By Mary Drier
Staff Writer
UNIONVILLE — As of today (Saturday) no one is protecting and serving Unionville village residents.
At the May 19 Unionville Village meeting, Police Chief Paul Strasz and Officer Lynn Pokorski submitted a joint letter of resignation effective May 30.
The unapproved minutes of the meeting report Trustee John Katnik made the motion to accept the resignations and Trustee Jeff Sakon seconded the motion to accept the resignations (pending signatures). The motion passed with five votes. Trustees David VanHove and Betty Martinez were absent.
The Tuscola County Advertiser submitted a Freedom of Information Act request (FOIA) in order to received a copy of the officers’ letter of resignation.
When the letter was released to The Advertiser, both of the officers’ signatures were on it.
The following letter from Strasz and Pokorski gives the reasons for their resignations:
“This path has been clear for some time now in the direction that this council is taking towards this police department. I will say that they (council majority and clerk) are destroying the police department with their incompetence and that means one thing. The community building efforts that this department has invested in for many years will stop and the community will begin to deteriorate.
“No community can stand still and no community can grow and build itself without police services. The cause of justice cannot flourish without those same services, and this council and clerk has and continues to undermine this department’s ability to do its job and for political and personal reason – biases and even personal and individual animosity.
“After 14 years of service, we can no longer work for a governing body that continues to use unethical conduct, unfairness and political backstabbing for its own goal. Not all council persons are to blame, and we are sure you know the ones responsible.
“We have decided that the town does not need the distraction of the conflict that has developed between the police department and the village council.”
The resignation of both officers was effective Friday.
“It has been a pleasure working for the residents of the village of Unionville; and with time, this period of turmoil will subside and the community will hopefully grown its services again,” said the officers’ letter of resignation.
The police department has been an area of contention for some council members for several months even though each officer only works 12 hours each per week.
History:
At the Oct. 21, 2013, village meeting the police committee decided they would review an old survey against the new one to determine when and were the police protection is most needed. Then, Strasz was directed to prepare a schedule to inform the council as to when a patrol officer will be on duty.
At the Nov. 18, 2013, meeting when no police officer, report or schedule were available, Trustee John Katnik made a motion with Trustee Dave VanHove seconding “to suspend the police force until the council receives the requested schedule.” The vote was three yes to one no vote with one council member abstaining.
Even though there was three supporting votes, the motion failed because of the technicality that only six of the village’s council seats were filled at the time of the vote.
At the Jan. 20 meeting, the council was presented with a police schedule for January and an incident report.
During the Feb. 24, President Pro-Tem Tom Young, appointed VanHove, with the unanimous approval from the council, to seek possible consolidation with neighboring communities for police protection, and the possibility of a public meeting to receive input from the community was discussed.
“The council was in favor of receiving feedback from residents and may consider a public hearing in the future,” stated the minutes from that meeting.
On March 17, the council officially decided to schedule the public input meeting regarding police protection, which was done April 16.
At the April 21 meeting, several motions were made regarding the police department. According to that meeting’s minutes: “VanHove stated that of the 15.5 tax millages collected 4.1 mils is being used to finance the police department, which is 26 percent of the entire general fund tax revenue.
A motion was made by VanHove to place a proposal on the November ballot requesting one additional mill for police protection or dismantle the present police department. There was no support so the motion died.
A motion was made by Sakon, seconded by Trustee Connie Sy, to place on the November ballot a request for one additional mil for police protection. That motion carried five yes to one no vote.
VanHove made a motion to add to the November ballot wording on whether or not to dismantle the police department. There was no support so the motion died.
Then, VanHove made a motion that the council recognize 26 out of the 45 votes turned in from the input meeting in favor of dismantling and that such a proposal should go on the ballot. Again, there was no support so the motion died.
However, even though the council approved placing a millage request on the fall ballot in mid April, no wording for a millage request was submitted to the Tuscola County Clerk by the May 13 deadline to have the police funding issue on the November ballot. The deadline to submit ballot wording was three days before the village meeting when the police department resigned.
In other village matters, five out of the seven seats on the Unionville Village Council will be on the ballot in the fall election.
The four-year seats of Trustees Tom Young, Dave VanHove, and Connie Sy are expiring.
Also, there will be two, two-year trustee seats on the ballot to fill un-expired terms. Because Jeff Sakon and Betty Martinez were appointed to fill vacancies, those seats will also be on the ballot.
The deadline to file is 4 p.m., Tuesday, July 15, for the November election.
Mary Drier is a staff writer for the Tuscola County Advertiser. She can be reached at drier@tcadvertiser.com.