LIVONIA, Mich. (WXYZ) — Livonia city officials and the local police union are working to clear up confusion ahead of an August election, warning that voting down a public safety millage renewal could lead to the loss of dozens of first responders.
The pushback stems from a separate proposal to build a new multimillion-dollar police headquarters to replace the city's 65-year-old facility, which officials say is in poor condition. Some residents are tying the two issues together, threatening to vote against the millage to stop the new building.
Watch Christiana Ford's video report below:
"Can the plan or lose the millage. Can the plan or the safety millage goes down. We beat that other mileage and we're gonna beat that one," Steve King said at a council meeting March 23.
King's comments drew applause from the crowd.
"I used that expression because I knew it would catch. 'Can the plan,' and what I'm saying is the plan of building a $60 million new police station on wetlands," King said.
The Livonia Police Officers Association recently posted a lengthy message online to address the situation. In the post addressing the "can the plan" slogan, the author say it's a plan to intentionally defund public safety and warned against letting political agendas put safety at risk.
"There's some people in particular that have concerns and seem to be spreading confusion," Tyler Vines said.
Vines, president of the union, said the August ballot measure is a renewal, not a tax increase. It strictly funds salaries and benefits for police, firefighters and paramedics.
"Without the passage of the millage — which is strictly for wages for first responders — without that, you're defunding the police if you're not in favor of that," Vines said.
City Council President Kayleigh Reid said the new police station would be funded by a bond and capital improvement funds, which cannot be used for salaries. They started the first step of the process, a letter of intent to bond, which has to be out for 45 days to give the public notice.
"I think that we are looking to build a new police station and I think people say well, why isn't that money going towards our first responders. But the way we're looking to fund the police station, that funding cannot go towards salaries, so I think it's kind of getting confused," Reid said.
Previous coverage: Livonia residents push for transparency in police headquarters debate
Reid pushed back against statements made that the operating millage could be used to fund the station.
"We cannot take from another millage for this. It's not a department building millage. That's not allowed," Reid said.
If the millage is not renewed, Reid says the city would lose about $9 million annually from the public safety budget. She says that represents a potential loss in the police force from about 107 officers to between 60 and 65.
"If people think that we are intentionally not giving money to our first responders and they don't let this mileage go through, we could be losing five to six firefighters, probably 40 police officers. We could have to shut down a fire station and because of that, there's going to be slower response times, less safe city," Reid said.
Reid says replacing those funds would be a challenge.
"It's over $9 million. That's not something we can just find somewhere else in the budget. So it's very important that the community realizes that this is not only for the safety of our city, but these are first responders' lives. This is their income, this is what their family depends on and a lot of them have given years and years to our city. So if they would have to start over in another community, that can be really detrimental to their future," Reid said.
Reid noted that if the millage is voted down in August, it cannot simply be placed back on the ballot in November.
Despite the warnings, some residents want to send a message about spending priorities.
"I don't want to defund the police. I want to fully fund the police and fire. They are a core service, the most important service. The most important thing we do in the city is police and fire. It should be coming out of the general fund and then you have to make some budget choices," King said.
Previous coverage: Livonia considers $56.9M police station after $150M bond proposal fails last November
King added he felt officials would be able to make a new plan work if needed.
"If the millage fails, the first thing they're going to do is make sure they find the money to fully fund the police and fire, so I don't buy it. It's fear-mongering. The sky is falling," King said.
The police union and city officials have until August to convince voters to support the renewal. Meanwhile, police contract negotiations are set to begin this summer and will take months.
"Our benefits are not as comparable or competitive as we'd like and without that millage, we're not going to be able to be competitive and retain officers moving forward," Vines said.
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