The Price Is Not Right In Plymouth Township

Brand new Plymouth Township resident, and Supervisor, Shannon Price has conducted exactly two meetings in his new post, and certain things are becoming very clear. He has problems, and they are not going to go away anytime soon.

His biggest problem is that he has not taken over as the actual Supervisor. He has abdicated that authority to Treasurer Ron Edwards. While he may have been appointed Supervisor, it is very clear after just two meetings that Ron Edwards still calls all the shots in Plymouth Township. He called all the shots when Richard Reaume was Supervisor, and now that he personally put Shannon Price in the Supervisor’s seat, he will continue to call all the shots.

Much like Clerk Nancy Conzelman has done, Price seems to be content with going along to get along. He owes Edwards for his seat, and hefty raise, and he is doing exactly what Edwards tells him to do. Basically, Shannon Price is just a shorter, balding version of Richard Reaume, and that is not sitting to well with Plymouth Township taxpayers.

Supervisor Price also seems to be taking some of his Wayne County Commission traits with him as well. Just a couple weeks into his controversial appointment, he hastily called a special meeting of the Board of Trustees, and spent close to a million bucks. Shades of Bobby Ficano already.

Let’s back up a bit here, before we get to the big spending. I want to first point out that I really didn’t have any huge personal issues with Mr. Price prior to his shameless carpet bag into our township. I even wrote kind things about him in an announcement on this very blog in the past. My problems with Mr. Price began when he hitched his wagon to Ron Edwards, who paved his way into the Supervisor’s office.

I knew right away, when Edwards and Price suddenly became all chummy, that something shady was afoot, and I was right. That something became reality when Price hurriedly moved to Plymouth Township just a couple weeks before Reaume resigned. A couple weeks later, and Shannon Price was appointed Supervisor. Yeah, I know, it’s politics, and we should never be surprised at some of the slimy things that some of the politicians do, but this was a shocker.

What really bothered me was seeing all of his political crony friends from outside the township crowd into our meetings. I have yet to find an elected official anywhere, who would like it if the shoe were on the other foot. They were there to support Price, and kiss his ring when he got appointed, but not one of them would have liked having a guy carpetbag into their township, and become Supervisor after just a month or so living there. It was really hypocritical for a couple of them to be there, and I lost a tremendous amount of trust and respect for some local fellow Republicans during this deal. Their actions throughout this process will color my opinions of them as they try to further their political careers in 2016. Fair warning.

Anyway, it is what it is, and Shannon Price was appointed. I expressed my views, got my pound of flesh, and decided to move on, and give him a chance. I kept my mouth shut for the next couple weeks, and even stayed quiet after his first meeting. I had a long talk with my friend Carl Berry about this, and in the interest of healing our community, I agreed to quit writing for awhile, and give the guy a chance.

I am sorry Mr. Berry, but I can be silent no longer. I have watched Mr. Price closely since his appointment, and these are my thoughts.

After the very hostile meeting in which Price was appointed, he seemed to take deliberate steps to quell the anger exhibited by Plymouth Township taxpayers. He said all the right things in the paper. He spoke of the importance of listening to the taxpayers, he spoke of his record for transparency, and above all, he spoke of respect and dignity.

Well, he began his listening tour, by doing it from the sunny beaches of Florida, which rankled many residents, because the main reason stated by Edwards and Conzelman for fast tracking Price’s appointment was that Price needed to be shown the ropes by outgoing Supervisor, Richard Reaume. They also contended that the Supervisor had fiduciary duties, and the office could not be left vacant.

In hindsight, we now know that had they had a second round of interviews, or even given the Trustees a day or two to consider this important decision, it would have interfered with Price’s spring break in Florida. The office was left vacant until Mr. Price returned from his frolic in the sun. So much for fiduciary duties, and so much for Reaume showing him the ropes.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to begrudge a guy for taking a vacation, that was not the issue. The issue was the lie. They lied to us about why they fast tracked Price, and make no mistake, Price knew of the lie. Price and Edwards are thick as thieves. They talked every day, and every night. This move was carefully orchestrated by the both of them. Price was standing right there when they told the lie about why they had to rush through this appointment. He knew he was going to be flying the friendly skies, and he knew there was going to be no learning the ropes from Reaume, yet he stood there mum, when the lie was told. That to me, makes him complicit in the lie, which is a helluva way to begin your tenure as the new boss.

