Saying the Genoa Township Hall is full of “gossiping, pushback and nastiness,” and accusing the current township board of making poor decisions, treating her office differently from the others, and spending taxpayer dollars unwisely, Clerk Janene Deaton resigned her post less than a year after taking office.
“It feels like it’s been five years,” Deaton said. “It’s dysfunction junction.”
She explained that her letter of resignation, officially submitted on Thursday, will either be accepted or rejected by the board at its Nov. 3, 2025, meeting. It appears her resignation will likely be accepted: Supervisor Kevin Spicher has already advertised for an interim clerk via social media. A new clerk will be elected in the 2026 General Election.
“We thank Janene for all of her hard work to ensure election integrity and wish her the best in future endeavors,” Spicher wrote. He then asked anyone interested in the interim position to submit a resume to supervisor@genoa.org by 5 p.m. Monday.
When contacted for comment, Spicher said that while he disagrees with some of the content of Deaton’s resignation letter, he appreciates the efforts she made.
“We will let the voters decide,” he said. “We aren’t looking to have a battle in the press.”
Set up for failure
Deaton, a Republican who beat two candidates in primary and then a Democrat in the general election, said that after she began her term in November 2024, she was given information about the township, but no files on anything to do with the clerk’s office. She received what she called a “blank” computer because the previous clerk’s computer had personal information on it, she was told. She said she offered to delete anything personal from the previous clerk’s computer, but her request was denied and she was given a computer with nothing on it, essentially stripping her and the clerk’s department of the records she said they needed to do their job.
“I was set up for failure,” Deaton said. “Having the township records stripped from this department was an extremely poor decision.”
Protecting election integrity
One of the clerk’s main functions is to run fair and secure elections. Deaton claimed there was no secure location in the township hall in which to store ballots, and that ballots were “stored in the basement where every contractor (furnace, plumber, alarm company, etc.) could have access to (them) and they weren’t properly locked so they couldn’t be tampered with.”
Deaton said she and her deputy demanded a secure room in which to store ballots, but received “noting but pushback” from the township. When secure space to store ballots was finally given, it was by MHOG, which runs the water system for the townships of Marion, Howell, Oceola and Genoa; its administrative offices are part of the Genoa Township Hall.
“MHOG was generous and gave me space,” Deaton said. “Not Genoa, but MHOG.”
This was not the first time that ballots were an issue in Genoa Township: Polly Skolarus, the previous Genoa Township clerk, was tried in 2022 on one count of failure to perform her duty under Michigan’s election law for allegedly using unapproved ballot containers in the 2020 election. She was charged after an issue with the ballot containers was discovered during a Board of Canvassers meeting on Nov. 9, 2020. A jury found her not guilty.
Raised assessment
In her resignation letter, Deaton said the township’s assessor raised the SEV and taxable value on her home nearly $60,000 “without explanation.”
According to Deaton, the assessor told her that if she didn’t like the increase, to fight it. “That way I can learn the process,” she said she was told.
At issue was a second-floor addition to her home that had been built four years earlier.
“The assessor claimed it was protocol to look at all new elected officials to make sure they are paying their fair share. (That) it’s policy,” Deaton said. “Well, I looked in the policy and procedures book and it is not in there.”
Personnel losses
Deaton said her deputy clerk resigned last week, without notice.
“That was a huge blow to the department,” Deaton said. “She, too, was frustrated at how the clerk’s office was treated so differently than any other department in the building.”
Deaton said she then offered the deputy position to a new employee who declined and instead took at job with MHOG.
“I don’t blame (MHOG),” Deaton said. “But this is a huge blow to me again and my department.”
Burnout
After losing two employees in one week, and with another retiring in February, Deaton said she doesn’t have the strength or energy to start over again.
“I already leave here mentally exhausted every day,” she said. “I try to save the township money with cutbacks that I can find and this board continues to vote and spend the money foolishly,” she said. “The board itself is making some really poor decisions.”
Among the decisions Deaton calls “really poor” are “postponing resolutions that are not even in writing; speed radar signs that we could rent for free; thousands of dollars for batteries that aren’t necessary in my opinion.”
Deaton said that after running for and winning the clerk’s position, she felt like she could make a difference in Genoa Township.
“It is clear that I cannot,” she said.
“For my personal and mental well-being, I have decided I cannot take any more of this mental abuse and stress. I am officially burned out.”
