Catawba Island Township Board of Township Trustees
Meeting Minutes
January 13, 2026
The regular business meeting of the Catawba Island Board of Township Trustees was called to order by Fiscal Officer Shelly Garcia on Tuesday, January 13, at 9:00 a.m. in the conference room of the administration building.
Shelly Garcia advised the audience that she will be running the meeting at first as there currently is no Chairman due to the open seat left with the retirement of Bill Rofkar. She stated they will be starting off with the reorganizational meeting first and then the regular trustee meeting to follow. Shelly Garcia welcomed the two newly elected trustees Quintin Smith and Chris Cellier.
In attendance were: Diane Belden, Quintin Smith, Chris Cellier, Shelly Garcia, John Gangway, Kevin Johnson, Dorthy Baker, William Baker, Mary Jane Porozynski, Ann Rumfp, Lisa Murphy, Barb Osterling, Kim Mulholland, Marty Auxter, William Moore, Brian Caldwell, Eric Schramm, Robert Garcia, Bart Erwin, Rod Ashcraft, Julia Robinson, Greg Strayer, David Belden, Jack Madison, Elliott Bassett, Dan Barlow, Scott Hines, Emily Cellier, Randy Riedmaier, and Kevin Gibbons.
The Pledge of Allegiance was recited by all.
Reorganization for 2026
Fiscal Officer Shelly Garcia asked for nominations for Board Chairman for 2026.
Chris Cellier made a motion to appoint Diane Belden Chairman for the calendar year 2026. Quintin Smith seconded the motion. All voted aye. Motion carried.
Shelly Garcia declared Diane Belden Chairman for 2026 and turned the meeting over to her.
Diane Belden asked for nominations for Vice Chairman for 2026.
Quintin Smith made a motion to appoint Chris Cellier as Vice Chairman for the calendar year 2026. Diane Belden seconded the motion. All voted aye. Motion carried.
Diane Belden asked about meeting dates and times. She stated that she would like to continue with the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month, but changing the time of the fourth Tuesday to 6:00 p.m. Chris Cellier stated that he is ok with this approach for now, but would like to see how things go and even though we are setting the schedule for the year, that doesn’t mean it can’t be changed. So, for now, the meeting dates and times will be the second Tuesday of the month at 9:00 a.m, and the fourth Tuesday of the month at 6:00 p.m. All trustees agreed.
Trustees agreed oversite of township departments will be: Chris Cellier, Zoning; Quintin Smith, Police, Fire & EMS; and Diane Belden, Road, Cemetery and Buildings.
Diane Belden asked Chris Cellier to serve on the Regional Planning Board with Quintin Smith serving as alternate. All trustees agreed.
Diane Belden made a motion to have herself serve as the representative for the Health Department and Quintin Smith as alternate. Chris Cellier seconded the motion. All voted aye. Motion carried.
Prior to continuing with the reorganizational meeting, Chairman Belden asked to go into executive session for the purpose of discussing personal matters, namely the appointment, dismissal, discipline, promotion, demotion or compensation of a public employee. Diane Belden made a motion to go into executive session. Quintin Smith seconded the motion. A roll call vote was conducted by Fiscal Officer Shelly Garcia:
Diane Belden- aye
Chris Celler- aye
Quintin Smith- aye
All voted aye. Motion to move into executive session was carried.
Upon completion of the executive session, Chris Cellier made a motion to come out of executive session. Quintin Smith seconded the motion. Shelly Garcia completed the roll call vote.
Diane Belden- aye
Chris Cellier- aye
Quintin Smith- aye
All voted aye. Motion to come out of executive session carried.
Chris Cellier made a motion to approve a 3.5% wage increase for all employees (excluding probationary employees). This includes maintenance, police, administration, seasonal and Fire Chief Gibbons. The motion also included an increase to the casual labor rate from $20/hour to $22/hour. Quintin Smith seconded the motion. All voted aye. Motion carried.
The trustees all agreed to retain former zoning inspector Todd Bickley in a consulting role on an as needed basis at his current rate of pay.
Diane Belden then turned over the meeting to Chris Cellier for the appointment of the Zoning Commission and Board of Zoning Appeals for members whose terms are ending.
