Michigan Lawmakers Explore Bonds for New Police Station

LIVONIA, Michigan — The Livonia City Council voted Monday night to approve a notice of intent for issuing up to $45 million in bonds to build a new police headquarters building.

At the same time, Livonia leaders pleaded with residents who oppose how the city is going about it not to let their frustration influence approval of an August vote on a routine public safety operating millage.

City officials are considering how to move forward with replacing Livonia's 65-year-old police building, which proponents say is a severe need for the city, after voters soundly rejected a project plan last summer as part of a much larger bond package for Livonia's civic center campus.

Mayor Maureen Miller Brosnan's administration has proposed funding the project with a combination of issuing about $35 million in bonds previously earmarked for a new city hall, $4 million from the city's facilities reserve fund and a 1% administrative fee on property tax bills.

None of these funding sources, as proposed, would go to a vote of residents to approve. The bonds proposed would be paid for by savings of about $2.4 million per year from an insurance change for city retirees, which had previously been earmarked for building a new city hall but was not spent.

The notice, unanimously approved by the City Council's seven members on Monday, is a legal step required to notify the public of an intent to sell bonds in the future, but it is not a commitment by the city to borrow the money or to hold the council to a specific timeframe for making a decision. The notice also does not provide approval of any specific plans or funding sources, which the council would have to vote on separately.

"All we are discussing is a notice of intent to bond, so that we can have funding available if we decide to move forward with a new police station," said Councilmember Carrie Budzinski. "Which again, overwhelmingly, residents and members of this body have said is and should be a priority for our city.

The police headquarters were built in 1961, and used to house the city's water department. The mayor and other city officials in favor of replacing the building say the aging building is cramped, rife with infrastructure problems and not fit for the current department's needs.

The council began discussing how to find funds for a new police station after two-thirds of Livonia's residents rejected a roughly $150 million bond package that included money for the project at the ballot box last August, along with fire station renovations, a gathering plaza, and a new main library branch.

The location currently proposed by the mayoral administration would move the police station north and east, adjacent to the 16th District Court on Five Mile Road.

A slide deck presented to the Council's Capital Outlay and Infrastructure Committee on March 11 claimed that considering a different location would increase the project's cost by about $2.5 million, between factors such as new costs for architectural design and studies for site engineering and geotechnical evaluation, and increased costs from a delay in the project of several months.

However, the mayoral administration has signaled a willingness to consider three other possible locations near the Five Mile and Farmington Road area to allay some community concerns about the current proposal.

But the proposed plan, along with the accompanying location, continues to draw fierce opposition from some residents and council members. Though detractors made clear their opposition isn't over support for the police, objections voiced Monday evening covered everything from the currently proposed location, because of a nearby residential area and wetlands it would be built on, to the potential price tag and the funding sources.

Resident Steve King, who believes the mayoral administration has sent mixed messages about the project's cost, among other concerns, threatened that, to send a message, voters would turn against a millage to fund the operating costs of the police and fire departments, set for the August ballot.

"So here's what I'm telling you, and hear me: Can the plan, or lose the millage," he said.

Several council members pushed back, imploring residents opposed to the police building plan not to withhold their approval of operational funding for the police and fire departments out of anger.

"That will hurt our city so much, you don't even know. It's not even fun to play with it," Councilmember Brandon McCullough said.

McCullough is convinced the administration's current plan for the police headquarters costs too much. McCullough, who works as the facilities manager for Northville Township, believes Livonia's police headquarters could be built for a total of $43 million, using bond funds without dipping into the city's facilities reserve or a 1% administrative fee.

Nicole Hefty, who lives in Livonia but works for Dearborn Heights as a grant writer, said during public comment Monday that the city should think more creatively about possible funding sources for the police project. Federal grant money from the Department of Justice, or a grant for making green building improvements to an existing space, are among the options to consider, she said.

"I just wanted to bring up that there are other ways to fund a project than to continue to reach into our back pocket," Hefty said.

Tyler Vines, the president of Livonia's Police Officers Association, said he doesn't believe renovating the current building, given its laundry list of shortcomings, would be cheaper than building a new headquarters from the ground up.

"The deficiencies that are in the building currently would require us to knock down one room to fix it, which would require knocking down the room next to it, because things are going to bleed over. And eventually, we're going to knock down the whole police station and rebuild the whole thing," he said.

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