The Van Buren Township Board of Trustees is being asked by its Public Safety Committee to direct Public Safety Director Carl McClanahan to provide monthly reports on police and fire activities.
At its regular meeting June 1, the committee voted 4-2 to recommend to the board that police and/or fire briefings be standard agenda items for monthly Public Safety Committee meetings.
Voting no were Richard Wardwell and committee chairman Michael Miazga.
Voting yes were Raymond Bailey, Regina Miller, Diane Madigan, and Ramone Crowe.
Trustee Phil Hart, who serves as liaison from the board and is a voting member of the committee, was absent.
Miazga arrived after the meeting had started and declined to take over leadership of the meeting from vice chairman Ramone Crowe, who had started the meeting on time.
Madigan had asked to place the recommendation on the agenda, saying in 2008-9, 50% of the committee meetings were cancelled for lack of agenda items.
The reports from the police and fire departments gave the committee important information and made sure there was always something on the agenda to discuss, she said.
At the April 6 Public Safety Committee meeting McClanahan said he decided to do away with police and fire briefings for the meetings since they are so time-consuming to prepare and there is “no requirement to do that.” He said, “Everyone knows the Public Safety Department is running well as shown over the last year and two months”
Instead, McClanahan and Loyer started taping reports without an audience to put on Cable Channel 12.
Madigan said she didn’t see why they would take the reports out of a public meeting, where members of the audience and the committee could ask questions, and put them in a separate room where the public is not allowed to ask questions.
Madigan said the township wants to pass the renewal of its public safety millage and wants transparency, so it doesn’t make sense to stop the public reports.
Miller agreed, saying the public can ask questions and get accurate information if the reports are given live in public.
Miller recalled that back in January, McClanahan said one of his goals is community outreach and building community relations with neighborhood watch and other projects.
“This is one more level to reach out to the community,” Miller said, adding she would like to hear from the community on the subject.
She said if it is a time issue, “We’ll have to look at it…”
A member of the audience pointed out McClanahan has to prepare for the taped reports, as he would for the live reports.
Resident Alan Babosh, at a previous meeting, asked that the meetings be streamed on the internet, so whether people had cable service or not wouldn’t be an issue. At the time, McClanahan said the township didn’t have the capability for that and it would be something for the future.
On June 1, McClanahan told Babosh, “The future is here … Our meetings are going to be streamed on computer.” He said people now can click on a prompt on the township web site. McClanahan said the stream of that evening’s meeting could be the following week. [As of June 3, the only meeting available for streaming was a planning commission meeting.]
Resident Cortez Brown said he liked the reports in person, adding Community Policing Officer Adam Byrd brought a lot of excitement with his reports. Officer Byrd also has stopped giving reports and no longer sits at the committee table in uniform. He regularly offers input, identifying himself as a private citizen.
Brown said he was not in favor of separate briefings apart from the Public Safety Committee meetings.
“I don’t want us to get in the position of having to FOIA for everything,” he said referring to the Freedom of Information Act.
Resident John Delaney said when the reports are given at the meetings people in the audience can raise their hands and ask questions and not have to wait a month until after they’ve seen the cable report.
“I have yet to see it on cable,” Delaney said.
Resident Sandy Croswell said she does not have cable and she enjoys coming to the meeting and asking questions if she has to.
Officer Byrd, who identified himself as a resident from Mission Pointe, said he prefers briefings the way they are now, referring to the way his boss Director McClanahan has decided to do them.
Byrd criticized the committee for not serving its purpose. He said in the past Director McClanahan gave a presentation and he was “badgered by committee members.” He complained that the committee gave no recommendations to the board of trustees.
Byrd said people have the ability to ask whatever questions they have from police personnel since the officers’ email addresses are listed on the township web site.
CeeJay Marshall noted that he agreed with having the reports on Channel 12 where the director could give his report without being badgered and “asked nonsensical questions.”
Madigan pointed out that the director is a member of this committee and McClanahan added “or his designee.”
“If I was required to give a briefing, I’d have nothing to say,” McClanahan said, explaining since the meeting is on the first Wednesday of the month, the data from the previous month is still being gathered.
“My schedule is such that I can’t guarantee that time [to prepare a report]. It’s not impossible, because I’ve done it before…” he conceded.
“I don’t want anyone to think we’re restricting information … We’re being transparent…” McClanahan said.
Miller said McClanahan could send another officer and that officer’s talent could be showcased. And, the information could be given a month later.
“Badgering … It’s unfortunate some people look at it that way,” Miller said, noting it’s important to let people ask questions.
“We are a stellar community. We have stellar police and fire departments,” Miller said. “I don’t see any benefits to taking [reports] away. It’s better to hear it at the meeting that having to dig for it and ask my question later … If you’re doing it for the internet, go one step further… By taking away the police and fire briefings …”
“I’m not taking them away,” McClanahan insisted, saying it’s difficult to follow the power points he gave on TV and video has a higher quality.
Miller said if it’s difficult for people to understand the power points, he could make it more simplistic. Instead of long lists of bullet points, there could be more concise graphics.
“That information needs to be getting out to the public,” Miller said.
“This is getting out to the public,” McClanahan insisted.
Crowe said maybe the briefings could be every two months or quarterly.
“We can’t force him to do briefings,” Crowe said. “We can recommend to the board of trustees and they can…”
He said the committee might get more people to its meetings and more audience participation if they know the briefings will be at that meeting.
In other business at the June 1 meeting, the committee:
• Agreed to set up a work/study session at a future date to consider a noise ordinance, as requested by Officer Byrd. Miazga was the lone no vote;
• Recommended that an officer or representative of the director attend that work/study meeting to offer professional expertise and McClanahan said that wouldn’t be a problem. Miazga again cast the only no vote;
• In response to Madigan’s New Business item on the agenda, heard McClanahan give a brief overview of overtime issues for the fire department. He also compared fire department response times: current figures, 5.6 minutes for the North station and 7.9 minutes for the South station. This compares to 5.8 and 6.9 in 2008 and 5.8 and 6.8 in 2009;
• Heard Madigan suggest studying the effects of a full-time department on response time. Byrd challenged her to do the research first on response times. In a confrontational tone he said, “You want the director to give reports. Maybe the public safety committee can do a presentation”;
• Heard Delaney suggest that the committee study the $200,000 Kelly & Stone report done in 2004 to give it something to go by;
• Heard Miller state: “My concern is that we have this millage coming up…” and response times are an issue. “I think it’s important that we talk about this … and whether we should have more police and fire fighters in place.” She said with the 23% growth in population in the last census, “How long can we continue to provide service, safely?” She agreed that the Kelly & Stone report could be dusted off and studied;
• Heard resident Dave Frankling discuss overtime for fire fighters: “They don’t get ANY,” while police officers who are cross-trained, working next to the fire fighters, get time and a half for doing the same job. He said according to his figures the public safety department (including police and fire) are getting $620,000 in overtime. He said police get $120,000 in overtime and fire department is paying $500,000 in overtime – but not to straight fire fighters. McClanahan disputed his figures, but did not have the figures. Frankling said if the fire department hired more fire fighters they wouldn’t have to pay police officers for overtime; and
• Heard Crowe say the proposed leash law put together by the committee in a work study session has been sent on to the township board, but McClanahan said the board doesn’t have anything to do with it. Crowe said there was some language put together and it was sent on to the trustees or attorney or somewhere in the township.