If you ask me….

Wayne County Commissioner Shannon Price and former Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox exchange greetings at Plymouth Township Board Meeting on Tuesday.

Apr. 1, 2015  PLYMOUTH VOICE.

Plymouth Michigan News

Members of the Plymouth Township Board of Trustees will make an important decision Thursday evening.

They are going to have to choose what is best for their political party or what is best for their township.

Three of them have obviously already made their decision and will follow the party line, and put current Wayne County Commissioner Shannon Price in the office of recently “retired” Supervisor Richard Reaume.

The deal to replace Reuame with Price was made weeks ago, brokered by Treasurer Ron Edwards, and might have even come sooner but Price needed time to move his family from Canton to Plymouth Township to at least make a show of involvement in the community he now wants to manage.

Price, like seven other candidates, had a 10-minute slot to introduce himself and discuss his qualifications and goals for the township at a meeting last night. He cited his education, his family upbringing and his IT management experience.

Two other candidates unquestionably outshone the soon-to-be Supervisor Price, demonstrating both an understanding of the situations that face the community and the history and current political climate.

Kurt Heise, a current state representative, was articulate, composed and prepared. He offered practical and available solutions to the problems he wasn’t afraid to address, like the block voting on the board, the crisis in the fire department, the games being played with property in the township, the lawsuits the township faces due to the mismanagement by current and former board members, and the need to cooperate and work in tandem with the City of Plymouth.

He addressed the multitude of problems in a calm, quiet, unthreatening manner, insulting no one, but clearly outlining the situations with his suggestions for solutions.

All in all, an impressive candidate indeed.

Current board member Bob Doroshewitz also got the attention of the residents of the township who packed the meeting room to the walls and taxed the capacity of township hall.

Doroshewitz spoke sincerely and movingly about his time on the board, the situations that are now ongoing and many of the same problems that Heise addressed. Doroshewitz said earlier in the process that he strongly believed that the new supervisor should be a member of the current board and be someone voters had chosen. At this meeting, he said he was proud that he was not a career politician, referencing, we can only surmise, the careers of Heise and Price. He said that he and his wife had donated thousands of hours to the township.

What impressed us most, however, was his candid, and apparently sincere, admission that he had made a mistake in agreeing with the board decision to downsize the fire department. He actually accepted responsibility for what he termed a “mistake” and vowed to attempt to correct that situation if given the opportunity.

If his admission is sincere, you have to respect a man who can so publicly admit a mistake and pledge to attempt to make things right.

Nearly every candidate addressed the friction on the board and the public safety issues, but none with the insight, passion and qualifications of Heise and Doroshewitz.

That’s too bad.

Because, we strongly suspect, neither of them will get the job.

The majority of the remaining members of the board will follow their political party leaders’ decision and give the job to Price. Like lemmings, they will go over the cliff of least resistance and do as they have been “ordered” without any real consideration as to what is best for the township. In short, they will continue to perpetuate the same kind of automaton voting that has precipitated the crises in confidence that plagues Plymouth Township residents.

If there was any question as to the party choice for the job, Mike and Laura Cox, the Clintons of the state Republican Party, showed up for their first-ever Plymouth Township Board of Trustees meeting to glad-hand Price and wish him well Tuesday, obviously expecting the announcement of his selection at the close of the session.

Their disappointment was tangible.

That all the candidates for the job, including the two who seemed the best qualified, are Republicans, will make no difference to the deciding board members. The Party has made the choice, no matter what might be best for the township or the people who have to live with and pay for their decisions. These obedient political players will vote in lockstep with the party officials’ choice.

Plymouth Voice.