Hamlin Crisis on 9-11

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Most locals lived or relived through two tragedies in as many days last week, with the political assassination of Charlie Kirk last Wednesday, and the 24th anniversary of 9-11 on Thursday.  But some locals eye witnessed a third tragedy on Thursday, if they were one of the approximately three dozen people who attended the September 2025 monthly meeting of the Hamlin Township Board

Left to right:  Trustee Johnaine Gurzynski, Treasurer Susan Ptaszenski, Supervisor Marta Greenslait, Clerk Sheila Genter, and Trustee Chris Cook

Fortunately, the only death in this ongoing tragedy just happens to be order and civil discourse.  The bad news is that the five member Hamlin Board of Trustees is in the midst of an uncivil civil war amongst themselves, the good news is that the faction that represents more transparency, more accountability, and more civil discourse has an edge of 3-2, which just happens to be the vote for most action items. 

That means the even better news is that the township is poised to move in the right direction if this continues, despite the strife on public display and the incivility of those in the minority.  This is not the outfighting we saw at the PM Township Board that led to the recall of its supervisor and treasurer back in 2022 after efforts were made by citizens and township officials, but mostly infighting within the board over how to address the issues facing Hamlin Township, where some of the worst of these originated from official actions of a board with a different supervisor and philosophy.  

The meeting which would last for over 2.5 hours would start off very innocently and expediently with zero participants during the initial comment period meant for agenda items, and the absence of a report by Sheriff Cole due to his own unexcused absence; running for state office is apparently more important than showing up for a town hall meeting.  

The fireworks began in earnest during the financial review portion of the agenda, where the supervisor truly brought the receipts and called out the treasurer for not having her books balanced.  The treasurer's defense was to trivialize the issue, but it actually spotlighted what little regard she had for sharing her records with the public, a point she would enforce later on. 

The supervisor's attention to detail led her also to question the authorization of Trustee Gurzynski's township-paid attendance at other meetings over the course of the prior year, totaling $6500 in payments to her over and above her salary (during the term of the prior supervisor, Nancy VanderVest).  This seems abnormally large when one considers that she was asking for remuneration for not only Planning Commission meetings (which she is the board's representative for), but for other meetings outside the township's environs.  The payment was not disputed, but Gurzynski would defend herself by claiming her attendance at other meetings was to benefit the township.  Yet she couldn't relate one of those benefits when asked.

One of the reports that would be issued after this would be Ludington City Councilor Kathy Winczewski effectively representing the city and while she would give a report on all of the good stuff happening in the city, with some modicum of lecturing on how Hamlin could do better if they were more like Ludington, she wouldn't get into full sermon mode until the next comment period after a few more rounds of fighting were over.  

Third District County Commissioner gave a report on county actions, followed by a variety of township officials giving reports on their department's past, present, and future.  Then came seven items of unfinished business and five of new business, where the battle lines were clearly drawn.

One could tell after the prior dustups over financial matters that Treasurer Ptaszenski and Trustee Gurzynski were on one side of the issues (the "Ski team") and that they were effectively defending unbalanced books, non-transparency, and getting more than their wages from the township.  And that Supervisor Greenslait and Clerk Genter represented the other side of those issues, but we were as yet uncertain as to which side the deciding vote would be on controversial issues, because Trustee Cook had effectively stood to the side while the women on the board quibbled.   

The first item appeared to be motivated by the supervisor, amending the "Document Retention" policy so as to follow state law (MCL 328.193175(d)(9)), and likely also to codify township policy that probably hasn't had a lawful policy on their books.  This was approved without much effort.

The next item didn't, which concerned compensation for trustees attending other meetings.  The Ski Team would argue that it was an incentive needed to encourage trustees to go to more public meetings and so the board could know what's going on elsewhere.  Other than Gurzynski's reports on the Planning Commission at meetings, it was noted that she has not brought what has happened at those other meetings to the board's attention.  It passed without the Ski Team's support.

The next action was to approve additional funding for a noise study needed by attorneys for their legal action involving the Stix Restaurant.  The Ski Team were against spending more money on this, showing a bit of apathy towards their constituents who have been negatively affected by the amplified outdoor concerts held at Stix.  

After approving a fire alarm system, the topic went back to balancing (property tax bank) accounts and again we had the supervisor asking the treasurer for more transparency and accountability, the latter not providing all of the relevant records to the former or fuzzy copies that were very hard to read.  The treasurer is quite invested with not keeping up with technology for some reason that seems suspicious to an outsider.

An ordinance for short term rentals was tabled for later consideration, keeping the number of such rentals at 80 for the township (with 4 current openings).  The status of their financial audit evoked more discussion on record keeping, with the treasurer stating quite clearly that the records she had were hers, not the supervisor's or the public's. 

Treasurer Susan Ptaszenski is not serious about holding true to her oath of office; those records she touches and keeps away from us and the supervisor belong to the people.  She doesn't want to work within the rules set out for her by law and by her supervisor.  It explains why she (and Trustee Gurzynski) frequently were gaveled to order for their talking out of turn and interrupting the proceedings and why they would keep prattling on even afterwards, as if they also had no allegiance to Robert's Rule of Order.

In order to conserve some of the township's money reserves, they tables the purchase of a new copier amidst the protestations of the Ski Team, and then they went to the two most controversial points of the meeting, before doing routine actions of moving January 2026's meeting up a week and updating an application form.  

The first was to remove Trustee Gurzynski from the Planning Commission and replace her with Trustee Cook.  Cook, who showed himself not to be part of the Ski Team by his votes up to that point, defended his honor when the inevitable Ski Team attacks came.  In the end, another 3-2 vote confirmed him to the role and vexed the Ski Team greatly.

The second was to adopt a Motion of Censure for the conduct of Trustee Gurzynski for her words at the last meeting that led to a woman leaving the meeting in tears.  The motion rested on Gurzynski's alleged unprofessional conduct for challenging the future bride of Attorney Blake Reimer (who sent correspondence to the township about the trustee's conduct) requesting a 'variance' on the township's noise ordinance for the night of her wedding reception at Reimer's residence.  This is what led to the change in the form noted before, changing the term "applicant" to applicant/property owner". 

The Ski Team would ineffectually defend the actions to no avail.  They would also counter the supervisor's hiring of a new office manager, a power that she has, without consultation by the board, an unnecessary step according to township policies.  The former office manager's resignation letter was read to the board by Gurzynski, as if she thought it was negative towards the supervisor.  It wasn't; it seemed more targeted towards the ongoing conflicts between the forces of good (accountability, transparency, integrity, and efficiency) and the forces of evil, and the likelihood that the latter, the Ski Team, is not self-aware enough to recognize their role.  

Four audience members removed themselves from the meeting during the squabbling, indicating rather loudly that they had never seen such turmoil at any public meeting.  The Ludington Torch stayed put, for we saw a board in a positive state of transition, with rocky remnants of a failed board that let the township down in many ways.  Two of four citizens would criticize the Ski Team, two would support them, but it would be unclear why.

Councilor Winczewski would finish up by making a comment where she would acknowledge that today was tough.  She encouraged them pedantically to try to be respectful to each other and respectful in their words.  Unfortunately, in the city that she represents that very philosophy has led to a current status where the forces of evil as it pertains to governance has taken hold.  If Supervisor Greenslait, Clerk Genter, and Trustee Cook remain true to their ideals and their oaths, they will prevail, and the Township of Hamlin will recover much as PM Charter Township did back in 2023 to the present.  The transition isn't always easy and rarely without battles being fought.