Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


More demands for the Pinckney Police Department from Council, and delayed action again on approving a ballot proposal for a potential police millage.

The Village is dealing with a structural budget deficit and Council talks have previously involved reducing the police department and contracting with the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office.

Per requested budget cuts, the Police Department is moving from 24-7 coverage to 16-7 coverage – 16 hours a day, seven days a week.

Business owners, residents, area law enforcement, and others came out to support the Department and request voters decide a millage for services. One stated “officers are present and know residents and the community and that established trust, familiarity, and comfort are valuable public safety assets that should not be dismissed”.

Some told stories of how prompt officers were in responding to true emergencies, including medical, and even cases of problem neighbors.

Another in the public safety field stated “This man is a frugal chief, a protective chief, he pouts this community first, and before even his own family. You would be hard pressed to find a better chief and a better leader for this department. And protection starts with leadership. Now, put a price tag on it. The protection of your community - put a price tag on it. We all have budgets, I know that…It will never be enough, because police work is expensive”.

One Councilmember wanted Police Chief Jeff Garrison to look in to partnering for services with Putnam Township, which currently contracts with the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office.

It has been reiterated multiple times in multiple public meetings to Council that surrounding communities and public safety agencies are not interested in forming any authority or partnering up.

Garrison again stated last night that Putnam has a 3-year contract with the Sheriff’s Office, and is not interested in the Village being its police department. Further, contracts for communities with the Sheriff’s Office are separate.

Some Council members also questioned the hours and shifts for officers with the reduced schedule and were looking to further dictate scheduling – saying they “want to look at more options and vary the shifts more”.

Councilwoman Jo Self said she felt there were still ways to find an agreement with revolving schedules, but maybe not the same days each week. She said “there are hundreds of jobs out there that do this on a regular basis. There are townships that we neighbor that have absolutely no police presence and they have no problem…we have plenty of mutual aid, we are trying to work with you to keep this police department but you’re putting a lot of hard lines on why we can’t make this work”. Self also referenced emergency room doctors and people in other positions that have difficult schedules. She clarified she was not talking about cutting hours but having a non-predictable schedule, saying she “worked in hospitality and waited to see her schedule each week”.

Garrison responded that police departments do have a set schedule now. He said the old theory of “screw the employee, we’ll work them whenever we want” does not apply. He said “you have to accommodate for people’s ability to sleep schedule, their livelihood schedule with their family, and if they don’t know one week or month to the next or if they’ll be on days, nights, or afternoons - that’s a that’s a nightmare of a schedule for anyone to work, your body doesn’t recover”. It was also clarified that a police department is different from a doctor.

Garrison stated “Well you already laid off my new officer so I don’t know how much lower you want us to go and provide adequate coverage for the Village - three people can’t provide adequate coverage, you can’t work someone every day, there’s no relief factor”.

He added “you asked me to go down to a $500,000 budget, I worked it around, and got it to $499,000 - I’ve done exactly what you asked and laid off my brand-new officer. I’m unclear on how you’re saying I’m not working with you when I’ve gone down to your required number of $500,000, laid off a brand-new officer, I’ve cut every other line to the bare minimum to make it operational, and still came up with $1,000 less than the number you asked for”.

Garrison was ultimately yet again requested to talk with Putnam Township and report back on what it has to say and the reasoning.

Separately, Council again postponed action on placing a police millage on the November ballot and associated language.

Council already missed earlier opportunities to get a potential millage on the ballot in May or August, which many resident voters had been anticipating following a town hall, and now the earliest is the November election. There’s an August 11th deadline for that. If any millage is approved, the monies would not be received until July of next year – nothing that would help this year’s budget.

Some on Council raised concerns the 2-mill amount would only be supplemental and not the right number as the Village would still be in a budget crunch.

The Village attorney stated 1-mill is essentially around $100,000. Some felt the millage needed to be at least 50% of the actual operating cost to be meaningful and help solve budget problems – so around 3 or 4 mills.

Councilman Rob Coppersmith said he felt Council did already have enough information to make a decision versus postponing again.

At the final call to the public, one person stated “I've heard nothing but a tone of disrespect from some of you people. Someone actually compared a public servant job to hospitality - are you kidding me?! I don’t know any hospitality person that if a person walked through that door with a gun would have the guts to stand up and take him down while everybody else was laying under their desk. So please don’t disrespect us, don’t talk to him as a child - he’s a man and a hero, and he stands the line”.

Another resident commented the chief has done everything asked of him, and questioned "why are we still talking about this?”

President Jeff Buerman stressed they don’t want to get rid of the police department…“what I want to do is balance the books and have this Village around for a long time. I just need people to work with us and give us solutions; I haven’t gotten any solutions”.

The millage issue is expected to be back before Council at its next meeting.