Community Angered As Price, Conzelman, And Edwards Thumb Their Noses At The Rules

The necessary disclaimer. The views and opinions expressed here are my own. This is an opinion piece, not a news article. My opinions do not reflect Patch's views in any way. I do not receive compensation from Patch, nor from any political campaign. These are simply my views and opinions.

With one month left in the most heated local election I have ever seen, tempers are flaring. The big surprise though, is that it is not the candidates that are up in arms, but rather the community. The Plymouth Township community is angry, and it is all about campaign signs for the last week or so. It may sound silly, but it speaks to the issue that many in our community have had for quite awhile now, and that is that our current full time elected officials think that the rules others have to follow, simply do not apply to them. The latest example of this, is election signs.

This was a non issue for most of the primary season, and it looked like finally, Plymouth Township would not be littered with 20 or more campaign signs on every street corner, and that was thanks to a fellow named Mark Lewis, who is the Chief Building Official, and whose department is responsible for the policing of campaign signs during election years.

Mr. Lewis was proactive this year, and sent out a letter to every candidate in the upcoming Plymouth Township election. He sent this letter on Plymouth Township stationary, complete with the names of every township Board of Trustees member. In this letter he clearly stated the rules that every candidate needed to abide by, as far as campaign signs were concerned.

The letter is at the top of this blog, and you can read it in it's entirety, but I want to share the specific points that have township residents angry.

Plymouth Township Zoning Ordinance 99, section 25.8.3 prevents signs being placed in the right-of-way or on public property.

Signs placed in the public right-of-way are subject to be removed, and disposed of without further notice.

No election sign is to exceed eight (8) square feet in area, and in the case of a ground mounted election sign, the height may not exceed four and one half (4 ½) feet.

Up until a week ago, right before the Plymouth Township fireworks, nobody had violated the rules. Not one candidate had a sign in any of the prohibited areas. Then the night before the fireworks, Nancy Conzelman placed roughly 50 campaign signs all over the township, but mainly in ingress/egress areas that folks would take to the fireworks. She saw a chance to seize upon all the traffic to her advantage. The problem is that she illegally went about it. Her signs did not violate the size rule, but rather the location rule. They were all over the right of way areas next to the roads.

Complaints were made, but Plymouth Township offices were closed for the 4th of July weekend, therefore, nothing was done. Moving forward, the Conzelman signs all disappeared sometime Monday night, so that by Tuesday, there would not be any chance that they would be removed by somebody from the office of Mr. Lewis. Move along, nothing to see here.

In essence, Clerk Conzelman pulled a fast one, by placing her signs in prohibited areas when nobody would be at work to remove the illegal signs, and then removed them either by herself, or by her campaign team, before they could be confiscated. In my opinion, this is a shady move, but other township residents were much angrier, and definitely made complaints, both to Mr. Lewis, and to his Ordinance Officer, Ms. Kathryn Pumphrey. According to multiple sources, their complaints fell upon deaf ears, particularly in the case of Ms. Pumphrey.

While Clerk Conzelman managed to remove most of her signs, she still has not removed all of them, and you'll see one example in the above picture. This sign was still there, as of July 8th, even though I made Mr. Lewis aware of the sign being in a prohibited area when I spoke with him on the phone. Funny thing about that phone call, was it was at the end of the day, and Mr. Lewis indicated to me that “I've been talking about election signs all day.” Yes, the community is angry.

There are other areas, around the township where Supervisor Shannon Price, Treasurer Ron Edwards, Clerk Conzelman, and incumbent Trustee Mike Kelly have signs in the right of way, and on public property. This was a major part of my discussion with Mr. Lewis, as these signs are smack dab in the middle of areas that are maintained by the Plymouth Township Downtown Development Authority.

This is not setting well with community members, as a lot of tax money is spent to plant shrubbery, flowers, and beautify these corners. The signs in one resident's view, “are making the areas look trashy, and are an eyesore.” I asked Mr. Lewis who owned this property, and Mr. Lewis indicated that “the state of Michigan owns the property” which makes it public property, and according to township ordinances, makes it a prohibited area to place a sign. I asked Mr. Lewis if he was going to remove them, and this is when he began to get real cagey with me.

I mentioned the letter he wrote, and the ordinances he cited, and suddenly he began talking in circles about interpretation, and intent, and as hard as I pressed him, he would not give a definitive answer on whether these were violations. Bottom line, is that he would not commit to removing any of the Price/Edwards/Conzelman/Kelly signs, and that goes completely against what he stated in his letter, and what is stated in our township ordinances.

