PONTIAC, Mich. (WXYZ) \u2014 The 7 Investigators were the first to tell you about the fight for transparency by\u00a0one\u00a0local leader who says\u00a0Oakland County Executive Dave Coulter and his administration have been refusing to give\u00a0his township\u00a0key information.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Watch Heather Catallo’s video report: <\/p>\n
Judge won’t dismisses Orion Township’s lawsuit against Oakland County<\/p>\n
After months of Orion Township asking for meetings with the county about the cost of their sheriff\u2019s contracts, on Wednesday a judge also asked the county to meet with the township to resolve this fight, saying she thought the taxpayers would appreciate that.<\/p>\n
The public records battle between Orion Township and Oakland County has been brewing for months.<\/p>\n
PREVIOUS REPORT: Orion Township leaders take fight for transparency to Oakland County Board of Commissioners meeting<\/p>\n
Orion Twp. leaders take fight for transparency to Board of Commissioners meeting<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, the county tried to get Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Mary Ellen Brennan to toss out Orion\u2019s lawsuit over public financial records for the cost of the township\u2019s sheriff\u2019s services, arguing the county gave the township all the records they have.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no financial information that\u2019s been redacted or withheld,\u201d said attorney Lindsey Johnson during the court hearing, who the county hired as outside counsel on the lawsuit.<\/p>\n
But Orion Township\u2019s lawyer argued the township is still missing critical financial information.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an important matter for Orion Twp and it\u2019s taxpayers to determine whether or not these were actual costs that were paid,\u201d said attorney Dan Kelly.\u201cAll of the information that was provided to us, [our budget director] went through it and found what we believe is a discrepancy of $1.2 million between what the documents show were the cost to the township, and what we were actually charged. That discrepancy has never been explained or shown by any documents produced.\u201d<\/p>\n
Orion Township Supervisor Chris Barnett says this all started in late 2024 when Oakland County dramatically raised prices for the 12 communities who contract with the sheriff\u2019s office for police services. Oakland County sets the rates for all of the communities that use the sheriff\u2019s deputies for police services.<\/p>\n
PREVIOUS REPORT: Local leader blasts Oakland Co., says lack of transparency is costing taxpayers<\/p>\n
Local leader blasts Oakland Co., says lack of transparency is costing taxpayers<\/p>\n
Barnett says their costs increased 36% with less than a month to the start of their new fiscal year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have no option to start our own police department. It’s not on the table, nor would we, because we love the sheriff’s office and the professional service they provide us. But what the county should be doing is helping us understand– first my township board and then every resident — this is why the costs have gone up. And that’s what they promised us they would do a year and a half ago, and they still haven’t done it for us,\u201d Barnett told 7 Investigator Heather Catallo.<\/p>\n
Barnett says he\u2019s been trying to meet with County Executive David Coulter and his team for months to figure out the actual costs \u2013 not just allocated costs \u2013 for the sheriff\u2019s contracts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat’s all we’ve been asking for from day one. We still are completely willing and able,\u201d said Barnett.<\/p>\n
Instead, Barnett says he had to file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, which resulted in what Barnett calls a threat from the county executive.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe essentially threatened me, either you can have a meeting with us, or you can have your FOIA answers; you can’t have both. And I still have a problem with that. I think that that’s playing games with things we shouldn’t be playing games with,\u201d said Barnett.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday morning, Judge Brennan refused the county\u2019s request to dismiss the lawsuit. And then she too asked the county if they would meet with Orion Township.<\/p>\n
\u201cBig picture, we\u2019re all public servants — this court included,\u201d said Judge Brennan. “Are they willing to sit in a conference room and try to problem solve this?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI can certainly ask,\u201d said Johnson, attorney for the County.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe taxpayers would appreciate it, I\u2019m sure,\u201d said Judge Brennan.<\/p>\n
Instead of using staff attorneys, the county hired outside lawyers at $235 an hour for the FOIA lawsuit. In the past, those lawyers have donated at least $22,795 to Coulter\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n
Barnett calls the use of the outside lawyers a waste of taxpayer money.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have people you’re paying on staff, and instead you use outside counsel. And all we wanted was a meeting. We could have had our attorneys meet if they didn’t want to meet with me. I offered that from the beginning,\u201d said Barnett. “I think there needs to be great public scrutiny for how this entire situation has been handled, and it’s been totally mishandled.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 7 Investigators have reached out to Oakland County to see if they plan to meet with Orion Township, as the judge requested. So far, we have not heard back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PONTIAC, Mich. (WXYZ) \u2014 The 7 Investigators were the first to tell you about the fight for transparency…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":437770,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[14634,143,145,144,14635,14636,4552,14637],"class_list":["post-437769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-heather-catallo","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-ross-jones","tag-the-investigators","tag-wxyz","tag-wxyz-investigations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}