The Manchester Enterprise
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Group wants police services on ballot
Committee given Sept. 25 deadline to gather signatures
By Austen Smith
and Steve Ricci, Heritage Newspapers
PUBLISHED: September 8, 2005
A newly formed group is making a concerted effort to collect 15,000 signatures in order to bring a controversial county plan to eliminated subsidies for sheriff's patrols to a public vote.
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Scio Township Trustee Chuck Ream is spearheading the group, called the Citizens to Save Our Sheriff's Department or S.O.S. Committee, which is attempting to gather the signatures before Sept. 25, the deadline for the committee to turn in the petition to put the issue on a ballot.
The S.O.S. Committee also comprises residents and township officials from across the county, and has the backing of some officials in the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office.
The new group held a press conference on Sept. 2 at the Scio Township Hall, there were a number of township supervisors who attended the conference.
"It was government at work and that's a good thing," said Ron Mann who is the Manchester Township Supervisor. Mann attended the S.O.S. news conference, he said, "Our laws have provisions for the residents to speak and if this is the way the residents want to speak that is their prerogative."
While Manchester Township won't be directly affected by the planned funding shift away from the Sheriff's Department, which the county plans on using to fund jail and district court improvements, Mann said they are looking into different options like a regional police authority.
Mann believes the group will be able to gather the necessary signatures and residents in Manchester will help with the drive.
"I would agree with what they're doing; after the millage (for a new jail) was presented and was turned down significantly I communicated to the administration if they would come back with a reasonable proposal there would be support for it and they have never done that," Mann said
"They have not listened to the residents as far as I'm concerned and this is the next step."
Local resident Ken Rogge has volunteered to be the Manchester representative for S.O.S., he said that he needs help collecting the signatures.
"I'm kind of the point man for this area, we're trying to get his thing on the ballot before they issue the bond," he said.
Rogge wants to encourage any local residents who would like to help gather signatures, for more information call Rogge at - 734 - 428 - 0284.
Yesterday, the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners approved a plan to eliminate subsidies funding sheriff's patrols to local municipalities contracting for services by 2008.
Under the plan, money saved by elimination of the subsidies would be earmarked to build a new county jail and court.
The decision yesterday to approve the plan could be nullified by voters, however, if the S.O.S. Committee can gather the signatures on time.
Manchester Village Manager Jeff Wallace said it was interesting that things have developed into this stage.
"I think it's important that all processes get looked at," Wallace said.
"If there are enough people who feel that strongly then that is why there are provisions in our laws for the 45-days to collect signatures. It's something that is in all bonding processes and it's in there for a reason."
While emboldened with the new group and the signature collection, Wallace was still skeptical about the amount of support and how the petition drive will change the state of the sheriff's department.
"I don't think it will really change where the sheriff department is today. The county has rolled out it's plan and it is a plan they believe in, so what effect will this have on that plan? And what effect will it have on the working relationship between the county and rest of the other governmental units?" Wallace said.
The county published Aug. 11 its plan to issue capital improvement bonds to fund the construction projects.
Bond initiatives can be put through public referendum if at least 15,000 registered voters sign the petition within 45 days of the publication, Derrick Jackson, director of elections at the Washtenaw County Clerk's Office, said Tuesday.
"Only certain issues in state statutes can go to referendums, and bonding is one of those issues," Jackson said.
The Sept. 25 deadline provides the S.O.S. Committee the 45-day period.
If the committee gathers the signatures, county voters would not see the referendum on the Nov. 8 ballot.
A 60-day period is required to verify signatures, Jackson said, meaning the earliest the referendum could go before voters would be Feb. 28.
The 45-day window to collect signatures gives the committee a tall task, but Ream said last week that it would meet the challenge.
"We will gather the signatures to get the bonding to a vote, and we will defeat it," Ream said. "We could (get all the signatures) in one day."
There are four township supervisors and Washtenaw County Sheriff's Deputy Harry Valentine, the president of the county deputies' union, are on board to collect signatures.
At the press conference, Ream said county officials are ignoring the will of the people.
"Voters resoundingly said no to the huge jail proposal last February, but the Board of Commissioners repeatedly demonstrates that there is some part of the world 'no' they don't understand," Ream said in a prepared statement. "They now plan to float $30 million in bonds to be repaid over a 20-year period."
Ream said voters who denied last February's millage proposal were not voting to lose sheriff's patrols.
"Every township, village and city in Washtenaw County depends on these core services," Ream said, adding that the committee would need to raise about $20,000 to accomplish its task; most of it spent trying to obtain signatures.
Mike Radzik, a retired sheriff's deputy and a member of the S.O.S. Committee, said a Washtenaw County Sheriff's Department presence is needed because it provides essential services, such as Special Weapons and Tactics teams, a detective bureau, and underwater search and recovery teams.
Valentine pledged his support for the committee at the meeting.
"I'm going to push this issue," he said. "(County officials) want to throw your family and my family to the wolves to get their buildings built.
"I will pledge my 220 people to see that (the petition drive) is successful."
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