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July 12, 2012
Neighbors like Richard
Sharland aren't as commonplace as
they used to be.
That's too bad.
Because Sharland, in an effort
to help a friend and neighbor find
out who his new landlord was, has
uncovered some serious questions
about a piece of property in
Plymouth Township. About $16mil-
lion serious.
When Sharland, a retired corn,
soybean and wheat farmer, learned
that his neighbor had a new land-
lord on the 323 acres of land he had
been renting to farm, he became
curious. His friend had been pay-
ing the same landlord rent for
years, and Sharland, always curi-
ous about any land sales near the
property his family first purchased
back in1854, set out to discover who
nowowned the land.
What Sharland discovered was
that an error in the assessing
department at Plymouth Township
in 2006 put the wrong owner's
name on property belonging to the
City of Detroit. Taxes were never
paid on the property and the real
owner, the City of Detroit, never
received a tax bill. Subsequently,
the county sold the property for
those unpaid taxes to Plymouth
Township last September. Now, it
appears, the City of Detroit has the
right, by law, to seek financial dam-
ages up to the market value of the
land or regain the property, now
listed on the tax rolls at double $8
million.
Plymouth Township actually
paid $606,000 for a 323-acre parcel
of land assessed for taxes in 2012 at
$16 million. Shouldn't the question
of a clear title to the property have
turnedup in a records search?
Apparently it should, since it
took Sharland a few weeks of dig-
ging through public records and
attendance at Land Division
School in Lansing to discover the
error. Wayne County officials were
obviously confident they had the
ability to sell the land, based on
information received from
Plymouth Township, where the
error originally took place in 2006.
Apparently, they were wrong. It
took a retired farmer trying to help
his neighbor to discover this multi-
milliondollarmistake.
The details of his research and
the documents and paper trail
Sharland has accumulated are
extensive, to say the least. But he is
confident of his position and hopes
he can find somebody to listen to
him to correct the situation.
Sharland, a candidate for
Plymouth Township treasurer in
2008, doesn't want to do his home-
town any harm, but he doesn't want
them in any further legal jeopardy,
either. What he wants, he said, is to
straighten this out because it's the
right thing to do. He's now thinking
of challenging the incumbent
supervisor as an independent can-
When my mother punished
me, she was unreasonable and
cruel.
When I scolded my children, I
was lovingly attempting to correct
their inappropriate behavior.
See the difference?
The remarkable ability of the
human psyche to find fault with
others while rationalizing exactly
the same personal behavior has
long been a source of comment by
observers of our species. We are
strange, indeed, and the old dou-
ble standard has existed, I guess,
since Eve wasn't of strong enough
character to resist the apple but
poor Adam was just a victim of
circumstance.
What brought this to mind was
a sort of candidate forum in
Plymouth Township hosted by the
Plymouth Township Concerned
Citizens. The name sort of
explains the group, they are con-
cerned citizens who aren't getting
what they want from their local
government. The candidate
forum, however, couldn't have
been much more casual. The
group didn't send out question-
naires or invitations to the event.
If candidates knewabout it froma
newsletter or email or a neighbor,
they showed up. If not, nobody
seemed tomind verymuch.
None of the incumbents in the
township appeared, only chal-
lengers seeking to unseat them in
the upcoming Aug. 7 primary
election. Reports of the meeting
included some quotes from those
incumbents, and depending on
your interpretation, might have
seemed somewhat critical of the
group's conduct. That was snarky
ofme, really it was.
One trustee said he wouldn't
have gone to the forum, basically,
because nobody would listen to
anything he had to say, because
these folks already have their
mindsmade up.
OK, point taken. These people
have made their criticisms of the
current regime more than public.
They aren't happy campers. They
do not like any number of things
the elected officials have done,
actions they have taken or deci-
sions they've made. They haven't
been shy about their complaints,
but hey, this is America and they
have a right to
speak up. I
think they can
invite whomever or whichever
candidates they want to listen to
and it's nobody's business but
theirs.
What made me smile, however,
was the reported comment from
one official who did not attend
this meeting who had some
implied criticisms of the group for
not sending him an invitation,
even though he is running unop-
posed. His reported comments
were carefully worded, either by
him or his spin doctor, but the
underlying message was pretty
clear.
I smiled because a few weeks
ago, just as the campaign was get-
ting under way, this same guy
attended a meeting of a home-
owners' group at a local subdivi-
sion to espouse his views and
When is the lawsimply a suggestion?
When there is no punishment included in the legislation,
apparently.
That is the reason the Michigan Office of Elections in
Lansing gave for not pursuing an investigation or even an
inquiry into the allegation that at least three candidates for
the judicial bench at the 22nd District Court in Inkster violat-
ed state law by signing an affidavit affirming that they lived in
the city, when, in fact, they do not. The state statute is very
clear that candidates for these offices be residents of the com-
munity. There is no ambiguity in the very specific language in
the state statute.
Unfortunately, there is no penalty prescribed in the legisla-
tion for not living in the city or lying about one's actual resi-
dence, which, by theway, is also clearly defined.
The elections office director wrote that even though resi-
dency is the requirement, his office has no legislative means
to investigate the affidavit of identity filed by candidates,
much less impose any punishment or disqualification should
they have lied.
Hewrote that there is no authorization in the law for a per-
son to challenge or complain about any candidates’ Affadavit
of Identity. Really.
These are the sworn statements candidates file when they
turn in their nominating petitions with the Wayne County
Elections Clerk, and evidently, candidates can claim they live
on Venus or Mars and walk to work and it's OK because elec-
tions officials have no way to legislate or punish such hyper-
bole..
These are lawyers, officers of the court, and these are
sworn documents of candidacy. Shouldn't they be treatedwith
some respect? Shouldn't the law regarding candidacy be
upheld by someone, somewhere? Shouldn't there be some
redress for failing to provide only the most truthful informa-
tion…especially when filing petitions to be a candidate for
judge?
We aren't making any presumption here as to whether
these three candidates for the bench put inaccurate informa-
tion on the documents they submitted. We talked to them, or
their representatives, who swear that they live in Inkster. Let's
A good
friend
indeed
See
Nature,
page 5
Letters
Supervisor call 'dictator'
To the editor;
Oncemore, the current adminis-
tration in Plymouth Township, led
by Supervisor Richard Reaume, is
attempting to withhold information
from voters to corrupt the election
process.
Last week, after being given the
OK, Reaume arbitrarily denied the
League of Women Voters the use of
Plymouth Township Hall for a
Candidates' Forum July 16. the
League of Women Voters is a high-
ly-respected, non-partisan and
purely informational group dedi-
cated to providing information to
voters onwhich they can base their
choices. They research issues and
ask questions of all candidates and
have no political agenda of their
own. This date was set and letters
of invitation mailed. The group
even had flyers printed to attempt
to ensure that any interested voter
could attend.
Then Mr. Reaume decided that
it was not the township “policy” to
allow the use of the building for
“political” meetings. Well, accord-
ing to the township calendar, State
Rep. Curt Heise used Township
Hall for a meeting of his advisory
committee on senior issues on July
28 last year. I suppose that's not
“political” though, right?
I urge citizens of Plymouth
Township to take a stand and
demand that Mr. Reaume and his
They haven't been shy about their complaints,
but hey, this is America and they
have a right to speak up.
”
We aren't making any presumption
here as to whether these three candidates
for the bench put inaccurate information
on the documents they submitted.
”
A fine example of human nature at work
Why legislate if there is no enforcement?
See
Letters,
page 5
See
Rules,
page 5
See
Friend,
page 5