Plymouth Township — The sun-dappled Facebook page of John Stewart might be the antidote to the poisoned politics of today.
Its pictures present the popular Plymouth Township trustee as a happy public servant. He is the friend of all, Republicans and Democrats, blue-collar workers and famous pols.
Here he is smiling, always smiling, as he sings the national anthem at a high school basketball game, befriends a clerk at a truck stop in Ionia, buys a birthday lunch for his 83-year-old secretary.
If Facebook tells one story, however, the battle-scarred political terrain of Plymouth Township tells another.
In the past year, Stewart was sued by the township clerk for allegedly lunging at him during a meeting, criticized for saying female township workers needed to exercise more and called the police when a reporter showed up at his law office. And now the clerk has quit in the middle of his term, citing Stewart’s behavior as one reason.
Stewart, for his part, accused former township Supervisor Kurt Heise of trumpeting his troubles through an anonymous Facebook page named Plymouth Township WATCH DOG. Heise, a former political ally, lost a bitter race for reelection in 2024.
“He is the poopenmeister, the pupper master,” Stewart said. “If you open a psychology textbook, he checks all the boxes of a narcissistic abuser. He’s a bitter, bitter person. I can hardly say the word another time.”
Heise, a lawyer who is representing the clerk in the lawsuit, declined to comment. But others said the only person to blame for Stewart’s problems is John Stewart.
Bob McCurdy, a township civic activist, said no one forced the trustee to say what he did about the female workers.
“His comments were repugnant,” McCurdy said. “There’s no place in any employment environment for comments like Mr. Stewart’s.”
Plymouth trustee ‘likes to go off on tangents’
Stewart, 76, who grew up in Wyandotte, is married with two grown daughters. He was described by acquaintances as colorful, bordering on corny. He has a penchant for melodrama, they said.
He describes himself as an old country lawyer and frequently evokes his standing as an Eagle Scout, one whose merit badges adorn the wall of his law office. He rails against gambling and profanity.
At trustee meetings, he speaks theatrically, pausing between sentences, raising and lowering his voice, quickening and slowing his speech, according to recordings of the meetings on the township website. He sometimes burst into song while serving in the Michigan Legislature 20 years ago.
He likes to tell stories that describe his interactions with well-known people, said Bob Doroshewitz, the township treasurer. The stories mention positive things about Stewart even when they’re not germane to the rest of the tale, he said.
“He likes to go off on tangents, where the story eventually turns out to be about him,” Doroshewitz said. “He wants to be the center of attention all the time.”
During a trustee meeting in January, Stewart said he happened to be invited to a breakfast with Mark Reuss and Roger Penske. Reuss is president of General Motors Co. and Penske runs motorsports and trucking empires.
The two titans of industry spoke at a forum at GM’s new headquarters in Hudson’s Detroit. Stewart said they still read books, and he, himself, had read three or four in the past month.
A decades-long political junkie with ‘a big heart’
Stewart said he has been a political junkie since he was elected a class officer in the sixth grade.
About 65 years later, his enthusiasm for public service hasn’t dimmed.
He served on the Plymouth Township board from 1988 to 1992, and in the Michigan House of Representatives from 2000 to 2006, when he was term-limited.
The political moderate tried to rejoin the Legislature, first as a Republican, then an independent, then a Democrat, before giving up and rejoining the township board in 2020. The job pays $13,000 a year.
Robyn Lamb, a Canton Township friend and law client of Stewart’s for 14 years, said he is an upright public servant who goes out of his way to help people.
“He loves being a public servant,” Lamb said. “He has a big heart and cares about everyone, regardless of their politics. He’s an all-around good guy.”
Stewart seems to know everyone as he travels all over Michigan. He bonds with strangers by quickly finding something they have in common. Or he’ll research a person beforehand and surprise them by reciting a little-known fact about their lives.
To solidify the connection, he’ll bring a prop.
