The People Of Plymouth Township Finally Said Enough Is Enough

Absolute power, absolutely corrupts. We have witnessed this in Plymouth Township for years. Well tonight, the people went to the Plymouth Township Board of Trustees meeting, and in one very loud voice, said enough is enough. As Channel 2 News reporter, Erika Erickson put it, “ The boardroom is full, people are in the hallway, and out in the streets.”

This was a raucous group of people. There was clapping, there were boos, there were even a few heckles. Every single bit of was deserved by certain members of this Board. There was even a police presence, which I thought was another insult leveled by Supervisor Reaume against the very people who pay his six figure salary. What the heck did he think was going to happen?

Yes, the people showed up for this meeting. There were a bunch of folks with “Stop The Amphitheater” signs, marching along Haggerty Road before the meeting, and they packed the Plymouth Township Hall once the meeting began.

In many respects, this amphitheater issue is what brought this whole thing about. This was the catalyst for the “Conduct of Meetings” proposal on tonight's agenda.

Last year, Supervisor Reaume posted a Special Meeting notice on his way out the door on a Friday. Come Tuesday, the Board had their Special Meeting, and voted to borrow 2 million dollars to build some pet projects in the Township Park. No notification for the people, no public input, no nothing.

So when folks finally heard of this amphitheater project, they started asking questions. They were ignored, they were insulted, their calls went unanswered, and their letters, and emails went unanswered. They were completely shut down by the likes of Supervisor Reaume, Clerk Conzelman, and Treasurer Edwards.

Well, more and more folks started attending the meetings, and making public comments. The trio that work in the Township Hall did not like this. Next thing you know, Clerk Conzelman, after 25 years or so of past practice, decided not to reflect public comments from the taxpayers in the official minutes of the meetings anymore. None of them were good, so she decided that none of them would be recorded anymore.

Trustee Robert Doroshewitz was critical of this, as well as the plan for the amphitheater, and used his time allotted in the Trustee Comment section of the agenda to voice his concerns. Next thing you know, Trustee Comments were eliminated as well. So Trustee Doroshewitz asked for these items, as well as others to be added to the agenda at a couple of meetings, so there could at least be discussion on these matters, and maybe action taken. Seems a reasonable approach, if you are a fan of transparent government.

Now we get to the point of this meeting. The new rules. The “Conduct of Meetings” rules. Under these new rules proposed by Nancy Conzelman, and Treasurer Ron Edwards, and supported by Richard Reaume, you have to ask the permission of Reaume to have a item added to the agenda. If he says no, and he doesn't have to have a reason, you have to ask the Township Attorney for an on the spot ruling, on if the item is appropriate to add to the agenda. If by chance the lawyer says yes, then it goes to a vote of the Board, but it has to have a super majority vote for you to actually get the item approved for discussion. Not for passage, but just to be able to talk about it.

Bottom line? It takes more votes to talk about an item, than it does to actually take some kind of action on an item. For instance: It took 4 votes to approve the borrowing of 2 million dollars for the amphitheater and other projects. Under the new rule, it will take 5 votes just to have an agenda item added for discussion. You can spend 2 million of the taxpayers dollars with 4 votes, but you need 5 votes to talk about what a horrible idea that was. And that is only after you get the blessing of the Township attorney, and he was very clear at this meeting that he was uncomfortable being put in this position.

The other “Conduct of Meetings” rules dealt with Public Comment. Again, the trio of Edwards, Conzelman, and Reaume are not happy about the critical public comments they have been receiving. They do not like the negative comments, so they decided to double down on Conzelman's previous action of removing public comments from the official minutes of the meetings.

Under the new rules, Supervisor Reaume will basically have complete control over what is an appropriate comment, what is considered “grandstanding.” He will control whether you have one minute, or two minutes in which to express your views. It is currently three minutes. There is also language that would give him the power over what he may consider redundant comments, personal attacks, or argumentative comments. So basically, he becomes the Civility Czar of the Board.

Ron Edwards stated that these rules are meant to bring civility and professionalism to the meetings. Richard Reaume stated that these rules are meant to keep public comments civil and structured. Really?

Let's step back in time for a minute.

It was not long ago when we all heard a 911 emergency call made by Mr. Edwards. He threatened the 911 dispatcher, because he and his VIP muckety mucks were not getting out of the fireworks quickly enough to suit him. Turns out that there was a serious injury accident that was the cause of the delay. When informed of this, he did not ask the condition of the folks injured, and did not apologize for his outlandish behavior. Channel 7 Action News covered this incident. Does this strike you as civil and professional?

Moving on, I would remind Mr. Edwards of the time that he became so enraged at a meeting, that he tried to beat the crap out of the former Clerk, Joe Bridgeman. He did this at a Board Meeting! Channel 4 News covered this debacle. Is this the kind of civility and professionalism Mr. Edwards is talking about?

But let's put Mr. Edwards aside for a minute, and get to the Supervisor. He had his big moment when he was caught red handed, on camera, stealing the campaign signs of Rita White, who was running for Township Treasurer against Ron Edwards. Channel 7 News came back to cover this embarrassing story. So this is the professional behavior of a Township Supervisor? I think not. It sounds more like, “Do as I say, not as I do.”

Well, with Channel 2 News showing up tonight, Reaume and Edwards have finally achieved the trifecta of embarrassing publicity. All three news outlets have covered this Board's humiliating moments. A dubious honor. Heck, they even outdid their past achievements and managed to get a “two for one” tonight with both Channel 2 and 7 on hand for the festivities. Another dubious honor.

