Politics & Government
Plymouth Township to Sue Plymouth for Legacy Fire Costs
Township says city owes on pension and retirement shortfall. Plymouth mayor claims it's political payback.
PLYMOUTH TOWNSHIP, MI – The Plymouth Township Board of Trustees voted last week to file a collections action against the city of Plymouth. The township claims the city owes $3.7 million in pension and retiree health care costs for the Plymouth Community Fire Department. The vote at last week’s meeting was 4-3 with the four trustees who are leaving office next month voting for the action.
"In my eyes, this is political retaliation from the three full-time elected officials who were not re-elected," Plymouth mayor Dan Dwyer told The Plymouth Observer. Township Supervisor Shannon Price voted in favor of the suit, along withTreasurer Ron Edwards, Clerk Nancy Conzelman and Trustee Mike Kelly, who were all defeated in the August Republican primary.
Dwyer endorsed state Rep. Kurt Heise in the primary for township supervisor and Heise defeated Price as a write-in candidate. Heise is on record as saying he'd favor further negotiations and leaving lawyers out of the dispute.
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The fire department served both communities from 1995 to 2011, with the city leaving that arrangement in 2012 to partner with Northville in an effort to cut costs. The two communities reached a $300,000 settlement in July over joint fire department retiree health care expenses the township incurred from 2012 through 2015. But payments for pensions and retiree health care going forward, have not been agreed upon.
"I think we've exhausted pretty much every avenue," Clerk Nancy Conzelman said. Talks on the debt have been going on for four years, she said, with "dozens and dozens of delays."
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Dwyer says the township has provided Plymouth with information about the money owed, but not a formal bill with concise, understandable documentation.
"I defy any official in Plymouth Township to show me a bill that they have ever given to the city of Plymouth, with corresponding information," he said.
"We've been working on it for four years and it is an unfinished piece of business," Conzelman said.
"I would be very wary of trusting the next board."
"I don't think it makes any sense to file it," said trustee Steve Mann who voted against the suit, along with trustees Bob Doroshewitz and Chuck Curmi, who both won in the August primary.
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