Oakley Get Your Gun, and Badge

[XLFD]

The Posse is Impossibly Imposing

The village of Oakley, Michigan is a small community of less than 300 people in Saginaw County according to the last decennial census; it's about the size of Custer, right here in Mason County.  Whereas Custer has no standing police force, Oakley has one that operates on about $40,000 a year, which includes a chief, 12 certified officers, and his personal force of approximately 100 reserve police officers who pay the chief to receive badges and be on the force. 

 

One could speculate on whether having about half of the adult population of a village be reserve officers is a good idea or not.  After all, on the positive side it may be a great deterrent against people coming to town to raise trouble or commit crimes, knowing that there are up to 100 pistol-packing reservists in the neighborhood.  But the obvious questions about why the force of a backwater village is so substantial, how is it funded, who are the officers, what is their training, who do they owe allegiance to, and even whether they are within responding range to the citizens are questions that the Village of Oakley leaders refuse to tender.  

 

These officers got their badges  simply by donating to the Oakley Police Department.  They didn't necessarily graduate from the police academy, they didn't necessarily swear an oath to defend the Constitution, they didn't necessarily ever crack open a law book, and they didn't necessarily get a complete background or psychological check. 

 

How did this village of 300 residents end up with so many people willing to protect it, even if they don't live inside its borders? Could they be patrolling in your area with the green light to openly carrying firearms almost anywhere and effectuate arrests throughout Michigan?

 

 

Shannon Bitterman (center front, in this picture from a recent village meeting, two certified OPD officers in the back) and her husband Dennis, own the Oakley Family Tavern in Oakley.  They had had some problems with the local gendarmes harming their business, and were curious when they learned of the number of reserves and the funding of the local department by donations from these volunteers.  When citizens get curious about the operations of government, they can file Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to learn more.  She filed a request for the names and addresses of the reserve officers, and she also wanted to know who was donating tens of thousands of dollars per year to the village's police fund. 

 

Getting full addresses may have been problematical, as such material is often exempted due to being an invasion of privacy, but typically names of public officers and donors to public coffers are available to the curious interested in public affairs.  She was denied everything, however, the Village denying it based on an unwarranted invasion of privacy.  She then had it moved to court utilizing the services of Outside Legal Counsel attorney Philip Ellison in a FOIA lawsuit. 

 

This action was filed last year, and the local judge's ruling was mixed , finding that she could know the names of retired, fired, or otherwise expired reserve officers, but not of current reserve officers, nor anybody's donations.  The decision is in the midst of appeal by both parties, so the mysteries remain.

Citizens for Transparency, Officials for Opacity

Shannon Bitterman has complained in the past about how the police department, including armed reserve officers, policed crowds at events hosted at the Oakley Family Tavern, 116 W. Second, in Oakley. That includes an annual bike run that has grown in popularity.

She owns the bar with her husband, Dennis Bitterman, who was elected to the village council during the November 2012 election.  Shannon Bitterman also ran for the board but was not elected. She said she plans to run again during the next election cycle.

The Bittermans say they have concerns about the operation of their police force, and they aren't alone in their community of 300 on the southern edge of Saginaw County.

"People have a lot of questions, and for years they have gone unanswered," Shannon Bitterman said. "I'm certainly not the only one in town asking the questions, I'm just the one trying to get the answers."

Dennis Bitterman asked how much money was flowing from the police reservist or "donation" fund to the village budget during a March 11 board of trustees meeting.  The village clerk could not provide the line item but said an estimated $40,000 has come into the account this fiscal year, ending March 31.

Police Chief Robert Reznick says there is a reason why he won't voluntarily give a list of the names his reservists.

"Because, first of all, this is 2014 and attacks on law enforcement officers have heightened. Cops are getting killed often," Reznick said. "These guys are in civilian jobs, doctors, lawyers. They don't need that publicity.  They don't need people to know that they're donating money or where they're donating money. It's their private lives. They want to do it in an anonymous way."

He added that uniformed reservists "wear their names on their shirts."

http://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw/index.ssf/2014/04/whos_a_reserve_...

 

A Reserve and the Chief Talk

One of the reservists, Guido Adenbaum, is an attorney living in West Bloomfield. More than 70 miles away from Oakley, he believes the program isn't hurting anyone and is in fact helping the village.

"From what I understand, the money that the reservists pays for the actual police department that serves the village," says Adenbaum.

