Trustees weigh in on court funding

CLINTON TOWNSHIP — Trustees gave their approval to the 41B District Court’s 2026 budget at the board’s Nov. 17 meeting, but it was not without comment.

Represented by Chief Judge Sebastian Lucido, the court will operate with about $4.6 million in revenues and expenses with no change to its $1.15 million fund balance. The board had no initial comments on the budget, but a question from Treasurer Mike Aiello led to discussion on how the court’s debts could be paid off.

Aiello brought up the matter of a Clinton Township Police Department traffic division as a way to bring funds in, though implementing such a thing would be easier said than done.

“I think what needs to be recognized here (is that) in our heyday with the police department, we had 113 officers; now we’re down to 94,” Trustee Bruce Wade said. “You have to realize that if you were to take some of those 94 off the road and dedicate them to a specialized unit like traffic — being that we’re down 20 people from our heyday — you’re going to really lose response time. The first priority of the Police Department is to respond to emergency calls. A traffic bureau would be nice. It’s a luxury.”

Wade gave props to Police Chief Preston Susalla for coming up with “innovative things to generate some traffic enforcement,” and Township Clerk Kim Meltzer reminded people that the lack of a dedicated traffic enforcement division did not mean traffic violations would go unenforced in the township.

Lucido, as the court’s representative, was open to the idea of a traffic division.

“We would love a traffic division from the court’s perspective,” Lucido said. “The most efficient thing that we do at the court for our budget is process a traffic ticket. It takes very little clerk time and a big percentage of the revenue goes to our funding units, which is (Clinton Township), Harrison Township and Mount Clemens. Obviously, that’s not our call whether there’s a traffic division or not, but we would support one. We used to have one in the past and it did very well for the court. If that ever came about, we would support that 100%.”

Trustee Julie Matuzak said the solution to issues surrounding the court’s funding should not come from tickets written in Clinton Township, but from decisions made in Lansing.

“The only real solution to this is for the state to step up and fund their responsibility for funding courts,” Matuzak said. “Otherwise, communities are going to be balancing or paying for the courts on the backs of their citizens by writing traffic tickets. There’s lots of places that do that ... I would rather see the state step in, step up for their responsibility and pay for the functioning of their courts, which is their responsibility.”

Lucido mentioned that both the Michigan Legislature and the Michigan Supreme Court are moving in such a way that will bring state funding to the district courts, though it is believed communities would still have to fund their local district courts.

 

Southern township recreation discussion
Trustees also authorized a discussion about the creation of a recreational center in the south end of the township. Trustee Shannon King brought the discussion to the board.

“There’s been a number of people, in the south end in particular but across the township, that have interest for us to move forward with more programming and more accessible things in the south end, and I think it would be prudent if we listened to them and took the opportunity to see what opportunities we have to be able to do it,” King said.

King initially brought the matter as staff-led study, then as a work session before having it become something to be discussed by the Budget Ways and Means Committee.

As the board discussed the subject further and went over some of the financial difficulties that would surround the possible creation of a physical center, Township Supervisor Paul Gieleghem offered his concerns regarding “false expectations” that community members may have versus whatever the township may end up going through with.

“I don’t think we’re there (to build a center yet) and I think we have to be very, very careful about how we approach this issue so that we do it in a way that’s fiscally responsible, that is open, that is focused in on programming (and) that seeks everyone’s input,” Gieleghem said.

The next Budget Ways and Means Committee meeting for the study will be on Tuesday, Dec. 2 at 9:30 a.m. at the board chambers in the Robert Cannon Civic Center located at 40700 Romeo Plank Road.