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21
Jul 2010
The writing on the wall
Posted by Scott Spielman
at 1:51 PM | Comments
It probably came as no surprise to anyone watching the regular goings-on in Van Buren Township that Carl McClanahan was voted in as permanent public safety director Tuesday night.
The fact that it wasn’t a unanimous vote probably didn’t surprise anyone, either. It was 4-2 rather than 4-3 because Trustee Phil Hart was away on business.
It’s no surprise because Township Supervisor Paul White tried to do it before, including during the same week that former Public Safety director Gerry Champagne was fired (only to learn that—gasp—there was an actual procedure to follow). This one was written on the wall long ago.
I didn’t attend the meeting, but following up afterward I found the same kinds of reactions I saw while watching the controversy Champagne’s firing caused. The same people were frustrated about a process; White claimed a victory that was, in my opinion, not there.
He said it validated the initial appointment of McClanahan to the interim public safety director.
That’s not the way I see it. If it validated the appointment, it would have been a unanimous decision. Champagne wouldn’t have had an additional $450,000 to add to his nest egg after his lawsuit and the four still-pending lawsuits would have already been dismissed without merit.
But White has shown in the past that he doesn’t care about that stuff. He’ll do what he wants, justify it some way and not bother himself with building a true consensus among his board because he still has the three votes necessary to back him up.
I am not typically a conspiracy theorist, but I think this whole mess was flawed from the start.
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