Use of a township email account is under administrative review in Scio Township

An email message and a calendar invitation are centerpieces of a review and investigation at Scio Township Hall.

The Sun Times News reached out to Scio Township Supervisor Will Hathaway through email to ask about the situation.

Hathaway said he can confirm that it is true that “there is an investigation by the office of the sheriff and an internal Township investigation of someone trespassing in my Scio email account.”

Hathaway said there was a brief discussion of this toward the end of the Nov. 28 Board of Trustees meeting when the township board voted to authorize an administrative review. This review is separate from the Washtenaw County Sheriff investigation.

“I should caution that some things were said during the Board discussion that are not accurate,” Hathaway said. “However, I would prefer to withhold further comment while the two investigations proceed.”

At the Nov. 28 meeting, discussion on the situation and a next step was introduced by township clerk Jessica Flintoft, who said then that there were questions over the last week or so about this so she believed it was in the township’s best interests to move ahead with a formal administrative review of the causes into how on Nov. 15 there was an email message and calendar invitation sent from a township email account without that township user’s knowledge.

Flintoft’s motion stated: “Motion to authorize the Manager to conduct an administrative review of the causes of how on November, 15, 2023 the Clerk received one email message from the account whathaway@sciotownship.org, and the Planning Coordinator received one calendar invitation from the account whathaway@sciotownship.org, without the Supervisor having knowledge of having sent these. The administrative review may also include recommendations to the Township regarding procedures and policies to prevent such events in the future. To carry out this administrative review, in addition to the internal resources of the IT Director and Township Attorney, the Manager is authorized to engage with outside IT or other professional services as necessary, in an amount not to exceed $10,000, to be budgeted from the General Fund fund balance. Last, to ask that the administrative review be reported to the Board of Trustees by not later than January 31, 2024.”

In follow up with Flintoft, she made two points:

"There is no indication of a security breach of the Township’s email accounts or other information systems," she said, and, "In regards to the police report that Supervisor Will Hathaway filed regarding this topic, I have no knowledge of what crime he reported, and am unaware of any facts that would suggest anything nefarious occurred. The Township has not been briefed by the Supervisor about what he reported to the police."

To learn more about this issue, go to the board meeting video at this link: https://sciotownship.granicus.com/player/clip/1116?view_id=19&redirect=true&h=83d93aa758240a9aba4fc88003d2ab63. The discussion begins at the 3 hour and 11 minute, 24 seconds mark