Talks to Resume Regarding Hartland's Road Patrol Contracts

Officials of Hartland Township will be resuming talks next week with the Livingston County Board of Commissioners regarding road patrol contracts for Hartland and Tyrone Townships. 

According to a letter sent by Hartland Township Manager James Wickman to county commissioners and Livingston County Sheriff Bob Bezotte, Hartland officials stated they were “open to further dialogue about the possibility of contract road patrol in the future.”

On March 6, Hartland and Tyrone Township officials announced they were declining a proposed contract with the sheriff’s department after questions arose in February regarding the rising costs of the police contracts. 

No formal communication has taken place between the parties involved since Feb. 21, according to Wickman, who said he feared that “in the shuffle there may have been a misunderstanding.” 

In the letter that was sent to the sheriff and commissioners, Wickman stated that 19 days should not have gone by without any formal dialogue “while stark disagreement remained and decisions were being made.”

“Our decision to discontinue the current model of contract road patrol includes a commitment to find alternatives for improving police services in our communities,” Wickman wrote.

With a meeting scheduled between the parties to take place next week, Wickman says the groups are at “ground zero." 

“We’ve made the decision that we’re not intending to renew and that the past conversations were not going in the right direction,” Wickman said. “So the start of this conversation is really starting from the beginning of working under the assumption that we will receive the same service that everybody else does - what then can we do to address some tax payer dollars to improve the level of that service.”

Calling it a “good sign” that the groups have agreed to the talks, Wickman said townships officials feel they should be able to “work together” with the county, “as long as everybody understands that the conversation isn’t starting where we left off,” he said. 

Wickman says the talks will address what level of service Hartland and Tyrone Townships would receive with contracts compared to the other townships who do not have sheriff contracts, specifically addressing issues such as improved response times.

“Best case scenario would be to engage in a higher level of service with the sheriff’s department in a cost equitable way,” Wickman said.