Effectively Patrolling Shelby Township’s Police Budget Requires New Departmental Leadership Who Will Put Taxpayers’ Interests First

Everywhere you look these days people, businesses and governmental bodies are changing, reforming, modifying, and improving the way things get done.  Why?  Because they MUST or face the reality of service cuts, layoffs, bankruptcy, higher taxes or being taken over by a state-run Emergency Manager.  Those who support the old ways of doing business are trying desperately to prevent change, but are increasingly finding themselves losing as the power of the people has become more power than the demand of special interests.

Recently, the Shelby Township Board of Trustees conducted an independent review of the police department.  This comes on the heels of similar reports done for both the Fire Department and for the Parks, Recreation and Maintenance Departments.  In both the Fire and PRM the reports outlined effective ways to trim costs, hundreds of thousands of dollars to be exact, in each department.  As a result, our elected officials now have a tool they can use to help make sure the departments get the resources they need, while taxpayers get the cost reductions we demand.

Given the success of the two studies, a review of the police department made perfect sense. Since the police department faces a serious budget deficit in a few years, and since the department was disinterested in making any changes, why not act now to fend off such deficit.  So the Board voted to conduct the study, a move that was immediately blasted and condemned by those associated with the “Save Shelby, Status Quo, Liberal Spending Liars Society” or more commonly called “Save Shelby.”

One man in particular, named Tim Orbacki, went to the mat opposed to any review of police operations. When the Board initiated a study of the police department, seeking an expert review of how and where to reduce costs without hurting police protection, Orbacki protested.  As reported by Frank DeFrank in the Monday, December 22, 2010 issue of the Macomb Daily, Orbacki declared the study a waste of time.  
“You can do a review, but I don't really see what you're going to get out of it.”


For your information, this is the same Tim Orbacki who once said that if taxes need to be raised to deal with the township budget, then the Board should do it.  On September 22, 2010, at 10:07 a.m., Orbacki sent an e-mail to township officials stating the following: 
“The budget is the board’s problem to raises taxes if needed.”

Criticism by Orbacki and Save Shelby aside, the township got quite a bit out of the review of the police department.  The report outlined some ways to save costs long-term, without impacting the protection we deserve as township residents.  Trustees who supported this review did the right thing.

The Save Shelby group tried to stop the study, but failed.  Trustee Lisa Manzella made plenty of noise, along with a few of her political cronies, protesting the study.  Manzella has never wanted to change anything - especially if it means saving taxpayers money.  She has always believed that the best way to keep Shelby Township strong is to continue the same policies of the past.  This includes high spending, high pensions, high payrolls and higher taxes to support this high-life agenda.

We must never forget that Manzella wanted to raise $50 million in new bonds for a campus of new buildings.  Her claim was that taxpayers could easily afford such spending without impacting their pocketbooks.  Financial reports show that the township could not, and still cannot, afford the Manzella spending plan.  Nevertheless, she presses on in full big liberal form.

Manzella made lots of noise, once again, when the Board decided to move on and not renew the contract of the township police chief.  Even though Manzella may think otherwise, he was NOT entitled to his position for as long as he wanted it.  Our understanding is that the police chief is an at-will employee.  He worked for the Board and at any time if the Board felt they wanted a new chief, they have the legal authority to hire one.  On September 20, 2011 by a vote of 5-2 the Board of Trustees decided to move on and hire a new chief.

Oh sure, Manzella (and Kowal) tried to stir up a hornet’s nest of trouble.  However, outside the circle that these two speak to this is not a big deal.  Okay, so Shelby Township will have a new police chief.  Sure, the previous chief did a pretty good job in the past, and as we understand it that was not the point.  The Shelby police department is facing financial challenges that will require serious leadership to correct.

Angry that her friend did not get his [entitled?] contract renewed, Manzella and her close associates logged onto Facebook to once again trash the Board of Trustees.  This has become pretty standard way for Mrs. Manzella to air her political frustrations and show her true unprofessional conduct.

