Basic HTML Version
A
SSOCIATED
N
EWSPAPERS OF
M
ICHIGAN
P
AGE
6
April 4, 2013
We would like to officially
express our admiration for nearly
all the municipal and school
employees in our area.
We think each of them deserves
a thank you from the rest of us,
who depend on them to provide all
our community services and edu-
cate our children. Across the
board, in school district after
school district and community
after community, these union
members have taken concession
after concession in wages and ben-
efits to help keep their jobs and
our communities viable.
Teachers have accepted
reduced wages, wage freezes, high-
er co-pays on insurance premiums
and reduced benefits, cops have
taken reductions in pay, longer
work hours and an increased
workload, DPW workers have
accepted wage freezes that have
gone on, in some cases, for more
than three years. These people just
keep on doing what they can do to
preserve their own jobs and con-
tinue to provide the services they
know the community needs.
Sure, there have been a few of
these contracts that just squeaked
by a vote of themembership to rati-
fication, but they were ratified,
nonetheless. In some communities,
and we admit, our admiration for
these people knows no bounds, the
leaders have taken the lead and
cut their own pay and benefits as a
way to lead by example. The
municipal employees responded
and have accepted the reduced
wages, the furlough days without
pay and the new prescription and
health insurance plans because
they understand the dilemmamost
of these communities face in these
difficult and uncertain economic
times.
There is less tax revenue to
workwithwhichmeansmunicipal-
ities need to reduce expenses and
that usuallymeans they need to cut
services.
Even in Inkster, where officials
seem determined to offload the
consequences of their past errors
in judgment and poor financial
management on the taxpayers, the
unionized employees have stepped
up to repeatedly try to help and
take on more and more work for
less pay and reducedhours.
The Wayne Westland teachers
just saved that district a predicted
$11 to $13 million over the next
three years, the Plymouth-Canton
teachers took a hit and there were
significant concessions in both the
VanBuren andRomulus districts.
We admit, we get tired of hear-
ing about the easy jobs teachers
have, about the easy, nine--month
work year and frequent vacation
days. It has long been our assertion
Geez, you want to talk about
conflicted.
Last week, when I heard that
the Michigan State Police raided
Romulus Mayor Alan Lambert's
house, I was dumbfounded. Well,
more dumbfounded thanusual.
Alan Lambert? Alan Lambert? I
kept saying his name, over and
over. I was sure there had to be
somemistake.
Then last Friday, Romulus
Police Chief Robert Dickerson
resigned because, he said, the
mayor wouldn't step down and he
couldn't continue to work in a com-
munity under that kind of a shad-
ow, or something like that. He
wrote a really fine letter to the
mayor resigning and had a police
officer deliver a copy of it to the
remaining city officials. Dickerson
made some excellent points about
police, firefighters and elected offi-
cials being held to a higher stan-
dard and said that Lambert could
no longer meet that standard while
this investigation was going on. I
mean, it was a really well thought
out and strong letter.
Then Tim Keyes, the city eco-
nomic development director, also
resigned, saying that he couldn't
work for the current administra-
tion. Now Keyes is a guy I have
always respected and admired.
This guy, like Dickerson, is no
dummy. He's seriously smart.
Actually, they are both very, very
smart guys. They were joined in
their retreat from Lambert by the
president of the school board,
Robert McLachlan, a political con-
sultant who has, until now, been
working with the mayor on his re-
election campaign.
So, as I'm reading the accounts
of all this drama, I'm thinking there
just has to be some mistake. I can't
believe any of this.
First of all, there's the innocent
until proven guilty concept. I won-
der whatever happened to that.
Having been very, very close to a
situation where
a guy was pub-
licly humiliated
by an "investiga-
tion" and "charges" made by the
FBI, I am way sensitive to the idea
that sometimes people really aren't
guilty as charged. Despite that
other axiom, where there's smoke,
there's fire, there are cases when
the smoke is no more than a little
steam being blown off by an enthu-
siastic or frustrated investigator.
If you doubt me, ask John Goci,
the vice-president of the Wayne-
Westland school board who was
recently involved in the same type
of "investigation" which resulted in
no charges whatsoever against
him, despite his being publicly
smeared in the media and
demands made for his resignation
We allmakemistakes.
Mistakes and errors in judgment are a part of the human
condition.
