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Veterans fuming over portable johns near Royal Oak war memorial, so city had them moved

Detroit Free Press - 7/13/2021

A two-year debate in Royal Oak over relocating the local war memorial has turned into a bitter political battle that will put the controversial issue on local ballots in November, is nudging new candidates to challenge incumbent city leaders and has even made an issue of the placement of portable toilets at a construction site.

Last week, the veterans' side won the right in court to put the debate over the memorial's move in front of voters on November ballots. Over the weekend, a construction crew that demolished the old city hall as a first step in creating a new downtown park placed two portable toilets on one side of the memorial's new location, then piled construction debris on the other. Veterans and their supporters said this was an insult to those who hold the memorial dear and consider it sacred ground.

"A lot of people do feel insulted by that," said Tom Roth, commander of Royal Oak's American Legion post, who said this week he has begun gathering signatures to run for mayor.

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"There's a lot of anger about a lot of things the commissioners have done, and I think there's going to be others running with me to challenge them," Roth said Monday.

After residents speaking at Monday's City Commission meeting complained about the toilets' placement, and the Free Press published an on-line story Tuesday morning, Royal Oak City Manager Paul Brake said he asked the construction manager to move the portable johns to a new location at the site of the city's Centennial Commons park project.

"Really, there was no disrespect meant to anyone. The city did not direct the construction company where to place these. The construction manager agrees with the sensitivity of the issue" and will ensure that the toilets remain well away from the memorial, Brake said Tuesday.

But the construction debris must remain where it is, at least temporarily, Brake added. And moving the portable toilets isn't going to quell other concerns of the veterans and their supporters.

For nearly two years, Roth's group, along with other veterans and their supporters, have vehemently objected to the plan by Royal Oak to move its granite war memorial, engraved with the names of 188 former residents who died in military service, about 40 feet to the east. That was a shift that city officials favored as they designed the new Centennial Commons park. When the veterans and their supporters couldn't get the city to reverse its stance, they launched a petition drive to put the question to voters.

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On May 4, leaders of the petition drive received an email from Royal Oak's city clerk, saying she'd received more than enough signatures for the question to make November ballots. Yet, a few hours later, the clerk sent a new email saying that she "must reject the petition" because it was "legally insufficient ... as explained in the attached legal opinion."

On May 25, the veterans and their supporters filed a lawsuit to force their question onto city ballots, and the next day the city's construction workers moved the memorial, according to the Opinion and Order of Oakland Circuit Judge Jeffery Matis. On Friday, Matis ruled that the ballot question must appear on city ballots this fall.

A few hours later, at the end of the construction workers' day, two portable toilets were placed at one end of the war memorial, said Chuck Semchena, a former city attorney and former Royal Oak city commissioner, who drove to the site to photograph what Semchena said was an insult to the city's veterans.

"The vets are going out of their minds. This memorial is like a gravesite to them," emchena said.

At Monday night's city commission meeting, several speakers at the public comment session chastised the city for moving the memorial and one said the placement of the portable toilets was "disrespectful and disgusting."

City officials did not comment at Monday's meeting on the toilet question but they have a special meeting scheduled for Wednesday, when they will go into closed session to discuss the lawsuit that orders placing the war memorial's move on fall ballots. If residents approve that ballot question, the city would be forced to move the memorial 40 feet back to its original location.

Elected officials, including Mayor Mike Fournier, have long argued that they have acted in the open and in the best interests of all residents, not that of any special interest group such as military vets.

Contact Bill Laitner: blaitner@freepress.com

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