So moving on, I missed the first Public Comment portion of the meeting, as I had a Vietnam Veterans of America meeting that I had to attend, and our Vets always come first with me, even on a night like this. I was however in attendance for the complete debate on the “Conduct of Meetings” proposal, and here are the highlights:

The Township Attorney waxed poetic about some archaic rules covering meetings way back before an agenda was actually called an agenda. It was a bunch of legalese that would take a Philadelphia lawyer to understand, but it all focused on process. It did not focus on right vs wrong.

Conzelman made her somewhat confusing pitch, which seemed to focus on making the meetings more efficient. She did her level best to hide the real intent of this proposal, and Trustee Chuck Curmi called her on it later in the discussion. Trustee Curmi, a man of few words, simply called the document obfuscation, and a power grab. He correctly observed that it was a very poorly written proposal, and asked, “who wrote this?” Nancy, being the author of this written proposal, was not amused. Basically, he took all of about 30 seconds to reduce Nancy Conzelman, and her proposal to ashes. There is a reason that nobody on this Board messes with Trustee Curmi, and it was on display tonight.

Trustee Robert Doroshewitz spoke most eloquently about the whole proposal, and to sum his remarks up in a nutshell. He used Nancy Conzelman's own words against her. He spoke about trust. The trust among fellow Board members, and the trust between the Board and their constituents. He asked how can there possibly be trust among the Board, when a minority of the Board can silence the majority? He asked how putting serious restraints on the citizen's right to come before the Board to speak, will inspire trust between the Board and it's constituents? He said that you can never have trust when 3 overrules 4. He said that we should never put efficiency and process over trust and transparency. Finally, he asked to table this motion, and work together as a Board to find a policy that all seven members can agree to.

The people agreed wholeheartedly. They agreed thunderously. Heck, some might say he made himself an instant frontrunner for one of the three seats held by Reaume, Edwards, or Conzelman. I can tell you this, I don't think we'll have Reaume, Conzelman, or anyone with the last name Edwards on this Board ever again. Not after tonight. Enough is enough.

Trustee Mike Kelly took the side of Doroshewitz and Curmi, and then Suoervisor Reaume turned to Trustee Kay Arnold, and the crowd held their breath.  Trustee Arnold thought about it, and then said she wanted a work session.  The jig was up.  Without Arnold, all that was left was the power hungry troika of Reaume, Edwards, and Conzelman.  

They won't quit though.  Make no mistake about that.  They'll be back for another kick at the can, after they put some more pressure on Trustee Arnold. But for today, the people won.  They stood up, and said enough is enough.

As Channel 7 News reporter, Jeff Vaughn aptly put it, “In all my years reporting, I've never seen a city council so dug in on a topic that has such little public support.” Yes, he was speaking about the amphitheater project, but I think it is much broader. I think this Board has lost the public support for anything they do at this point. They have lost the trust of the people.

They had a good thing going for themselves. Six figure compensation packages, the whole ball of wax. They got drunk with power though, they got arrogant, they felt that they knew better than anyone else. Then they tried to give themselves even more power, enough power to silence any and all critics. It backfired. The people stood up, and said enough is enough.

A resident named John Itsell stated, “I think it has finally reached critical mass with this Board” I agree. What it took was for this Board to finally push too far. They finally slapped enough people in the face, disrespected enough constituents at their meetings, and it has come to this very telling comment from a Township resident.

Another resident said, in a very solemn voice, “It almost pains me to be standing here, because at one point or another, I have voted for each and every one of you.”

I think his comment represented what many of the folks in the audience felt. I think that most of the folks in the audience may have voted for these people at one time or another. Reaume, Conzelman, and Edwards have enjoyed the votes and support of these people, who placed their trust in them, only to be misled, and now disrespected.

I understand how this happens. Folks are busy. They have work, they have kids, they don't always have time to pay close attention to what local elected officials are doing. They get Michigan news, they get national news, they eventually get news overload. I get this. I understand completely. It sometimes takes something outrageous to happen before people start asking questions, and that is the cruel trick that this elected Board played on it's constituents.

They had an ethical responsibility to inform these folks of their plans. They owed it to folks to get their input on the expenditure of 2 million dollars of their hard earned money. Instead, this Board did what it has been doing for as long as I have lived here. They operated under a cloud of secrecy, they obfuscated when folks began to learn of their plan, and by the time enough folks were on to their game, it was too late. Now they try to change the rules. The try to silence the voices of protest. Well that didn't work tonight. People stood up, and said enough is enough.

Folks like Chris & Sybil Hunter, and their wonderful neighbors, Chris & Larry, Rita, Anthony and many others have said enough is enough. They have joined the rest of us who saw these injustices earlier, and we now fight together. We fight for civility, respect, and transparency. We fight for representative government. We fight so that others won't get blindsided like these good folks did. These are good people, good, hard working people, and they did not deserve the treatment they got. Although I hate the circumstances in which we met, I feel very fortunate to have met these folks, and I hope that we become great friends in the future, long after this sad affair is over.

There are also folks who should feel vindicated. Folks like Don Schnettler, who for years, has been trying his best to shed some sunlight on the misdeeds of this Board. Don is as smart as they come, and he saw these people for what they were, years before I moved here. He has a website that has a wealth of information not covered here. Click here for his website.

There are others as well who have worked selflessly and tirelessly in order to expose the misdeeds of members of this Board. Not having their permission, I'll not name names yet, but they know who they are, and I was proud to see their efforts finally come to fruition tonight when the people stood up as one to this Board. I was proud because they have endured sarcasm, and ridicule. They have been called malcontents, the “tin foil hat” crowd, and all sorts of other disgusting things at Board meetings, and in email correspondence. Turns out, they knew what they were talking about all along. Yep.

Tonight, the good folks of Plymouth Township stood up and said enough is enough...