The Milan News-Leader
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Cost of police services arrested in court
By Austen Smith, Heritage Newspapers
PUBLISHED: February 22, 2007
Almost a year and half after receiving notice of a lawsuit over the cost and terms of contracted police services, county and township officials are still wading through the courts, desperately searching for resolution.
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In late 2005, Ypsilanti, Salem and Augusta townships filed a joint lawsuit naming all of the county commissioners and County Administrator Bob Guenzel as defendants. The lawsuit was aimed at forcing county officials to honor a "master contract" the townships' attorneys said was developed in 2003.
The contract reportedly promised annual 6 percent rate increases for contracting police services through the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Department.
The lawsuit was fostered by county officials' decision to eliminate a multi million dollar subsidy that helped contracting areas pay for police services to make improvements to the county jail. The county decided to shift those funds into jail renovation after a proposed $314 million jail millage was overwhelmingly rejected in February 2005.
Several months after the original lawsuit was filed, a visiting judge from Monroe County ruled in favor of the county, decreeing there was no master contract in what amounted to handful of letters and conversations between officials.
Most of the claims made by the townships now have been dismissed and the three suing townships have signed four-year police contracts, with the understanding that they will be allowed to continue their lawsuit and bring new claims as warranted.
County officials recently proposed mediation to end the litigation and take the issue out of the courts. Ypsilanti and Salem townships rejected the offer for mediation, arguing that the process would be too expensive.
Augusta Township agreed to the arbitration process, breaking from the other townships originally listed in the lawsuit. Guenzel said it was disappointing not to be able to bring all of the townships into mediation and take the issue out of the court system.
"We haven't responded to the townships just yet. We just received the information (Thursday)," Guenzel said. "It's just disappointing. Certainly, we would like to put the matter behind us. It looks like we'll just keep plugging away in court."
Despite the long and tangled history of the townships' lawsuit, commissioners hope to resolve this year.
Jessica Ping Mills, R-3rd District, said the board seems to be moving in the right direction.
"I would like to come to some agreement on the jail and the townships to get that resolved in the coming year," she said.
"We, as a county board, offered the three townships arbitration process. We hoped that they would respond to that and possibly save taxpayers' money in attorneys fees."
The county also is embroiled in a lawsuit with Washtenaw County Sheriff Dan Minzey over county officials' handling of jail overcrowding issues.
In the lawsuit, Minzey accuses the county of not using $62 million in unreserved discretionary funds to expand the jail.
The claim of discretionary funds also was brought to light in a prior lawsuit filed by Judge John Collins, who accused county officials of not properly spending the money to fund the jail improvements. That claim was dismissed in summer 2006.
Minzey's action against the county marks the second time in less than eight months the sheriff has sued the county. In a previous lawsuit, he unsuccessfully attempted to block layoffs of more than 40 deputies and support staff throughout the three suing townships. Township and county officials were able to reach an 11th-hour agreement to avoid layoffs and the claim now has been ruled moot.
Commissioner Mark Ouimet, R-1st District, agrees that resolving public safety issues is the top priority.
"We need to push through the resolution to retain road patrol and, secondly, to get the appropriate funding so we can build the jail," Ouimet said.
"I think we have to make sure that we handle the contracts appropriately and that we don't give townships too much of a financial burden.
"I hope that we can resolve this whole thing. We are certainly working hard to iron out the differences. The board is comfortable with how we are proceeding at this point," he said.
While other new faces on the board are cutting their teeth on the complex public safety issue, newly elected Mandy Grewal, D-7th District, has a bit more experience after being appointed in April 2006 to fill the seat of Robert Brackenbury, who resigned in March 2006.
"Public safety and justice costs, for the courts, is the largest proportion of our budget at 40 percent," Grewal said.
"The county continues to be extremely committed to providing public safety while dealing with our dwindling resources, but we have mandates too that we have to meet."
Grewal is optimistic that it will be settled in the coming year, saying that she was very much in favor of the arbitration process recently proposed to take the issue out of the courts and hopefully make further progress.
"We want to make sure that contracted police services will continue. Fortunately, we have all the townships on board now with the contracts," Grewal said. "That's why I voted 'yes' on the mediation because I will choose any time when we can sit down and talk to each other rather than take it to the courts."
Commissioner Rolland Sizemore Jr., D-5th District, just wants to see it stopped.
"With the police services and the jail, I hope that turns out to be a positive thing," he said.
"This commission is not real happy as far I'm concerned. We, as a county, have already spent $500,000 on attorney's fees and I'm sure the townships have spent about the same amount.
"My problem is that it seems like the attorneys are the ones making all the money and it's the residents who are paying for it. I would like to see it stopped."
Austen Smith is an editor for Heritage Newspapers. He can be reached at asmith@heritage.com.
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