In March, he drove 140 miles to attend a town hall meeting in Grand Rapids held by former Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, who is running for governor as an independent. Stewart brought along a portrait of one of his heroes, former Michigan Gov. Bill Milliken.
Stewart sees the three pols, the Republican Milliken, the former Democrat Duggan and the born-again Republican Stewart, as three peas in a pod, centrists who weren’t afraid to cross the political aisle to forge a deal.
“Duggan and I had a lot to talk about: the highest degree of skill to bring people together for compromise and consensus,” he said.
Stewart blocks fellow Plymouth Township board members on Facebook
When Stewart rejoined the township board in 2020, he ran on the same ticket as Heise, the supervisor and a former state legislator. But the two men separated over a proposal to move the Northville Downs racetrack to the township.
Residents strongly opposed the move, and the issue became the focus of nasty township elections in 2024. Stewart, who opposed the track, was reelected as a trustee while Heise, who supported it, lost the supervisor race to Chuck Curmi, then a trustee.
The board is split 4-3 on some issues, with Stewart in the minority. His behavior at meetings fluctuates between obsequiousness and anger, according to recordings of the sessions. He and the other board members interrupt and talk over one another.
In January, they squabbled over, of all things, Stewart’s happy place, his refuge from the world of tawdry politics — his Facebook page. Stewart said he wanted to thank Curmi for staying off social media.
“Oh, please,” said Trustee Jen Buckley, according to the recording. “I sat next to you for 2 ½ years. You were on Facebook the whole time. Are you serious?”
Stewart told Buckley he blocked everyone on the board.
“I don’t want to know what they’re doing,” he said. “I don’t want to hear about (someone) making a cheap comment on social media. This is so below the conversation in my family.”
Stewart’s reputation as a political pugilist preceded his time on the board.
In 2002, his rocky relationship with the late state legislator Bruce Patterson turned physical when Patterson allegedly pushed a car door into his chest, The Detroit News reported at the time. As the boisterous Patterson asked if “you want a piece of me,” Stewart drowned him out by singing an aria, The News reported.
In 2004, Stewart was asked by campus police to leave a college softball game at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, according to a 2004 press account. Stewart, whose daughter was a star pitcher for Western Michigan University, was apparently too vociferous in describing the quality of the Bowling Green hitters.
Were Stewart’s fists clenched during a heated, closed-door session?
In February 2025, the Plymouth Township trustees met in closed session to discuss a lawsuit filed by Northville Downs, which accused them of negotiating in bad faith regarding the racetrack’s proposed move to the township.
The trustees’ lawyer was updating them about the latest legal developments when he was interrupted by Stewart, said Jerry Vorva, the township clerk.
Vorva said he repeatedly asked Stewart to allow the insurance lawyer to speak and, when he didn’t, yelled at him to be quiet.
Stewart stood up and, with fists clenched, lunged across two trustees as he tried to reach the 73-year-old Vorva, according to Vorva.
“He’s one of those people with a short fuse, quick to anger,” said Vorva, who is also a former state lawmaker. “He has a propensity for getting excited when he’s challenged in any way.”
Vorva made a police complaint, but the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office declined to file charges.
Vorva filed a lawsuit against Stewart in August in Wayne County Circuit Court. The next hearing is scheduled for June.
Vorva, who has been battling prostate cancer for a decade, resigned from the board in February.
Stewart denied he balled his fist or pounced at Vorva.
“That is a bald-faced, 100% lie,” he said. “That is Jerry Vorva, vintage Vorva, a liar. Jerry Vorva is a pathological liar. The guy is atrocious.”
Comments about female employees exercising spark backlash
In February, a township police sergeant asked the trustees to buy new equipment for the township exercise room.
Stewart, who once was an avid jogger, said female employees should exercise more, according to a recording of the meeting.
“When does the yoga classes start for women? It’s a rhetorical question,” he said. “I don’t know why the women employees on the first floor of township hall aren’t asked to pack a brown-bag lunch and transport it down to the Lake Pointe Soccer Park and you walk them around that beautiful park.”
