Grosse Pointe Farms Council Approves All-Pointes Grant

Only about a week before the acceptance deadline, the council approved an amended version of a resolution that has been going before each of the Grosse Pointe councils making the five cities eligible to receive up to $300,000 toward a unified dispatch/lockup center.

The passage came after a lot of discussion and concerns about the legal wording in the resolution. The resolution had originally been part of a consent agenda, which includes several items the council passes in one vote rather than discussing each item individually, however the grant resolution was pulled for discussion.

The . The matching rate is 50 percent, which means the five Pointes as one large group would have to spend $600,000 to receive the full $300,000 grant funding. If the Pointes were to spend $400,000, officials would receive $200,000 in grant funding.

Councilman Louis Theros questioned some of the wording that he believes would have made the Farms accountable to participate going forward. His concern was that all of the cities need to reach agreements about such a project before the council commits any money to it.

The resolution, however, was intended for all of the Grosse Pointes to accept the grant to make the five cities eligible to receive the funds should a plan to create a five Pointes dispatch-lockup center come to fruition.

City Manager Shane Reeside explained this after Theros' concerns came up but Theros said he was still uncomfortable with passing the resolution as it was written becuase it did not include any clause that says all of the officials must agree on a plan.

The Farms council was —a point Theros thought was less than ideal. He also mentioned how some of the other Pointes have used the media to call out the Farms for their decisions related to consolidation efforts within public safety, which has not been appreciated.

Councilman Joseph Leonard also mentioned how Grosse Pointe Shores council passed the resolution last week during a special meeting "because they didn't want to be the bad guys for all the Grosse Pointes."

He described the situation as win-lose, explaining if they approved it and then later they don't agree with details of a plan, they are the roadblock.

Theros also said he believed the grant was like putting the cart before the horse because officials have not developed a plan yet for a unified dispatch, which means the money is irrelevant at this point.

Eventually the council agreed to pass an amended version of the resolution that included a clause with conditional language about all of the Grosse Pointes agreeing to a plan before the grant could actually be used.

Some of the discussion had by Farms council was similar to that of council members in Grosse Pointe Shores, who at through its passage.

The Shores also had reservations because they've already achieved savings by .

. There was some discussion in the Woods about the need to reach a mutually agreeable plan as well.