VBT Clerk Wright comments on law suit, $650,000 settlement

Van Buren Township Clerk Leon Wright is the township’s representative to the Michigan Municipal Risk Management Authority (MMRMA), the insurance group covering VBT.
According to its website, MMRMA is a public entity self-insurance pool that provides liability and property coverage to municipal governmental entities across Michigan.
Clerk Wright said after the $650,000 settlement was approved in the Civil Rights law suit brought by Paul Blevins and his tenants, the MMRMA is requiring some best-practices reports from those directors involved at the township.
Wright said he had a meeting with Public Safety Director Greg Laurain, DPW Director James Taylor, the new Planning and Economic Development Director Ron Akers, and his new Deputy Director Matthew Best.
The directors will be submitting their best-practices initiatives to MMRMA and in January there will be a class on risk management practices to eliminate lawsuits and accidents.
Wright said the MMRMA has a Stop-Loss program and there is a total deductible of $75,000 for the year included in VBT’s annual rate.
He said the MMRMA insurance premium this year is $486,000 and $257,000 has been reimbursed – and $157,000 of that is what was used for BS&A accounting software. He said the reimbursements come to members when the money MMRMA has invested makes a profit to share.
He said just like with car insurance, if you have an accident, your insurance cost goes up, so this settlement will affect the township’s insurance rate.
Wright said with this law suit and others, the MMRMA adjuster sets the limits and when the court decides, the two sides go to mediation.
“Insurance companies don’t like to go to trial,” Wright said, noting originally the plaintiffs wanted $1.2 million and then it was down to $850,000 and a stalemate.
“Both sides wanted to solve the case and not go to trial,” Wright said, adding the sides met and came to the $650,000 figure, which is “the maximum the MMRMA would pay.”
Attorney for the plaintiffs John Day said they decided to settle because going to trial is expensive and, while his clients could have received a bigger settlement, you always take a chance with a jury because you never know what they will do.
Wright said at the end there were five attorneys for the plaintiffs. He referred to the two attorneys at DiPietro & Day, their co-counsel for federal court Hugh M. Davis and Cynthia Heenan, and the attorney for Blevins’ ex-girlfriend, who withdrew from the original suit and sought her own counsel.
“We have to agree there were some issues that were not addressed,” Wright said of the situation with Blevins.
“Some steps were dropped,” Wright said. “He doesn’t work here any more,” he said of the former Director of Planning and Economic Development Arthur Mullen, who was fired.
“The board isn’t happy and has initiated steps so it doesn’t happen again,” Wright said.
He said he believes Mullen made mistakes because of his newness in the position and not having experience.
“I think some feelings got involved,” Wright said referring to the personal feelings of the supervisor’s former assistant Karin LaMothe and Mullen about Bevins’ alternative lifestyle.
“They didn’t quite follow the guidelines,” he said.
Wright said the board agreed to the settlement at its last meeting and the paperwork was signed Sept. 18 by the plaintiffs. The order of dismissal with prejudice and without costs, interest or attorney fees was signed Nov. 9 by U.S. District Court Judge Arthur J. Tarnow.
The settlement was signed by the township’s MMRMA attorney Ethan Vinson on behalf of defendants Arthur Mullen, Judy Fields, James Taylor, VBT Police Lt. John Doe and the Charter Township of Van Buren, “denying the allegations of any wrongdoing or breach of duty.”
Vinson also is the township’s attorney for contract negotiations.
This settlement had no confidentiality agreement so both sides are free to discuss the case and settlement.
Wright said working on best practices is the only thing the township can do going forward.
When asked why the township took six months to turn on the water to the property, Wright said, “That baffles me. I wouldn’t know.”
He said Blevins and his attorney were meeting with the supervisor to get the water turned on.
“If I had known, I think I would have stepped in,” Wright said. “I had no awareness of that before it happened.”
He said usually the supervisor handles issues and the board doesn’t know about them until she sends out an update.
He said with Supervisor Linda Combs taking eight weeks off to be with her husband who is very ill, he and Treasurer Sharry Budd are taking on the supervisor’s job.
“As long as she designates someone to do her duties, she can step back,” Wright said. “She’s not doing anything wrong.”
He said the elected officials have no set hours and they are different than township employees. The elected officials are working for the people, he said, and if the people don’t like how you’re doing the job, they throw you out.
Wright said the building department is now 180 degrees different than it was in the past, with Akers and Best very experienced.
“And, the best thing is, they listen to us,” Wright said.
Wright said when Bevins’ new septic tank was approved by the county, “At that point the water should have been turned back on.”
He said the police officers should not have evicted the people from the property without the proper paperwork. They evicted using a letter from Mullen as their direction.
He said Director Laurain is doing an investigation into how that happened. And, the Lt. John Doe in the lawsuit is named that because no one really knows who directed the police officers to follow directions of the building department.
“Before we do something that extreme, it should go through the top person,” he said of the water cut-off.
Wright said there are two more pending lawsuits against the township: one by VBT Fire Fighter Anthony Karver, who was fired, and one by VBT Traffic Officer Carrie Traster, who suffered severe head injuries in an accident on duty when her airbag didn’t deploy.
He said the township made an offer to settle with Karver, but that was turned down. And, the attorney in the Traster case is in the process of gathering information.