Chris Cellier made a motion to table the consideration of reappointments and vacancies of the zoning boards. Quintin Smith seconded the motion. Chris then spoke on this issue stating that zoning is a very important issue and the community has spoke out about wanting transparency in these processes. He feels opening up zoning related positions to the community when they become available will help in this process. He stated we currently have applications available for those wishing to apply for a position on the zoning boards. He stated there are vacancies on both boards. He stated that those members who terms are expiring are still considered as members of the boards until a decision by the trustees is made. He is hoping to have this completed in February.
All voted aye. Motion to table the appointment of the Board of Zoning Appeals & Zoning Commission to a later date was carried.
The trustees all agreed to continue paying members of the Zoning Commission and the Board of Zoning Appeals a mileage/meeting allowance of $50 per meeting.
Fiscal Officer, Shelly Garcia wanted to add clarification regarding the wage increase that was just approved. She stated that the employee pay increase would take effect the start of the next full pay period ending 1/25/26 with a pay date of 1/30/26. All trustees agreed.
Quintin Smith spoke about the Catawba Island Township Zoning Land Use Plan which remains in full force and effect through March 24, 2026. He stated that it does not allow much time to study this and we cannot allow it to lapse. He stated more time is needed to gather information.
Quintin Smith made a motion to extend it until June 30, 2026. Chris Cellier seconded the motion. All voted aye. Motion carried.
Diane Belden made a motion to reappoint Jack Madison, Brad Schwan, Brian Washburn, Vicki Wheatley and David Howell to the Parks Board for a one-year term through 2026. Quintin Smith seconded the motion. All voted aye. Motion carried.
With the retirement of William Rofkar, a new trustee must be appointed to serve as trustee representative on the CIT Vol. Firefighter Dependent Fund Board for 2026 along with Diane Belden.
Diane Belden made a motion to nominate Quintin Smith to serve on this board with her. Chris Cellier seconded the motion. All voted aye. Motion carried.
Trustees agreed to keep the current zoning fees and community hall rental fees the same for 2026. However, they all agreed to add a $100 (weekend only) burial fee for the columbarium niches, there currently is no fee for this service. This will cover the cost of having the maintenance dept. coming in on the weekend and paying them overtime.
Quintin Smith made a motion to provide health care coverage for all eligible township employees and elected officials in 2026. Chris Cellier seconded the motion. All voted aye. Motion carried.
Trustees agreed to keep the current police uniform annual allowance at $650 for full-time officers and $250 for part-time officers.
Trustees agreed to follow the IRS mileage reimbursement rate (72.5 cents/mile) for 2026.
This concludes the Reorganizational Meeting for 2026
This begins the regular business meeting of the CIT Board of Trustees.
Diane Belden made a motion to approve the December 23, 2025, Board of Trustees regular meeting minutes as presented. Quintin Smith seconded the motion. All voted aye. Motion carried.
Quintin Smith made a motion to approve and pay the bills, including payroll, in the amount of $150,199.84. This includes payment to the City of Port Clinton of $42,187.50 for 4th quarter EMS services, and also the CITVFD payroll. Chris Cellier seconded the motion. All voted aye. Motion carried.
Correspondence
A letter from Bill Riat was received regarding the possibility of adding a plan review requirement to the current zoning permit process to preserve property values and quality of new development.
Zoning Inspector Vicki Wheatley submitted a letter to the trustees that she asked to be read into the official record. She notified the trustees of an incident regarding resident Lisa Murphy who came into the township zoning office and used profanity, made threatening statements and who’s conduct was aggressive, intimidating and inappropriate. She also stated that the same resident at the December 23, 2025 trustee meeting gave false information regarding testimony that she gave at the December 12, 2025 court hearing for the DeGraff farm. Vicki provided the transcript of the December 12, 2025 court hearing. Vicki stated that these misrepresentations publicly impugn her credibility and mischaracterize her record. She requests that this letter serve to both formally document both the threatening conduct at the zoning office and false statements made by Lisa Murphy.
Fiscal
Fiscal Officer Shelly Garcia provided the December 2025 financial reports and bank reconciliations. There were no questions or concerns.
Shelly Garcia requested the trustees allow the Fiscal Officer to create Blanket Certificates in 2026 not to exceed $20,000 at any one time assuming adequate appropriation amounts are available.
