Board - Regular Meeting

Call to order Charter Township of Plymouth Board of Trustees special meeting Tuesday, September 1, 5.05 p.m.

Okay, roll call. Chuck Kermy.

Here.

Abdo Shevitz.

Here.

Kim Gatica here. Sandy Groth. Here. Bill Iks. On his way, not present. Tardy. Joe Riley?

Here.

John Stewart?

Here.

You have a quorum.

All right. Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands,

So we're going to modify the agenda a little bit. It's confused. We were going to have a discussion about a potential settlement of a lawsuit. We're not ready for that. So we're only going to be talking about an employment agreement in closed session. So I need somebody to, well, the clerk will read the words and then we'll only say employment agreement

I make a motion that the Board of Trustees convene in a closed session pursuant to the Michigan Open Meetings Act, MCL 15-.268H to discuss the following items that are exempt from disclosure as attorney-client privilege employment agreement.

Second. Okay. Seconded by Doroshevitz.

So roll call vote.

Bob Doroshevitz?

Yeah.

Sandy Groth? Yes. Joe Riley?

Yes.

Jon Stewart? Yes. Chuck Cramie?

Yes.

Kim Ganica, yes. And Bill Eichs isn't here. We have a majority voting the affirmative. Motion passes.

Okay, so just a little background information. We're doing this at 5 o'clock to accommodate our attorney, our employees, and others that have activities. It's not a clandestine motion. And we are also planning to potentially make a decision at the end in open session if the board wants to do that. And we are doing this today because the candidate may have potential other offers, and we need to give the person the proper time to evaluate their offers, and we want to win this person over to Plymouth Township, we hope. So we're going to discuss that now. So how do we go into closed session?

Well, we're headed to closed session.

Yeah, I just made the motion that we do it.

Okay, so we're there. So I can just gavel it? Yeah, so close session. Let's stand and have a 30-second moment of memory for firefighter Bigger.

Went to the funeral.

Return to open session at 7.01. Go ahead.

We got a roll call. Well, who did the second?

Somebody's got to second it. Let me read the motion into the record. Well, first we need to come back into open session. I'm sorry, I apologize.

Seconded by Riley.

Okay, roll call. John Stewart. Here. Um, Joel Riley?

Here. Yes or no?

This is yes or no. It's just yes or no for going back to open session.

Yes.

Okay, Bill Ikes?

Yes.

Sandy Grove? Yes. Kim Gatica? Yes. Bob Dorshevitz? Yes. Chuck Kermie? Yes. We have a motion to go back into open session.

So what do you want to do, John? You want to read the motion? He's going to give us some education.

Yeah, I want to read the motion to you that I would recommend the board approve. I'm so inclined to approve the contract. So move that the Board of Trustees approve the Deputy Chief of Police Employment Agreement as presented. with an effective date of September 26th, 2026, and to authorize the township supervisor, township clerk, and chief of police to sign the agreement for the position of deputy police chief.

So- You're not gonna mention, you're not gonna put his name in the- As presented, so I can go ahead and present it.

Is September 26 the right date?

That's the, yeah, the Chief just confirmed that that will be the effective date.

Okay. It's not a Saturday or Sunday.

It's a Saturday. 26 is a Saturday.

26 is a Saturday? Let's not, can we do it on a Monday then? That's the date Chief gave me. Let's just take our time and get it so we...

Okay, September 28th.

September 28th is a Monday, which, yeah, that's probably the beginning. Hold on, let me see. That's the beginning of a... Yeah, I believe it is. That's the first day of a pay week, at least.

So I'll make that motion as read by counsel. Can I do that? Yep. Yeah.

We have a second.

I'll second.

Okay, so roll call vote. Who seconded?

Riley. All right, roll call vote. Chuck Carmi.

Yes.

Hold on, sorry. Bob Dorchevitz. Yes. Sandy Groth. No. Uh, John Stewart?

I would appreciate 60 seconds before my vote.

So does that mean you want to go to somebody else first?

