Orion Township is suing Oakland County Executive Dave Coulter’s administration over claims they withheld information that impacts the township’s budget and public safety services.
In a lawsuit filed earlier this month in Oakland Circuit Court, the township, which has contracted with the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office for police services for decades, contends the county didn’t produce the 2025 cost of its contract for police services from the sheriff’s office.
The complaint also argues the county violated Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act by partially fulfilling the township’s FOIA request for the information in March without providing a sufficient reason in the request for additional time to provide some of the requested records.
“The response… stated that ‘the names of the individual, active law enforcement officers are exempt,’ but did not identify which records contained allegedly exempt information, did not explain how the requested financial, budgetary, cost-allocation, or methodology records would identify an active law enforcement officer, and did not explain why any allegedly exempt information could not be redacted while producing the remaining non-exempt material,” the lawsuit reads.
Orion Township sued the county four days before its May 12 ballot-certification deadline for its Aug. 4 election, which includes a proposal to increase its police operating millage from 3.5 mills, which has fallen to 3.41 mills due to rollbacks, to 3.75 mills to support the contract with the sheriff’s office, according to a memo from Supervisor Chris Barnett to the township’s board.
“The documents requested are critical to Orion’s determination of police service millages, which is a tax on its residents,” the lawsuit states.
The township’s board of trustees approved the ballot language on April 6 despite Barnett pleading his case to the Oakland County Board of Commissioners two days later.
Barnett also attended the commissioners’ meeting Thursday with supervisors from Oxford, Oakland, Brandon, Addison and Independence townships, who have had similar frustrations with their own information requests from the county, he told The Detroit News on Friday.
At the Thursday meeting, Barnett told the commission “the target hasn’t moved” when it comes to the township’s request.
“Orion Township and the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, as you’ve heard me say many times, have enjoyed an over 70-year relationship, and this has never become contentious until we have repeatedly not received what was promised to us,” said Barnett.
But in a statement Saturday, Coulter said his administration is committed to transparency and collaboration with our community partners “whether they share that approach or not.” Orion Township is one of 12 Oakland County communities that contract directly with the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office for police operations.
“We value our relationship with communities who contract with us for law-enforcement services, and have provided them the financial data supporting rates in numerous ways,” Coulter said in a statement. :”I’m also committed to ensuring that the rates are fair, both for the communities who contract for those services as well as those who do not, because the communities with their own police departments should not be subsidizing the communities who contract with the sheriff’s office.”
Coulter said his administration has met with several communities who have requested meetings “to better understand the financial information, and continue to do so.”
“We scheduled a meeting with Orion Township officials, but then received a formal FOIA request for a much broader set of data, which required more time to gather,” said Coulter. “Contrary to the supervisor’s statements, I welcomed this formal request as a way to get clearer questions from him.”
Coulter contends Orion Township has now received its initial FOIA response, but is suing the county claiming that the information was incomplete. Oakland County is reviewing his lawsuit.
“As this is now a legal process the township initiated, our attorneys have advised us not to engage in other ways with the township until this has been resolved,” Coulter said in his statement.
mbryan@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Orion Twp. claims Coulter’s administration is withholding public safety records
Reporting by Max Bryan, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