So with the listening tour in Florida over, Price came home, and was officially sworn in. He then had another ceremonial swearing in, an hour before his first Board of Trustees meeting. This was attended by family and political cronies. The taxpayers were neither notified, nor invited. Can’t have the rabble spoiling his little soiree.

Now the real business began. Now it was time for the new Supervisor to step to the plate, and deliver on all of his promises. Transparency, respect, and leadership. He began the meeting with a small speech. He seemed to take the approach where he would be the adult in the room. He gently gave the taxpayers a lesson in respect. Much like an elementary teacher would talk to a class.

He spoke of his determination to respect our residents, and reminded folks that they must be respectful in return. That is all well and good, and township taxpayers would have loved to believe him, but based on the fact that they have been treated with so little respect for so many years, they were more than a little hesitant to believe him. They were however, very quiet and respectful in their first chance to give public comments. It was as if they were going to take a wait and see approach. I thought that was very fair.

It didn’t take long for Price’s true colors to show through though, as there was some disagreement amongst the board with the way our Clerk decided to interpret public comments from the last meeting. Nancy Conzelman has a habit of twisting folk’s words in the meeting minutes to put the best light on the full time board members in general, and herself in particular. Long story short, she made a very inflammatory interpretation of one taxpayer’s actions, and used another resident’s comment to turn it into a self aggrandizing record in the minutes. All silly stuff, and all beneath an ethical elected body. Price had a chance to take control of the Board by making two small changes to the minutes, which would have made the residents happy, but chose not to, and in a block vote of 4-3, the matter was settled by Price, and those who chose to appoint him. So much for Price’s leadership, and so much for showing respect to his fellow board members. Talk is cheap Mr. Supervisor.

I left the very first meeting after that issue. I had seen all that I needed to see, and I watched the rest of the meeting a couple days later online. Yes, you can watch the board meetings online, so if you ever question the veracity of what I say about these meetings, go to the Plymouth Township website, and see for yourself. You’ll find what you see very eye opening.

All in all, not the worst performance by Price at his first meeting, but certainly not the best. This block voting though, is something that angers our community members, and it continued, with Edwards, Conzelman, and Trustee Kay Arnold. Price, who replaced Reaume, completed their little foursome.

Now is where it gets ugly. Now is where every single thing that Shannon G. Price preached about, went straight down the drain. On Tuesday, April 28, at 4:10 PM, on his way out the door, Mr. Price posted a notice for a Special Meeting of the Plymouth Township Board of Trustees. The meeting was set for Thursday, roughly 48 hours after posting the notice. It was the least amount of time you can give the public in order to not be in violation of the Open Meetings Act.

In most instances, in most communities, this would be no big deal, but in Plymouth Township, it’s always a big deal when they hurriedly call a special meeting. It means that the township board is about to pull a fast one on the taxpayers. Reaume did this all the time, and folks I guess were hoping that Mr. Price would be different. Nope. Same song, different dancer.

Price gave taxpayers 48 hours notice that he was gonna spend about a million of their hard earned dollars. Mr. Price actually gave the Board of Trustees even less notice. They got their packet 24 hours prior to being forced to vote on spending one million dollars of the taxpayer’s money. 24 Hours.

The lion’s share of this money is being spent on a concrete parking lot in the township park. If you recall, the previous Supervisor called a hasty Very Special Meeting to approve a controversial 2 million dollar bond, so that they could pay for pet projects in the park. This was enough to drive the people to a recall effort, and created enough anger towards Reaume, to drive him to throw up his hands and resign.

The parking lot expansion is not necessarily a surprise, it was detailed in the bond discussion, but the cost certainly is new. When this thing was announced, it came with a projected $400,000 price tag. That cost is now $720,000. It’s just like Mr. Edward’s air conditioned pavilion in the park. That project was announced as a $350,000 project, but has ballooned to around double that cost. You can see why folks get antsy when these “Very Special” meetings are called.

