An Open Letter to Fiscal Officer Walder

Fiscal Officer Walder,

As you prepare to leave your role as Russell Township Fiscal Officer, I am asking for one final act of public service: please reconcile the financial events surrounding last year’s police levy and this year’s carryover, in public, at a Board of Trustees meeting.

That is it. That is my ask.

For months, I have asked questions by email and in open meetings about the township’s financial position, the police levy forecast, the 2025 year-end carryover, the 2026 Certificate of Estimated Resources changes in late March, and the need to revisit appropriations and transfers. To date, I have not received a clear reconciliation from you that explains these events in a way the Board and residents can understand.

Now, apparently, the county email service prevents me from emailing the Fiscal Officer of the township I serve as Trustee. That is absurd. I suppose I earned it by asking too many tough questions about the money. But the uncomfortable truth is that these questions have not gone away simply because the email pathway got harder.

The issue is straightforward. In 2025, residents were told that the Police Department needed a continuing 2.5-mill levy to address projected operating needs and reserve concerns. Later township financial records showed a stronger Police Fund position than the public forecast created by your office. That does not automatically mean anyone acted improperly. It does mean the numbers deserve to be reconciled clearly, publicly, and on the record.

Residents and our township department heads are asking the same question I am: How did we get from the police levy projections for 2025 to the actual carryover and fund balances shown in 2026? What changed? What assumptions were used? What funds were moved, reserved, transferred, encumbered, or reclassified? What did the Board know, when did it know it, and what was shared with the Budget Commission and residents?

This is not about attacking the Police Department. I strongly support our Police Department, and as I communicated to you, I will oppose any efforts to defund it. It is not about opposing either Road or Fire funding. I support those departments too. This is about whether the Board and residents were given a complete, understandable financial picture before major decisions were made.

I have also read your email stating you do not intend to attend future Trustee meetings. That is deeply disappointing, because it removes the most direct opportunity for the Board and the public to hear the reconciliation from the elected official responsible for the township’s books. I have to ask the obvious question residents are already asking me: why won’t these questions be answered in public?

The residents I speak with are not asking for political theater. They are asking for transparency. Many are also asking for a limited-scope transition audit so the next Fiscal Officer begins with confidence rather than confusion.

So again, my request is simple: as your parting act as Fiscal Officer, please reconcile the police levy issues from last year and the carryover questions from this year at a public Board of Trustees meeting.

Russell residents deserve clear answers.

Respectfully,

Amy Heutmaker

Russell Township Trustee