Bloggin’ on the Edge

Posted by Scott Spielman at 5:18 PM | Comments | Permanent Link

I think I now know what it would be like to work for The Weekly World News.

You know the kind of magazine I’m talking about here: lined up at supermarket checkout lanes, they boast in huge letters things like: ‘Bigfoot Saves Abandoned Baby’ or ‘Alien Children Build House Out of Grasshoppers’.

It’s not that we do stories like that or cater to sensationalism, it’s that the questions I would ask—repeatedly—as I went sent to look into a sasquatch turned good Samaritan would reflect the ones I’ve been asking lately in Van Buren Township.

“Are you serious?”

“What was that, again?”

“Come on, you’ve got to be kidding….”

Then I call someone else for confirmation. And the questions start again.

This latest one is, well, it’s just lunacy. I can’t find another non-profane word for it.

On the agenda for Tuesday night is a motion to appoint Carl McLanahan the interim director of public safety. With a successful vote, he will replace Gerry Champagne, whose appeal to be reinstated last Tuesday was rejected on a 4-3 vote from the board of trustees. Two of the people who voted against Champagne, and who will vote on McLanahan’s appointment RECEIVED CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS FROM HIM.

Here is a little bit of background. Put it in whatever order you like. The director of public safety oversees both the police and fire departments. McLanahan is a retired Detroit police sergeant. The township is currently going through—or about to start up, to be honest, I’m not sure—a process of hiring a consultant to conduct a national search for a fire chief. Capt Ken Brooks and Capt. Greg Laurain—each with decades with the Van Buren Police Department—are currently serving as interim or acting directors. They’ve done so in the past for as long as 18 months, performing such tasks as preparing budgets and all the other fun events that usually make administrators long for the days on the road. McLanahan’s wife, Brenda, sits on the Public Safety Commission.

In short, there is no pressing need to put someone in the top spot right now. Of course, there was no pressing need to show McLanahan around township hall the day Champagne was fired, either, although White admitted at the hearing last Tuesday that he did that. There was no pressing need to schedule a special meeting to appoint McLanahan in early June, either—a meeting that was posted and canceled within 24 hours because someone had enough sense to realize how inappropriate it was to put someone in Champagne’s spot before his appeals process had been completed.

This can’t happen. Not like this. I guess this is as much an appeal to the members of the board likely to vote for the appointment as it is letting the public know what’s going on.

That the issue would be placed on the agenda reveals one of two astounding character flaws to me: They’re either not smart enough to grasp the implications, or they simply don’t care.

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Posted by Scott Spielman at 1:58 PM | Comments (1) | Permanent Link

Trustee admits mistake…

To the editor and residents of Van Buren Township:

I was elected to serve on the board of trustees of this township, by you, the residents I serve. You put your trust in me to do what’s best for the township. I have failed you. Miserably.

I don’t have a problem admitting a mistake was made on my part. I cannot and will not speak for other members of the board. Those who know me best know that I am a better man than what I showed at the board meeting regarding the termination of Gerald Champagne. This letter serves as an apology to those who put me in office and to Mr. Champagne, who I feel, was unjustly terminated.

I feel a mistake was made and I would like a chance to correct that mistake. From the day I decided to run for office, I’ve said that I never was and I could never be a politician, because believe it or not, I have integrity. And that is the reason for writing this letter.

It is my hope that others reading this letter will also do the right thing. Stop back for a moment and look at yourself and think what you have done. I did and I didn’t like what I saw. I have a conscience and I believe in doing the right thing.

It is my belief that this issue will be corrected by the next regular board meeting. It’s not too late to admit a mistake was made, move forward and bring this township back together again.

I am willing to do whatever it takes to regain the trust of our residents and do what’s best for this township. I hope some of the other board members feel the same way as I do and do the right thing.

As the saying goes, “The truth will set you free.” I can live with that.

Trustee Albert H. Ostrowski

…or did he?

To the editor:
I recently voted along with six other Board members with information provided at the time regarding the termination of Public Safety Director Gerald Champagne. I talked with several individuals after the vote which gave me second thoughts on my decision and I wrote a letter regarding such, which was made public.

However, after further discussion, I received clarity on the issues I had concerns with and I am now comfortable with the original decision I made regarding the termination of Mr. Champagne.

I want to apologize to the community for writing the letter. I will have no further comment regarding this issue.

Trustee Albert H. Ostrowski

Editor’s note: the above email was received Wednesday morning, two days after the first letter and one day after the accompanying column was written.

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Posted by Scott Spielman at 12:28 PM | Comments (4) | Permanent Link

Well, this is a first.

Monday I met with Township Trustee Al Ostrowski in Van Buren Township. He had called me to say he had a change of heart over his vote to reject the reinstatement of public safety director Gerry Champagne. He said he wanted to fix it, and had a letter for the public apologizing for his mistake. (It will be published in its entirety in the paper this week, as well as on the web site.)

Even though it is apparently no longer the case.

