The ongoing clash between Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel and Prosecutor Peter Lucido over several budget issues took another turn this week when the Michigan Court of Appeals issued an order directing Hackel to disburse funds to Lucido for outside legal counsel.
Lucido praised the ruling and said it’s the third time in recent years that the courts have told the Hackel that “he cannot ignore the law.”
But Deputy County Executive Andy McKinnon said the county executive’s office expected the Court of Appeals decision after a related Supreme Court decision and said the funds are ready to be spent.
Lucido filed a lawsuit against Hackel on Jan. 8 to enforce two appropriations that the prosecutor wants to spend in 2025, Lucido’s lawyer said earlier this year. One is $42,500 in funding for outside legal services ― or paying law firms to represent the prosecutor’s office on claims or civil matters. The Macomb County Board of Commissioners approved the funding, and Hackel vetoed it. The board overrode the vetoes, but Hackel didn’t release the funds.
The other appropriation in Lucido’s lawsuit is for the reclassification of a prosecutor’s office employee.
In a brief authored by Judges Allie Greenleaf Maldonado, Sima G. Patel and Adrienne N. Young, the court directed Hackel to release the funds for outside counsel and instructed the parties to “work together to facilitate the appropriate contracts.”
“The message is clear: no one is above the law, and taxpayer dollars must be used as the Board of Commissioners directs,” Lucido said in a press release Tuesday. “These are historic decisions that protect Macomb County taxpayers and the integrity of justice in our county.”
However, the court sided with Hackel on the issue of the reclassification of the prosecutor’s office employee. Lucido wants to reclassify Angela Burke from office manager to chief operations clerk, which would come with a pay raise. Lucido contends Hackel “improperly impounded” the funds for this change, according to the brief. But the Court of Appeals concluded that Lucido’s claims related to the funds for a chief operations clerk “lack merit” because the Board of Commissioners conditioned the appropriation on the reclassification of the office manager position, and the reclassification didn’t occur.
McKinnon said the county executive’s office expected the court to issue a ruling that complied with a Supreme Court’s ruling in June. In that ruling, the Michigan Supreme Court rejected leave to appeal in a similar case filed by Lucido against Hackel, meaning that a June 2024 Court of Appeals opinion remains in place. The Court of Appeals directed Hackel to give money to Lucido for outside legal counsel and told the parties to “work together to facilitate the appropriate contracts.”
McKinnon contended that “the only thing still at issue” was the reclassification of the employee.
“The appeals court clarified that reclassifications are the responsibility of the executive/human resources,” he said.
McKinnon said that after the Supreme Court decision, the county executive’s office made the funds available for the outside legal counsel for the prosecutor. The executive’s office is just waiting to receive bills from the law firms.
“That money is sitting there ready to be used upon bills being received for the services that the board allowed for them,” he said.
Employee reclassification
The Court of Appeals also addressed the funds for a chief operations clerk. The court said the Macomb County Board of Commissioners made the appropriation conditional on the reclassification of the office manager position to the chief operations clerk, but the reclassification didn’t take place.
McKinnon previously said the employee, Burke, is in United Auto Workers Local 412, and her collective bargaining agreement has a process on how to get reclassified. He said she went through the process, and the county’s Human Resources department denied the reclassification.
“The reclassification of the job position was necessary because the workload and duties of the person filling the Office Manager position had expanded such that those duties and salary are more appropriately in line with the written job description of a ‘Chief Operations Clerk’ as employed in the County Clerk’s office,” said Esther E. Wolfe, Lucido’s spokesperson.
She said that under the reclassification, Burke’s salary would increase from approximately $68,400 to $82,800. But the court said Hackel is granted summary disposition as it relates to Lucido’s claims involving the chief operations clerk.
Lucido said in the news release that he is reviewing options to “continue his fight for the UAW staff member involved.”
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