MARQUETTE — The Marquette County Board of Commissioners held its biweekly meeting last week, taking public comment and discussing county issues requiring attention, two of which may result in potential legal action.

Back in April, the board decided to part ways with the company Telkite, who manages more than 600 acres of property in K.I. Sawyer, land cited on Telkite’s website as the Telkite Industrial and Technology Park. The board voted unanimously on April 15 to terminate the contract with Telkite and send the contract to the Numinen Law Office in Marquette for legal review. That review was presented for discussion at Tuesday night’s meeting. Karl Numinen, who serves as legal counsel for the board, cited numerous breaches of contract on Telkite’s end, and that further legal action may be taken.

“We’ve worked with Telkite on and off throughout the years, and we’ve got two different contracts with them,” Numinen said. “Through a series of reviews of the contracts, it’s been brought to my attention that Telkite is in material breach in many respects with contracts, and I’ve outlined those in this memo. It’s my recommendation that we terminate the Telkite contracts and, if necessary, I want the authorization to bring a lawsuit for breach of contract.”

Problems with the contract between the Marquette County and the Saginaw-based Michigan Institute of Science and Forensic Medicine, which had been providing medical examiner services, were also addressed.

“We’ve had significant difficulty with this entity, not the least of which is right now, as we speak, they’ve got 22 autopsy reports that — I am told they’ve finished the services — they just won’t release the reports for some reason,” Numinen noted. “It’s critical that we get those reports because that’s what the county clerk needs to have in order to process death certificates, and, of course, death certificates are necessary to request life insurance proceeds and other kinds of benefits the deceased’s family is absolutely entitled to. We’re hamstrung because the medical examiner that we’ve contracted with won’t do their job.”

Numinen recommended that the contract with the MISFM be terminated and, if necessary, bring forth legal action to get the autopsy reports that have been completed and that the county has paid for.

“We have an obligation to the public and the taxpayers we serve to make sure these services are quality services. When we have deaths, and there’s family pain for loved ones that are out there, and they’re looking for a death certificate, there’s not been (a) good, clean response by this (MISFM) medical examiner,” said Joe Derocha, chair of the Marquette County Board. “This board took action a month ago, and we terminated the relationship and hired Dickinson County and their medical examiner to take over. Since they’ve (taken) over, it’s been a seamless transition. But, for whatever reason, this medical examiner out of Saginaw that we were contracted with has felt the need to not complete his job and it’s unacceptable, and I’d like to see (the) civil council go after his license…. We simply can’t allow this to happen. We can’t take it laying down.”

A full video recording of the meeting, along with meeting packets and agendas for each board of commissioners meeting, can be found online at co.marquette.mi.us/county_government/board_of_commissioners/current_meetings.php.