Washtenaw County agrees to settle $1M legal fight over police services with Ypsilanti and Augusta townships
Washtenaw County officials are taking steps to end a nearly six-year legal fight with Augusta and Ypsilanti townships over contract police services.
The Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners voted 9-0 Wednesday night to approve the settlement of the county's counterclaim stemming from a lawsuit originally filed by Ypsilanti, Augusta and Salem townships in 2006.
County Board Chairman Conan Smith, D-Ann Arbor, said the parties in the lawsuit recently decided they wanted to put the issue to rest.
"What it really boiled down to for both of us is it's old news," he said. "We need to get this thing settled. We need to move forward so we can look at the challenges we have in front of us today, and this lawsuit was sort of hanging between us and creating bad blood."
The three townships originally filed suit against the county in January 2006, alleging a number of claims concerning the county's contractual provision of police services to the townships.
The county and the townships stipulated at the outset that the sheriff's office would continue to provide road patrol to the townships at a cost of $53 per hour for each police service unit.
In February 2006, the county filed a counterclaim against the townships seeking what it considered the reasonable value of the police services provided to the townships beginning on Jan. 1, 2006. The county argued it was entitled to an additional $24 per hour ($77 per hour minus the $53 per hour the townships voluntarily paid for contract police services).
A circuit court judge ultimately ruled in the county's favor on every substantive claim brought by the townships but dismissed the county's counterclaim.
Verna McDaniel
A judge ordered the parties to attend facilitation before former Wayne County Circuit Judge James Rashid two weeks ago. Following an all-day session on June 22, Rashid issued a non-binding recommendation that the county's counterclaim be settled for the amounts subsequently approved by the county board at Wednesday's meeting.
"The most compelling reason to accept the facilitator's recommended settlement is to end this litigation, which has now lasted for five and a half years," reads a memo from County Administrator Verna McDaniel and Curtis Hedger, the county's corporation counsel.
"While either the county defendants or plaintiff townships could point to possible scenarios where they might reach a better result should they continue the litigation," they wrote in the memo to commissioners on Wednesday, "such scenarios are speculative at best and would result in the continued accumulation of attorney fees and costs on both sides."
Smith said the county now gets to close out a lawsuit that otherwise would have continued to suck money from both the county and the townships. The county's legal expenses related to the lawsuit are estimated to be more than $1 million.
"It's been a bumpy road and it's created a lot of bad blood amongst a lot of us on both sides, and unnecessarily," Smith said. "We're on the same side and we have the same mission to serve the people of Washtenaw County and I think we lost sight of that for a while."
Commissioners also voted 9-0 Wednesday night to give final approval to the price that municipalities in the county will pay for a contract sheriff’s deputy through 2015. The price per deputy — including salary, benefits and other costs — is proposed to remain at $150,594 in 2012, increasing 1 percent each of the following years, reaching $155,157 in 2015.
Commissioners Rolland Sizemore Jr. and Yousef Rabhi were absent.
Ryan J. Stanton covers government and politics for AnnArbor.com. Reach him at ryanstanton@annarbor.com or 734-623-2529. You also can follow him on Twitter or subscribe to AnnArbor.com's e-mail newsletters.
Comments
Steve Hendel
Thu, Jul 7, 2011 : 9:36 p.m.
IF I were an Ypsi Township citizen and taxpayer, I would certainly be mightily ticked that my elected township officers filed a series of frivolous lawsuits and countersuits against the County which are now costing the Township over $700,000 in settlement payment PLUS legal costs of ??????
grs
Thu, Jul 7, 2011 : 8:11 p.m.
So I see a claim, a counter-claim, and a decision. Then I see the claim appealed, the counter-claim appealed, and another decision. The a judge ordered facilitation. That took 6 years? This isn't rocket science. It's municipal law. Instead of complaining about police salaries, someone should be looking into the lawyers salaries, abilities, and willingness to work. So no one in the past 6 years took a look at what all the litigation was costing?