No. No. Oh. No. A week ago, my wife accurately described this as, trust me, this issue to hire the deputy chief was taken off the agenda. In the past two hours, I have been presented with abundant information in regard to this applicant. I am satisfied with same and I'm ready to go onward and forward. I'm sure as I've asked this Chief Nytel to encourage our applicant to consider locating to this northwest corner of Wayne County. And I'm sure he will find it highly advantageous for a man in his 30s who has a wife and children. And I want to welcome him at the September 10th meeting. I vote yes.

Bill Ikes?

No.

Kim Gatica? Yes. Joe Riley?

Yes.

You have a majority voting in the affirmative. Motion passes.

All right. Thank you for putting your trust in us and our chief. We're going to make you proud.

Okay. I affirm the same. Thank you.

Chief, you have made representations that he will be here next Thursday night, September 10th. Yes. Okay.

Can I just say one thing? Yes. We'd like to thank you, Chief, for putting together such a in-depth review of all candidates interested in this. It seemed like you put a lot of work into it, and I look forward to working with the new hire soon.

Yes, sir. Thank you.

Don't we need public comment?

Yeah. Public comment? On anything.

I guess the first question is, do we have the name of this chief deputy chief? Yeah, I think we can disclose it.

Yeah, Samuel Miller.

I'm sorry, what? Samuel Miller. Samuel Miller. And this person doesn't live in the township? Correct. Is there a requirement to live in the township?

No, the state law does not permit that.

Okay, and I guess I had another question. The other day, Sandy, you mentioned the second fire station was closed for certain hours. Is there a way for the public to know or get notified when those things are closed? That's a very good question.

You mean notify the public on a regular basis?

Yeah.

How would you recommend doing that? Through Facebook?

On the website?

An Amber Alert saying, but it's not an emergency that it's closed. we could work on that maybe the fire chief can come up with a creative way to do that it was relative that the hours were distributed to sandy growth I saw an email right no the hours were distributed by reading the end of the month report okay but you all there was an email this afternoon I think I haven't seen not I think I know I haven't seen it I did request it and it gave the reason why We have been down since about February. I don't know the exact date. Four officers, four firefighters, that's nearly 20% of the workforce. And it's for work and non-work related disabilities. We're managing that. And then that's one of the reasons why we have mutual aid. And we've given a lot of mutual aid to surrounding communities. So we're doing a very good job. Our people are working very hard to ensure that our stations are covered. By the way, that station, even though it's the closest to the freeway, it takes the longest time to get to the freeway from that station. It's the least strategic one we have, I guess. because of the way the freeway came in at M-14 when years ago M-14 wasn't there.

So I'm assuming like when the consulting report comes out, they'll address that issue and anything else related to that?

Pretty sure they will, yeah.

And I would like to add the fact that the firefighters have a contract with the Township of Plymouth that guarantees a six-man minimum, which we are not getting. So it is an issue to be aware of.

Okay, thanks. Can I just add too that Amber Alert's not the platform, but you're right, Susan, it's the Nixle. The Nixle is where we do the communication for accidents and areas to avoid. It would be Nixle, not Amber Alert. Those are specifically for children.

Mr.

Supervisor, am I able to make one comment on that?

Yes. Just to touch on Mike's question about does he live in the township? We've done a lot of research on this, and it's very uncommon for these type of positions to live in the township. So we are lucky that our police chief does, but it's not common across this area.

Thank you. Western Wayne County, is what we're referring to, has very few chiefs that live in the community in which they police. Doesn't make it right. We're glad we have it. We've always had that in Plymouth Township. We've had four police chiefs in our history. I think you're number four. All have lived in Plymouth Township. Okay. Wait a minute. Do you want to go before or after? It's her turn.

Susan.

I just want to remind everyone that Lake Point has something like over 800 homes, okay? And I have heard a rumor where we might even be considering closing that station, which I think would really be a mistake. And it's bad enough that you shut it down at the first signs of not having enough staff. And obviously that's telling me that we need to add staff as soon as possible. And, of course, that's not particularly easy. It's not easy finding. The young people are not going into fire and or police. It's not that easy to find highly qualified, and especially when the firefighters have to not only be qualified for Plymouth Township, as far as their firefighting skills and emergency skills, but they have to be advanced life support paramedics. And that is one thing that makes it more difficult to find them. So we need to hire, we do need to not close Lake Point's Wilcox Station. And we need to come up with some way of letting residents know when that station is closed.

