Supervisor Reaume Continues His Combative Behavior With Community & Board Members

Here are a few items from the February 10th Plymouth Township Board of Trustees meeting, in a News/Views format.

News:

The meeting began with Wayne County Commissioner, Shannon Price presenting resolutions to our new Fire Chief Dan Phillips, and newly promoted Captains, Chuck Mann, Dan Atkins, and Scott Gross.

Mr. Price then went on for 15 minutes or so, and listed his new committee assignments on the Wayne County Commission, and talked about road projects he is apparently getting money for in the township.

Views:

I have met our new Fire Chief, and he seems very capable, and articulate. I have not met Captain Atkins or Captain Gross, but I have met Captain Mann, and you’ll not find a better person anywhere. He is an asset to our community, and I have no doubt that the other gentlemen are as well. Congratulations goes to those four individuals for their promotions, and we all owe a debt of gratitude to everybody in our Fire Department for their continued efforts to keep us all safe.

Unfortunately, this presentation was the lone highlight of the meeting. Commissioner Price, who is loudly trumpeting himself as the best new option for Plymouth Township Supervisor, spent the next 15 minutes or so playing kissy face with Supervisor, Richard Reaume. It was almost comical to watch Reaume lobbing out softball questions, and singing the commissioner’s praises.

Price spent his time regaling folks about how very important his committee assignments were, in fact using the word “important” 4 times in a 60 second span, just to drive the point home. He spoke about how he plans to bring in millions of dollars to the township, and basically be our very own Minister of Money. It sounded to me like he was trying to buy votes.

Where is this money going to come from anyway? The taxpayers. The Plymouth Township taxpayers to be exact. Sure, he’ll bring some money in from Wayne County for the roads, money that Wayne County gets from the state, but Plymouth Township taxpayers will be matching that money, and from what I understand, they will be matching significantly more than Wayne County will be shelling out, which basically makes this nothing more than, you guessed it, a shell game.

Pardon me if I get nervous when I hear something that sounds like, Hi, I’m Shannon Price, and I’m here to help. That’s exactly what it sounded like, and I harken back to President Reagan’s famous quote when I hear things like this, especially when that government entity is the Wayne County Commission.

I haven’t checked lately, but isn’t Wayne County about a hundred million dollars in debt? I know the number changes every single day, and depends on who you ask, but to me, I find it tragically comical to see this commissioner come to our meeting, and crow about spending millions of dollars more, when his main goal in life should be to reduce Wayne County’s debt. Some would opine that he sat on that commission and approved a lot of that debt, others would say that he was a minority, and couldn’t stop it. All I know is that he came in and talked about all the money he is going to be spending in the township, so it’s kind of hard for me to think that he has resisted much of the outrageous spending that has brought Wayne County to the brink of an Emergency Manager.

Personally, I do not favor bringing in someone that talks of such free spending to be our next Supervisor, especially when he has lived in the township for only a couple of months, give or take. Hi, I’m Shannon Price, and I’m here to help. Yikes!

Here’s the bottom line. In a different political position, and in a different political environment, Mr. Price may be effective, but the Supervisor’s role in Plymouth Township is not that environment. He carries the albatross of the Wayne County Commission with him, and we don’t have enough money in this township to satisfy that kind of insatiable appetite for spending. Just my opinion.

So after Mr. Price’s rather lengthy courtship dance (and yes, it was a slow dance) with the board, the meeting moved on to actual township business, and that is where things always get ugly.

News:

The Plymouth Township Board approved by a 4-3 vote, the purchase of a snow making machine for the township sled hill. According to Treasurer Edwards, this machine will produce 12 inches of snow, over 1 acre, by pumping roughly 220,000 gallons of water through this machine, over a 48 hour period of time. That’s a lot of water. Do that 5 times, and you have over a million gallons of water. I wonder what a million gallons of water costs?

Trustee Doroshewitz had major concerns about this machine attracting significant numbers of people from outside the township to an already crowded area. He was further concerned about liability issues that can arise due to increased numbers of sledders, coupled with the fact that by using a snow making machine, the township is basically making the hill a regional attraction.

Trustee Curmi had issues with the fact that it’s just more spending on things we don’t need, saying, “This is a luxury item, not a needed item.” With only a few weeks left in the sledding season, Curmi, Kelly, and Doroshewitz wanted to delay the vote, and get a legal opinion on the liability issues that having this machine will expose the township to. Treasurer Edwards argued vehemently against this, as he indicated that we need the machine so that it can be tested to see if it works with the water pressure and electrical hook-up at the new $700,000 pavilion they are building.