Bogie
Thu, Jul 7, 2011 : 6:11 p.m.
@Lifelong A2- Really? The constitutional obligation of a Michigan county sheriff, is only to transport prisoners. Open your state constitution to Article XVII section 4. It states, that a sheriff is responsible for law enforcement for the whole county (Including townships, cities, charter townships). Even when I don't agree with people; I still stick to the facts. I wonder where you came up with that? Also, your point about Ann Arbor subsidizing the rest of county. I think we are all in agreement, that Ann Arbor residents pay excessive property taxes. You may want to direct that complaint to the University, that doesn't pay a dime in property taxes. Or maybe yet, your local representatives, who are building a 50 ft 21 million dollar bridge . Fifty feet long bridges do not cost 21 million dollars in the rest of the county (or country, for that matter).
Jamie Riddle
Thu, Jul 7, 2011 : 5:39 p.m.
You mean to tell me that Washtenaw County claims that the cost of one (1) single deputy for 2012 is $150,594? I know these deputies don't earn this much per year in salaries and benefits, so what is the rest of the money? Yes, I do understand that there is the price of a car in there and fuel and maintenance, but not to the tune of the price they are asking. Washtenaw county is continually replacing these cars, which I feel to be unnecessary. These cars should be able to last 3 to 5 years each. My personal car that I got rid of a year ago was 16 years old and had more miles than I know because the odometer didn't read anything over 100,000 miles. So if my car lasted for 16 years (which also was a Ford like they use), surely they can make a police car last 3 to 5 years. My point is, I think that the price proposed could be lowered. One car plus the salary of an officer for four years, divided by fours years should be a lower number than $150,594. Say that a deputy makes an average of $50,000 per year including benefits that would be $200,000 and you add $60,000 for a police car you come out to a total of $260,000 for one deputy for four years. When that is divided by 4 you get a total of $65,000 per year per deputy. Yet again I ask where do they get the figure for an additional $85,000 per year?
Jamie Riddle
Sat, Jul 9, 2011 : 3:40 a.m.
@Craig Ok, I know that those figures are probably a bit inflated. Like I said before I was making rough estimations. I was trying to make a point, and the point was that the two townships are still being ripped off.
Craig Lounsbury
Fri, Jul 8, 2011 : 3:10 p.m.
Jamie my source is the link provided by Dilbert in the first response to your post.
Jamie Riddle
Fri, Jul 8, 2011 : 10:39 a.m.
@Craig: can you provide the source of your information since you want to try to rip someone's argument apart? If you are going to go against something you should provide your source of information. I didn't because I said that I was estimating. @DonBee: supervision and dispatch shouldn't cost anything extra because they are already there for the areas that don't contract out their policing. I also said in my original statement that I was including the cost of a car per deputy (which would include equipment and etc. For the car/deputy). The only thing that I didn't figure in was the cost of training per deputy, yet that still wouldn't add up to what they are asking for.
DonBee
Thu, Jul 7, 2011 : 8:50 p.m.
Included in the cost is dispatch, supervision, equipment, vehicles, training, etc. So there are plenty of places to fudge the cost. This has been a reoccurring argument between the townships and the county at every contract period. Right now I would suspect the jail is slightly subsidized by the policing units the townships pay for.
Craig Lounsbury
Thu, Jul 7, 2011 : 8:28 p.m.
It falls apart in that the cost of salary AND assorted benefits is closer to $122,000 before they get in a car.
Jamie Riddle
Thu, Jul 7, 2011 : 7:54 p.m.
@Craig how does my argument fall apart right there? Do you know what the average salary of a deputy is? I know that it isn't $90,000 a year. I am friends with a couple officers and know that they don't get paid a huge sum of money. So therefore I was giving a conservative estimate. I feel that my argument is plenty stable for using estimates and averages. Had I wanted to I'm sure I could have found the information online, but that wasn't the point I was making. The point was that the county has inflated these numbers.
Craig Lounsbury
Thu, Jul 7, 2011 : 6:08 p.m.
