As the Chair of the Planning Commission, Lyle has abused his power. Abuse of power is misconduct while in office, and in my opinion is grounds for removal from all offices and positions of responsibility held.
The following list of Lyle's abuses should help John Scherrer figure out what the written charges should look like. He was at a loss when I was in his office the other day. This should be an agenda item at next week's Board of Trustees meeting as a first step in the process to remove Lyle from all boards. (John, the Board of Trustees needs to have charges written out and schedule a public hearing. I have given you plenty to work with.)
1. As the Chair of the Planning Commission, Lyle and the Planning Commission did not follow [proper procedure as prescribed in] the Hayes Township Zoning Ordinance in considering the paperwork that Doug Longenecker provided. (Dreyer Letter, dated 12 Mar 2010, Page 2).
2. Lyle chaired the Special Meeting of the Planning Commission in which the Planning Commission passed a resolution which did not meet the requirements of the Hayes Township Zoning Ordinance, and was therefore an invalid resolution. (Dreyer Letter, dated 12 March 2010, Page 2).
3. These missteps by the Planning Commission under Lyle's Chairmanship caused the Hayes Township Attorney to get involved and advise the Board of Trustees to require the Planning Commission to revisit the entire issue. (Dreyer Letter dated 12 Mar 2010, Page 2).
4. Lyle and the Planning Commission considered a deficient site plan at the Special Meeting on 21 Oct 2009. Any lay person could have seen that the site plan was deficient upon looking at it. Unless Lyle didn't bother to look at it, he had to notice it.
5. Lyle and the Planning Commission considered an incomplete Application for Special Use at the Special Meeting on 21 Oct 2009. I have seen the original application. Anyone looking at it could tell it was incomplete. Surely Lyle knew it was incomplete the minute he saw it.
6. Lyle and the Planing Commission failed to ensure that the neighbors adjacent to the Gamble property were notified of Doug Longenecker's application for Special Use; one of many mistakes, not "the only mistake" as Lyle maintains.
7. Lyle and the Planning Commission did not schedule a public hearing to hear public discussion on the matter.
8. A less publicized action that occured at the same Planning Commission Special Meeting on 21 Oct 2009, which Lyle chaired was, Lyle and the Planning Commission changed the Zoning Ordinance without process. "Supervisor Scherrer brought attention to an ongoing problem with Chickens in residential neighborhoods. Roosters are crowing and crowing. He suggests no more than 4 chickens, but NO roosters allowed in residential area. Scherrer is to have a notice published in the paper regarding to the changes in the zoning to disallow Roosters on a small plot of land. Notice is to be set 1st or 2nd week of December. Motion by M/Atkinson, 2nd by Dancer, members in agreement publishing this zoning change. M/C."
9. Inasmuch as Lyle had a hand in writing the Hayes Township Zoning Ordinance and has been on the Planning Commission since 1988, he has no excuse for not following the Ordinance. He is very familiar with the ordinance. Lyle knowingly set aside the Ordinance to serve an agenda.
10. All of Lyle's public statements seem to imply that the Hayes Township Master Plan trumps the Zoning Ordinance. Lyle fails to grasp that the Master Plan is the guideline, the foundation upon which the Zoning Ordinance is laid, and the Zoning Ordinance carries the weight of the law, and is the law. It is unacceptable that someone who has helped to write both documents fails to understand the relationship between the two documents. It is also unacceptable that someone who wields as much power and influence as Lyle does in his fifteen year tenure as both the Chair of the Planning Commission and until recently the Chair of the Zoning Board of Appeals fails to grasp this.
11. As the Chairman of the Planning Commission, at the public hearing on 12 May 2010, Lyle suppressed the free speech of my family when he refused to read our letters, which all touched on different aspects of the situation related to Doug Longenecker's Special Use Application. Research and time went into those letters. Every other letter received by the Township was read, but those. Contrary to his assurance that those letters would be "read into the record" that did not happen. There was no record to read them into. The minutes from that meeting were a joke, (handwritten and incomplete), especially when Lyle and Mr. Dreyer went to great lengths and a big deal to introduce a supposed court recorder who had been hired to take those minutes. There is no record of anything. This was an abuse of power.
12. Lyle and the Planning Commission cherry picked certain clauses in both the Hayes Township Master Plan and the Hayes Township Zoning Ordinance, pulling them out of context in order to justify and support the outcome they wanted, and failed to consider the Master Plan and Zoning Ordinance as a whole in considering Doug Longenecker's Application for Special Use and Site Plan. Lyle himself has maintained that like Bible verses, you cannot pull things out of context, yet that is just what Lyle and the Planning Commission did to justify the approval of the Special Use and Site Plan. He found the one point that supports the decision while ignoring the many other points that do not support the decision.
13. Lyle stated in the minutes of the Special meeting of the Hayes Township Planning Commission on 17 May 2010 that "there was no illegal meeting in October, it was a regularly scheduled meeting date and was posted in the Clare County Cleaver as always." The meeting on 21 October 2009 was a Special Meeting according to the minutes of the meeting. I sat in the public library for several days poring over 3 years' worth of Clare County Cleaver newspaper archives and the only Planning Commission meetings that have been published in the Cleaver are the ones that have taken place this year since the Moto Mania issue came to light. No regular meetings have been announced in the Cleaver in the last 3 years. That particular meeting was not announced. "As always," if the general public wants to know when the Planning Commission meets, they have to call the Township offices to find out because notice is not published in the Cleaver, or on the Hayes Township website.
14. While Lyle maintains that "we did not change the zoning" on Mostetler Road, he is right. The process was not for a zoning change, but the effect of the resolution is the same as if they had changed the Zoning. After 22 years of experience, Lyle knows well how to effectively change the zoning without changing the zoning. He helped write the law, he knows how to get around the law.
Lyle's missteps as the Chair of the Planning Commission amount to incompetence, neglect, malfeasance abuse of power, hubris and misconduct while in office.
Lyle and the Planning Commission by their actions are the architects of the acrimony and ill will around Harrison.
Lyle and the Planning Commission have failed to protect the interests and property values of a whole group of taxpaying landowners who have invested years' worth of time, energy and life savings in their property. They are already taxed without representation, and pay more in taxes than year round residents. This abuse makes it worse.
Lyle's missteps as the Chair of the Planning Commission have already cost Hayes Township tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees to all sides of the Moto Mania Issue. Before this is over it will cost thousands more. How much more of Lyle's leadership can Hayes Township afford?
Lyle Criscuolo is more of a liability than an asset to Hayes Township. The Board of trustees should ask for his resignation or take the necessary steps to remove him from both the Planning Commission and the Zoning Board of Appeals.
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