Views:

Look, I guess I am old school, but I believe that the kids of this nation survived quite nicely for the last two or three hundred years on the snow that Mother Nature has provided. Curmi is absolutely right. This is a luxury item, and one of the many tax and spend luxury items that has so many township residents angry at this board. In my opinion, the almost $700,000 spent on an air conditioned pavilion in the park is a reckless display of out of control spending, and the backhanded way it was pushed through, was a breach of the public trust. This $21,000 snow making machine is just another poke in the eye to township taxpayers. Furthermore, I am not an expert, but I disagree with Edward’s premise that this machine needs to be on site when they build the pavilion. It’s a 10 horsepower compressor for gosh sakes. I am pretty darn sure that any electrician and plumber worth their salt, do not need this machine on site to figure out the proper hook-ups. I think Big Ron just wants to play with his new toy right away.

As for liability concerns, Mr. Doroshewitz was spot on. Cities and towns all over America are now banning sledding at municipal parks because of lawsuits. Just recently, there was a judgment against Omaha, Nebraska for 2 million dollars when a young girl had an accident and was paralyzed, as well as a 2.75 million judgment against Sioux City, Iowa when a man sledded into a sign and suffered a spinal cord injury.

According to a study be the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, sledding injuries send over 20,000 children to the hospital each year, and of those, 9 percent suffer traumatic brain injuries.

Look, sledding is not the safest of sports, and you need to go into it with eyes wide open. I am not necessarily in favor of closing the darn hill for sledding, but when you promote sledding on your hill like this machine will do, you invite trouble. You invite litigation if someone is injured. I think Mr. Doroshewitz was being very responsible when he brought these concerns up. He is a lawyer, and should have some knowledge of the legal ramifications, but was shot down by Treasurer Edwards, and Supervisor Reaume, who by the way, are not lawyers.

If I was the Supervisor, I would take advantage of the skills of one of my fellow board members in a situation like this. Mr. Reaume chose not to take advantage of the skills of Mr. Doroshewitz, and then doubled down on it by neglecting to ask the opinion of Plymouth Township’s legal counsel, who was sitting right there at the table. Why would Mr. Reaume not want to take advantage of two legal opinions on this issue? Makes no sense to me.

Bottom line is that we now have a new $21,000 toy for our $675,000 air conditioned warming center. Maybe they will put up some chair lifts next, so the kiddies won’t have to walk up the hill. Yeah, I know, chair lifts are for skiers, but you get my sarcasm. I hope.

News:

Plymouth Township Supervisor, Richard Reaume became very combative with Trustee Doroshewitz, and several members of our community who were in attendance at the meeting.

During the discussion about the snow making machine, Mr. Reume lost his composure when Mr. Doroshewitz was asking questions, and stating his opinions on the issue. It was one of several bad moments for Mr. Reaume, and at several points he was basically shouting at Mr. Doroshewitz in my opinion. You can watch the exchange online at the township website, and make your own conclusion. I would also opine that Mr. Reaume was being very abusive, and demeaning towards Mr. Doroshewitz in the exchange.

Mr. Reaume also became very condescending towards the community members in attendance after members of our community showed approval, by clapping for Mr. Doroshewitz proposal to delay the snow machine purchase. Reaume looked at the audience, and sarcastically stated, “Really appreciate your clapping folks, really makes us feel great folks. Thank you.” This behavior is childish, and has no place at a Board of Trustees meeting.

The worst outburst of the night was when Mr. Reaume abruptly banged his gavel, and went into recess walking away from the table. I was not in attendance, but I did watch the recording of this meeting on the township website. The problem is that Mr. Reaume selectively edited this portion of the meeting out of the recording at the website, so I can only go by eyewitness accounts in describing what happened.

What I have been told by several people who were there, is that Mr. Reaume banged his gavel, called a recess, and walked away from the dais, muttering something about the police chief as he was walking away. He then pointed at Plymouth Township Police Chief Tom Tiderington, and said quite loudly, “You! Out in the hall!” Apparently Reaume demanded that the chief leave the meeting, and come into the hall with him. Folks tell me that they went into the lobby of the police station, and an intense exchange took place. The prevailing consensus is that Reaume demanded that folks be removed from the meeting, and Chief Tiderington refused. Either that, or Reaume demanded that Tiderington somehow control the community members from clapping. Who knows?

Views:

First and foremost, you never selectively edit an official recording of a public meeting of elected officials. I do not care what the reason is, I do not care if somebody got caught on a hot mic swearing, I don’t care if it’s 15 minutes of dead time. You give up all claims of transparency when you take it upon yourself to selectively edit parts of a meeting out of what you present to the public. Mr. Reaume opened up Pandora’s Box when he unilaterally chose to do this. This was his decision, and his alone.