Adenbam says he heard about it from an acquaintance. He donated $1000 to the police department's reserve program after being accepted.  To get into the program, you fill out an application which is then approved by the police chief, Rob Reznick, who has stated that applicants must already have a concealed pistol license.  Adenbaum says there are people from Oakland County are involved in the program.

One of those people was Ortonville resident and former Waterford Township police officer Brian Mahoney. He pleaded no contest to two weapons charges in an Oakland County courtroom back in 2011 after he allegedly got into an altercation and fired a gun outside a Waterford Township bar.

At the time of the shooting, officials say he told officers he was an off duty officer with the village of Oakley.  He was sentenced to probation and was forced to resign from the village of Oakley reservist program, one of three reserve officers which Chief Reznick has had to let go. 

Reznick insists Oakley village could not survive without the reserve officer program, while Officer Adenbaum actively looks for more recruits for the program, presumably in his own county far away from Oakley. 

A hotly contested village board meeting had a vote on whether to disband the Oakley Police Department on April 8, 2014, citing the controversies and the court battles which led to the village's insurer dropping their coverage.  It narrowly escaped with its life with a 4-3 vote.  Reznick did not attend, having a new occupation as Waterloo Township Police Chief a couple of counties away.  Reznick brought donations of $60,000, including a $45,000 Chevrolet Tahoe, to Waterloo Township almost immediately after he was hired, according to the Jackson Citizen Patriot.  The origin of those donations is anybody's guess

Why It All Matters

"You have unnamed officers that are paying to play," said Nicole Bruff, who lives outside of Oakley and said she patronizes some of the businesses in the village. "May I make a donation to this ghost organization so that I may also walk the streets as an unidentified reservist? That is abhorrent."

The rules and regulations of the Oakley Police, and the Ludington Police, reserves is a secret.  The members are a mystery to almost all.  The funding and the accounting is an enigma.  Their powers are not well defined.  Their jurisdiction is a conundrum. 

When one of these 100 officers get in trouble, like the aforementioned Brian Mahoney, and claim to be acting under the auspices of the village, when they most definitely are not, the villagers and insurers are held liable; that's why they were dropped and why a new policy would cost each member of that city several hundred dollars per year, at least three times the OPD budgets with their 'donations'.  One hundred reserve officers being commanded solely by one chief, not the village board; a man who also serves as chief for another place about an hour away appeasing the village there with gifts brought by anonymous donors with anonymous motives. 

Oakley village shows on a grander scale what can happen when a reserve system swirls out of constitutional control and comes under the power of one man, receiving secret funds from secret donors to establish secret powers for a totally secret police force.  It is abhorrent-- in Oakley or Ludington.  

[Willy]

I think your on to something here X. From what I've read on the internet, reserve officers in many areas seem to be akin to a good ol boy's club of wanna be cops. Handing out reservists positions to friends and acquaintances seems to be the norm. I'm sure there are plenty of Police departments who have reservists for legitimate reasons but just the fact that there is so much unaccountability in how, when and why the reservists exist is a concern. The reservists even have their own organizations to join as a group  http://auxiliarypolice.yolasite.com/ . The fact that cities are not required and or fefuse to answer questions about their reserves is also disturbing. Ludingtons reservists even have a facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ludington-Police-Reserves/2341948065...

[XLFD]

Thanks for the Facebook link.  It's interesting to note that even on their Facebook page, you can't figure out anything about the guys here in Ludington.  The only individual posting is someone from San Diego (Ed Lavalle). 

Accountability and transparency is the name of the game.  I look at the Appeals Court to change the current ruling on this case, and I believe the names will be released, along with which city/town they live at, and the donations will be disclosed.  But before that is settled, there will probably be some more news coming from those parts.

[easymoney]

want to be cop, power trip, and an actual officer, with certified training are two different things. I've had a concealed weapon permit for over 10 years and, still wound never want to be a police officer. I now believe police need more training and certified schooling in ANGER MANAMENT!

[wildfire]

That I believe  to easymoney, all cops need better training and anger manament and stop lieing,  to put someone away, and why can they be a cop or prison guard and go to work drunk, but never get in trouble? but if you drive drunk or go to work drunk 1 to many times your fired!!!

[XLFD]

MCOLES (Michigan Commission of Law Enforcement Standards) and the Michigan Attorney General Office is conducting a special investigation of the reserve officer situation in Oakley.  Unclear as to the course of the investigation jus yet, but it could have ramifications onto other areas in Michigan with unregulated reserve officers running around (like Ludington) or acting as mayor.

http://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw/index.ssf/2014/07/state_begins_in...

