Amid Mounting Pressure, Township Supervisor Reaume Resigns

Plymouth Township Supervisor, Richard Reaume has finally caved under immense pressure from a very angry constituency, and tendered his resignation as Supervisor. He leaves with roughly a year and a half left in his term. I could see the writing on the wall, and wrote about his imminent departure near the end of January. I ruffled a lot of feathers with that blog, and for that, I was rewarded with a beating that would make a pinata blush.

Turns out though, that I was right about the soon to be departed supervisor, and I was right about a lot of other things as well, but we’ll get to those later. I was right about Reaume because I know the man. I’ve been exposing him, and his misdeeds for about three years now, give or take, and it was easy to see it coming.

As tempting as it is, I’ll not regurgitate every single nasty thing he did, or gloat over the carcass. He’s yesterdays news, so why bother. I should have been happy to hear this news, and I guess part of me was, but unfortunately, the other part of me was filled with trepidation. Actually, most of me is filled with trepidation, and I’ll tell you why.

The very same Board of Trustees, the one that is dominated by Treasurer Ron Edwards, will be appointing Reaume’s replacement. This is a scary scenario. Don’t think for a minute that Mr. Edwards hasn’t been planning for this resignation. He has been a busy bee, and he has a handpicked replacement in line for the all powerful Supervisor’s office. Truth be told, Mr. Reaume & Mr. Edwards handpicked their favored replacement. That replacement is Wayne County Commissioner, Shannon Price, and these three men have been planning this for months. This has been in the planing stages at least as far back as early summer 2014.

Ron Edwards, and Commissioner Price have been planning this since early summer, and it comes with Reaume’s tacit approval. Sure, there was a very inconvenient recall effort that complicated their efforts, and quite possibly changed their timetable, but make no mistake, this has been in the works since summer. I predicted it, and I was right.

Mr. Price called me a liar, another elected official in Canton Township, where Price lived until a few months ago, said I was dead wrong, and Ron Edwards called me Plymouth Township’s fiction writer. To say I took heat for my observations is the understatement of the century. I was personally attacked, my friends were attacked, and in one case by Mr. Price himself. He actually yelled at a 69 year old friend of mine at a restaurant, because he was so incensed about my last blog, and other observations. Instead of confronting me about this matter, he chose to bully an old man, which I thought was as cowardly as one can get.

He did this because I had the gall to expose their little plan. Mr. Price, and Mr. Edwards did not want attention. They were being sly about their plans, and they blew it. Of course it didn’t help their efforts at secrecy when Shannon helped Matt Edwards in his primary run against Pat Colbeck, and it didn’t exactly help when Reaume bought a condo in Florida, and sold his house in Plymouth Township, and it most certainly didn’t help them to have a late night strategy session over drinks at the Plymouth Pub. Did they not think folks would see them there?

Bottom line is that a lot of little things added up for me last summer and into the fall, and they all pointed to Reaume resigning, and Price being appointed as Ron Edwards new partner in crime. So I wrote about it, and Mr. Price lost his mind, and went into bully mode. Edwards took it rather in stride, but you have to remember, he is used to the chaos, he loves the fights, and he really enjoys ramming unpopular things like this down taxpayer’s throats.

So the bottom line is this. If I was so wrong about my assertions, then it would stand to reason that we won’t see Shannon Price submit his resume for the vacated Plymouth Township Supervisor’s seat. As he himself said, “I’m the victim of all these silly rumors.”

On the other hand, if he does turn in his resume, I was right all along, they were not silly rumors, and he got caught misleading the folks in our community. That’s a bad way to begin your residency in your new community. And yes, Mr. Price is very new to our community. Moved here from Canton a couple or few months ago. Just in time to put his name in the hat for Township Supervisor. These dots just connect themselves. I don’t even have to try. Yet Mr. Price called me a liar, and Mr. Edwards called me a fiction writer.

So now we get to the serious business, and make no mistake, this is serious business. Currently, the only requirement to be appointed Supervisor, is that you live in Plymouth Township, are 18 years of age, and are a registered voter. I seriously hope that this Board of Trustees chooses to raise the bar a lot higher than that when choosing a replacement for the previous Supervisor. Notice I don’t even use his name anymore? Yesterdays news.