Trustee Bob Doroshewitz called it very disrespectful to force the board to vote on a million dollars worth of expenditures on 24 hours notice, and I agree wholeheartedly with him. Nobody does business like that. Not Canton, not Northville, not Livonia, not anybody.

It is not only disrespectful to the rest of the board to put them in that position, but it is also disrespectful to those having to foot the bill. It is a slap in the face to every single taxpayer in this community to call a special meeting, giving them 48 hours notice, and then having 20 minutes of discussion, before spending $750,000 of their hard earned dollars at the park. The rest of the money is going to Wayne County for one of Mr. Price’s road projects.

It’s also a transparency issue. Shannon Price likes to brag about how he made Wayne County the most transparent county in the state. Well there are certainly those who would disagree with that statement, and there are those that would say that the only way they earned that distinction was by finally admitting they are a hundred or so million dollars in debt from reckless spending. Spending that occurred while Mr. Price was a Wayne County Commissioner I might add.

So if Supervisor Price is so darn transparent, why the hush hush treatment on the massive cost overrun on the parking lot at the park? Why spend a million dollars at a special meeting that most folks will never know happened? Why not do it at a regularly scheduled meeting? You’re telling me you couldn’t wait two weeks? Heck, if he didn’t go to Spring Break right after he was appointed, he could have done it at the last regularly scheduled meeting. Why didn’t Mr. Price at least give the Trustees, and the community a heads up at the last meeting that this was coming down the road? Are you telling me he didn’t know? If that is true, that he didn’t know, then he has way bigger issues than transparency.

It’s obvious that Mr. Price has forgotten the definition of transparency, so let’s get to the respect component of his agenda. Speaking of agendas, Mr. Price has changed the agendas for the board meetings. A very slight change, but a very important one, and one that caused huge respect issues at his “Very Special” meeting.

What Mr. Price did was change the order in which Trustee comments and public comments are given at the end of his meetings. Prior to Thursday’s meeting, Trustee comments preceded public comments. Now Trustee comments are last. Why is this important? It allowed Treasurer Ron Edwards to go on another of his famous rants against a taxpayer he doesn’t like.

Treasurer Edwards personally attacked Mr. Duane Zantop, who has been a critic of him in the past. It was incendiary, it was personal, it was unbecoming of an elected official, and Supervisor Price just sat there, quiet as a church mouse, and let it happen. It’s actually worse.

What set Edwards off, was prior to Edward’s attack, Mr. Zantop was critical in his public comments about how much time Mr. Edwards spends at the park during the day. It is Mr. Zantop’s assertion that if Mr. Edwards has so much time to spend at the park, maybe we should go to a part time treasurer. A lot of folks agree with that notion, but Mr. Zantop made the mistake of calling the place, “Mr. Edwards Entertainment Center” and this drew the ire of Supervisor Price, who immediately interrupted Mr. Zantop, stating, “Mr. Zantop, please refrain from personally attacking members of this board” He further stated, “Your comments are disparaging. We will treat people with respect and dignity, if you can’t do that, I’ll ask you to refrain from public comment.” So he basically chose to threaten Mr. Zantop, by telling him that he may just ask him to refrain from commenting in the future. So this is where Supervisor Price finally chosen to exert his new found authority? Mr. Edward’s Entertainment Center is a phrase that warrants squashing a taxpayer’s 1st Amendment rights?

I would suggest that Mr. Price grow some thicker skin. He needs to grow some thicker skin because if he continues to do business the way he has in his first two meetings, he’ll surely be hearing much worse from an angry electorate.

So to summarize, Price called out Mr. Zantop, saying that he personally attacked Mr. Edwards, then doubled down by threatening Mr. Zantop’s right to make a public comment, and then five minutes later, Mr. Edwards made several disgusting allegations against Mr. Zantop, none of which he could prove, and Mr. Price clammed up. Mr. Price, who has been preaching respect at every meeting, allowed Mr. Edwards to viciously attack a member of our community, while vigorously protecting his benefactor, when the shoe was on the other foot. Hypocritical to say the least.

