Oakley, Village of 300 People, Goes From 100 Police Officers to None

[XLFD]

At the Ludington Torch we have been focusing our fiery eye over at a situation over in Saginaw County involving a village of 300 people having a police force featuring 100 police reserves.  This was discussed in detail in the Ludington Torch here after first being pointed out by Dave a month earlier here, where some citizens allied together to get some answers about these clandestine officers, their powers, and hold them accountable for incidents of harassment to the citizens.  

 

In Ludington, it was noted that our elected mayor serves as a sergeant in the Ludington reserve police force, which was kept secret until perseverance for public information paid off, showing our reserve force was as big as our regular officers, had no publicly available rules on their powers, conduct, or duties, and a membership that was not readily available. 

 

The Chief of Police of Oakley painted the situation as a good thing, bringing in more money for the community than was spent on them and providing safety and security to boot.  Insurers for the village didn't agree, and dropped their coverage. 

 

In this OLC Press Release, featuring champion mouthpiece of transparency, Philip Ellison (who successfully got judgment against the City Council of Ludington for violating the Open Meetings Act by an E-mail scheme), we find that after a two-day hearing and two days of no-shows by the Village of Oakley police chief, the Saginaw County Circuit Court ordered the immediate shut down of the Village of Oakley Police Department. 

"It does not matter whether you are a citizen, a councilperson, or a police chief, you must follow the law," states attorney Philip L. Ellison. "Thumbing your nose at the rule of law demands the results of this case."
Ellison represented Village of Oakley Trustee Francis Koski in a unique legal action seeking to 'restore legal authority' to the Village Council.  After a 5-1 vote, the Village Council voted to shut down the police department until the Village had obtained lost police liability insurance. Instead, the Village Police Chief solicited donations from the reservists who paid over $25,000 in unregulated private funds to keep the department open without the vote or approval of the Village Council.
Other lawsuits opened by OLC question who are serving as reservists and who is donating thousands and thousands of dollars to the police department for a municipality smaller than the seating capacity of a typical high school basketball gymnasium? To date, the Village refuses to answer.
The Circuit Court, sitting in Saginaw, ordered the shut down of the police department until after the November 2014 elections at which time the newly elected village council can decide whether to reopen the department. Koski called the Court's decision an "absolute victory."
As for Ellison, the decision was a professionally unique experience. "How often does an attorney get to say he obtained an order shutting down an entire police department?"

 

 

Attorney Phil Ellison listens to attorney Richard Hamilton in front of Saginaw County Circuit Judge Robert L. Kaczmarek during a hearing, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2014. The lawsuit questions the leadership of the village and who is authorized to purchase insurance for the village and the police department. Neil Barris | Mlive.com

 

That press release's news was just updated earlier today with more developments, and another win for transparency as found In this article from the Saginaw News slightly edited below:

 

The village of Oakley voted 4-2 to release the names of former Oakley Police Department reserve officers to The Saginaw News after an appeal to the village board to decide the matter.

 

A motion made at the Tuesday, Oct. 14, regular board meeting by Village Trustee Dennis Bitterman to release the names of all reservists and police officers, seconded by Francis Koski, passed with Norm Wolfe and John Lorencz also in favor.  Richard Shuster and President Pro Tem Sue Dingo voted against the motion.

 

Bitterman, in explaining the motion to Clerk Cheryl Bolf, said it was to cover the names of all reservists and all police officers, which may be considered former reservists and police officers at this time because the village voted to suspend department operations in September.

 

The decision to release the names came after Saginaw News reporter Brad Devereaux appeared before the board to ask for a vote after a Sept. 10 Freedom of Information Request for the names of former reserve police officers was denied by the village.

"No document exists," Cheryl Bolf said during a discussion of the issue in response to The Saginaw News' appeal, referencing the village's denial. She also questioned if the board should vote on it without knowing the legality of releasing the names.

Bolf said they don't have access to the names and said she believes Oakley Chief of Police Robert Reznick is the only one who knows them.

 

After the motion passed, Bolf instructed The Saginaw News to contact village attorney Richard Hamilton about receiving the information.  With an identical roll call vote, the same board members voted to pass a resolution by Koski that commands all officers and reservists to return all equipment owned by the village.  Dingo and Shuster voted against the motion.