Now to address the last sign issue that has folks riled. Supervisor Price has apparently decided that he is not going to abide by the size, and height limitations. He has several Price signs, both in businesses (Red Olive Restaurant) and at least one that I believe is on public property, and instead of being 8 square feet, they are double that size, and over 6 feet off the ground. I measured one of these signs, and it is exactly 16 square feet in size, and well over 6 feet off the ground, which is a clear violation of the rules.

I have seen the Price signs in recent elections when he was a Wayne County Commissioner, and I always laughed at how monstrous they were. It seemed like he always had to have the biggest signs, especially the one he always put on M14. I always wondered how much money that “billboard sized sign” cost to produce. One of his opponents once quipped, “small man, big sign.”

Humor aside, when he moved to Plymouth Township to be appointed Supervisor, he promised to respect our community, and in flagrantly abusing the rules, and flaunting it in front of one of his administrator's face, he is not only disrespecting our residents, but he is putting Mr. Lewis in an impossible position. Mr. Lewis is basically between a sign, and a hard place.

If Mr. Lewis does the job he is supposed to do, he must remove Price's oversize signs. He must also remove all of the signs on public property, and in the right-of-way. If he does that, he will be removing the signs of the guy who can fire him. Mr. Lewis, if I am not mistaken, works at the pleasure of the Supervisor. He has no union to protect him, and he has a family to feed, maybe a mortgage to pay, who knows?

While I am certainly disappointed with Mr. Lewis not enforcing the rules set forth, I have to go easy on him, because of the horrible position that Supervisor Price, Clerk Conzelman, and Treasurer Edwards have put him in. It's not like they made him choose sides, but more like they made him choose between fulfilling his duties, and his job security. I hope that the anger being shown by so many members of our community does not get directed at Mr. Lewis, but rather where it should, and that is squarely on the shoulders of the people who know better than anybody what the rules are, but choose to break them, while all other candidates are following the rules. One set of rules for Price/Conzelman/Edwards, another set of rules for all others.

What I would say to Mrs. Conzelman is that as Clerk, you are responsible for conducting a fair and honest election, and shame on you for purposely breaking the trust that township voters gave you. You should know better than anyone else what the rules are, and you should set the example for all other candidates. You have utterly failed, and it was not a failure of ignorance, but a willful, arrogant failure of the public's trust.

I wouldn't say a word to Treasurer Edwards, because in his way too long tenure as Treasurer, he has willfully broken every single rule several times, and quite frankly, he doesn't really care, as long as he keeps getting elected. I have news for Mr. Edwards, his position is not nearly as secure as it once was, as he has a smart, and talented opponent, in Mark Clinton.

As for Supervisor Shannon Price, I would say that for a guy who went to court to have Kurt Heise removed from the ballot because he forgot to indicate what precinct he votes in, on some innocuous form, you sure do look like a jerk breaking all the rules that you are now breaking. You look like a guy who thinks the rules only apply to others, but not yourself. That Mr. Supervisor, is a very bad look. You are the face of the township, you are supposed to set the example, you are supposed to be above the fray, but instead, you are one of three people, the biggest three people in the township, that are acting like jerks, and it's embarrassing. You're not only embarrassing yourself, but you are embarrassing your supporters as well.

I spoke with a senior citizen friend yesterday, and we are great friends despite the fact that we support different candidates for some of the positions. She has been supporting Shannon Price, but she began wavering when the Price campaign had Heise removed from the ballot. She is now embarrassed by all of the signs, especially the signs in the Downtown Development areas. She doesn't understand why Price puts his supporters in the position of having to explain these sleazy tactics to others, and to use her words, she thinks “it is tacky, and unnecessary.” We at least agree on that.

The funny thing, is that you haven't seen Kurt Heise, Jerry Vorva, or Mark Clinton complaining about the election sign violations. I imagine they are too busy walking the neighborhoods, speaking with community members, and explaining their goals and aspirations for our community, to bother with such stuff, and good on them for taking the high road. They are setting the example that our full time officials should be setting. They are setting the example of what we might have with our future leadership team. Many are calling these three “The Turnaround Team” and I find that to be quite apropos, considering the current situation in our community.

So in closing, I find this whole election sign controversy fascinating. Usually it's the candidates that are at each others throats in the last month before the primary, but in Plymouth Township, it's actually the taxpayers that are angry, and what is funny, is that every time they get in their car and drive around the township, there are big signs reminding them who they are really angry at...