Tim Gray, executive director of Southwestern Michigan Community Ambulance Service, said there is a good reason why he wasn’t at Monday’s meeting of the Niles Charter Township Trustees to discuss his proposal to consolidate ambulance and fire services in the greater Niles-Buchanan area.

No one from the township advised him that he was on the agenda.

“I feel I was wrongly persecuted for not attending a meeting that I was never informed I would be on the agenda for,” Gray said Tuesday afternoon.

“Had Niles Township informed me, as I had offered and asked, that this topic was being placed on their agenda, I most certainly would have been there.”

According to the agenda, which was released to the public last week, Gray was scheduled to speak about the proposal.

Gray has been asking municipalities — like Niles Township — for their support in his pursuit of a state grant that would pay for a feasibility study for the proposed consolidation that the ambulance service director believes could result in a more efficient and cost-effective public safety department.

When Gray didn’t show up Monday, some trustees took it as an insult.

“Unless somebody was in dire straits I would have expected the courtesy of a phone call saying they weren’t going to be here,” Treasurer Terry Eull said Monday at the meeting. “I have a short fuse for that.”

In Gray’s absence, the township voted unanimously to not support the pursuit of the grant application. Several trustees expressed concern that the merger would cost the township’s taxpayers more money and that Gray wasn’t available to answer their questions.

When asked about it Tuesday, Township Supervisor Jim Stover said Gray was never officially informed that he would be placed on the Nov. 4 agenda.

Stover said he assumed Gray knew he would be on the agenda based on a conversation the two had at an ambulance service business meeting both attended in October. Stover said he told Gray then that the township would be discussing the issue of consolidation at the township’s Nov. 4 meeting.

“There was never any intent to not ask (him),” said Stover.

“Maybe I should’ve put it in writing.”

Gray said he has received official support for the grant application from three of the six fire departments within the SMCAS assessment district. He said he only needs support from two of them to go forward with the study.

Those showing support, he said, are the City of Niles, the City of Buchanan and Bertrand Township. Milton Township, which does not have a fire department, also said it supports the study, Gray said.

Buchanan Township is scheduled to discuss the issue Thursday and Howard Township hasn’t responded to his request, Gray said.

Niles Township is the only municipality thus far to not show support.

“A feasibility study would either show that a consolidation of services is in the best interest of all of the current owner municipalities or would show that it isn’t,” Gray said. “It’s disheartening and a travesty to the tax payers within not only Niles Township, but the entire SMCAS Assessment District, to not look at all possible options for a more efficient and cost-effective public safety department.”

If the grant is issued and a feasibility study is performed, Gray said the issue would then go to the municipalities and the ambulance service board for approval.