Quintin Smith asked for clarification as to what a Blanket Certificate is. Shelly Garcia gave a brief explanation of Blanket Certificates and Regular Purchase Orders, and how each works.
All trustee agreed to the Fiscal Officers request to create Blanket Certificates not to exceed $20,000.00.
Shelly Garcia gave the 2025 Cemetery Report. There were a total of 63 burials and 25 deeds written. There were 46 graves and 4 columbarium niches sold for a total of $36,950.00.
Diane Belden stated that she had something that she would like to address. She stated that a mistake was made at the end of last year that needed to be addressed at this meeting. She stated that trustee Montowski notified the maintenance staff on December 23, 2025 that December 24th & 26th were now federal holidays, and that the maintenance dept. can take these dates off with pay. She stated that this was done without consulting the other trustees and without notifying the other township departments that they too could take the days off. As a result, the maintenance dept. employees took these two days off as they were instructed (incorrectly) and were paid for them.
Diane Belden stated that she consulted with James VanEerten, Ottawa Co. Prosecutor, and he gave three scenarios in which the township could use to correct this issue.
-Completely overlook the matter
-Retroactively approve the time off and give two additional days off to the Police Dept.
-Have the maintenance employees make up the time off (a total of 16 hours to each make up, and track)
The Fiscal Officer stated that in order to be fair to all departments and prevent a possible audit citation, option #2 would be the best given all the pros and cons of each. The trustees agreed, and a brief discussion with Police Chief Gangway took place. He stated that the two additional days given to his officers will be taken at his discretion to allow for coverage and such.
Diane Belden made a motion to give the Police Department two additional days off to be used at the discretion of Chief Gangway to make up for the incorrect issuing of “holiday” time off with pay on December 24th & 26th that was afforded to the maintenance department. Quintin Smith seconded the motion. All voted aye. Motion carried.
Maintenance
Kevin Johnson stated that he will be getting bids soon for the compost area grinding.
He stated that Christmas tree pick up continues.
Diane Belden stated that she contacted Republic Services and has tentative dates for the clean up days for April and September.
Police
Chief Gangway stated that on behalf of his officers he would like to thank the trustees for the raise this year and the continued support of his department.
FIRE
Chief Gibbons gave the December Fire run totals. There were a total of 19 calls for his department. 8 were fire runs and 11 EMS calls (the majority being for falls).
Diane Belden gave the 2025 year totals for Fire & EMS. There were a total of 83 fire calls and 132 EMS.
Kevin Gibbons stated that these numbers include the first responders that Catawba Island has responding to these calls.
Diane also gave the average PC EMS response times for the fourth quarter of 2025 and the yearly totals. She stated there were a total of 138 EMS calls for the 4th quarter of 2025 with an average response time of 9 minutes and 39 seconds. The yearly totals for 2025 were 566 calls with an average response time of 9 minutes and 59 seconds.
Port Clinton Fire Chief, Brian Gutman spoke to say that the community AED/CPR Certification classes that the Catawba Island Vol. Fire Dept. has for their residents is a great asset to this area. Chief Gibbons added that since the start of this program, his department has certified 142 people in 2025.
Fire Chief Gibbons stated that David Crawford is the new applicant for the fire department and will be attending the firefighter class at EHOVE on April 13, 2026. He would like approval by the trustees to have the cost of this class ($675) plus mileage covered by the township.
Diane Belden made a motion that the township send David Crawford to this class and cover the cost of $675 plus mileage. Quintin Smith seconded the motion. All voted aye. Motion carried.
Chief Gibbons gave a presentation on the SCBA gear that the fire department uses. They have already received an approved resolution from the previous board of trustees at the end of 2025 to replace this equipment. This presentation was to inform the new trustees as to what the SCBA equipment is and why it is so important for the fire department to have. Due to the cost of replacing the current SCBA equipment, that is old and fails testing, this must go out to bid. A notice to bidders has been completed and will follow bid protocol. The fiscal officer will run the notice to bidders in the local paper one day a week for two consecutive weeks as required. Detailed specifications are available by emailing sgarcia@catawbaislandtownship.com. Sealed bids will be accepted until 9:00 am on February 10, 2026. They will then be publicly opened and read immediately after the 9:00am cut-off on February 10, 2026 at the Board of Trustees meeting. All trustees agreed to start the bidding process for the SCBA equipment.
