Dear Editor:
(In response to, ‘Township employees next casualty for budget axe,? The Citizen, Nov 7, page 1.)
‘What we have here is a failure to communicate.?
I wonder, and cannot guess, whether recent statements by Brandon Township Supervisor Kathy Thurman were made in simple ignorance or overt dishonesty.
A recent article in The Citizen reports her saying that by reducing [township] staff, other cuts being considered could be salvaged, meaning that by reducing township staff, Brandon could keep a desk position at the Oakland County Sheriff’s Brandon substation, along with two existing police officers.
Does the supervisor understand that the police millage is separate and insulated from the township general budget, and that staffing cuts can never fund Oakland County Sheriffs? Or, is she intentionally misleading us to further some other agenda?
Bewilderingly, she fails to reveal the enormous expenses incurred for park playthings, and her proposed open-ended, sky’s-the-limit spending spree for our almost-always-empty park.
She is right to be concerned about money. While the park sucks the oxygen from the budget, there is indeed less left to sustain services for Brandon Township residents. Thankfully, the out-of-control park spending cannot affect our public safety services, but it’s practically pagan to sacrifice the few dollars our hardworking township employees earn on the altar of the park.
Thurman will have to look elsewhere to justify her runaway spending on a wholesome, family-friendly backdrop for photo ops in the newspaper.
Bonnie Beltramo
Brandon Twp.