I showed up for a meeting of the Plymouth Township Compensation Commission. I think this is kind of an important thing, as they will decide salaries and retirement benefits for the Board of Trustees. After watching the contentious votes as far as the appointment of three members of this commission, my interest was piqued.
The Compensation Commission is appointed by the Board of Trustees. They meet every two years to review the salary and benefits of the seven members of the Board of Trustees, the biggest being the Supervisor, Treasurer, and Clerk, as they are 40 hour positions, with benefits and a retirement package.
The members of the Compensation Commission (CC) have a tough and important job to do, as their decision can only be reversed by a super majority vote of the Board of Trustees. Their decision affects not only yearly salary, but also legacy costs that the taxpayers will pay to the Supervisor, Treasurer, and Clerk for many years after they have left office.
I have a number of concerns as far as this whole issue goes, and first on that list is what are the prerequisites for granting this elected board a raise?
It was mentioned by somebody that the township needs to offer a competitive salary in order to attract good and qualified candidates for the positions of Supervisor, Treasurer, and Clerk, as well as the four Trustees.
To make this simple, and for the purposes of this story, I will only consider those three 40 hour positions. The four trustees make $11,600 a year, and receive no benefits or retirement packages, whereas the Supervisor, Treasurer, and Clerk all have six figure compensation packages that they receive for their expertise.
Every time you elect a Supervisor, Treasurer, and Clerk, you are basically investing roughly a half million dollars of taxpayer money into that position over the course of a four year term. That figure of course does not take into account legacy costs for these individuals should they hang around long enough to qualify.
I'll just lay out a few facts, and let you decide whether we are getting our bang for the buck.
Just this last week, the City of Detroit reactivated their lawsuit against Plymouth Township, in order to take back land that Plymouth Township improperly purchased. This land was purchased because non payment of delinquent taxes or some such thing. The cost was $606,000. The City of Detroit also has the right, and is expected to exercise that right to sue for damages as well. This could turn out to be millions of dollars. The architects of this land deal were Supervisor Richard Reaume, and Treasurer Ronald Edwards.
The reason that Plymouth Township is being sued is that the land (the former DehoCo property) was incorrectly assessed. Who is Plymouth Township's assessor? By charter, the assessor in Plymouth Township is the Supervisor, Richard Reaume. Plymouth Township bought 323 acres of land, and planned to develop a chunk of it. Turns out that the 190 acre chunk that was actually able to be developed, belonged to the City of Detroit, and not the entity that Reaume claimed to actually own it.
So Detroit will not only get their land back, but instead of being reimbursed for it, Plymouth Township is at risk of being sued for twice the amount of what the land is currently valued at. From what I've been told, the land is valued at somewhere around 8 million dollars, but I haven't been able to verify that.
Bottom line is that the land we are left with is useless. The term swamp land come to mind. The land is not able to be developed and create revenue, and we are staring at a lawsuit that could potentially cost millions of dollars in damages. The way the City of Detroit is scrounging for dollars, don't think for a minute that Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr won't come calling.
If you were a business owner, and your COO & Treasurer were involved in a deal like this, would you give them a raise? Would you fire them?
I should also mention that Mr. Edwards in his infinite wisdom decided that being in the golf business was a smart thing for Plymouth Township as well. Now I don't know how much the taxpayers paid for Hill Top Golf Course, but I do know that it is sucking money like a black hole. So what are they doing? They are doing what every good liberal does, they are throwing taxpayer money at the problem. Hundreds of thousands of dollars. Talk about sand traps, Hill Top is a money trap.
Oh yes, they recently borrowed more money for Hill Top, and a whole bunch of other pet projects. Two million dollars worth of pet projects. There is Hill Top, and then there is an air conditioned pavilion at the Plymouth Township Park. I still don't know what that is for, but it's gonna be air conditioned, and it's gonna cost $625,000, so it must be really cool. Pun intended.
Another pet project is a new amphitheater at the Plymouth township Park. According to Mr. Reaume, they are gonna have things like one man plays, and string quartets. It will cost a few hundred thousand dollars to build. For that price, you'd think we could get at least 3 or 4 man plays.
All this borrowing and spending when our Board of Trustees hasn't spent one nickel on properly equipping the fire department in the last four years. Oh, did I neglect to tell you they borrowed all the money for their failed land speculation and pet projects? Yes, they borrowed it, and the township residents are on the hook for multiple loans.
