After more than six hours of raucous discussion, the Van Buren Township Board of Trustees voted 4-3 to name Carl McClanahan as interim public safety director for a period not to exceed nine months.
McClanahan, who retired three years ago as a sergeant in the Detroit Police Department, will earn $89,000 annual salary, prorated, in the at-will position.
Supervisor Paul White said until he can bring forth a candidate as a permanent public safety director, McClanahan has agreed to serve.
When asked if he would apply for the permanent position, McClanahan said he would.
The 4-3 vote to hire him was along the same lines as the recent firing of former Public Safety Director Jerry Champagne: Ayes – Supervisor Paul White, Clerk Leon Wright, and Trustees Denise Partridge and Al Ostrowski. Nays — Treasurer Budd and Trustees Phil Hart and Jeff Jahr.
The appointment hinges on a successful background investigation and medical and psychological tests.
McClanahan has lived in Andover Farms in Van Buren Township for seven years with his wife Brenda, who also is a retired Detroit Police Sergeant and elected member of the Van Buren Public Schools Board of Education.
He has 24 years of law enforcement experience and holds a master’s degree in public administration.
Supervisor White read a long list of McClanahan’s credentials to underscore the reason for his selection.
During the workshop session on Monday afternoon, Treasurer Budd said she wanted to have the captains lead the department while a search was made for a new public safety director because the police department is wounded and has to heal from within.
“I agree with Treasurer Budd,” McClanahan said. “Whenever an employee is dismissed, the pain they feel is equal to a death in the family. It will take time.”
During the workshop session on Monday, there was some discussion concerning the brevity of the minutes of the June 23 special meeting held to hear Champagne’s appeal in open session.
On Tuesday, those minutes were removed from the agenda so Budd, Jahr and Hart can add what wording they feel is missing. Since the eight-and-a-half-hour meeting was “unprecedented” they felt the minutes should say more.
Shortly after the Tuesday meeting started, Trustee Hart hijacked the session by saying many people wrote him e-mails and letters and he wanted the people to read their letters during the correspondence part of the meeting. He said township attorney Patrick McAuley said it would be appropriate for the letters to be read during this time.
That departure from usual procedure lasted two hours as people got up to read letters and Hart read one letter, most criticizing the four members of the board who fired Champagne.
Former Planning Commission member George Deverich grabbed the attention of the crowd by reading a letter about how the public was scared into voting for the last public safety millage by people who said the sky is falling. He also disagreed with the plan to write 600 tickets per month to raise money for the department.
“Jerry Champagne talked chain of command, but ignored it,” Deverich said, adding if Champagne couldn’t support Supervisor White, he should have resigned. “It was the honest thing to do, like Bryce Kelley.”
Deverich said, “I, for one, feel the public safety department is out of control and I would not be in support of the hiring of any new police officers.”
He said in this economy, if cuts need to be made, the township should start with the department with the highest budget. His remarks were met with applause.
More than a dozen letters were read, but then the meeting turned into people on the board and in the audience asking questions of the township attorney on the ethics policy (White said McClanahan donated $25 to his campaign last summer and Wright said McClanahan donated $100 to his campaign last summer), how to make a motion to get Champagne reinstated, the Open Meetings Act, and other subjects.
Champagne got up several times to clarify subjects and to say that McClanahan wasn’t as qualified as his former command officers. He pushed into line to speak ahead of others.
Former Supervisor Cindy King stood to defend her father after Clerk Wright said her father told him to go back to where he came from and “started chanting like a monkey.” Wright said he wanted to put that on the record.
King said, “I do not own my father. He’s an independent person.” She kept talking after her three minutes was up and was called out of order and police officers had to escort her to her seat.
The business part of the meeting began around 9:25 p.m.
After the item to appoint McClanahan to the position was discussed at length, Budd made a motion, seconded by Hart to postpone the item to the next agenda, so it could be in a form more suitable to what she wanted.
That vote failed 4-3.
Hart said he would like to question McClanahan at the podium, but while McClanahan stood there waiting, Hart ignored him completely and asked questions of other board members until McClanahan took his seat.
Comments on this agenda item started at 10:50 p.m. and lasted until about 1:20 a.m., when a vote to postpone to the next meeting failed 4-3.
At about 1:28 a.m., Hart made a motion to try to make White and Wright abstain from the vote because they took small campaign contributions from McClanahan. Budd seconded and the vote failed 4-3.
At 1:34 a.m. the vote to approve the appointment of McClanahan was made by Partridge and seconded by Wright. It passed 4-3 and the meeting adjourned soon thereafter.