Holly Township officials spar on police services issue, ethics

HOLLY TOWNSHIP, Michigan – Long debated and always controversial, the possibility of additional police services in Holly Township has once again caused a stir – this time between board members themselves as they addressed an appeal to send out Requests for Quotations to several police agencies for their services.

In an email dated July 15, Holly Township resident and member of the self-proclaimed Holly Township Public Safety Committee, Mark Diaz asked board members to send RFQs on the cost of providing additional police services to a proposed special assessment district within the township from several area police agencies, including the Village of Holly, the Oakland County Sheriff’s Department, and both the Grand Blanc and Fenton police departments.

Additionally, the Holly Township Public Safety Committee provided the Board of Trustees with a tentative special assessment district in Holly Township, with the area stretching from the eastern boundaries of the village west to Fish Lake Road, and from Quick Road south to Ann Street. The proposed district would encompass the Pulte Development, as well as the township’s overlay district east of Fish Lake Road, and both Holly and Adelphian academies.

After approving the request, township Treasurer Mark Freeman took the opportunity to debate comments made by Trustee Janet Leslie in a recent newspaper article addressing township residents’ desire for additional police services.

“Leslie said the need for police services is great enough to warrant an appropriate increase in taxes,” Freeman read. “If certain members of the board fail to address these residents’ concerns, it will put no one in a bad position but themselves.

“The most efficient and highest quality service can be obtained at the local level.”

Reading from a prepared statement, Freeman then questioned Leslie’s ethics, drawing particular attention to her blog, “The Holly Post,” in which she continues to share opinions and engage in community-related discussions on a wide-variety of topics.

“You have also seen our legal council’s opinion that if your fellow board members commented on your blog, they could inadvertently violate the Open Meetings Act,” he said. “You continue to make comments, now in a front page article of a local newspaper, where you discredit or undermine your fellow board members.”

After reading Leslie’s quotes from the article one more time, Freeman continued.

“That sounds like a veiled threat to me,” he said. “It sounds like you are trying to impose your will on us so that we will think the way you want us to think.”

Freeman reminded Leslie that she was elected to represent all citizens of Holly. “From day one, you have advocated and promoted the issue of additional police protection and the raising of taxes to support it,” he said. “We have been in our elected positions for nine months now, and again, from day one, I have not seen you make any serious effort to be a team player.”

“That Mr. Freeman took my statements to the newspaper as a ‘veiled threat’ to the board, and that he saw my comments as being an attempt to ‘discredit or undermine’ board members came as a shock to me,” Leslie said after the meeting. “I’m sorry Mr. Freeman was offended, but I do not apologize for thinking first of the interest of the residents, rather and worrying about what fellow board members may think.”

Leslie said she strives to be a voice for the residents. “The team I play for is the residents of Holly Township, not the government,” she said. “While I respect the rule of the majority, I also recognize that, throughout history, progress has been bourn of the minority opinion – it does not serve the community well to have a board that is always in agreement,” she added. “The best decisions are made only after a vigorous examination of the issues at hand.”

“This is really just the beginning of the process,” township Supervisor Jesse Lambert said of the board’s approval of sending RFQs to area police agencies. “The residents who came to us requesting service did so in a respectful manner and with a sufficient amount of people for the requested area and as elected officials, we should do what we can to provide information and let the leaders of the independent committee decide if the costs merit further action.

“We are here to empower people to make decisions, no impose our will on the people of Holly.”