How do we raise the bar for this very important position? We start by setting some reasonable expectations for those who want to represent the Plymouth Township Community.

One thing that I feel strongly about, is that our new Supervisor should know our community, and have lived here, and been invested in our community for a couple of years, preferably 5 years or more, but two years is probably a good minimum.

Also, just like any candidate for a job, I’d like the candidates to make known their current employment, as well as any outside money making ventures they are involved in, and by all means, we’ll want your Supervisor’s name. Any employer is going to want information about your current employer, as well as a detailed work history

I seriously think prospective candidates should be subject to a credit check, which would show any blemishes such as bankruptcies, heavy debt, etc. Heck, just to get a job as a bank teller, and countless other jobs you need to have a credit check done. Our new Supervisor is playing with millions of our tax dollars, and it is only fair to inquire whether they have been responsible with their own money, and paid their own bills on time. If they can’t handle their own money, I do not want them handling mine.

I think that if any of the candidates have outside jobs, or business interests, they should be willing to set them aside. Almost any responsible employer does not want their employees moonlighting, and as taxpayers, we should demand that our Supervisor devote 100% of their energy towards the job we are paying them quite handsomely to do. I seem to recall that the former Supervisor was accused of finishing his law degree while he should have been on the job as Supervisor. Taxpayers were literally paying the guy to attend school if the rumors are true.

I also feel that a qualified candidate should have a relevant college degree. Something that will lend itself to the job. You don’t have to get all nitpicky, I’m simply saying that a degree in Underwater Basket Weaving or some such thing is not going to help you out when you sit down at the Supervisor’s desk.

Maybe there are more prerequisites that I’m not thinking about. All I know, is that these things need to be discussed at the Special Meeting of the Plymouth Township Board of Trustees meeting that was hastily called for this Saturday morning, at 10:00 AM.

These are simple common sense expectations that most any employer would have for the candidate of a job that is so very important, especially one that comes with a six figure salary and benefits package. If you can’t manage to satisfy these simple expectations, you’re probably not a good fit here in Plymouth Township.

I can name three candidates right off the top of my head that would be good fits in the Supervisor’s chair. Candidates that I would expect to be able to meet and exceed the expectations I spoke about. Plymouth Township Trustees, Chuck Curmi, and Robert Doroshewitz, as well as State Representative Kurt Heise would all fit the bill. As I’ve stated before, I obviously have been a longtime supporter of Mr. Heise, but I truly believe that any of these candidates would make a fine Supervisor.

I would also hope that there is a public interview process with the Board and the candidates seeking this position. I would hope that the candidates all get an equal chance to state their cases, and answer questions from the Board. Transparency in this endeavor is an absolute must, otherwise we will simply see a continuation of this dysfunctional Board of Trustees.

If this process ends up being a farce, with the successor already chosen before any interviews, it’s going to end up very ugly. Most likely even more hostile than the meetings that have been going on for the last year or so. Folks are not going to react well if they feel that they are being played for fools, and if I was sitting on that Board, I would think long and hard about that.

We know that Ron Edwards has been trying to play kingmaker in this deal, just like he played kingmaker with Clerk Nancy Conzelman, and that is a dangerous political game to play. I can’t help thinking though, what if the roles were reversed? What if it was I who got to play kingmaker?

I can tell you this. I would have Heise in the Supervisor’s office, Doroshewitz in the Clerks office, and Curmi in the Treasurers office. In my humble opinion, that would be an absolute Dream Team. The combined talents of those three gentlemen, would turn this nasty situation around in a hurry.

Of course then I wouldn’t have anything controversial to write about anymore, but I’d gladly give that up for the good of our community.

There is a special meeting of the Plymouth Township Board of Trustees on Saturday, March 21st, at 10:00 AM. I would urge that Plymouth Township taxpayers make an effort to attend this meeting, and take the opportunity to voice your opinions on these very important matters...