We are on the hook for all these loans, and they have not spent one red cent on fire equipment. We have a 22 year old fire truck, and a 24 year old fire truck. Heck, the newest truck we have is 13 years old. Oh, by the way, there is no ladder truck either. I actually heard one board member suggest that in lieu of a ladder truck, they could purchase longer ladders. For real? Longer ladders?
I could go on and on here. I could mention that 2 years ago they said money was so damn tight they had to lay off 1/3 of the firefighters. I'm not sure if that was before or after they spent $606,000 on swamp land that they now have to give back, but I know it was around the same time.
I could mention that the six figure package that is paid to the Supervisor was so attractive that he got busted right before the election, illegally stealing campaign signs, and we had to watch the whole embarrassing mess on the Channel 7 News.
I could mention that Treasurer Ronald Edwards got busted calling the 911 emergency line, and threatening police officer's jobs, because he and his cronies weren't getting out of the township's fireworks show quick enough for his liking. We had to watch that embarrassing episode on Channel 7 News as well.
I could mention that Treasurer Ronald Edwards tried to beat the hell out of the former Township Clerk when said clerk was responsible for actually doing his job and making an official letter available to the rest of the Board of Trustees. It was a "thanks but no thanks" letter from the City of Troy. It seems that Ronald Edwards had applied for a job there. Apparently he felt that it was a better job than being Plymouth Township's Treasurer. If so, why the hell did he run for reelection?
Now he wants a raise? Now he wants a better retirement package? If Troy didn't want him, why should we? If he didn't want us, why is he still here? At least we didn't have to watch that embarrassing moment on Channel 7 News. Channel 4 covered it instead.
Plymouth Township sure is a target rich environment for the local news stations. It's Embarrassing. The only station that hasn't been here yet is Channel 2 News. I imagine it won't be long though. "How are you Mr. LeDuff, welcome to Plymouth Township, the Treasurer's office is down the hall, and the Supervisor's is upstairs." And these clowns want a raise?
If you owned a company, and your Chief Operating Officer and your Chief Financial Officer were getting into fights at the workplace, and getting their faces plastered all over the news for these kinds of antics, would you give them a raise? Would you fire them?
Here's the sad thing. We can't fire them, we elected them. Anybody up for a good old fashioned recall?
So much for setting a salary that attracts qualified people. Plymouth Township tried it, and so far, it hasn't worked out.
So lets compare what other municipalities are doing. I was at the first two CC meetings, and I heard something interesting. They were provided a list by none other than our folks who are wanting the raise. On that list were a number of neighboring communities, and it listed them all as 40 hour positions.
They listed the positions, and every single one was listed at 40 hours. That sounds about right to me, but here's the thing. Our dedicated trio listed their hours at 60. Nancy Conzelman, Richard Reaume, and Ronald Edwards all listed their work week at 60 hours.
So if they come in at 7:00 AM, they must be leaving at 7:00 PM. That's funny, because I live right by the Township Hall, and their cars are never there that late. Nope, not even close. Lot is empty, lights are off. Are they lying? Trying to fudge the numbers a bit? I know they want that raise and benefit package, but would they be willing to lie to get it?
Maybe all three of them take work home. Maybe all three of them work 20 hours at home. Yeah, that's probably it. They are dedicated to us folks, and they take 20 hours worth of work home with them every week. I can just see Big Ron sitting at the dining room table crunching his numbers as his dinner gets cold. Well, actually I can't. I don't believe this whole 60 hour thing for a minute.
I don't believe it, but what the heck. Maybe I am wrong. If indeed I am wrong, that leads me to an even more disturbing thought. I distinctly heard them list the three jobs in Canton Township as 40 hour positions. Think about that.
If the Treasurer in Canton Township gets her job done in 40 hours, why can't Ronald Edwards get his done in 40 hours? If the Canton Township Supervisor & Clerk get their jobs done in 40 hours, why does it take ours 60?
Canton Township has 90,000 residents, and Plymouth Township has 29,000 residents. Think about that for a second.
Canton Township has 60,000 more residents, and Richard Reaume, Ronald Edwards, and Nancy Conzelman claim that it takes them 20 hours more a week to get their work done. Same work, just 60,000 less residents. Those three people made that claim, and handed it to the Compensation Commission. How in the world can that be? These three should be embarrassed to even admit such a thing.
If you owned a company and one of your workers was taking 60 hours to get a job done, and another worker did three times as much work in only 40 hours, who would get the raise, and who would be fired?
What about Plymouth Township's financial stability?
