Melvindale Mayor Nicole Shkira said during the Sept. 4 City Council meeting that she wants to return Dearborn-provided services, such as police dispatch, to Melvindale.
By SUE SUCHYTA
Sunday Times Newspapers
MELVINDALE – Mayor Nicole Shkira said Sept. 4 that she wants to bring services like police dispatch, which is currently provided by Dearborn, back into Melvindale.
“Eventually, we will have all of our services back,” she said. “Our police officers want to be public safety officers, and so they will fight fires and do police work, but they won’t do EMT services.
“So, that is something that is on my long list of things to get the contracts and see when those expiration dates are.”
Shkira said during the Sept. 4 City Council meeting that she and other city officials are already in the process of learning how to switch their police officers over to public service officers.
City Attorney Larry Coogan said the city recently signed a four-year contract with the patrol officers, and he was unaware of the desire to shift to public service officers.
“That wasn’t discussed during negotiations,” he said.
Shkira said she didn’t want the city to be in another position like it was placed in when Dearborn ended its jail contract with Melvindale with a 90-day notice.
“I don’t want to be in that same situation ever again,” she said. “I was thankful that they told us that when the contracts expire, they don’t want to renegotiate those.”
Coogan said he had not heard that any contracts with Dearborn would not be open to negotiation.
Councilmember Saleim Abuali said the dispatch contract with Dearborn was signed recently and couldn’t be canceled without cause.
Shkira asked Coogan if the dispatch contract has an exit clause. He said he would have to look into it before he could provide her with an answer.
Council President Joe Jackson said Dearborn couldn’t cancel any contract unless it went through its city council.
“I don’t see how you can take the word of one or two people,” he said.
Shkira cut him off.
“Oh, no, we were at a council meeting, and they clearly let us know,” she said.
Jackson said it has not been voted on by the Dearborn City Council, so it would be irresponsible for the Melvindale City Council to assume what the neighboring city’s intentions might be in a public forum like its city council meeting.
Shkira said she never wants to be in a situation again in which Dearborn ends a contractual service with Melvindale like it did with the jail contract.
“I know that we made it happen, but it was a lot of phone calls made and talking to vendors that thought they wouldn’t be able to come until months down the road, but that wasn’t an option, so we had to make it happen,” she said.