Raisin Township keeps public safety department

On a 4-3 vote at a Raisin Township special meeting on Monday, Oct. 27, the board of trustees decided to retain the Public Safety Department and seek a new director to fill former director Scott Lambka’s position, who left in September but remains on as a consultant.In Lambka’s resignation letter dated August 26, he suggested that the board do away with the Public Safety Director position and return to a separate police chief and fire chief system. The Public Safety Director title was created at the March 4, 2013 Raisin Township Board of Trustees meeting and Lambka was promoted to the position. “I personally don’t want to rush into this,” said trustee and township clerk Betty Holdridge.At a special meeting held on September 11, trustee Kimi Johnson suggested getting the relevant department heads together to discuss with the board their thoughts on what the board should do. During the same meeting, trustee Larry Crittenden said, “We have to start the conversation and this is a good day to start.” Assistant Police Chief Kevin Grayer told the board that time was running out for the trustees to make a decision on the best way to move forward with the director position. “I haven’t talked to anybody,” said Grayer in regards to the board talking to current personnel about how they would like to proceed. “What is the best for the township? I believe that you have skilled people right now in place that can help the residents of Raisin Township. But give us direction with what you want and let’s go with it; not just sitting there and talking about it month after month after month. “We’re getting out behind the power curve, not just myself, but as a township. Let’s move forward and guide and say this is where we need to go and how we’re going to do it and stick with it. But let’s move forward and make a decision.” Trustee Debra Brousseau agreed with Grayer that the board needed to make a decision.“I think it’d work either way,” Brousseau added.“We have been derelict, there’s no question about it,” said Crittenden. “We have let it slide and now its right in our face.” Johnson raised the question about the possibility of finding a qualified candidate with the $60,000 salary budgeted for 2015. Trustee Tom Hawkins said the Michigan median pay for a public safety director is $54,000 and felt that $60,000 was a good place to start with compensation. “I’d like to see us continue with the public safety director,” said Hawkins. “It needs a fair chance. I don’t think we have given it sufficient time.”Raisin Township Supt. Jim Palmer felt that going back to a police and fire chief was a better decision, saying “We’re trying to create something we don’t need. We have four capable people to keep this afloat.” The people Palmer was referencing was Grayer, assistant fire chiefs Eddie Mathis and Jake Warner and himself. Raisin Township Supervisor Jay Cavanaugh, Crittenden, trustee Dale Mitchell and Hawkins voted no to the splitting of the Public Safety Department, with Johnson, Holdridge, and Brousseau voting yes. Brousseau made the motion. The board then unanimously voted to begin advertising the public safety director position in hopes of filling the vacancy before Lambka leaves January 1. “I don’t think it’s beyond our means to hire a public safety director,” said Cavanaugh. “We should all be behind this person one hundred percent. Everyone has to support this person.”Cavanaugh suggested that the board that does the hiring be made up of the police, and two assistant fire chiefs, members of the board and a citizen from the township.

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