Conzelman And Starr Are A Bad Fit For Plymouth Township

First, the necessary disclaimer. The Bentley Blog is an opinion piece. Nothing more, nothing less. These opinions are my own, and they do not represent the opinions of Patch in any way, shape, or form. I am not involved in any political campaign, paid by any political campaign, nor am I paid by Patch for any of my contributions. Make no mistake, this is simply an opinion piece about local politics.

A very interesting thing is happening in the Plymouth Township election for the Board of Trustees. It seems that a group of extremely left leaning people have suddenly decided that they want to take over Plymouth Township government. They are doing this with the blessings of Mary Maguire, and her Plymouth Democratic Club, and much to the delight of ex Township Clerk, Nancy Conzelman.

If Nancy Conzelman's name sounds familiar, it should, because she was a part of the group that was broomed out of the Plymouth Township Hall in 2016. Back then, she was widely known as Fancy Nancy Conzelman, the woman who couldn't tell the difference between her township credit card and her Von Maur credit card.

Fancy Nancy was the Clerk who decided that the comments of township taxpayers shouldn't be reflected in the minutes of the Board of Trustees meetings. She had no problems publishing these comments until people began questioning the ethics of that particular board in general, and her in particular. When the township taxpayers turned on Fancy Nancy, and her corrupt cohorts, Big Ron Edwards, and Shameless Shannon Price, she shut down all transparency in the township. She became the “Queen of Mean” and quite honestly, she is Plymouth Township's very own version of Leona Helmsley. The Queen of Mean.

Nancy Conzelman certainly didn't like me, because I badgered her every single meeting, and I badgered her right here at Patch, until she was forced to resume publishing taxpayer comments at the Board of Trustees meetings again. I am a believer in transparency, so let's be transparent. Let's take a quick look at Nancy Conzelman, before I get to this little group of
leftists that are trying to take over the township.

Nancy Conzelman was basically a nobody as far as local politics went, but when former Plymouth Township Clerk, Joe Bridgeman had a falling out with ex treasurer, Ron Edwards, Nancy Conzelman was recruited to run against him. Conzelman won a very dirty primary race by a grand total of 13 votes, and ran unopposed in the general election. Conzelman basically signed a deal with the devil, in order to be the Plymouth Township Clerk. She voted the way she was told to vote, she said what she was told to say, and for that, she got a six figure job in the township.

It was all working out well for Fancy Nancy, until I began exposing these corrupt, unethical people for what they were. Once I began exposing them here at Patch, our taxpayers caught on to them. Richard Reaume was basically forced to resign mid-term, and he promptly fled the state. That didn't stop Edwards and Conzelman though. They found another useful idiot to replace Reaume. They recruited Wayne County Commissioner, Shannon Price, who was living in Canton at the time.

Shannon Price, who had just been reelected to a roughly $60,000 a year job on the Wayne County
Commission was recruited to fill Reaume's empty suit. What was in it for Price? Money! So Price promptly sold his home in Canton, bought a house in Plymouth Township, and a couple months later, he held the top job in Plymouth Township, along with a major raise in pay. It was the biggest carpet bag in township history. Conzelman was the major force in appointing Shannon Price as the new Plymouth Township Supervisor. Just vote how Conzelman & Edwards tell you how to
vote, and say what they tell you to say, and all will be fine. Same song, different singers. The Plymouth Township taxpayers were incensed by this charade of an appointment, and they let it be known at the meetings. They knew it was a fix, and Conzelman led the meeting, and led the way for Price.

It was a horrible move for Shannon Price, because 2 years later, his political career was for all
intents and purposes, over. A career he had carefully crafted, so many butts kissed, so many lies told, and now it was all over in the blink of an eye. He had hitched his wagon to two corrupt, unethical creeps, and all three of them got their sorry butts voted right out of office by the good folks in Plymouth Township, who had had their fill of these nasty, vindictive liars. The Plymouth Observer called it an historic election in Plymouth Township.

The sad thing is that even after being broomed from office, the problems they created for the township, were not over. They left a ton of debt, they left the police and fire departments in disarray, and in one last black eye for them, Mike Mitchell, who was Price's right hand man, stole thousands of dollars of Plymouth Township property on his way out. Mike Mitchell was Price's assistant when he was a Wayne County Commissioner, and a do nothing job was actually created for him, and supported by Conzelman, when Price took over. The township taxpayers were on the hook for 60-70k a year plus bennies for Price's longtime buddy. The good news is that the Feds caught up with Mitchell, and he got indicted for his crimes against the Plymouth Township taxpayers. The last I heard, Mike Mitchell fled the state. A recurring theme with these corrupt people. Maybe he's living with Richard Reaume. Who knows, and who cares.

That 2016 election put an end to over a decade of awful people running Plymouth Township, and it was a grass roots effort, if there ever was one, to “Take Back Plymouth Township.” To take it back from the likes of Reaume, Edwards, Price, and especially Conzelman. The good folks of Plymouth Township worked hard to elect the “Turnaround Team” and Fancy Nancy Conzelman, has never gotten over it. Her rage has made for some very amusing, reading on social media for the last 4 years, and some of it has even been directed at yours truly. I take it as a badge of honor. For four years she has raged against anybody, and everybody.

