By Sara L. Smith
VIEW Staff Writer

GRAND BLANC TWP. — He’s on the job.

Richard Dunnill officially came on board to oversee day-to-day operations for the municipality on Sept. 2 in the newly created position of superintendent for Grand Blanc Township. Now that he’s here, the work of managing the daily goings on and work of such a large municipality is at hand for the former Bridgeport Township Manager.

Dunnill says the community’s reputation for growth, affluence and its overall lager size, as well as the prospective challenges involved in being the first superintendent for the township, were part of the attraction of the new job for him.

“Just to be the first person to be the superintendent of the township, the first time someone is stepping into this new role and the challenge of helping the township board create this position, as well as the size of the community and its many resources are attractive challenges,” Dunnill said.

Having served as Bridgeport Township Manager for more than seven years before resigning last month to take this new position, he says he’s ready for the challenges that lie ahead for the township since both municipalities have the same basic problems at heart, i.e. roads, budgets, taxation assessment issues, noise ordinance violations and the like.

“Grand Blanc Township is more affluent, it’s much larger in population and we have more employees working for the township,” he said. “But quite many of the day-to-day activities are the same. I’m here to serve the public.”

Township officials are still in the process of transitioning many of the duties generally associated with the supervisor’s role into the job description for the superintendent — a process that won’t be complete until the end of the year, after the November election.

The township board started investigating the idea of bringing a full-time superintendent in to handle day-to-day operations about two years ago.

The new superintendent’s role is designed to mirror that of a typical large-scale township or city manager responsible for overseeing daily operations, including budgets, contract negotiations, personnel and staffing concerns, human resources issues, working with unions, and dealing with the police, fire, water and sewer departments.

Many of the duties outlined in the supervisor’s job description, currently held by Jeffrey A. Zittel, will be reassigned under the superintendent’s role until the transition is complete following the election. The supervisor’s role will then be reduced to a part-time position, similar to that of a small-town mayor who also happens to sit on the township board and attends civic events and public engagements, such as ribbon cuttings.

Dunnill and Zittel are now working together to help make the transition of power as seamless as possible, indicated Dunnill.

“The management team here in the township has done a very good job in the past,” he said. “The township board has done a great job with planning and development. I hope to continue in their footsteps.”

He credits Zittel with having done a fine job of managing the township’s day-to-day operations and finances over the past several years. While the makeup of the township board is expected to change dramatically following the November election — several key members of the board are either not running for re-election or were upset in the August primary race — Dunnill indicated that he is up for the challenge of working with such a large number of new faces, many of who are new to politics entirely.

With the economy continuing to struggle, Dunnill says that finances remain a major challenge for the community, while striving to maintain services with decreased resources and a smaller portion of shared revenues from the state level.

“The residents have needs and we make the best decisions we can on how to use our limited funds to best meet the needs of the community,” he added.

Dunnill is working with other township officials and department heads to work on the 2009 budget, which is likely to be reduced to the tune of more than $600,000 from last year’s figure. He’s also attended a series of budget workshops and other township meetings since coming on board, including one planning commission meeting, a board of trustees meeting and a committee of the whole session, all within the past three weeks. Dunnill has cultivated a working relationship with Randy Byrne, city manager for Grand Blanc, over the last several years while he served as Bridgeport Township Manager and he and Grand Blanc Mayor Mike Matheny go back about 30 years.

He indicated that he hopes to continue to forge stronger ties between the city and township in the future and would like to see the two entities work together on more of a cohesive level since the municipalities share a number of common roads and recreational resources.

“It’s important for the two communities to get along well,” he added. “The Family Fun Fest was a good example of that.”

Dunnill, a graduate of Western Michigan University with a bachelor’s degree in food distribution and a minor in business, is married with three grown children and several grandchildren.

He currently commutes from his home in Bridgeport Township, but is looking forward to making Grand Blanc Township his home.

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