VBT millage committee presents town hall to convince voters

An hour-long, town hall gathering to encourage voters to approve the 6.5-millage for Van Buren Township Public Safety was held Sept. 29 at Fire Hall #2 on Belleville Road.
The format was to present promotions of different activities of the police and fire departments, showing how important the work is. The second half of the meeting had VBT Supervisor Linda Combs reading selected questions written on cards by members of the audience.
The whole meeting was being recorded by at least three video cameras and one still camera for use in the commercials to be run on the website supporting the millage and, perhaps, on YouTube.
Camera tripods and cameramen took up the front row of a section of the audience and audience members had to move to get a better view.
One question: “Why does VBT not seem to enforce ordinance violations?” was answered by Public Safety Director Greg Laurain.
He said two years ago they reorganized and the police department took over the ordinance department. He said right now they have 1.5 ordinance officers who try to get people to follow the ordinances. He said one ordinance officer is out on medical, so they only have one person on duty. He said Police Chief Jason Wright oversees the ordinance work and they are looking at 2017 for more in the budget for ordinance.
Another question: “Do all police officers have body cams?”
Director Laurain said, “No. It’s a new tool for police, from the last three to four years… We’ve been researching this for the last three years.”
He said each patrol car has video recorders and, “We embrace the body camera … but there are so many manufacturers.” Also, the technology is changing. He said his department is networking with Canton and Livonia, who don’t have body cams.
Director Laurain said there are redacting issues and whether to leave them on all the time. Also, the storage of data is very expensive. “That’s the biggest thing,” he said.
He said in Grand Rapids they had to pay $900,000 alone for storage.
Another question: “If the millage doesn’t pass, will response time go up?”
“It will affect everything across the board in public safety,” Laurain said. “… That’s why it’s so important to maintain.”
Earlier in the meeting, Laurain said the national average for response time is 11 minutes and VBT response for both emergency and non-emergency is 7.46 minutes.
Laurain said the VBT Public Safety Department has 40 sworn police officers, 42 fire fighters, 10 dispatchers, and 2 ordinance officers.
Last year, when the 6.5-mill proposal failed, there were immediate threats to cut jobs in public safety. But, that blew over after a big hubbub.
Clerk Leon Wright said the public safety budget now is at $8 million with a dedicated millage of just 4 mills.
The 6.5 mills proposed will bring about $6.4 million when it is first levied in winter 2017, so the township board still will have to add more funds for the department budget, he said.
Clerk Wright said the township operates on just .9 mills plus landfill tipping fees.
“There are obligations coming that the township is going to be responsible for,” Clerk Wright said, referring to the Visteon bond shortfall in 2019.
“A decision was made in 2003 to move the township forward,” Wright said of the township board vote to pledge the full faith and credit of Van Buren Township to pay bonds to help construct Visteon Village.
“The LDFA [Local Development Finance Authority] is not collecting enough to pay for the bonds,” Wright said, noting the last 12 years of the bond have balloon payments.
While the township expected growth to provide taxes to pay for the bonds, in 2007-8 the bottom fell out of the economy, he said. An appeal to the Tax Tribunal resulted in less money in taxes.
“Yes, the 6.5 mills will be dedicated to public safety, but they will still need some help,” said VBT Treasurer Sharry Budd. “They will get money from the landfill for extra things. They may not get a whole lot more, but the millage will be dedicated to them.”
Another question: “Can the township guarantee public safety will continue on the same level for the next 5-10 years if the millage fails?”
Police Chief Wright said, “If the money is not there, I don’t know how I would pay for this … service. If the board doesn’t give me the same amount of money? I work with what I have.”
“If it doesn’t pass, what is going to happen?” asked VBT Police Officer Adam Byrd, who is running the website promoting the millage and putting together newspaper ads.
“The new board will make the decision,” he said, noting the more than $4 million public safety uses above its dedicated four mills is depleting the general fund.
“Our community cannot survive continually depleting the general fund,” Officer Byrd said.
At a recent township board meeting, Officer Byrd said if the township gets an emergency manager, he wouldn’t be able to touch a dedicated millage, but could otherwise make cuts to public safety.
Another question: “Are there still going to be blended rates?”
Police Sgt. Marc Abdilla, a blended rate officer and also president of the fire fighters union, said, “This is being phased out.” He said once there were 10-11 blended rate officers, but now there are 5 police officers and one ordinance officer under blended rates.
“We’re not going to hire any more,” he said. “I was able to work 144 hours a month in the fire department on top of working in the police department. This creates a problem for the budget. Recently we have negotiated and cut our hours to 60 hours a month from 144. We understand the problem on the budget.”
Medina Atchinson asked what the benefits to the township were for Sgt. Abdilla to be a blended rate officer and Abdilla said he is a professional who can do two jobs and use those skill sets wherever he is. And, only one person is being paid health and retirement benefits.
“If there are two people on a truck and I’m there [as a police officer], I would be able to work the truck and the two fire fighters can go in and fight the fire,” he said, referring to fire fighting rules. “Every second counts because a fire doubles in size every minute.”