 

After much discussion about a motion to command any police officers and reserve officers to return any badges with the word "Oakley" on them. All trustees except Dingo voted in favor of the motion regarding badges.

The motions to have all officers return equipment and badges, originally stated with a deadline of Oct. 15, were amended to give officers a week to bring the items back to the village.  Reznick did not attend the village meeting, as he hasn't for at least six months.

 

Koski said he wants the village to have more of a say in what happens with the police department, if it should ever be re-established, and tonight's meeting moved in that direction.  "We own the police department," he said. "We should have some kind of an insight into it."

 

"I'm just happy to see some truth finally starting to get out," Trustee Dennis Bitterman said following the meeting. "It's a FOIA for God's sake. Why would you hide anything that's a legal FOIA?"

Attorney Philip Ellison will argue to the Michigan Court of Appeals about a Freedom of Information Act Request denial seeking information including names of reserve officers that Oakley resident and wife of Dennis Bitterman, Shannon Bitterman, filed in 2013. The board denied the request, and Shannon Bitterman has been battling the village in court ever since.

"This calls into legal question the denial of Shannon Bitterman's request," Ellison said after the FOIA vote at the village meeting. "The Michigan Court of Appeals will be hearing about the decision tonight and decide accordingly what this means for the legal outcome of that case."

Shannon said she's glad the village made a decision going "in the right direction."  "I'm happy to see the door start opening for a little more transparency," she said. "That's very good news for me and my family and I think the village as a whole."

 

Some were not happy with the motions that passed.  Dingo argued that the next board, which will be voted on in November, should vote on the issues. She also argued that the board should consult an attorney before making a decision on the FOIA appeal from The Saginaw News.

 

Dingo also informed the crowd during the hour-and-a-half meeting that the village Halloween party would be cancelled, stating, "With no police, no reservists, there will not be a Halloween party this year."

 

Village of Oakley attorney Richard Hamilton listens to attorney Phil Ellison in front of Saginaw County Circuit Judge Robert L. Kaczmarek during a hearing, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2014. The lawsuit questions the leadership of the village and who is authorized to purchase insurance for the village and the police department. Neil Barris | Mlive.com

[Willy]

I think the reservist names should be released. It's the right of the citizens to know who is enforcing the law in their town.  I bet this type of thing happens all over the country but most people don't know that it's going on. The fact that those wanna be cops were able to raise that much cash so quickly tells me that they were desperate to remain part of a police department so their ego's could stay inflated. This is what happens when someone like a police chief thinks they are above following protocol or answering to the people who they work for.

[XLFD]

The title and ego trip may just be part of the reason why people become a reservist.  Police officers/reservists have a lot of extra rights/powers that ordinary citizens may not have access to.  They could foreseeably carry their guns in gun-free zones, drive unlawfully with impunity in their area, and access a lot of data that may only be accessible to law enforcement personnel, among many other things. 

I hope that when they do get a list, that someone will do a bit of research and see why the members may have joined, and look at their police records since joining. 

[Willy]

Wouldn't it be funny if some of the reservists were wanted felons? What better place to hide than in a police station.

[XLFD]

The police chief of Oakley doesn't look that discriminating to details-- you would probably see some felons among the 100 just by probability alone.

[XLFD]

A list of 145 applicants for the Oakley Reserve Police Officer program has been finally released to the public due to the pressure of a FOIA lawsuit, you can see the full story and list at this link.   The donors to the Oakley PD was also released and there was a lot of overlap-- at least 42 of the reservists were donors.  Pay to play, anyone? 

Most of the reservists appear to be a few counties away from Oakley, it remains to be seen if some of these people have ever stepped foot in the village.

[XLFD]

That's Officer Rock to you.  Kid Rock on expanded list of reservists for the Oakley Police Department reserves as found in the latest court-ordered document drop.  There are now 149 reservists for this village of 300.

http://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw/index.ssf/2015/04/kid_rocks_name_...

[XLFD]

Another backburner story of interest in the ongoing Oakley saga was the whereabouts of a military truck originally worth over $100,000 that Chief Reznick got for the city from the military:(http://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw/index.ssf/2015/04/wheres_oakleys_...).  They finally found it at another place Reznick was chief at, Waterloo.  It was towed back to Oakley with two flat front tires earlier today:  (http://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw/index.ssf/2015/05/oakleys_truck_a...)