AugustaTownshipHall

Augusta Township Hall was raided in October 2014 by Michigan State Police after township officials requested the organization's help investigating potential financial crimes.

(Tom Perkins | File photo)

It's been been an interesting few years since Augusta Township's last elections in 2012.

According to the 2010 census, the township in Washtenaw County has fewer than 7,000 residents, but the Michigan State Police says at least $80,000 is missing from its bank accounts.

A joint investigation by the Michigan Attorney General's office and the Michigan State Police found there was approximately $80,000 that went missing from the county's books. Deputy treasurer Brendan Humeniak, 21, faces two charges of embezzlement as a public official in relation to about $10,000, but where the remaining $70,000 went remains a mystery.

"Due to a complete and total lack of accountability, performance of duties, and inter office cooperation, along with incompetence, I am afraid to say these funds cannot be accounted for in my investigation," Michigan State Police Detective Sgt. Melissa Gee-Cram wrote in an email to the board July 28.

"As you are all aware, the ledgers were not balanced, and the method in which the theft was occurring, created a perfect storm that made it extremely difficult for the accountants who have combed through the records to pin point the exact missing funds."

The email that was sent was marked confidential and noted that the charges against Humeniak would likely be pressed before September. Humeniak was arraigned Oct. 29 and his case has been bound over to Washtenaw County Circuit Court. His next scheduled appearance in court is before Judge David Swartz in downtown Ann Arbor Jan. 4.

"I anticipate this matter will be settled short of a trial," Humeniak's lawyer Michael Vincent said.

"What I think is really interesting here is that the township somehow put a then-19-year-old in charge of substantial funds. Something that probably would require at least an expertise in bookkeeping at minimum."

Fox 2 Detroit obtained the confidential email in early September and conducted interviews with Trustee Ira Todd and supervisor Pete Hafler.

Trustee Cath Howard alleges Todd leaked the email to Fox 2, an allegation he strongly denies, saying he only agreed to speak about the email when he was approached by the news organization. Todd did read the email aloud at an Augusta Township board meeting Oct. 27, two days before Humeniak's arraignment.

Tensions on the township board long predate a confidential email or the charges issued against Humeniak. Todd said shortly after he was elected he began to receive calls to investigate potentially missing money at the township.

Some were pointing fingers at Clerk Kathy Giszczak, who has faced multiple recall attempts and a criminal case alleging she eavesdropped on a conversation between Hafler and a township employee was dismissed in Washtenaw County Circuit Court in 2012. The campaigns against Giszczak have primarily been led by C.J. McDonald, who engaged in a number of stunts designed to harass the clerk including applying fish fertilizer to his body before attending a four-hour meeting.

Todd, who serves on the township's audit committee, said his requests for a forensic audit were met with resistance from township board members. Howard disagreed, saying the board was ready to vote for the audit but Todd repeatedly withdrew the resolution.

An audit was performed in November 2013, that showed mismanagement and a lack of clear bookkeeping. Howard developed the township's corrective action plan that called for--among other things--a forensic audit. The plan was passed unanimously by the board in February 2014, but a number of trustees say it was never properly put into action.

On April 12, 2014 Ira Todd informed the board that treasurer Lynda Dew had found a number of checks in the car of the deputy treasurer. Dew was also elected to the board for the first time in November 2012 and raised eyebrows by appointing Humeniak--her 19-year-old grandson--to that position.

Brendan Humeniak, 21, has been arraigned on three counts of embezzlement by a public servant.

Dew filed a police report April 13 saying she found 46 checks in Humeniak's car that should have been deposited into township accounts by Sept. 25, 2013. Howard said that later in April more than 100 Augusta Township residents reported receiving delinquent tax notices from Washetnaw County despite having receipts proving the payment of their taxes.

Shortly thereafter, Howard and two other trustees sent a letter to the Michigan Department of Treasury and the Attorney General's Office of Public Integrity requesting a review of the township's finances. Officials from the Department of Treasury investigated at the Township Hall in late June 2014 and have yet to offer a report of their findings to the Augusta Township Board.

Todd, an investigator with the Detroit Police Department, said he personally interviewed Humeniak before officially taking his accusations to the Michigan State Police in September 2014.

"I interviewed him as an audit committee member," Todd said.

"I interviewed him alone so that he'd be more comfortable but I video-taped the whole interview. We sat one-on-one and just talked. He admitted he had taken some of the money and actually admitted he told his grandmother about it."

Todd said he has turned the video over to law enforcement authorities but said he would not share the tape with anyone else.

After interviewing Humeniak, Todd contacted the Michigan State Police, which executed a search warrant at the Augusta Township Hall in October 2014. The affidavit for the search warrant shows Todd told police he worked with an accountant to determine that approximately $6,000 was still missing after the checks were deposited.

In a separate matter, the township board voted over the clerk's objections to lower the salary of the deputy clerk to minimum wage. In the affidavit, Todd alleges that Giszczak continued to pay the clerk her former salary after it was lowered by the board. The MSP and Attorney General's office declined to press charges against the clerk.

Todd said work by an accountant who did contract work for the township showed that between $800,000 and $1.2 million of the township's money remains missing and unaccounted for.

Howard said it's impossible to tell how much money could be missing and she is unaware of where those numbers are coming from.

"Who knows what holes we have in our budget because we haven't had a real fiscal budget in years," she said.

"The supervisor refuses to give us a reasonable budget and won't take any help or advice. I don't know if we have another $800,000 missing or not, but as far as I'm aware we don't."

In an email to the board sent Nov. 7, Todd recommended filing claims against the township clerk, treasurer, deputy treasurer and a former treasurer in an attempt to recoup some of missing funds as well as court and accounting costs the township has incurred.

Both Howard and Todd said they have been the subject of threats throughout the past two years. Todd said an "Augusta Town Hall" Facebook group Howard is active in is a hate group intended to intimidate him. Todd and Giszczak have both sent abrasive emails over the past two years, sometimes with threats of legal action against each other and other board members.

Treasurer Lynda Dew declined to comment for the story, saying she would release a statement once legal matters have been settled. Township Supervisor Pete Hafler has been out of the office for more than five weeks on medical leave. Acting supervisor Iva Bielec said there is no timetable for his return.

Ben Freed is a general assignments reporter for The Ann Arbor News. Email him at benfreed@mlive.com and follow him on twitter at @BFreedinA2. He also answers the phone at 734-623-2528.