Raisin Township Board eliminates public safety director position

In a 5-2 vote by the Raisin Township Board of Trustees at a special meeting Monday evening, Dec. 29, the Public Safety Director position at the township was eliminated.The vote came almost two months to the day when the board then voted to keep the public safety department and seek a replacement for the vacant director position on October 27. The future of the department became uncertain after current interim director and former director Scott Lambka submitted his letter of resignation on August 26. His last day was September 5. With the chain of command broken, the board voted in September to retain Lambka in an interim/consulting position through December 31, receiving half his pay and benefits.The board was to meet with the public safety department to get its opinion on the matter and then decide how to move forward with the position and department. According to Assistant Police Chief Kevin Grayer on October 27, a meeting between the public safety department and board members never took place before the decision was made to keep the director position. Grayer has been vocal about the board needing to have someone in place by January 1 in order to be the contact person at the township to the state in regards to reports that are due at the end of the year. In Lambka’s August 26 resignation letter, he wrote that, “This [position] has created an administrative quagmire that really hasn’t benefited the Township at all,” recommending that the township “promote from within the current employees and redistribute the work load appropriately.”The board took that step Monday, December 29, when trustee Larry Crittenden made a motion, which was seconded, to eliminate the public safety director position and promote the current police, fire and EMS assistant chiefs to chief positions. This motion divulged into a back-and-forth between Crittenden and Raisin Township Supervisor Jay Cavanaugh about the substance of the agenda item.“Mr. Crittenden, it does say on the agenda discussion of the public safety director position,” said Cavanaugh, “it doesn’t say anything about separating fire and police.” Crittenden stuck by his motion, asking Raisin Township Attorney David Lacasse for his opinion, who said the motion made was proper. Cavanaugh disagreed with Lacasse, telling Crittenden his motion was still out of order, which Crittenden countered.“The motion is not out of order,” Crittenden said. “You just heard from the attorney.” Cavanaugh rapt his gavel twice before saying, “Mr. Crittenden, the attorney is the township attorney, he’s not the chair of the meeting.”Crittenden then made a second motion asking to place the elimination of the public safety director position on the agenda. Trustee Dale Mitchell seconded the motion. The motion that was eventually passed by the board eliminated the Raisin public safety department director position. The discrepancy between the motion stated and the motion passed, while not necessarily procedurally proper, was okay according to Lacasse because Cavanaugh restated the discussion was on the elimination of the position. That was reaffirmed when Raisin Township Clerk and trustee Betty Holdridge restated the motion, the board understanding they were voting on the elimination of the public safety director position. “I made this motion because I made a mistake back when we first discussed this when I supported the real concept of public safety director,” said Crittenden. “It’s been on my mind ever since that I did not make a good decision for the township.”Crittenden added that the three assistant chiefs, Grayer, police; Eddie Mathis, fire; and Jake Warner, EMS and medical services, were great candidates to be promoted and have been doing a fantastic job since Lambka resigned. Trustee Tom Hawkins, one of the two dissenting votes, said he felt the public safety department has not been given a fair chance to work, adding, “I’d like to see it continue.” Cavanaugh was the other dissenting vote. “I believe going into the new year, we need to have a decision made for the people out in the public safety department,” said Holdridge, adding that the board has been slow to make a decision. “What concerns me is this board seems to have some inconsistencies and I think it kind of makes us look a bit silly that we’re flipping back and forth,” Cavanaugh said. “Don’t we owe the residents of this township some consistency with how we make decisions?” The supervisor added that the board would be promoting someone, Grayer, who doesn’t want to be the public safety department director to chief of police.