Her rage is now directed at Republicans, even though she was elected as a Republican. Yes, she
has fled the Republican party. A more accurate statement would be that the Republicans would not tolerate her schizophrenic antics anymore. Well good luck to the Democrats, because she is going to cause them fits.

Come to think of it, I wonder how this new group of progressive Democrats feel about PARC? Heck, I'm not sure they even know about PARC. For their benefit, PARC is the Plymouth Arts and Recreation Complex, and I am given to understand that the PARC millage request received a ton of support from Democrats, when it was voted on in 2018. I wonder if this new crew, who have hitched their wagon to Nancy Conzelman, know that Fancy Nancy was one of the leaders in opposition to the PARC millage? Opposing the arts is a very un-progressive thing. No dyed in blue
Democrat opposes the arts right? Well Fancy Nancy vigorously opposes arts & recreation, so I would ask Mary Starr how she feels about Conzelman's role in having that millage shot down? Mary Starr is the person who wants you to elect Nancy Conzelman as Clerk. Mary Starr wants to be your new Plymouth Township Supervisor.

So, let's look at Mary Starr and her little group of write in candidates, who have decided to hitch their wagons to Fancy Nancy Conzelman in the August 4th primary. First thing's first, one would think that they obviously didn't do a good job of vetting Conzelman, because no clear thinking, decent person would want their name attached to her. Who knows? Maybe they did vet her, and they liked what they saw. If that's the case, it is quite alarming, because Conzelman has made some radical statements on social media, the worst being her constant trashing of our police,
calling them murderers, Nazi's, and Fascist's. If you support Nancy Conzelman, you are supporting the defunding of our police. Mary Starr supports Nancy Conzelman. That is a fact. It's all over her social media platforms.

So who's the ringleader of this little group of leftists, and what is she all about? We know that Mary Starr has decided that she wants to be Plymouth Township's new Supervisor. In my opinion, she has zero experience for this job, and at last look, her campaign Facebook page shows only 60 followers, despite all of the efforts of the Plymouth Democratic Club to promote her candidacy. My first thought was that this was some sort of folly, and not to be taken seriously, because as far as I know, she has never even attended a Plymouth Township Board of Trustees meeting. How do you run for the top job in Plymouth Township, and refuse to attend their board meetings? And no, Covid is not an excuse, because you should have been attending them, long before this pandemic, and you can now attend them safely, by wearing a mask. As Mary likes to say, “Just Mask Up.” She's a big believer in science and data, so I'll take her at her word, and I'll mask up. Heck, I'm wearing a mask as I peck away on my laptop. For those wondering, I am wearing a “Trump 2020” mask. But I digress. Anyway, just for fun, I decided to take a gander at Mary's Facebook page. Just out of curiosity. What I found, was rather disturbing.

What I found, is that Mary is not your typical Democrat. In fact, she is far more Socialist, than Democrat. What I found is that Mary did not support Governor Whitmer, like most old school Democrats. She instead, supported Abdul El-Sayed. El-Sayed was, and is a progressive Democratic Socialist. He was endorsed by Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Rashida
Tlaib. Yep, she is a fan of “The Squad.” So Mary Starr is definitely not your normal Democrat. She's an AOC Democrat. A Socialist Democrat. If you are supporting a guy who is endorsed by
AOC, you are supporting things like No Cash Bail, things like defunding the police, and things like the Green New Deal. I'm pretty sure that these are things that Plymouth Township taxpayers, either Democrat or Republican, do not support.

Now Ms. Starr will probably push back on this, and she'll not be happy with my assumptions, but I would opine that you can tell a lot about a person, by who they vote for. That's not an unreasonable assumption. She didn't just vote for El-Sayed, she let Mark Zuckerberg's whole kingdom know that she supported him. She was proud to support a Democratic Progressive
Socialist kind of guy. I don't know about you, but I don't think she is a good fit for Plymouth Township taxpayers. I have seen our Plymouth Township taxpayers, both Democrat and Republican, overwhelmingly support their police and firefighters, and this woman would seem to me, to be an enemy of our first responders, particularly the police. She is certainly endorsing Conzelman, who calls all police murderers and facists.

Progressive Mary has also used two words quite prominently on her campaign Facebook page. Science & Data. She likes these words just as much as Gretchen Whitmer likes them. Science & Data. It seems that she wants to use science and data to make all of her decisions as the Plymouth Township Supervisor. Not just for Covid, but for everything. She even made it a point to add that she wants to use Science & Data for decisions she will make as they relate to “emergency services” as well. This is code for cherry picking pieces of “Science & Data” to support radical progressive fantasies like the Green New Deal, and Defunding The Police. I've seen this movie before, and the
lead character is AOC. I don't like that movie, and neither will Plymouth Township taxpayers.