As for our police chief, there is absolutely no way Chief Tiderington can control the clapping of audience members, and this is not his job. He is there for the express purpose of answering any questions that board members may have, in the course of doing business, as they relate to the police department. This meeting is chaired by the Supervisor, and it is up to him to control the meeting. I guess he could publicly ask the police to remove an unruly audience member, and then the police would have to make a decision on whether that request was lawfully valid. In this instance though, they would have had to remove just about every single member of the audience. That is how bad things have become in Plymouth Township.

Mr. Reaume publicly demands respect from taxpayers, and his fellow board members. He finds himself vociferously doing this at every single meeting. What he does not seem to understand is that respect begets respect. You can not verbally abuse people, and expect them to respect you. You can not yell and scream at people, and expect decorum at your meeting. You have to act professional. You can’t look down at people, you can’t speak down to people, and quite simply, you can’t disrespect people, and expect good behavior in return. It doesn’t work that way.

I know that I have been harping on this for a long time now, and frankly, I am getting sick of having to make this same point to Mr. Reaume over and over again, but this time, he went over the edge. My phone has been ringing off the hook since this meeting, and people are very upset. They are mostly upset at the way Mr. Reaune publicly disrespected our Police Chief at a public meeting.

Again, I wasn’t there, and Mr. Reaume, on his own, selectively edited the video, so I can’t watch the exchange with my own eyes. However, I am told by every single person I have spoken with, that he pointed his finger at, and yelled at the Police Chief in front of everybody. If this happened, that is flat out wrong. You do not disrespect employees like that. If you have an issue with an employee, you do not humiliate them in public, you discuss it with them in private. That is how all professional people handle things. That is how all decent people handle things.

In the last two weeks, two things have become very clear. Police Chief Tom Tiderington is a very well respected member of our community, and Supervisor Richard Reaume has lost the respect, and confidence of most members of our community.

News:

A new resident of Plymouth Township stepped up to the podium to make a comment at the end of this meeting, under the Public Comments section of the agenda. This is her comment:

“I’m a new resident of Plymouth Township, I’m a new resident since June. I’ve been hearing a lot of not so nice things about the board, and some of the people here, I’ve been talking to for the past couple of months, and I was shocked at the things I’ve been hearing. I didn’t believe them, I thought they had something else going on here. This is not the way I’d like to live. I believe your the lawyer here sir? And you’re the Police Chief? What I saw today is a hostile environment, and I as a citizen do not want to come here. I want to come here to see what’s going on in my city. I do not want to come here and see somebody get upset because they disagree, and run out of the room, taking our Police Chief with them. I don’t appreciate it, and I am embarrassed to say that I live in the township.”

Views:

How sad that a new resident, after just a little over six months in our community, feels compelled to publicly state that they are embarrassed to live in the township, and that the embarrassment stems directly from the highest elected official in the township.

Funniest quote of the meeting:

Mr. Reaume at one point was loudly claiming that he was in charge of the township’s parks, saying repeatedly, “I’m in charge, I’m in charge!” Trustee Curmi, replied, “Sounds like Al Haig.” I darn near spit coffee all over my computer when I heard this, because Reaume certainly did sound like Al Haig, whose bizarre “I’m in Charge” comment after President Reagan had been shot, pretty much cost him his career. Yes Mr. Reaume, we all know you’re in charge, the question is, for how much longer?

Credit where credit is due:

I would be remiss if I did not mention that my “Undying Respect Award” goes to Clerk Nancy Conzelman, who had the courage to return my phone call, and answer tough questions for me. Nancy and I do not agree on many things, and I have been critical of her in the past, but she had the decency to return my call, knowing fully well that I would be asking hard questions, and we had a very nice conversation. Treasurer Edwards also returned my call, and as is usual for our conversations, we argued about many things, disagreed on most, but also managed to have a cordial conversation.

Supervisor Reaume on the other hand, did not return 2 phone calls made to him, and I am not surprised. He simply lacks the courage to answer a hard question. It’s been that way for a long time now, and it isn’t going to change. Supervisor Reaume is just cashing his checks, and running out the clock at this point. He knows he doesn’t have to get elected again, so he makes no effort to treat people decently, he makes no effort to return a taxpayer’s call, and he is very unapologetic about all of it.

The charade disguised as township government resumes on Saturday, February 28th at 9:00 AM with an unscheduled Board of Trustees meeting. The #1 agenda item is: State of the Township.

Well that one is easy. The State of the Township can be described in one word. Chaos...