This is why the subtle change in the agenda was so misguided and disrespectful. While it still gave the public their rightful time to comment, it allowed the Board of Trustees to have the very last word. It allowed Mr. Edwards to level some very serious charges against a taxpayer, and the poor guy never had a chance to defend himself. What this truly is, is a determined effort to intimidate members of our community into refraining from making critical comments about the actions of this board. They now know that if they are critical, they may be verbally attacked, and humiliated afterwords, and they won’t have any opportunity to publicly defend themselves. This tactic will certainly scare people away, so in that respect, Mr. Price was successful, but as far as earning the respect of our community, he failed miserably, and the agenda should go back to the way it was for at least the last 6 years, if not longer.

If you are thinking this is as bad as it could get, you are dead wrong. It got worse. Much worse.

After the Edwards tirade, it was Mr. Prices turn to speak, and his comments were the catalyst for what was a near brawl in the board room. Here is Mr. Price’s final board comment:

“Well, second meeting, and I appreciate everybody dealing with me during the learning curves, and um, I think we’re getting to a more respectful environment, I know we are starting to come together. I know some people don’t necessarily agree, and we’re not going to get there overnight, and it won’t be perfect.”

It was at this point where Trustee Doroshewitz became visibly upset at Mr. Price’s comments, considering he had just allowed Mr. Edwards to attack one of our community members. He called out Mr. Price’s hypocrisy, and Mr. Price was not amused. Price banged his gavel, and said, “Mr. Doroshewitz I didn’t comment during your comments, don’t comment during mine. Dignity and respect.” To which Doroshewitz basically said that Price should have called Edwards out for his lack of respect towards Mr. Zantop.

At this point, Big Ron Edwards began acting aggressively, and looked like he was going to get up, and physically attack Trustee Doroshewitz, until Mr. Price took hold of his arm, forcing Edwards to stay seated. You may say that is a crazy notion, but remember, Mr. Edwards attacked the former Clerk after a meeting a few years back, so it’s not like he isn’t capable of losing his mind again.

There were also a couple of angry outbursts from the audience during this fracas, prompting Price to try to quell that anger as well. At this point, Mr. Price abruptly ended his comments, called for a motion to adjourn, and ten seconds later, the meeting was over, but if you go to the meeting online, you can see Mr. Zantop walk to the podium and attempt to defend himself, but the township cut off the feed to the meeting just as he was getting ready to speak, so we’ll never know what was said. This is not a transparent accounting of the meeting, and it is shameful.

I am going to conclude with another new wrinkle that Mr. Price has brought to the board meetings. In the past, the Supervisor has simply asked, “Is there is any public comment for this board?” when that item comes on the agenda. Price has changed that.

He now states, “Is there anyone from the public wishing to address this honorable body?”

Honorable body? Really? This hasn’t been an honorable body for as long as I have lived here in the township. They have been caught stealing campaign signs. Mr. Edwards has been caught threatening police when he couldn’t get out of the fireworks quick enough. Additionally, Mr. Edwards actually tried to beat up the former Clerk, and they have been successfully sued numerous times by current, and former employees. This stuff has been covered on all the local news channels. It’s all there on YouTube for you to see for yourself. It’s actually quite entertaining.

The bottom line though, is that this is not an “honorable body” and Supervisor Price in only his second meeting, has actually managed to deepen that dishonor through his actions, and inaction at this board meeting.

I called Mr. Price’s office for comment, but not surprisingly, he wasn’t in his office, and he didn’t return my call. Had he returned my call I would simply say this to him:

Mr. Supervisor, the honor that you speak of, and the respect and dignity that you preach about, must be earned, and it must go both ways. As long as you allow Treasurer Edwards to control the township agenda, and run roughshod over members of our community, as well as the other elected officials on our board, you have no right to demand respect, and you certainly have no right to describe this board as an honorable body.

Further, Mr. Price, I want to like you, and believe it or not, this community wants to respect you, but as long as you allow Ron Edwards to be the boss, you will wear him like an albatross around your neck, and neither of these things will happen.”

Right now, what we need, is a Supervisor, but unfortunately, what we have, is a bully, and an enabler. The people of this township deserve much better...