Parks
Jack Madison stated the grants they applied for were due January 8, 2026. He stated they probably won’t hear anything until February.
Chris Cellier asked Jack to please explain what the grant application was for. Jack stated that it was for resurfacing the tennis courts at Heigel Park, and the amount they asked for was $50,000.
New Business
Quintin Smith stated at the end of last year, it was requested to get a projector for the community hall. He stated that the community hall is very underutilized. He stated that he would like to look into organizing a committee to explore and bring back information to the board to update the AV system at the community hall and also to make the community hall a bit more comfortable. He asked if Ann Rumpf would be willing to be a project lead to look into this a little more. She stated that she would. He also stated that there is no way in the administration building to do any type of presentation, and he would like to modernize things there as well.
The trustees agreed to allow Quintin Smith to look into these matters and move forward and report back as he gathers information.
Quintin also stated that he works on his iPad daily and did not want to use his personal iPad for township matters. He submitted a proposal to the other trustees to allow him to purchase a township iPad and Gemini software.
Diane Belden stated that there is a workshop geared towards AI at the OTA Conference that they are all attending February 4-6, and she feels that all trustees should attend this AI workshop. She stated to possibly put this iPad request on hold until they have a chance to research the issue further. Chris Cellier also stated that since he just received this information, he too wasn’t comfortable spending township funds until he has a chance to review it further. Trustees agreed to table the issue.
Chris Cellier stated that he will do his best to be transparent and in being the point of contact for zoning, he is open to anyone who would like to reach him. He encourages everyone in the community to read the Land Use Plan and the Zoning Resolution. He stated these are the rules that must be followed when it comes to zoning, and the only way to do things differently is to change the rules, and in order to do that, there is a process and it is not an easy process.
Chris Cellier stated that in becoming more transparent we will now be posting agendas for the trustee meetings and they will be on our website so the public can see ahead of time what will be discussed. He did stress that this is subject to change when issues arise after the agenda is posted.
Diane Belden stated that they are working on updating the township website and also working on a township Facebook page that will be for informational purposes only.
Diane stated that Friday January 9, 2026 was Law Enforcement Appreciation Day and she wanted to express appreciation to the officers of Catawba Island Township.
William Baker asked if the board could address Mr. Riat’s letter regarding an architecture review board.
Chris Cellier stated that he did reach out to Mr. Riat, and that he will keep the conversation going, but he needs more time to look into the matter further. But he assured Mr. Baker that the topic is on his radar.
A resident asked how they will get the word out to the public that there are openings on the two zoning boards. The trustees explained that it will be on our website, put on the sign in front of the administration building and on the Facebook page once that is up and running. They stated word of mouth to get the information out that they can pick up applications at the office would be helpful.
Lisa Murphy brought up having details in the meeting minutes and they shouldn’t only include motions.
Fiscal Officer Shelly Garcia stated that the meeting minutes are very detailed and they touch on almost all topics that are discussed. By law the township is only required to list motions that were made, but if you look at the meeting minutes going several years back, you can see that Catawba Island Township minutes are very in depth and speak about almost every topic that is brought up.
Lisa Murphy brought up the letter that Zoning Inspector Vicki Wheatley wrote. Lisa stated that Vicki was not wrong, but she didn’t have the transcripts to see exactly what was said. Even given the facts, she stated that she still didn’t feel like Vicki was the best person for this position. Diane Belden stated that the old board hired her but this new board wants to take time to get to know her before making any decisions, and that so far Vicki has done a pretty good job. Lisa Murphy asked the board to extend her (Vicki’s) probation. Diane stated that that would be something the new board will address.
Lisa then addressed the comments of Vicki feeling threatened and admitted that she did go into her office and that she was “extremely furious” that paid staff members thought it was appropriate to honor the two outgoing trustees and admitted that she told Vicki that “you better not let me find out that you spent one penny of this townships money on a party, on a plaque, or anything for these two individuals”.
The Fiscal Officer advised Lisa that none of the township’s money was spent for this.
Chris Cellier made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Quintin Smith seconded the motion.
All voted aye. Motion carried. The meeting adjourned at 11:57 a.m.
The next meeting will be Tuesday January 27, 2026 at 6:00 p.m.
__________________________ _____________________________
Diane Belde, Chairman Shelly Garcia, Fiscal Officer