‘Banker Box Gate’ Stirs Controversy in Shelby Township’s FOIA Procedures [VIDEO]

A change up in Shelby Township’s Freedom of Information Act procedure has sparked a heated political debate among the Board of Trustees and is now being dubbed “banker box gate."

After allegations of imporpriety arose about Clerk Terri Kowal'a handling of documents in a resident's FOIA request in August, the board unanimously voted at an Oct. 4 meeting to transfer FOIA duties to the Human Resource Department.

However, at Tuesday night’s board meeting, Trustee Lisa Manzella asked the board to reconsider their vote and return the duties to the clerk’s department based on several factors: the HR department is too understaffed to handle the new duties; the duties now fall under Supervisor Rick Stathakis’ umbrella and he could now possibly view the documents before they are released to the person who filed for the FOIA; and the clerk did a good job for the past two decades.

“I made this motion because at the last meeting I voted in favor of turning FOIA over to HR,” Manzella said. “After investigation and careful consideration, I believe the responsibility should remain with the clerk’s office.”

Kowal, who has taught a FOIA procedures class for 15 years as part of her duties with the Michigan Association of Municipal Clerks and for the Michigan Townships Association, said most municipalities allow the clerk to file FOIA requests because they are already in charge of township documents.

“Honestly, I am perfectly happy having FOIA be somewhere else, but I thought we would do some training … and the HR director never did a FOIA in her life. She has no questions for me; she is just working with the attorney who is billing us,” Kowal told Patch.

The motion to reverse the previous decision did not pass, with only Manzella and Kowal voting in favor of reversing the decision, ultimately leaving the FOIA duties in the HR Director’s hands. 

Manzella told Patch she was fairly certain the motion wouldn’t pass but she wanted to get it out into the open before it was too late to vote on it.

“Hopefully, when the next board is seated they’ll realize its not an efficient system and change it back,” said Manzella.

Allegations of Breaking and Entering, Lying and Politicking Arise

In Manzella’s motion to reconsider the vote, she also asked the board to support her in asking for a state police investigation into the alleged tampering of FOIA documents.

The incident she’s referring to dates back to August 2011 when a resident requested a FOIA to review Treasurer Paul Viar’s emails.

Kowal said that when Viar handed over the emails she had requested from him to fulfill the FOIA, she filed the documents in a locked banker box along with other FOIA requests.

Viar and Kowal agreed at Tuesday’s Board meeting that the FOIA’d emails included a conversation between Trustee Paula Filar and Viar. Kowal said the email chain between Filar and Viar talked about the two trustees conspiring to get Stanley Grot, who is a current employee of Attorney General Bill Schuette, to run against Kowal in the next election.

Viar and Filar said publicly at the board meeting that Kowal saw the conversation about her in the emails while filing the FOIA request and later confronted Viar. 

“Mrs. Kowal took information she was able to obtain through FOIA duties … and to her own admission she made a copy of the email and brought up the email exchange and used it against Mr. Viar," said Filar. “I voted the way I did because I feel Mrs. Kowal abused her authority as FOIA coordinator.”

“I didn’t give it to her (Filar). I didn’t show it to anybody else. I didn’t give it to anyone else. They brought it up at the board meeting. Where did I break the confidentiality?” said Kowal.

After Kowal’s meeting with Viar, she said tried to locate the FOIA’d emails in the locked banker box and found that some of the emails had been tampered and information had been redacted.

Kowal told Patch she took the paperwork downstairs to the police department and orally filed a police report with then Police Chief Robert Leman and Captain Steve Stanbury.

Filar accused Kowal of lying about filing a police report because when she asked acting Chief Roland Woelkers if a police report existed, he said none was filed.

“We talked about doing a written report, but a lot of reporters come and get reports so I didn’t want to make it another black eye for the township,” said Kowal.

“Obviously Mrs. Kowal is not telling the truth about the police report and there has been misinformation about whole email incident,” said Viar.

Viar and Filar both denied going into the banker box containing the FOIA documents.

“I did not break into any office like Mrs. Kowal and Mrs. Manzella have implied to tamper with any emails,” said Viar. “I am beginning to believe you have to wonder what can you believe from these two people,” added Viar.

Supervisor Rick Stathakis said he voted in favor of the Human Resource department taking over FOIA requests so that an independent person, not a politician would handle the sensitive information. 

"Clearly we’re having a politically charged debate and we did a good job of putting it out of the hands of a politician," said Trustee Michael Flynn.