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The board of commissioners' chairwoman, Shirley Roloff, asked Saltonstall to sit down. Saltonstall complied and was unable to read her full statement. The three minutes of her public comment time had not expired.

Reached by telephone on Monday, Roloff said that everyone has a right to speak at a public meeting, but she said Saltonstall was criticizing two of the Commission on Aging board members who were not present.

"(The board member) was not there to defend herself and that's not fair," Roloff said. "That's the only reason I said what I did."

Saltonstall told commissioners that she was appearing before them as a Commission on Aging board member, but was not acting on behalf of the Commission on Aging board as a whole.

Saltonstall's statement to the Charlevoix County Commissioners and the Citizens of Charlevoix County, dated Oct. 24, is printed in pertinent part below. Any omissions were made because of space considerations and do not alter the meaning or intent of Saltonstall's statement:

"Joan Blanchard is the chairperson of the COA (Commission on Aging) board and the budget committee.

Margo Johnson is the chairperson of the senior services committee, the audit committee and the personnel committee.

Since the rest of the board members are dependent on the information they receive from these committees, these two people are able to control the majority of the decisions.

For example, when I began going to COA meetings in 2006, Joan Blanchard announced at each meeting that they were 'running in the red' despite the fact that there was over 2 million dollars in the fund balance. When I joined the COA board, I distributed County budget reports showing how much money was really there.

Three years in a row, $500,000 of the millage funds were placed in an investment account while at the same time seniors were being told there was no money for services.

When the proposed 2007-08 budget was presented to the COA board for approval this year, it was only a list of numbers. It did not have last year's numbers, or how much we had spent year to date. It also did not state that it was based on not using the full millage allocation that voters had approved. So that the board could make an informed budget decision, I prepared a handout showing last year's and year to date numbers. After a discussion of this more detailed information, the board voted to levy the full millage.

Budgets have been prepared that did not reflect how money would really be spent. This year none of the $70,000 in senior projects was spent, and over one third of the operating account was not spent. Two years in a row $40,000 in Community Outreach, the entire allocation, was not spent. As I stated previously, three years in a row they put $500,000 of the millage into the bank.

At my first meeting as a board member in January 2007, I brought up transportation because the senior assessment in 2000 said transportation was a major senior concern. The director of the COA, Susan Bergmann, responded (that the COA does not do transportation).

The COA Board voted to recommend reappointment of board members whose terms expire this year. When a motion was put forward to add an 11th member allowed by the by-laws, the vote was 4-3 in favor. Then Joan Blanchard stated that an absent board member was voting against it making it a 4-4 tie, and as chairperson, she was voting against it to break the tie. County policy does not allow proxy voting. É

The senior services committee made a show of getting input about what services we should provide. Except for changing the names of 'respite' and 'Adult Day Care' everything on the list was considered important. Why has it taken seven years to consider this list when it reflects the same things that were in the 2000 Assessment?

While I believe the majority of the COA board members support senior services, the current assessment indicates that the COA has not been providing adequate services, training and supervision under the leadership of the current director and chairpersons for senior services, budget, audit and personnel committees."