I heard the CC members talk about the financial stability of Plymouth Township being one of the factors in making their decision, so let's touch on that real quick.
Plymouth Township currently has a $606,000 loan they just took out on the DeHoCo property. They are not only going to lose over half of the land, but they also can be sued for millions in damages on top of the $606,000 which they still owe.
The fire department is understaffed, and it's infrastructure is in dire straits. By dire straits, I mean a minimum of 1-2 million dollars in replacing equipment, and this is coming very soon.
Plymouth Township just a few months ago borrowed another 2 million dollars for their golf and park projects.
They have a police lawsuit currently pending, and it could end up being larger than the roughly $300,000 that they had to pay Officer Jeffrey Felts for his settlement.
I do not see one shred of financial stability. These people have spent the taxpayer's money like a drunken sailor during fleet week. I fear that they are setting this township up for a very bad fall. They are setting us up for a fall, and they will be gone by the time it happens.
My sources are telling me that Richard Reaume and Ronald Edwards are thinking retirement after this term. In a way, that makes sense, and they are both qualified for cushy pensions. With this Compensation Commission deciding not only their salaries, but also looking at retirement benefits as well, I am guessing that Richard Reaume and Ronald Edwards are very keen on tweaking their golden parachutes this go around, and that is a gift that just keeps on giving. Unless you are a taxpayer.
In conclusion, let's look at the folks who are going to be making these decisions. One would hope that a member of this Compensation Commission was a totally unbiased person. One would hope that they can be fair and objective.
One would hope.
Compensation Commission members are appointed by a board vote. The latest three members were appointed a couple months ago by a 4-3 vote. The Treasurer, Supervisor, and Clerk all voted in favor of these three new members. I found this interesting because in most circumstances, these appointments for the various commissions almost always go through unanimously, but as I said earlier, these appointments were contentious.
The Compensation Commission members are: Brinton Baker; Sarah Gatzek; Jerry Jagacki; Randy Jost, and Ann Smith. I do not know any of these folks, and I do not know their backgrounds.
I did however make a comment to them at their second meeting. I told them that folks are watching, and I told them that while they do not have to answer me, I would be curious to know if they are friends with, or maybe worked with these folks when they were running for election, or anything that would seem improper.
None of them answered my question, but one made a statement. He basically said in so many words, that he was on a fixed income, and does not get paid for being a CC member. He also agreed with my premise that nothing should be, or look improper.
Well, being the kind of fellow that I am, I decided to do a little checking. I did some checking, and as I always do when it comes to Richard Reaume and Ronald Edwards, I decided to follow the money.
You can learn a lot about a politician by knowing who donates to his campaigns, and I learned a lot about this Compensation Commission.
Brinton Baker and his wife both donated to Richard Reaume's campaign.
Sarah Gatzek donated to both Richard Reaume's and Ronald Edward's campaigns.
Jerry Jagacki donated to Ronald Edward's campaign.
Randy Jost donated to both Richard Reaume's and Ronald Edward's campaign.
Four out of the five members of the Compensation Commission supported these people enough to donate cash to their election campaigns. One of the CC members likes them so much, that even on a fixed income, he found a way to donate.
Ladies and gentlemen, this looks improper.
These four members didn't lie to me, they just didn't answer me when I asked the question. A lie by ommission some would say. Of course Richard Reaume and Ronald Edwards would probably tell me it's none of my business. Move along. Nothing to see here.
There is one last thing that really bothers me.
A friend of mine mentioned that after the last meeting of the Compensation Commission, after those in attendance had left, he looked through the window, and there was Ronald Edwards in the meeting room talking with the CC members.
Now one wouldn't normally think anything of it, but these folks were given stern warnings about violating the Open Meetings Act by the township lawyer. The law is very clear, and one thing that is a huge no no, is talking about the commission's business while there are three of them (a quorum) present.
So with all of them there, and Ronald Edwards suddenly appearing as well, I wonder what were they talking about? Could they have been talking with Ronald Edwards about CC business? If so, that would not only be improper, but also a violation of the Open Meetings Act, which at the very least is a misdemeanor.
Of course, if they did not talk about CC business, then it was just a conversation among friends and political supporters who just happen to be the ones deciding Ronald Edward's weekly pay and retirement package.
Either way, it was very unfortunate...
The final meeting of the Compensation Commission will be Monday, October 28th at 7:00 PM at the Plymouth Township Hall. There is a portion of time set for public comments at this meeting...
