VBT Board to decide how much millage to put on November ballot

Van Buren Township will be asking voters to approve millage to run the Public Safety Department. If more millage is approved, it could turn the paid-per-call fire department into a full-time department and get rid of the expensive blended-rate employees.
The question(s) will be on the November ballot, but how much officials will be asking for is yet to be determined. They agree 7 years is a good time span, up from the 5 years of the current millage.
It could be:
• Simply 4 mills, which would be a renewal of what is expiring at the end of 2016 – but officials say this isn’t enough;
• Or, it could be 6.25 or 6.5 mills (which is the 4 expiring mills plus an extra 2.25 or 2.5 mills);
• Or, it could be two questions: 1. renewal of 4 mills and/or 2. An additional 2.25 or 2.5 mills.
On Tuesday afternoon, the township board discussed the issue for two hours in a special work/study session, with input from a half dozen members of the audience.
Then, the board asked Lianne Claire, executive assistant to the supervisor, to write up ballot language for board members to consider at next Monday’s work/study session. The decision on what to put on the ballot is expected to be made officially at the July 7 regular board meeting.
Supervisor Linda Combs said Claire has written the legal wording for many ballot proposals in the past and Claire offered to write this up for the township.
The board has to have this language to Wayne County by the Aug. 11 deadline for the Nov. 3 ballot.
Supervisor Combs started the discussion on the millage question by noting the Public Safety Millage of 4 mills expires at the end of next year. She said the board was trying to decide how to handle this and board members would like to put a question on the November ballot.
Combs said a community committee has been formed to work on the issue. It’s up to the board to decide whether to ask just for a renewal of the 4 mills only or to ask for more.
She said the 4 mills, which brings in a little over $3.4 million, covered less than half of the Public Safety Department’s $9 million budget for last year.
Trustee Phil Hart said, “I think we all need to understand that the Public Safety Department includes police, fire, dispatch and animal control.”
Jason Wright, Public Safety Department Deputy Director-Police, said the former animal control officer went to the water department for a short time and came back on Monday.
Wright said since ACO Bob Queener came back they are reviewing the job of animal control/ordinance officer and looking at numbers. While Queener was gone, the department used Romulus Animal Control to do most of Queener’s ACO jobs. Wright also said the police department needed about $180,000 of technology equipment replaced.
But, it was the fire department that came under the most discussion. Trustee Hart said the board has been looking at documentation that shows the fire department has become a training ground. VBT trains fire fighters and then they leave to take full-time jobs elsewhere. It costs about $13,295 per fire fighter for training, equipment and uniforms, and other steps to get them on board, he said.
Clerk Leon Wright said he took the proposed budget and noted the $13,295 per fire fighter and found 28 had been trained and left. He figured it cost $345,675 to train those who didn’t stay.
Fire Chief Dan Besson took issue with that figure, saying some fire fighter candidates come with credentials and don’t cost that much to get on board. Others are eliminated early in the process, so the cost of those candidates is minimal.
But, Chief Besson’s proposal is for a full-time department with 15 full-time fire fighters, at a cost of $622,050, plus 16 permanent part-time fire fighters, at a cost of $284,361. When other costs were figured in, it appeared the fire department would need $1.9 million in its budget.
The blended-rate officers, who work at a full-time job in the police department or ordinance department, would not be able to work in this reorganized fire department because a new township policy prohibits employees form working in more than one department.
The discussion focused on the township not having enough money to keep the police and fire services at their high quality since the recession of 2008 and the resulting downturn in tax collections.
Nothing has been set aside in savings for a new fire truck, but that could happen if 6.5 mills were passed, Combs said.
Former VBT Supervisor Paul White said for a $100,000 home, the 6.5 mills would cost about $650 in taxes, which is $250 more than is paid now for the 4 mills. He said many residents of VBT are senior citizens whose income does not go up, implying this would be a hardship.
Bob McKenna said from the audience, “Go for the whole enchilada. If it fails, we have another chance and we go into action.”
Clerk Leon Wright said if the millage doesn’t pass on the second try, then drastic cuts would be in order, such as laying off two police officers and going back to a volunteer fire department.