Buckley began to speak, trying to make a joke about Stewart’s comments, but was cut off.
“Don’t interrupt me again. I’m really tired of that,” Stewart said, pointing down the table at Buckley. “You have a repeated track record.”
Buckley said she didn’t do anything wrong.
“And it’s all on video,” she said, pointing toward the camera taping the meeting.
The next day, Doroshewitz, the township treasurer, wrote an email to Stewart and the board saying he should apologize to the women. Twenty minutes later, Stewart appeared at township hall.
Doroshewitz said Stewart had a strange grin as he stood in the atrium, shouting at the treasurer that he lied in a legal document, referring to Vorva’s lawsuit.
“He has thin skin, flies off the handle,” Doroshewitz said. “By his age, I would think he would be able to control his emotions.”
After the confrontation between Stewart and Doroshewitz, Vorva, the township clerk, resigned from the board just 16 months after his re-election, saying Stewart’s behavior had contributed to his decision.
Stewart said his remarks about female workers weren’t meant to cast aspersions. He said he was trying to ensure the exercise room wouldn’t be restricted to male employees.
“I have been a pro-women advocate for my whole life,” he said. “People know I adamantly believe in exercise. One person said I didn’t say anything that a doctor wouldn’t say.”
Arguing with musical terms during a ‘weird’ 911 encounter
The Rock, a monthly online magazine that covers Plymouth and nearby towns, was doing a story about Vorva’s resignation and wanted to interview Stewart about the enmity between the two public officials.
After Stewart failed to respond to several emails, editor Scott Spielman visited his law office on March 10. Stewart, who believes the journalist is an ally of Heise’s, asked him to leave. When Spielman wouldn’t, Stewart called 911.
Stewart didn’t realize the call was connected and, as the dispatcher tried to talk to him, he argued with the reporter. The ensuing five-minute encounter was captured on the 911 tape.
“I’m calm and rational,” Stewart told Spielman, according to a recording. “I’m more calm and unemotional than you are.”
Stewart lamented what he had gone through the past three weeks, referring to the fallout from his remark about female township workers.
He repeatedly asked Spielman to leave his office, saying he would call the publisher of the magazine.
“I’m pianissimo. You’re forte,” he said, using musical terms for quietly and loudly. “You’re obnoxious. You’re yelling and screaming at me. You’re stalking me. You’re assaulting me.”
During the recording, Spielman wasn’t heard yelling.
As Stewart spoke, he couldn’t hear the entreaties by the 911 dispatcher trying to reach him, repeatedly saying hello.
“Plymouth 911, where is your emergency?” she asked.
Spielman told The News he didn’t realize Stewart had called the police until after he left the office and began to drive away. He saw two officers walking toward Stewart’s law office on South Main Street. They were later joined by two more.
Spielman advised a reporter doing his own story about Stewart not to show up at the law office unannounced.
“It was a first,” he said about having the cops called on him. “It was just a weird encounter.”
A gig presiding over political civility that didn’t materialize
During a trustee meeting in January, Stewart announced he would be moderating something that was desperately needed in the world today — a forum on political civility.
He paused dramatically before announcing who would be on the panel: former Govs. Rick Snyder, Jennifer Granholm, John Engler and James Blanchard. He joked he would censor the pols if they uttered a single word of vulgarity.
But Stewart wasn’t the moderator of the event in Lansing. It was Roop Raj, the Fox 2 Detroit anchor. Stewart sat in the audience.
Stewart told The News he misspoke but nevertheless stressed the importance of the forum.
If four governors from different parties could join together to find common ground, he asked, why can’t the township Board of Trustees, who are all Republicans?
“We need to quit fighting,” Stewart said. “We need to get along with each other. We need to do something about civility that starts right here, with kindness in our voice and our vocabulary. Kind words will never die.”
fdonnelly@detroitnews.com
(313) 223-4186
@prima_donnelly
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Meet the thorny Plymouth Township trustee with a penchant for melodrama
Reporting by Francis X. Donnelly, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
