The Dexter Leader
A Heritage Newspaper
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Majority of Scio board implores residents to support millage
By Sean Dalton, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: July 31, 2008
Scio Township residents will have the question of whether or not they wish to pay additional taxes for public safety services put to them this November.
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After a public hearing last week, which drew enough people to pack Scio Township Hall to the back wall, the township Board of Trustees voted 5-2 on a resolution to establish a special assessment district in which residents would pay a .9 mill tax.
Trustees Jean King and Kathy Knol were the dissenters.
King said she was voting against it because she felt the township had the money on hand.
Knol said she could not support any kind of public safety millage until management issues in the department were addressed by the township manager and board.
The district was established to keep Dexter village out of the millage, since village residents already pay for their own fire through the Dexter Area Fire Authority with Webster and Dexter townships. The village also has a separate contract with the Washtenaw County Sheriffs.
The district will also ensure that the township's Downtown Development Authority doesn't capture any of the funds intended for fire service.
If voters approve the millage it would mean $1.2 million, which would fund three additional firefighters.
Of 20 speakers during the public hearing, which drew about 150 people, 11 were against the millage, one was unsure, another passed and the rest, including Scio Township Fire Chief Carl Ferch, filed their response cards as "for" the millage.
Ferch was the first speaker called by Township Supervisor Charlie Nielsen, who was handling the participant submitted cards.
"The fire department desperately needs financial help," Ferch said. "The previous budget reductions have been uncomfortable, but the most recent ones have been downright painful."
Some speakers who are also running for public office in the Aug. 5 primary took the opportunity to take the township to task for not using existing funds, which have been quoted as ranging from $1.2 to 1.7 million, depending on whom you ask.
They called for the money to be used in lieu of a millage.
Township Manager Darrell Fecho reiterated the township's legal position under state law, saying "We are under no obligation to provide police and fire."
He said that the township added the full time shift firefighters so a fire truck could show up at the scene of an incident or to take calls immediately.
In regard to police coverage he said, "We haven't cut what we budget for sheriff's, budgetwise, but the number of hours has changed ... the same amount of money (gets you less deployment hours)."
The board tried to pass a motion at the end of the meeting following the public hearing to hire two additional deputies.
According to Washtenaw County Sheriff's Lt. Dieter Heren, it would take at least six months to prepare deputies for the new positions.
Hiring enough backfill overtime to create the equivalent of two full time deputies was discussed, but ultimately tabled until Aug. 12, at which time a new township board will be in office.
Bill Bernard, a resident living at 6363 Dexter-Ann Arbor Road and a county resident for 82 years was for the millage.
"When you see a half million dollar truck pull up to a fire and only one fireman gets out ... it's not right," he said. "These men put their lives on the line 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, seven days a week."
Bernard referenced several incidents of fires harming residents that might have been averted with strong public safety support.
Jack Knowles of 3420 Woodley was for supporting public safety, but not for more taxes.
"We all want the police and fire there when we need them, that's not the question," Knowles said. "The question is how do we fund this?"
He accused the board of coming to residents for more tax revenues every couple of years, citing the previous public safety millage that was defeated by a 3-to-1 margin.
Knowles said that the township should adjust its spending according to its needs and its means.
Paula Globerson of 159 Rockwood Ct. said she was against the millage, due to lack of information.
"One thing is clear to me ... people do not have enough information to vote on this," she said.
Others in attendance said they were not clear on the wording of the public hearing notice prepared by township attorney Victor Lillich, in which some township officials expressed a lack of confidence.
Members of the audience running for public office in the township said "it is inadequate and would not stand up to legal challenge," although that's a matter that won't be explored until someone challenges the notice in court.
Lillich prefaced the public hearing by defending the integrity of the notice.
Members of the Scio Township Public Safety Study Committee said they were in favor of what the township's board majority wanted.
"I think we should go for the full amount for both police and fire," said committee member David Reed. "We need $1.2 million for fire, but how the (special assessment district) is enforced, we may need ($1.2 to $1.4 million)."
He said he was disappointed at what he saw at the township hall.
"I feel like a failure," Reed said. "We put the information together and sent it to everybody in the township, but it's clear that that information has not made it to everyone ... there is so much opposition to (this) in this room."
The township also published a special edition of its township newsletter to deal with the public safety concerns and millage specifically, but not many speakers admitted reading it.
Reed and others on the committee said they would hold a township hall meeting to address further concerns and answer questions.
Maureen Sloan, another committee member, said that as an opponent to the previous public safety millage, she was all for the current proposed millage.
"We spoke to personnel from other fire departments and the common denominator for us was money," she said. "I am fiscally conservative, but I believe the funds are needed to fund police and fire."
Sloan also warned that the problem could eventually be exacerbated by Dexter village's transition into cityhood.
"The township would not collect the $300,000 from the village for assessment services."
Township trustee David Nacht, who is not running for re-election stated plainly that this millage is something that needed to be done.
"I am the guy at every meeting who, when it comes time to pay the bills, they say, 'David, are you ready?'
"I have a law practice, small children and I worked for John Glenn ... this is what I do now ... people have strong opinions, they come and yell at you ... they're kind of dumb, but that's democracy.
"It's good that you don't trust your government. That's what keeps you free from tyranny ... that being said, I want to know if my10-year-old has an asthma attack, if someone is going to be there in time to get him to the hospital to save his life."
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