Sec. 16.

(1) If a county board of commissioners establishes a new township in the county, other than by consolidation as provided in sections 16a to 16j, the board shall designate the name of the township, the time and place of holding the first annual township meeting in the township, and 3 electors of the township, whose duty it shall be to preside at the meeting, appoint a clerk, open and keep the polls, and exercise the same powers as the inspectors of election at a township meeting. If 1 of the 3 electors refuses or neglects to serve, the electors of the township present at the meeting may substitute any other elector of the township for each elector who neglects or refuses to serve.

(2) The business that the electors may perform shall be conducted at a public meeting held in compliance with the open meetings act, Act No. 267 of the Public Acts of 1976, being sections 15.261 to 15.275 of the Michigan Compiled Laws. Public notice of the time, date, and place of the meeting signed by the chairperson or clerk of the county board of commissioners shall be given in the manner required by Act No. 267 of the Public Acts of 1976 in 4 of the most public places in the new township, by the persons designated to preside at the meeting or by some person appointed by the county board of commissioners for that purpose, and in each of the townships whose boundaries may have been altered by the erection of the new township, at least 14 days before holding the meeting. The county board of commissioners shall fix the place for holding the first township meetings in the town or towns from which the new township shall be taken.

(3) Nothing in this act shall affect the rights, or abridge or enlarge the term of office, of a township officer in the township. A township officer who resides within the limits of the new township shall continue to be an officer of the new township, until the expiration of the time for which the officer was elected, in the manner as if originally elected in the new township. The terms of office of each township officer elected at the first township meeting shall expire on the first Monday of April after the meeting or as soon as a successor is elected and qualified.

History: 1851, Act 156, Imd. Eff. Apr. 8, 1851 ;-- CL 1857, 350 ;-- CL 1871, 482 ;-- Am. 1881, Act 27, Eff. Sept. 10, 1881 ;-- How. 488 ;-- CL 1897, 2489 ;-- CL 1915, 2279 ;-- CL 1929, 1138 ;-- CL 1948, 46.16 ;-- Am. 1978, Act 51, Eff. Mar. 30, 1979 ;-- Am. 1988, Act 37, Imd. Eff. Mar. 4, 1988