On a tip from a reader, YCD has found, and a judge has ruled that Ypsi Township, along with Augusta and Salem Townships are NOT entitled to $240,000 from Washtenaw County for extra policing.
The townships complained in court the county's four-year contract offer in 2005 reneged on a prior commitment to maintain a higher level of county funding for police patrols. So they sued the county and lost. They've lost all procedural points in this case thusfar (sans one, a open meetings possible violation) and still continue the legal fight, costing township residents more and more and more. There's an old phrase turned many ways that says 'fish or cut bait' and it certainly appears that Ypsi Township continues to fish with NO BAIT. No bait is not a good place to be if you're in court.
Perhaps Township attorney Doug Winters would like to let the taxpayers in on how much it's costing the Township.
All three townships have again appealed Monroe County Circuit Judge Joseph Costello's decision, meaning more money will be spent on attorney fees.
Who cares, right Townships? It's not YOUR money after all, it's the taxpayers who supply the cash you spend...
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2 comments:
Excellent reporting.
Ypsi township gave it a shot, but when the judge started ruling against them, long, long ago, they should have abandoned the effort and ate their losses.
There was never anything "official" or "legal". There entire defense was "that's the way it's always been", which as anyone would know, isn't going to cut it legally.
I personally think there are many things out of wack in the township. But the house cleaning should start with new elected officials and new legal council.
I would highly recommend any interested party to just scan through the web-available township meeting minutes, agenda's and board packets that are posted on the Ypsi township website (http://www.twp.ypsilanti.mi.us/meetings/). Unfortunately, often the agenda's are not posted until the day of or even after the meetings, but they offer insight to just how things are run.
My opinions are certainly not personal towards township officials, but just spending time reading things that are publicly available it is easy to see just how disfunctional this outfit is and how much in-fighting occurs. What you can read is from the public meetings. I can only imagine how the private meetings are.
Here are a couple of the things I have monitored over the years:
1.
Township issues a building permit to a man to build his dream home, after he researched the property and received an ok from the township. During construction, the first physical inspection it is discovered he is building on wetlands and must stop. The township determines they made a mistake issuing the permit and a physical inspection was required prior to doing so. Later, the township's insurance company decides it isn't paying and the township changes its mind about being at fault. The man files bankruptcy.
2.
Township issues a building permit for a home in an existing neighborhood. After construction, the neighbors petition the township because the house violates the neighborhood's architectural standards and sticks out like sore thumb. The township pays $30,000 to move the house. It later indicates that a "contract worker" issued the permit and was in error, not a township employee.
These are just a couple of what I call disgraceful occurrences at Ypsilanti Township.
And for what it's worth, the township attorney has rarely makes it to public meetings on time.
Just my $.02
Sorry, I just had one more thing to say.
The township master plan: Citizens were invited to attend meetings to review and provide input in the planning for future growth at the township. For curiousity's sake, I went.
A concern I raised was that I thought it was hypocritical that the township states it is a violation to put a kid's swimming pool (yes, we are talking about the knee-height blow-up kind) in a yard unless it has a fence around it. I don't think this is actually enforced. Yet newer subdivisions are permitted to have rention ponds, some the size of football fields, that can become very, very deep, without any barrier or even signs for that matter.
Unfortunately, the unimaginable occurred. A young child got out of his house and accidentally drowned in a neighbor's decorative landscaping pond. A terrible, terrible accident.
Yet to this day, I see no fences or barriers around massive retention ponds nor am I aware of any change to the building codes of newer subdivisions.
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