Bloggin’ on the Edge

Posted by Scott Spielman at 4:58 AM | Comments (15)

Tonight I watched a bully ruin a man’s life.

The bully in this case would be Van Buren Township Supervisor Paul White. The man, Gerald Champagne.

White had little to say at about 3:30 a.m. Wednesday morning, after a six-hour appeals hearing fell short of reinstating Champagne to the position of public safety director. White fired him from the post on May 27.

During the hearing, Champagne, union heads, department heads and public safety personnel refuted all of the ‘charges’ White leveled against the former director as justification for terminating him with cause. Residents lined up in support.

“I’m curious,” I asked White after the meeting ended, “why didn’t any of that testimony change your mind?” He was behind the clerk’s counter in township hall at the time, and the metal bars they roll down after hours separated us.

“Because I know the facts,” he said. “I can see where things are going.”

“But you heard people refute those facts,” I said.

“You mean the residents?” Was the response.

“The residents…you had union people, department heads, public safety personnel, a fire battalion chief…”

White murmured something and I leaned in and asked him to repeat it.

“They were all friends of his,” he repeated.

“So, you think the township employees were lying to you on his behalf? You think they were being disingenuous?”

“I don’t know if they thought they were being disingenuous,” White said. “I think they believed what they said. They have convictions, just like you or I have convictions…”

Hold on there, I thought. I have convictions, but I have an open mind, too, and I have the ability to admit I’m wrong. I didn’t see either of those in White. Not during the hearing, not after.

Citing the late hour, White excused himself, saying he’d talk to me later. Because it was already past 3:30 a.m., I let him go. But I shook my head, because what I had witnessed was the biggest miscarriage of justice and the largest example of complete stupid bull-headedness that I have ever had the misfortune of witnessing.

Champagne, fired from his position last month, had requested an appeal of the termination in front of the complete board of trustees. He had already appealed unsuccessfully to the full-time electeds, White, Clerk Leon Wright and Treasurer Sharry Budd, on a 2-1 vote. Budd voted to reinstate Champagne.

There has been plenty of discussion about the strained relationship between White and Champagne, and suggestions that it originated in the support some police officers gave to White’s challenger in the election last year. It was clear Tuesday night (and Wednesday morning) that the two weren’t going to resolve their differences, even though Champagne showed plenty of evidence that he had tried.

White did not, in my opinion, present any compelling evidence that Champagne should be fired. What he did suggest was refuted by township employees and documents. Residents, along with trustees Phil Hart and Jeffrey Jahr, made an impassioned plea to the remaining board members to vote to reinstate Champagne. In spite of everything, the vote failed on a 4-3 margin. Common sense lost and the bullies won.

This is bad news for the township. The way it was handled, the way the will of the residents—not to mention the will of the long-serving employees of the public safety department—were ignored spells difficult times for Van Buren and its residents. I will have more to say on this, and a news story posted later on today, once my head has cleared a bit.

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