But when a man with multiple suspensions and revoca-
tions of his drivers' license for drunk and impaired driving
can get back on the road again and again and again, it is time
for a change in the way these types of repeated offenders are
handledby the courts.
Before this man, again legally drunk, and reportedly
under the influence of opiates, struck and seriously injured a
17-year-old Westland student getting off the school bus, his
license had been reportedly suspended by various judges
and courts 30 times and revoked four times. There were sev-
eral warrants out for him on drunk driving charges and pro-
bation violations, yet there he was driving through a residen-
tial area at 2 p.m. with an alcohol level four times the legal
limit to be considered impaired.
This man faced the legal consequences of his bad judg-
ment, alcohol addiction, drug and larceny charges, over and
over, and yet he went back out on the road, behind the wheel
of a vehicle, and posed a serious threat to others and himself.
This time, that threat materialized in the broken bones and
injuries to a student simply trying to get off a school bus in
themiddle of the afternoon.
We applaud the actions of Westland 18th District Court
Judge Mark McConnell who went personally to the hospital
to arraign this man onmultiple charges. McConnell also set a
bond of $1 million, high enough to ensure that the defendant
would have to remain incarcerated at least long enough to
sober up and face the consequences of his actions.
We have seen others face the stringent drunk driving
charges now imposed in our state, some of whom may not
have deserved the serious consequences they faced or the
heavy price they paid. It must be noted, however, if those con-
sequences and penalties can keep people like this man off
the roads, then they are effective and appropriate, even if
occasionally harsh for a first or verymild offense.
This time, those penaltiesweren't enough to keep thisman
from drinking, taking drugs, and getting behind the wheel of
a lethal weapon and changing the life, forever, of the 17-year-
old he injured so severely. We hope, the next time he faces a
judge, his past history of disregard for the law and the safety
of others, his repeated offenses along with the serious
injuries he has inflicted will weigh heavily in the sentence
imposed. Now, with the budget battle between the Wayne
County Prosecutor and the Wayne County Executive result-
ing in fewer prosecutors in our local courts to handlematters
like this, we are genuinely frightened for our residents and
neighbors.
Thisman obviously needs seriousmedical andpsychologi-
cal treatment for his alcohol abuse and drug addiction and
his inability to control his own actions. The safety of the pub-
lic depends on the rehabilitation or incarceration of this
man, and others like him. If there are no prosecutors avail-
able to represent the public in court, are we left in jeopardy
of his returning to our roads anddoingmoreharm?
It is crucial that the public be protected from an individ-
ual such as this and our courts should be well enough staffed
and funded to provide him the help he needs and keep him
off the roads andunable to doharmto anyone else.
Whatever the budget problems may be, they are not worth
the price this student or thisman's next victimwill pay.
This time, those penalties weren't
enough to keep this man from drinking,
taking drugs, and getting behind the wheel...
”
Court costs can’t jeopardize public safety
Sacrifices
deserve
gratitude
So, as I'm reading the accounts
of all this drama, I'm thinking
there just has to be some mistake.
I can't believe any of this.
”
Innocent until the ‘smoke’ proves otherwise
See
Unions,
page 7
Letter
Inspire Theatre Loses Space
To the editor;
After four and a half years,
Inspire Theatre is being forced to
search for newspace.
Notified by email, the Board of
Directors of Warren Road Light
and Life Free Methodist Church,
has informed the theatre director
of its decision. The church cited
the theater's "need for more free-
dom and expression in your pro-
ductions," as the reason for this
decision. Although sudden, the the-
ater leadership team anticipated
such a reaction from the church
after they expressed their displeas-
ure over the latest play selection,
Larry Shue's "TheForeigner."
At this time the theater has no
alternate locations. They are ask-
ing their patrons for any sugges-
tions or leads. The theater is look-
ing for around 3000 square feet in
the Westland, Livonia, Garden City,
Redford area.
The theater also hosts a theater
school, Inspire School of Theatre
Arts. The school is currently in ses-
sion and working on its spring pro-
duction of "The Ballad of Gopher
Gap," slated for the end of April.
Plans for the Wizard of Oz camp,
scheduled for June, have been put
onhold.
Inspire Theatre has started a
building fund for their own space.
The fund is small and its build up
will be the first priority of the the-
See
Letter,
page 7
See
Mayor,
page 7