As ‘team leader? of a six-candidate slate, Dan Travis’ number one issue is hiring a professional manager to handle Independence Township’s $20 million budget.
‘We want human-resource management in place, in house, who can have a handle on things, can control things, and to be responsible,? said Travis. ‘One of the biggest problems we’ve had in the last three-and-a-half years is management of our own people to the point, now, that we have a teamsters union. They’ve agreed to join the union.?
Independence Township’s three full-time positions, supervisor, clerk, and treasurer, would take pay cuts to pay for the manager. They would continue to work full-time for up to a year and half, until the manager has things under control, he said.
‘I’m encouraged by every person I talk to. People are saying wonderful things about the concept of a professional manager,? he said. “The more education we can bring to these jobs, the better suited we will be to manage them.”
Travis says he wants the township to have ‘open and honest government.?
‘I want transparency. I don’t want any deals negotiated behind the scenes and presented at the last minute to the board of trustees,? said Travis. ‘I want to have our supervisor, me, answer phones, call people back, and respond to their problems timely and to be available.?
The economy is hard, and it’s important to keep costs down, and the budget in order, he said.
‘Those budgets have to be shrunken and that’s usually, and certainly in our case, people. We have to be very prudent, I don’t want to lay anyone off. That’s not the intent of this run. But we have to be realistic too,? said Travis. ‘Where we are able, we’re going to have to prune our cost back to a level.?
Travis would like to have a two-year budget and a five-year plan, much like the Oakland County, to avoid ‘budget shock,? like what occurred in 2007.
‘We had more revenue that we didn’t anticipate that allowed us frankly to take from the general fund and build that senior center over there, but we should have been able to track that better,? he said. ‘We should have known that was coming and we wouldn’t have threatened to make the changes that we thought we would have to.?
He is a strong advocate for citizen participation, he said.
‘We are a community with citizens of many talents who can help make our government work better for all of us,? said Travis.
He and his team of candidates, incumbent Clerk Shelagh VanderVeen, Jeff McGee for treasurer, and Neil Wallace, Bart Clark, and David Lohmeier for trustee, have been accused of being ‘anti-development,? but he says that is not true.
“Dynamic change feeds the cost of this community,? he said. ‘People want a good place to live and raise their children, where the schools were good and where the public services meet their needs. That is the goal of the master plan and I support that.?
Travis has served 28 years on the township board as trustee and 24 years on the planning commission.
‘I’ve seen a lot, I’ve heard a lot and I know a fair amount,? he said. “One of the things I have been able to do for this board and for boards before was to offer them the institutional knowledge of what we did before and why.?
He grew up in Alton, Ill., graduated from Westminster College in 1964, and went to work for Laclede steel as a regional manager, the same company his father worked for. He then worked for Franco Steel and, in 1995, he set up his own agency.
He also currently works at Great Lakes Crossing at the Bass Pro Shop. As an avid fisher and hunter, it seemed like an ideal place, he said.
He teaches hunter safety, teaches and plays tennis, and used to shoot skeet and run track competitively.
He’s been married to his wife, Betsy, for 41 years. They have two children, Daniel Travis, who lives in Los Angeles as an actor, and daughter Amy, who is married to Mark and has two children, Phoebe and Miles.
‘They are the joys of my life, I am well blessed,? Dan Travis said.
He came to Detroit in 1965 and moved to Clarkston with his wife in 1969. Later, they moved to Independence Township. Travis is also a director of the North Oakland Headwaters Land Conservancy and served with Oakland Parks for 10 years.
‘I’ve got 28 years of doing for this township and I am proud of it all.?