Shelby Pushes Forward With 41-A District Court Move

After a lengthy debate Tuesday evening to clarify a resolution on the possible move offrom Shelby Township to Macomb Township, the Shelby Township Board of Trustees changed the language and approved it.

The trustees described the resolution as a good-faith agreement to move forward with Macomb Township and possibly build a new courthouse in their city.

“If we let them (Macomb) take the court, we won’t go and open our own court,” said Shelby Township Clerk Terri Kowal. “Macomb wants to make sure. If we pulled out of the court, financially Macomb would be in trouble.”

The revised resolution has been sent to the Shelby Township attorney for approval and then will be sent to Macomb Township.

“It will be there (Macomb Township) for a while,” Kowal said.

Macomb Township Clerk Michael Koehs said he will be waiting to receive the resolution and bring it to his own board to continue the discussion.

"We would like to work with the court and all three communities involved," Koehs said. "We want to make sure we can provide the best service to all three."

Before the resolution was approved Tuesday evening, Supervisor Richard Stathakis wanted to make sure that the final decision to move the court would be added on the next election ballot to allow the citizens to vote.

Kowal said it’s too late to get the issue on the November ballot, but if there is still no agreement between Shelby and Macomb, then it could go on the August 2012 ballot.

“The supervisor keeps saying I don’t want it to go to the people and that’s not true,” Kowal said.

Moving the 41-A District Courthouse, which serves Shelby, Utica and Macomb Township, has been for at least five years, Kowal said.

Shelby Treasurer Paul Viar said at Tuesday’s meeting that it has cost the township nearly $4 million between plans and feasibility studies, and there is still no final resolution.

Most everyone agrees a new courthouse needs to be built. However, Shelby has said it would go into deficit if it built a new building because it wouldn’t make the city enough money to pay for itself.

Through feasibility studies, Macomb has said that the city would actually make money off the 41-A District Court.

“Here’s the problem," Kowal said. "We have to do what’s best for the court. It is a part of our township. If we can’t afford to build a new building and Macomb can, we need to consider that."

Another sticky point on the court relocation talks has been legacy costs.

“We found out that there is a liability for the cost of employee pension health care–retiree health care–and that retiree health care is a considerable amount of money,” said Macomb Township Clerk Michael Koehs in an earlier interview with Patch. “All we wanted was to say that if Macomb Township built a new courthouse and we opened it up on Jan. 1, 2020, that’s the day we would start being responsible for (any costs) incurred after that date. Before that date it’s the current control unit’s responsibility, which is Shelby.”

“Why should Macomb have to pay for their health care when they worked for Shelby for years?” Kowal said.