Check out this exchange:

Trustee Manzella needs to understand that public posts made on Facebook are public record, and as such you will be open to criticism for your comments especially if you are a public official.  So in the interests of transparency we urge Mrs. Manzella to PLEASE keep posting stupid and ill-conceived rants on Facebook for everyone to read!

In the private sector, there is a thing called “constant improvement.”  You either have it, or you don’t.  Those who understand this concept, and work to implement it, are successful.  Those who don’t are not. It is that simple.  Clearly, from what we have seen and read, the police department needs improvement.  Oh sure, the police officers provide quality protection.  That is not the issue, as far as we are concerned.  Finances, projected deficits and bloated pensions are.

According to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, Shelby Township police officers are paid substantially more than the average law enforcement salary.  In fact, a recent Mackinac Center study showed that 30 percent of Shelby Township police officers are paid more than $90,000 a year.  Some will argue that the police officers deserve every penny they get.  Fine, but does this mean they are worth tens of thousands of pennies more than police officers in other communities — many with higher crime rates and population than Shelby Township?

Here is just some of what the Mackinac Center report shows:

• According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics data from May of 2009, police and sheriff patrol officers made $51,270 (not including overtime) on average in the state of Michigan. All but five of the Shelby Township patrol officers surpassed that average salary in 2009. The average gross pay of the 50 Shelby Township patrol officers was $78,402.

• According to a Freedom of Information Act Request, the Shelby Township Police Department has 72 employees, of which nine made six-figure gross salaries last year, and another 13 made $90,000 to $99,000. Thirty percent of the police force was paid at least $90,000 for 2009.

• Also, according to the “all fund” 2010 budget information online, Shelby Township's expenses exceeded revenue by $2 million.

Shelby Township is one of many municipalities that are paying lucrative salaries while in red ink.  So the operational review was done, and the results made public at the September 6th meeting.

We are most certainly not experts, just casual observers and longtime township taxpayers.  However, the outlined changes seem to make sense.  Will they work?  On the surface they look reasonable and prudent, but this is for people much smarter than us to decide.  However, at least the Board is now finally having a discussion about cutting costs instead of just kicking the can down the road and doing nothing until the day comes when the only course of action will be higher taxes or drastic cuts to police protection.

We thank Supervisor Stathakis and the Board for showing leadership on this issue and doing what is right for taxpayers.

When the Board voted not to renew the police chief’s contract, Trustee Manzella and her crowd rebelled.  They made all sorts of outrageous claims against the five informed Board members who did not believe the chief deserved a new contract.  Moreover, the Board’s refusal to award a new contract resulted in the former chief filing a lawsuit against the township.  It certainly looks as if some people don’t like change and will go to great lengths to try and stop it.

Those who watched the Board meeting where the vote on the chief’s contract took place will recall how people came up to complain that there was no justification for this decision.  Well, as it now turns out, recently released documents show that this 5-to-2 decision by the Board of Trustees was based on performance.

The Monday, December 12th Shelby-Utica Patch included a story which contained some very interesting information concerning the former police chief.  As it turns out, there was a basis for the decision not to rehire the former chief.  As the Patch reported, Supervisor Rick Stathakis, Trustee Paula Filar and Trustee Lisa Manzella all submitted memos with their opinion of the situation.  We encourage all taxpayers to read the Patch (click on the link) and pay special attention to the letters from Mr. Stathakis and Mrs. Filar.

You can also access each of these documents at the following links:

Letter from Supervisor Stathakis explaining why he voted not to renew Leman’s contract.

Letter from Trustee Paula Filar explaining why she voted not to renew Leman’s contract.

As for the nasty personal rant from Trustee Manzella, which (among other things) calls into question Supevisor Stathakis’ Christianity, you probably should take it for what it’s worth.  Is this shameful religious attack upon Mr. Stathakis something you would want, or expect, from a township elected official who also teaches catechism to our young boys and girls?

Until next time...