The West Bloomfield Township Clerk Cathy Shaughnessy has on multiple occassions used tax payer dollars for her personal benefit without board authorization and has created a toxic work environment for township employees. Several examples of Shaughnessy's unauthorized spending includes more than $10,000 for a self-promotional township-wide mailing to gain name recognition for campaigning and two $1,500 checks that she issued to a fictitious, unapproved vendor, Stony Creek Consulting. 

A committee was formed by residents to recall Shaughnessy from her elected position. The committee hired Investigative Reporter Scott Lewis, who reported that the checks were cashed by Shaughnessy's personal long-time political consultant Joe DiSano. DiSano and Shaughnessy's former Deputy Clerk, Joe Munum, have a political blog called "Two Guys Named Joe" and Munem now works for the Township's waste hauler.
One month after the two $1,500.00 checks were cashed at a party store, DiSano registered the name Stony Creek Consulting with the State of Michigan. Clerk Shaughnessy and Trustees Diane Swimmer, Howard Rosenberg and Larry Brown blocked the efforts of three board members to conduct a forensic audit of the Clerk's spending.

An unprecedented four department head vacancies of the Building Director, Planning Director, HR Director and Assessing Director are attributable to inappropriate conduct and mistreatment by Shaughnessy, Swimmer, Rosenberg and Brown. In fact, last May, Shaughnessy hollered at the Building Director and demanded that he inappropriately approve a building permit without site plans, since it was "worth 3,000 votes" and he resigned without notice. The township continues to have vacancies for the Building Director, Planning Director and Assessing Director positions which has resulted in delays in the building permit process and a loss of revenue.

Recently, Shaughnessy, Swimmer, Rosenberg and Brown spent $28,000 of taxpayer funds to retain a law firm to personally defend them against a legal complaint for their hostile treatment of an employee, in connection with a discrimination concern, which led to the employee's resignation. These four board members voted to waive attorney client privilege in a previous legal complaint which cost the township taxpayers $75,000 on a lawsuit settlement with another former employee. This is a reckless waste of our tax dollars! 

The public should understand that remaining silent only emboldens public officials to be reckless with tax payer dollars. This is just a small example of the unauthorized spending that sometimes occurs in government, which effects us all. West Bloomfield is the fifth largest township in Michigan and we cannot afford for this recklessness to continue for another four years. So, please sign the petition for the Attorney General to investigate these pending concerns and commit to vote on August 2 in the local primary election to remove and replace Shaughnessy, Swimmer, Rosenberg and Brown!