I received an email from Ostrowski this morning, with the subject ‘decision.’ There was no content in the body of the email, just an attachment that I had to download something to convert into Word format. Here it is:

“I recently voted along with six other Board members with information provided at the time regarding the termination of Public Safety Director Gerald Champagne. I talked with several individuals after the vote which gave me second thoughts on my decision and I wrote a letter regarding such, which was made public.

However, after further discussion, I received clarity on the issues I had concerns with and I am now comfortable with the original decision I made regarding the termination of Mr. Champagne.

I want to apologize to the community for writing the letter. I will have no further comment regarding this issue.”

Um. Okay. I admit it. I’m a little dumbstruck.

Yesterday, I wrote a column praising Ostrowski for his courage. People have posted comments on this web site thanking him for his apparent change of heart, too. That is in part why I wanted to get this blog up quickly. Rather than re-write the column or put some huge asterisk on it, I’m just going to run it as is. I think it still brings up some valuable points. It’ll be in the paper this week, and perhaps posted later today.

Mr. Ostrowski said he has no further comment on the issue, and that is a further disservice to the community. I, for one, will have plenty of comment about it.

For now, though, I will stick with my editor background and tell him that he misspelled the word in the email subject line.

It’s not ‘decision.’ It’s spelled ‘INdecision.’

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Posted by Scott Spielman at 5:35 PM | Comments (2) | Permanent Link

Signs are already up, and an offiicial review is now under way.

Recall petitions were filed this week against Van Buren Township Supervisor Paul White, Clerk Leon Wright and trustees Al Ostrowski and Denise Partridge.

The language will be reviewed for clarity between July 10-17 and, if approved, petitions will be circulated to get enough signatures to put the issue on the ballot.

Patrick Brooks, a long-time Van Buren Township resident, said a number of issues caused him to file the petitions, but the hearing last week to reinstate Gerry Champagne as director of public safety forced him to action.

“I’m kind of disgusted with the whole thing. It’s not how you run an office,” he said of the issues leading up to the hearing last Tuesday.

“(White) could’ve been a little more tactful and still gotten his way,” he added of the decision to fire Champagne. “When you try to ruin a man’s reputation, that’s another thing.”

I’m going to keep this post brief, since I talked to Brooks after business hours and haven’t had a chance to talk to White yet. I think this is the first of several such stories, though. Brooks said that when he filed his papers, he was informed that he wasn’t the only one who had requested recall petitions in Van Buren Township.

“I think it’s time for the citizens of Van Buren Township to wake up and realize what’s going on,” he said. “I think a lot of them do.”

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Posted by Scott Spielman at 10:56 AM | Comments (1) | Permanent Link

I had high hopes heading into the reinstatement hearing in Van Buren Township Tuesday night.

Here was an issue—the firing of Gerry Champagne—that had clearly divided the community. Rumors were flying, people were sniping at each other; it was the perfect time for everyone to air their grievances and for someone to step forward and try to pull everything together. You know, a leader.

Unfortunately, I didn’t see that.

There was leadership there, but it didn’t come from Supervisor Paul White, who put this whole process in motion when he fired Champagne.

It came from Trustee Phil Hart, who did his best to point out the gravity of the situation and the apparent injustices involved. It came from Trustee Jeffery Jahr who, as he tried to deal with this situation, also looked down the road to talk about putting policies in place to avoid them in the future.

Those that were there, or who watched it on television, probably saw the same things I did. I’m not sure how much the cameras moved around, though, so here is a snap shot. I think it speaks to the character of those who voted against reinstating the director of public safety.

I saw White adhering to his reasons for his termination of Champagne, despite evidence that refuted it. He scowled continually and often glared into the audience.

I saw Trustee Denise Partridge staring vacantly off into space while people tried to support Champagne, or explain that an allegedly botched purchase order wasn’t botched at all, and that the township had never been without the ‘jaws of life’ for any long period of time, as White claimed, or that nobody would have sent firefighters who hadn’t fully achieved their certification out on duty crews—another claim of White’s.

I know it was late, but elected officials at the very, very, very least, owe it to residents to pay attention.

Near the end of the meeting, I saw Clerk Leon Wright be more concerned that a speaker address him as ‘Clerk Wright, like it says on the sign,’ rather than Mr. Wright, than with what the resident was saying. Come on. Are you serious?

And I saw Trustee Al Ostrowski, who for all anyone knows cast the deciding vote on this, not tell anyone why and leave the meeting without talking to anyone. (I tried to catch him, but there were police officers in my way).

People have since accused me of buying into the theatrics, so let me tell you what else I saw that I know the cameras didn’t. I saw police officers—many of them with long records of service, some with a military background, too—choked up over the thought of losing their leader and having any progress the department has made during the past four or five years put in jeopardy. These were people who still loved their jobs, despite the circumstances.

That wasn’t theatrics—or if it was, the budding film industry here in Michigan has plenty of Oscar-worthy thespians to choose from. But it wasn’t theatrics, it was passion. It was people looking to their elected officials to show a little common sense and leadership and to do the right thing.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough of that.

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