[AQUAMAN]

Question? Can MCOLES be trusted to be honest and investigative without prejudice and conflict of interest?  Or will they just cover up the situation further? Time will tell I do guess. I also looked at the LPD reservists page on facebook, and it's dead. Hardly any posts or likes, and months of lapses between any posts. That tell us how popular that is? 

[XLFD]

There will be some conflicts of interests with MCOLES, but it may work out positively in the end.  MCOLES is the state's police licensing commission, whose inclination may be to make themselves more relevant.  MCOLES has little effect or power over reserve officers, their standards and training.  If a small burgh has 100 reservists passing themselves off as police officers capable of legally taking their guns everywhere and acting otherwise as law enforcers, their authority becomes diminished.  It probably is the best official agency to look into this, if you are one who believes that reserve officers should be legitimized, but they may find themselves neutered by their MI Attorney General partners.

[AQUAMAN]

Either reserve officers are COPS, or just Stooges! In this case it sounds like you can BUY YOUR WAY IN! Can't have it both ways! This is why I asked the obvious questions of conflict and honesty. A small 300 populated area certainly does NOT need 100 reserve officers, that's a no-brainer! The fact it exists as reported at all, leaves a lot of unanswered questions, irregardless of being a bum or doctor, or even an attorney, they need to ID those people, and let the public know wth and who is on the team, no privacy rights apply here imho. 

[XLFD]

A new update has the Oakley Village Attorney partially sidestepping a subpoena from MCOLES on the reserve officers, claiming the RO program is outside the jurisdiction of the village.  It also notes that Oakley's liability insurance is still gone when the village council deadlocks on benching its reserve program.  If the reserves were scrapped, the village would once again qualify for such insurance.  What I don't get is:  if the village council has the ability to scrap reserve officers as an extension of their police force, then why aren't records on reserves within their jurisdiction? 

http://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw/index.ssf/2014/08/oakley_village_...

Meanwhile leadership questions remain in Oakley, after the village president's death in late June.

http://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw/index.ssf/2014/08/leadership_ques...

[wildfire]

Everything is a BIG SECERT!!!!, just like some people ,why are they aloud to get away with that.

[XLFD]

Welcome to the Ludington Torch Shannon Bitterman; please keep us apprised of new developments that may happen in the Oakley situation, since you seem to be in the thick of things.  The situation in Oakley reached our attention way over here in Ludington when it was learned that our new mayor elected this year was on the Ludington Police Reserves and that he was staying on the reserve force (even got a raise to be a reserve officer sergeant by our police chief) despite the conflict of command chain and duties inherent. 

We have also been following the situation in Barry Township, near Hastings, Michigan.  They had a force of 34 reserve officers behaving badly, and the town council finally did something about it when they lost their insurance coverage and gained the same notoriety Oakley has been getting.

This is described at this link:  http://ludingtoncitizen.ning.com/forum/topics/big-force-of-reserve-...  .  You can also look at our Ludington problem in the sub-link.  We have had a couple of Federal brutality lawsuits against the LPD in the last couple of years settled/arbitrated against their favor, and yet our police chief wants his own reserve force equal in size to the regular force and which is only accountable to him.

[XLFD]

Our City Attorney Richard Wilson  (another Dick) and his legal associates have been equally immune to their responsibilities to the public, instead focusing on defending officials behaving against the public interest. 

They are able to get away with this ethically by saying they are contracted employees of the City of Ludington, and as such, not constrained by the typical responsibilities of the office of "City Attorney" to balance their duties to the officials who need their legal services to the duties to the public.  They become 'free' attorneys the City/Village officials use to battle with citizens concerned about civil and criminal impropriety and non-transparency by their officials and their official's hirelings.

In Ludington's case, our City Manager and Police Chief are both products of Oakland University in southeastern Michigan, both coming to our town in 2002 after serving as officials in SE Michigan and hired by a mayor who wanted Ludington to be more cosmopolitan.  These two hires have been doing CYA action for each other ever since.  Our old standard City Attorney 'retired' in 2009 to be replaced by a law firm from Manistee (which has since turned into a law firm from Grand Rapids), who almost immediately got a 70% raise.  They have only worked against the public interest since.

Shannon, state agencies have been growing less dependable in regulating bad conduct of local agencies, so don't put all your trust in them without verifying their actions and prodding them if and when they decide to take the easy way out.