metrics

• Payroll Deposits amount

  • Summary: The Payroll Deposits figure is $19,708, which exists because QuickBooks Online draws money two days in advance of payroll payment.
  • Evidence: “I just want to call attention to one number on here, which is unusual compared to what we’ve Payroll Deposits, 19,708.”
  • Source timestamp: 07:07

• Total surplus amount

  • Summary: The total operation resulted in a surplus of just shy of $80,000.
  • Evidence: “But in total, the number there all the way to the right, you operate in a surplus of just shy of 80,000.”
  • Source timestamp: 10:04

• Final cash reserves status

  • Summary: The final cash reserves amount is all secured and has no issues.
  • Evidence: “It’s been quite a while now that we had an issue with that, but I do like to call attention to that just so you know that 2.5, your final cash reserves is all secured and no issues there.”
  • Source timestamp: 10:47

• General Assistance Fund deficit comparison

  • Summary: The General Assistance Fund operated at a $3,568 deficit for the year, which was better than the budgeted deficit of just over a quarter of a million dollars.
  • Evidence: “If you look there at the bottom of page 29, again come up I guess three lines from the bottom, those first two columns represent the budget, and then that third column working left to right shows the deficit that I referred to, $3,568. If you look at those two columns to the left, your budget was budgeting just over a quarter of a million dollar deficit for the year.”
  • Source timestamp: 11:25

Discussion

• Significant deficiency noted in payroll area during audit

  • Summary: The audit identified a significant deficiency related to lack of segregation of duties in accounting, which is a recurring issue.
  • Attribution: Kyle Davis (Benning Group)
  • Evidence: “Had one little hiccup that we ran into with some payroll stuff, on the very last page, we have one item that we consider to be a significant deficiency. So in the world of auditing, there is kind of best practice recommendations, there’s significant deficiencies, which is kind of in the middle, it’s like, hey, look at me, pay attention to this. And then there’s material weaknesses, which is like, we need to fix this yesterday. And this significant deficiency is the same one that you’ve heard me present for the last decade. Lack of segregation of duties just there’s not enough people employed within your accounting department to satisfy the accounting standards”
  • Source timestamp: 03:07

• Potential solutions for lack of segregation of duties

  • Summary: Discussion on possible ways to address the lack of segregation of duties without hiring additional staff.
  • Attribution: governing body
  • Evidence: “I do wonder if there’s some things that simply we could have some routine functions done by someone else where it wasn’t a major part of their duty and understanding of accounting wouldn’t really be critical in doing it, but they could be doing an aspect of, I mean you talked about things like opening the mail, you know, I mean”
  • Source timestamp: 04:13

• Financial oversight and control mechanisms

  • Summary: The discussion covered strengthening financial oversight by identifying the person who records activity, reconciles it, and has authority to approve checks, noting that while these pieces could strengthen control, they might not eliminate existing issues.
  • Evidence: “And that would be the challenging part, where you could identify some of those pieces, but the likelihood of accomplishing the segregation of the person who records all the activity, the person who reconciles it, the person who has the authority to approve it and issue checks, that would be the challenge where you could definitely find pieces that would strengthen that oversight, but I don’t think with the staff, the number of people you have, you’d be able to eliminate it to an extent of where you could remove the comment.”
  • Source timestamp: 06:31

• Overall fund performance relative to budget

  • Summary: All funds operated within their budgeted expenditures for the fiscal year.
  • Evidence: “So even though you operated at a $3,500 deficit, you were still $260,000 better than what you had budgeted for the year. So I think that’s important context. It’s not just we were deficit spending here, but how are we spending compared to our budget? Obviously you were much better than what your budget had originally planned for. So, um, and all funds, so all the funds operated within your budgeted expenditures for the fiscal year.”
  • Source timestamp: 11:50

• Food insecurity and SNAP benefits impact on food pantries

  • Summary: The speaker noted that food insecurity is ongoing and may increase with changes to SNAP benefits, advising the community to monitor potential funding cuts affecting organizations like Feed America.
  • Evidence: “Now, guys, understand this. This food insecurities thing is not going to go away. As different things are introduced for SNAP benefits, we’re going to have more and more people with food insecurities. So I’m going to make sure that I’m keeping a close eye on this. I’m also going to make sure that when we get to that point, we can also introduce food into our emergency assistance thing. We’re doing good with our food pantries. I’m hoping that we can continue with that, but I have a feeling that what’s going on with SNAP benefits is going to affect food pantries in a different way because Feed America gets some of its funding from the federal government, and if they cut that funding to Feed America, that means the food pantries won’t be able to get any food from anybody, so that could be a possibility. So I’m keeping an eye on that as well.”
  • Source timestamp: 14:26

• Cost of school lunches

  • Summary: The speaker discussed the cost per lunch for children when they are out of school, noting it was ‘five something.’
  • Evidence: “Somebody told me the other day how much it cost per lunch for them to pay. So. And it’s five something. Yeah.”
  • Source timestamp: 15:37

• General neighborhood awareness and reporting

  • Summary: The speaker urged attendees to share any information heard about happenings in their neighborhoods, not limited only to food security.
  • Evidence: “And if there’s anything else that you guys hear about, it may not have to be about food and security as if anything is happening in our neighborhoods you’re hearing about. Let me know. We need to, we need to make sure we are, we are, we are, we are being cognizant of whatever’s going on in our city.”
  • Source timestamp: 15:54

• Appraisal cost for commercial property

  • Summary: The estimated cost for a full appraisal on the commercial strip mall was stated to be around $3,200 to $3,500.
  • Evidence: “So is there an average cost associated? I mean like when you do an appraisal and you split it with the county? So this one is, I believe the estimate was right around $3,200, $3,500 for a commercial.”
  • Source timestamp: 19:09

• Status of strip mall occupancy

  • Summary: The speaker corrected the understanding that the strip mall was partially empty, stating it is fully occupied by Cellular and Sherwin-Williams, and Joanne’s is separate.
  • Evidence: “Well they aren’t empty. Oh, they’re not. And Joanne’s is not part of it. They are fully, yeah. So, that strip mall is fully occupied. Okay. Good. I stand corrected.”
  • Source timestamp: 20:30

• Food Pantry need during school breaks

  • Summary: The speaker noted the dire need for food assistance when children are out of school, as community support must cover meals usually provided by schools.
  • Evidence: “We’ve only been out of school for two weeks and usually when kids are out of school they are in dire need We have more assistance than when they are in school. We obviously feed them breakfast and lunch during the school day, and when that is not happening on a regular basis, that then is falling on the community to take notice and to provide for them.”
  • Source timestamp: 20:55

Follow-ups

• Food insecurity monitoring and assistance integration
  • Summary: The supervisor committed to keeping a close eye on food insecurities as SNAP benefits change, and planning to introduce food into emergency assistance.
  • Evidence: “Now, guys, understand this. This food insecurities thing is not going to go away. As different things are introduced for SNAP benefits, we’re going to have more and more people with food insecurities. So I’m going to make sure that I’m keeping a close eye on this. I’m also going to make sure that when we get to that point, we can also introduce food into our emergency assistance thing.”
  • Source timestamp: 14:26