I'm not being smarty, but what will they do with that information by knowing it's closed?

I think just not expecting You know, if they put in a call that it's going to be there within two minutes, which is about what they could, they could be at our homes, almost any home in Lake Point within five minutes. And I don't think they can make it from here in five minutes.

The analysis, we'll see what happens, but it's possible they're pretty fast considering the station here. So we'll have to look at that and see where it is. We'll have to look at that.

I don't know how you, you know what the railroads are. So you're only avenue to get to Lake Point if you've got trouble. And like I just went through, last week I had a three-car, three-engine train go through Plymouth, moved up a little further, hit a two-engine train. I heard Levin was shut for 24 hours, so you know the trains are getting only worse. So, you know, counting on Heinz Drive to get to Lake Point is not necessarily a good idea.

So CSX has been having some problems closing our, they did Joy Road for three days, and Beck Road for at least one day. So there is something going on. Our congresswoman is working on it also because they don't answer to anyone except the federal government because that's who their controlling documents come from. And they have the attitude, we were here first and the rest of you guys came later, so tough it out.

I realize that, but when you've got a three-engine train, you can imagine how many cars were behind it.

Yes. First of all, I want to thank Susan because I've thought about that for years, having lived in Lake Point in the same house for 42 years. Access to Lake Point, but for being blocked by trains. Access to Lake Point, but for being blocked by trains. Oh, I'm deeply grateful for you saying that. This afternoon, I got six pages emailed to me about Samuel Miller. Then we spent, I'm willing to let anybody review this in my office on Main Street if you want to stop by. There are days that I think more people stop into my office than stop into the second floor office of the supervisor because we're so accessible at 1142 South Main. But finally, the chief has done an extremely thorough comprehensive search, that's my opinion, and he has included the professional opinion of several, if not many, other chiefs of police and most significantly Al Cox, the city police chief in the city of Plymouth. So we were given a lot of information between five o'clock and seven o'clock. So final comment, I pulled the typical Jon Stewart. I called Sam Miller at four o'clock. He returned my phone call at 4.30. Thank you very much and good night.

I do have something I would like to say. First and foremost, what it would do by finding a way to notify the public is that it lets them know that there's a staffing problem with the fire department. In addition to that, the fact of the matter is that the fire chief has a procedure here in Plymouth Township right now, and that is that on the days that there are six men only on duty, There is no first response ambulance out of Station 1. We have to wait for Station 2 or Station 3. So when Station 2 is also closed, we now know we have to wait for Station 3. And I think it's important for the citizens to be aware of that. That is a fact.

So you're saying Station 1 on Hagerty Road does not have... an ambulance ready when there's six people on board.

That is absolutely correct because the battalion chief has that bright shiny new red truck that this board bought for him and that's his vehicle and the fire chief does not want the battalion chief transporting out of the community despite the fact that he's a paramedic. So if they respond, they respond in a fire truck with the battalion chief and an additional firefighter slash paramedic, but they can't take you anywhere in the fire truck. So I'm just making the point that every day that the staffing is low, six men, there is no first response ambulance out of fire station one. If they come, great. If they come timely, great, but there's no guarantee. That's the biggest issue. And people at Lake Point, we can't depend on you either. So I just want to make that point.

Motion to adjourn.

Do we have a motion to adjourn? I actually want to make a comment. Okay. And I'll be glad to second John's comment. Right. But first off, number one, our police chief is phenomenal. The entire staff does a great job. The metrics, top 10% townships. We applaud the effort. Okay. The search he did is thorough. The candidate's outstanding. Okay. For the record, right, it will help. And the morale will continue to be good. So I applaud what you've done. That being said, we've got to work on both sides of the house, fire as well as police, to continue making this place safe and residents safer. So with that, that was my only comment, and I would like to second John's comment to adjourn.

So we have a motion to adjourn from Stewart, seconded by Ikes.

Just two voice votes. Okay.

All those in favor? Aye. Adjourned. 7.20 p.m. I'm sorry, it wasn't on the...