FeedsResidents, employees lash out over termination of director
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When public safety director Gerry Champagne was fired last month, it caused an outcry in Van Buren Township.An impassioned plea from residents and testimony from Van Buren Township employees fell on deaf ears early Wednesday morning.
After more than six hours of testimony, the Van Buren Township Board of Trustees voted 4-3 to reject the reinstatement of Gerald Champagne, who was fired from his position as director of public safety last month.
Supervisor Paul White, Clerk Leon Wright and trustees Al Ostrowski and Denise Partridge voted to uphold the termination, while trustees Phil Hart, Jeff Jahr and Treasurer Sharry Budd voted in support of Champagne, who had served the township for more than four years.
“I know the facts and I could see the way things are going,” said White after the meeting, which concluded it about 3:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Hart, who made the motion to reinstate Champagne, said he was appalled at the vote and the circumstances that made it necessary.
“I think it’s clear, very clear what’s happened here,” said Hart. “We had a great team and an effective leader in Gerry Champagne. There is nothing (he) has done that would require his dismissal. Nothing.”
The case against
There was some debate at the start of the proceedings on whether or not Champagne, who came to Van Buren Township more than four years ago after an 18-year career in the Romulus Police Department, was fired for just cause.
Champagne himself said he didn’t know until after the hearing got under way, when he publicly declined an ‘enhanced separation agreement’ offered to him by White earlier that day. Champagne was terminated on May 27, and White said at the hearing Tuesday night that it had only been determined ‘a couple of days’ prior to the second appeal that he had been fired for just cause.
Jahr took issue with that.
“You are alleging that he is guilty of insubordination, negligence and incompetence,” he told White. “Those are serious charges. It’s certainly going to affect (his) ability to get a job.”
He suggested coming up with a different resolution that would at least provide Champagne with the 30 days severance pay he would otherwise be entitled to.
“I submit that our attorney fees are going to be far more than that,” said Jahr.
Among the reasons White said he terminated Champagne were violations of orders, inability to resolve grievances with the fire department, and mishandled purchases and repairs to fire department equipment. He also said Champagne was insubordinate when he belittled and insulted White in an email sent to other elected officials in the township.
The overtime issue
In January, White said he requested Champagne submit a plan to reduce overtime in the police department. What he received was a four-page explanation of the causes of the overtime and a pledge to monitor it in the future. When he requested a plan again, White said he received a second report that was merely ‘wordsmithing’ the first.
“There was no action plan to reduce overtime, as requested,” said White. “All I got was the historical and causal reasons. I did not get an action plan.”
Overtime has long been an issue with the township, according to Hart and Jahr, who said they have worked to reduce it during their time on the board. Hart and Jahr are the only two trustees to be re-elected last year.
Champagne said it was one of his directives when he was hired at the end of 2004 and he had made significant strides toward it.
One of his first actions was to promote additional command officers to reduce the amount in the administrative budget, where they earned double time for excessive hours.
“We didn’t have enough command officers,” he told the board.
Part of the reason why overtime was so high last year, he added, was because of the successful millage campaign from 2007. In that, voters approved an additional mill for police and fire services—increasing the overall levy to 4 mills. The goal was to increase police patrols—from three to five—and staffing at the fire stations, ensuring they were fully staffed with paid-on call firefighters.
The vote was approved in 2007, but the taxes levied in 2008, so the previous board of trustees would not authorize any new hires until the first of last year.
“(Residents) were expecting services, but we didn’t have the manpower,” said Champagne. “The board didn’t feel it was appropriate to hire anyone before the tax kicked in.”
Once it did, the new employees it funded needed to be trained, which is a lengthy process. It takes 17 weeks to train a police officer, according to Champagne, which means that the township had to pay filed training officers for the extra work. And there was a lot of it.
“I barely had enough officers to run a three-beat system, but I had to run a five-beat system,” said Champagne. “I barely had enough people to staff one fire station, but I had to staff two.”
Other reasons for the overtime are contractual. Police officers cannot be called in to help out a shift unless they stay for four or 12 hours, according to their contract. Township officers investigated four homicides last year, provided escort service to presidential motorcades and provided additional staff members for events like the Belleville Strawberry Fest and the fireworks display. Champagne told White that comparing police overtime to other departments—such as the parks and recreation department—was unfair because members of other departments are not typically called in on off days.
“It’s not comparing apples to apples,” he said.
Despite these challenges, Champagne said his department was always under budget.
In 2006, his department came in at $275,000 under budget. In 2007, it was $324,000. Last year, the department was $816,000 under budget.
This year he said he had managed to reduce overtime every month. In January it was down 42 percent. In February, 31 percent. In March, it was down 47 percent. It climbed in April—about 48 percent—but that was because the department took part in grant-funded rapid response training. Still, he said the department has shown an overall reduction of 53 percent in 2009.
“I understand there’s going to be overtime in the police department; I understand that,” said White. “I also understand that we need to reduce it.”
“It looked like he was doing a good job,” said Jahr. “To give an order and then say he was deliberately violating it…I don’t think it’s fair to him.”