This leads me to the rest of the crew that Progressive Mary has recruited. They are all looking to get on the November ballot as Trustee candidates, via write in votes. They are Christal Corliss, Marisa Downs, and Nabelah Ghareeb. I'll not waste your time talking about them. Suffice it to say that they are all made from the same cloth as Progressive Mary Starr. I honestly believe that Mary has recruited them, so that they can tell their friends to vote for the slate. Their very own “Squad.” This is actually a smart strategy.

Progressive Mary states that she needs about 250 write in votes to get on the November ballot. So if she can recruit candidates to ask for write in votes for themselves, she'll also get write in votes for herself. It makes sense. Maybe Progressive Mary will be the next AOC? I doubt it. I think that if
she even makes it to the general election in November, she'll get beat by Supervisor Heise by a 70/30% margin. Mark it down.

So let's bring this all to a conclusion. Here are my thoughts, and mind you I could be wrong on
some of them, but that's not likely. I think that after being essentially booted from the Republican party, Nancy Conzelman, with nowhere else to go, ran to the Democrats. Knowing that she needed
allies, I think she may have recruited Progressive Mary to run for Supervisor, even though Mary has little to no idea about how to do that job. Nancy said “No problem, I'll show you what to do.”
Remember when Nancy was recruited to be Clerk? Vote the way I tell you, and all will be good? Mary is the new Nancy! Mary will be the figurehead, and Nancy will run the show! That my friends, is a scary thought. A very scary thought.

The thing that strikes me, is that Mary Starr portrays herself to be a pretty educated person. Someone who is thoughtful, and of course, relies heavily on science, and data. So it would seem to me that if she were going to throw her hat in the ring for the top job in Plymouth Township, she would have done it the normal way. She would have been attending meetings, having discussions with people, formulating a platform, and presenting her plan for the township to the folks she is asking to trust her with their vote. She'd have been doing this months ago. Instead, all of
the sudden, she jumps into the fray, a few short weeks from the primary. She's either not at all as serious as she portrays herself to be, or it was some sort of a stealth move, or she got recruited at
the last minute by Fancy Nancy Conzelman. It's a good question for folks to ask her.

Again, I have made some assumptions, and I could be wrong. The thing is, that folks who used to read my political blogs for 4 or 5 years, know that I am very rarely, if ever wrong about these things. I was the guy who exposed almost all of the corruption in Plymouth Township from 2012 through 2016. I am the guy that Richard Reaume, Shannon Price, Ron Edwards, and especially Nancy Conzelman hate. They hated me then, and they hate me now, because I exposed them for what they were. I did this for my community back then. I did not gain one single thing from it. In fact, I was attacked unmercifully by these people. I was not appointed to any commission as a “thank you” nor would I have accepted any position if offered. I do not work for any campaign, and I do not get paid to contribute my opinions at Patch.

To be honest, after the 2016 election in Plymouth Township, I was convinced that I had written my last political blog, and even though I recently moved from the township, I still care deeply about my lifelong friends that live there. All of my volunteer work is still in Plymouth. I still publish
announcements at Patch for many Plymouth organizations, and I'll not stand for Nancy Conzelman, or any other folks that want to tear down all of the good things that so many people worked so hard to build.

So having said that, I am going to take the liberty of offering my own endorsements. I firmly believe that the taxpayers in Plymouth Township are lucky to have folks like Supervisor Heise, Treasurer Clinton, and particularly, Clerk Jerry Vorva working for them. Yes, I picked a favorite. I just really admire Jerry Vorva. He is the salt of the Earth, and a great friend to our veterans, police, and firefighters, but honestly, they all are. The main thing, is that all three of them made campaign promises, and they kept them. These are three very intelligent people, they don't let politics interfere with the job of managing Plymouth Township, and whether I agree, or disagree with any particular decision they make, I can rest assured that they have the taxpayers, and the good of the township in their hearts and minds when making their decisions.

As for the Trustee positions, there are many great candidates, but there is one in particular that I truly respect, and admire. His name is Don Schnettler. He's not a politician, although he has run for Trustee in the past. He has also served on the Zoning Board of Appeals because of his vast
professional experience. He's actually the hardest working guy I have ever met. He has been the Emergency Management Operations Officer for Washtenaw County for over 20 years, he's a Licensed Builder and Electrician, and has been a business owner for over 30 years. The guy even teaches Martial Arts in his free time. He's just a hard working guy, who loves his community.

Don Schnettler has been attending Board of Trustees meetings for roughly 20 years, and I don't know of a person more knowledgeable about Plymouth Township, than Don Schnettler. He is a great family man, with a wonderful wife (Deb) of 38 years, and three great children, two of which have served our nation in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has been a board member, and a Deacon
at his church. Don Schnettler checks all the boxes in what a taxpayer would want for a Plymouth Township Trustee, and I know beyond the shadow of a doubt, that he would be a valuable member of the Plymouth Township Board of Trustees.

So these are my opinions, take them for what they are, and thank you for reading The Bentley Blog...