"Say that a deputy makes an average of $50,000 per year including benefits ..." your argument fell apart right there.
Dilbert
Thu, Jul 7, 2011 : 6:06 p.m.
See <a href="http://www.ewashtenaw.org/government/boc/agenda/wm/year_2011/2011-06-01wm/pssc-ps-price-2012-15-metrics.pdf" rel='nofollow'>http://www.ewashtenaw.org/government/boc/agenda/wm/year_2011/2011-06-01wm/pssc-ps-price-2012-15-metrics.pdf</a>
Steve McKeen
Thu, Jul 7, 2011 : 2:24 p.m.
It appears that Conan is already running for the State legislature, and as a result, is making poor decisions to make potential voters in the nearby townships happy. How else could you explain the cost of sheriff's services to be only rising at 1% per year and this lousy settlement agreement? You owe it to your constituents to be better than this Conan. Stand up for what is right and not what might help you down the road.
Craig Lounsbury
Thu, Jul 7, 2011 : 1:05 p.m.
I can't see this happening, nor am I suggesting it but the truth is we could all get more bang for our tax payer buck if we eliminated all local departments and we all paid "our fair share" for one county police department. Under that scheme my "fair share" as an Ann Arbor resident might reasonably be a bit more than someone in the "boonies" if I am more likely to have a police car in my neighborhood at any given time.
leaguebus
Thu, Jul 7, 2011 : 2:31 p.m.
This is too good of an idea, our taxes in AA might just go down as we would not be subsidizing the townships who do not pay their fair share.
BenWoodruff
Thu, Jul 7, 2011 : 12:56 p.m.
Ypsilanti Township Board of Trustees OWES an HONEST accounting of how much was spent with Garan, Lucow and Miller, and McLain and Winters on this fiasco.
glimmertwin
Thu, Jul 7, 2011 : 1:02 p.m.
We'll never get it. Being a lawyer for Ypsilanti Township is the greatest gig one could ever have - if you are the lawyer.
Lifelong A2
Thu, Jul 7, 2011 : 12:02 p.m.
@slave2work-- The County has no legal obligation to provide true "police" services to the townships. The Sheriff's constitutional duty is to run the Jail and transport prisoners. Beyond that, they generally back up the State Police in monitoring freeways and major roads. Traditional police work -- neighborhood road patrol, detective work, etc. -- is not mandated. If the townships want such services (which they clearly do b/c they've paid for it for years), they have two choices: pay the County, or start their own police departments (which is what's done in Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti City, Saline, and Pittsfield Twp.). Settling the lawsuit looks like it makes sense. But the 1% increase in annual police fees is a joke. Health insurance, etc., will rise faster than 1%/year. The townships should pay the true cost of the police services and should stop expecting Ann Arbor to subsidize their low taxes.
DonBee
Thu, Jul 7, 2011 : 8:43 p.m.
Not true Lifelong A2 - The state constitution puts patrol on the same level for county sheriffs as running jails. If there is no requirement to provide road patrol, there is no requirement to provide jail services. I would suggest you take a good look at the state constitution and state statutes. Specifically chapter 51 of the Michigan Compiled laws, I think you will find that the road patrol requirement is held equal to the requirement to run the jail in the eyes of the state. Washtenaw County decided to take a different tact and got away with it. I suspect a lawsuit filed by one or more citizens against the sheriff would change the game here.
Craig Lounsbury
Thu, Jul 7, 2011 : 12:05 p.m.
well said
slave2work
Thu, Jul 7, 2011 : 11:33 a.m.
So, all these townships are now paying double.(since we already pay for police in taxes to the county). If I had broke a contract with them you can bet that it wouldn't have made it thru the courts in my favor. blah, im so sick of big gov. always getting away with this stuff
StrongFire
Thu, Jul 7, 2011 : 3:25 p.m.
What about those communities that don't contract for sheriff services? We're paying property taxes and getting very little coverage, if any , from the Sheriff's Department.