Unequipped?
White also claimed that, due to a department mishap, the Jaws of Life equipment was out of commission for a month. He pointed to repair orders from September, 2008. White was voted into office in November.
That receipt, however, showed that the apparatus was picked up for repairs on Sept. 4 and returned on Sept. 5. Members of the fire department also informed the board Tuesday night that they have four of them, so they were never without the equipment.
“I don’t know where you’re getting your information from, Paul, but you weren’t even supervisor then,” Jahr remarked.
White said a botched purchase order left members of the fire department without vital equipment, too. He pointed to a request to buy boots, arctic coats and other items to equip a technical rescue team that started up in 2007.
Angela Hayes, a 13-year member of the department, said that was because those who volunteered for the team were told that some of the equipment would be funded through grants. They didn’t know, even as they entered their training, how much of it would have to be funded by the township.
“We were just waiting to see if it’d be purchased by the team,” Hayes told the board.
Champagne also pointed out that if he had simply signed off on the purchase agreement, the township would have wasted money.
“If I had just blindly signed the purchase agreement—like some people on the board wanted me to—we would have bought equipment for four people when two of them had already backed out (of the team).
Grievances, or sour grapes?
White said Champagne showed an inability to resolve grievances with the fire department, even though none had been filed against him.
He referred to an issue that came up earlier this year, when a member of the department brought up concerns that probationary firefighters were scheduled for duty crews in which they were improperly trained.
The firefighter in question sent the email to White, rather than Champagne or any of his superiors.
“Had that firefighter not sent that email to me, we would’ve had untrained firefighters on that duty crew,” White said.
Budd pointed out that she, Wright, White and Champagne had met on the issue.
“I don’t know why this is an issue,” she said. “We resolved it.”
Champagne said the firefighters in question were near the end of their training and had time to complete it before they would have been on the duty crew, to begin with. He said he would never send out a crew that hadn’t completed their certification. Ron Folks, the fire battalion chief who made out the schedule, agreed.
Plenty of support
Residents, township employees—including union representatives and police officers—showed up en masse to support Champagne, who had never been disciplined during his career before.
Frank McCurdy, who met Champagne when McCurdy was a teen in Romulus, credited him for helping him turn his life around.
“I was hanging out with a bad crowd,” McCurdy said. “He took time with me, (visited) just about every other day.
“I looked up to him like a father, McCurdy added. “I probably wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for him.”
“I’m disturbed at some of the comments tonight,” put in Samuel James, a 20-year law enforcement officer. “I didn’t hear any reason for him to be fired tonight.”
“I’ve worked for a lot of bosses, but none like this man,” said Capt. Ken Brooks, a 30-year veteran of the Van Buren Police Department. “If you lose this man, we’ve all lost.”
Capt. Greg Laurain, currently sharing the interim public safety duties with Brooks, echoed the thought.
“This is not about one person,” he said. “This is about the Van Buren Township Police Department. It’s about the community of Van Buren Township.”
Rick Edwards was appointed to the board of trustees during the 1980s after a recall election. He had this to say:
“I cannot begin to tell you how angry and embarrassed I am at this board.” He said the situation was ripe for a lawsuit and he was not optimistic about the outcome. “You’re going to lose,” he told the board. “You’re going to cost me money.”
Dennis Brooks, a 27-year member of the force and an active union member, was outraged.
“Our department is being destroyed. It is being torn apart piece by piece every day that man is not at the helm.
“I may suffer for saying this,” he added, “but I say: ‘Bring it on. I am a union fighter and I will not back down to anyone.”
Others voiced their disappointment with the board, and White in particular.
“I did vote for change in the township—but not this change,” said C.J. Marshall. “I’m a little disappointed in what’s going on in the township. The only incompetence I’ve seen is from this board.
“Unfortunately the change I voted for is going to cost us taxpayers,” he added, as the murmurs of ‘recall’ increased in frequency and volume. “There’s going to be repercussions for this.”
Board defends actions.
Partridge, a former township employee and union member, said she voted against reinstating Champagne in part because of an investigation he launched into improper computer use that showed township employees—including White and Wright—visited an internet forum. Partridge said White didn’t authorize that investigation.
“There was a chain of command and I don’t believe he followed the chain of command,” she said.
Wright said the communication rift between the two men had grown too wide.
“I don’t believe anyone should be forced to work with someone that doesn’t respect them,” he said. “I think it’d be remiss to force someone to work with someone else.”
Ostrowski, a former animal control officer for Van Buren Township, did not say at the meeting why he voted against Champagne. He left afterward without comment and has not yet responded to requests for comment.
What’s next?
Champagne said he was still mulling his options.
“I was hired to do a job, to see to the best interests of Van Buren Township—not just the police department or the fire department, but the entire township,” said Champagne.
“This is all about miscommunication, someone who would not talk to me since day one. Mr. White has never come to me. What it became after that was an attack, not just on me, but on the police department,” he added.
“I’m still willing to work on this, but it takes two people to do that.”
