Contract reflects more than $1.3 million increase

By Megan Kelley
Editor
INDEPENDENCE TWP. — Last Tuesday, during its regular meeting, the Independence Township Board of Trustees approved the 2025-2027 Law Enforcement Services Agreement with the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office (OCSO) in a 6-0 vote. Treasurer Paul Brown was absent from the meeting.
The three year contract reflects a significant increase —15.2% — in the cost of services for the township, said Supervisor Chuck Phyle, which ultimately will result in a net budget impact of $1,326,791.
“Oakland County, in their wisdom and their accounting, decided that there were 12 municipalities that contract the Oakland County service out of 62. Of those 12, they took and raised their annual costs significantly, and I would say significantly, because in years past, it had been a couple percentage points this year, for 2025 in Independence Township, turned out to be a 15.2% increase, which is huge,” Phyle said. “It’s their way of looking at it, and saying that they were not counting everything.”
According to Phyle, the township has requested the OCSO provide additional information on what resulted in the increase but has yet to receive that information.
“They pretty much just said, ‘You got to trust us and believe us, that that is in there,’” said Phyle. “We asked for copies of the report. They would not give them, or failed to give them to this point.“
Phyle also added that the township did try to negotiate the contract but were given a firm ‘no’ on any changes.
“They were unwilling to compromise at all or make any adjustments to the contract,” said Phyle. “They pretty much said, ‘Here it is, take it or leave it..’”
This increase is one that is so significant it is simply unsustainable, Phyle said.
“Trying to absorb another million and a half dollars is unattainable, unsustainable, we would actually, with the millage that we did for the police, we would actually go negative in the four years. So, we have looked at trying to make some adjustments – we’re in the final portion of making those determinations – and so one of the things I’m also going to be asking here tonight is to give me a little latitude of a plus or minus 10% on the head count for the contract as we finalize negotiation with the schools and for the village of Clarkson because they also subcontracted.“
While the increase was approved by the Oakland County Board of Commissioners by a 10-9 vote last November, Trustee Jim Tedder said that it was his understanding that the Sheriff’s Association and the deputies and the sergeants that serve the community were not in favor of it.
“I don’t know where the motivation came from but of course, we have to have public safety for residents and we’re kind of over the barrel at this point, but there’s a long game, perhaps (an) opportunity for us to look at this further,” Tedder said.
Despite the approval, trustees were vocal about their distaste of the contract.
“I just want to go on the record and say that a yes vote for this in no way is condoning what the county is doing to us, which I believe is just completely violating us, because they can. So between the roads, the millage and this, I don’t know how we can even sustain to do business with the county for much longer,” said Trustee Sam Moraco. “I don’t know what we’re going to do about it, but obviously we have to have protection for the residents, even though we’re being bullied and strong armed into overpaying for it.”
Independence Township is one of the last municipalities to approve the agreement aside from Pontiac, which voted against approving the contract. The 12 other municipalities in Oakland County that also saw an increase in services includes Orion, Oxford, Brandon, Oakland, Rochester and Pontiac as well as several others.
Phyle indicated that it is the township’s intention to work with the other communities to find a path forward both in the short term and long term.
“There’s a short term problem we have to deal with here tonight, and that’s what we’re going to be voting on here. And then there’s going to be a longer term game plan,” Phyle said. “We need to do that for the first year, but we are definitely looking at longer term options where we can have more control over our destiny and not deal with these surprises, because these numbers, even in years two and three, are not fixed. They can adjust. They’re allowed to adjust them so it could get better, but most likely not.”