The brand new, nearly complete Michigan State Police Headquarters in downtown Lansing.

The brand new, nearly complete Michigan State Police Headquarters in downtown Lansing. (Photo by Todd A. Heywood/Michigan Messenger)

 

LANSING — State Rep. Rick Jones came out swinging Monday in an attempt to end a controversial lease agreement for a new Michigan State Police headquarters in the state capital.

In an interview with Michigan Messenger, the Grand Ledge Republican called the project “a scheme,” and said if the state moves ahead with the lease agreement, the new building downtown will be “a monument to stupidity.”

Jones claims residents and the state police are in favor of scrapping the project, and alleged that Col. Peter Munoz, head of the Michigan State Police, was pressured politically to testify that he supported the move into the new headquarters.

“I realize that the colonel went into a committee meeting and said what he was told to say, but the colonel has to or he loses his job,” Jones said.

When asked if he was saying that Munoz was pressured to lie to the committee, Jones responded: “I would never say the colonel lied. I’m saying that the colonel had to have the same view as the administration because he works directly under the administration and he has no choice.”

Jones repeated the charge in a letter to fellow lawmakers:

In the next election the citizens of Michigan will hold us accountable for waste. As most of you know I have been a longtime opponent to leasing the new MSP HQ. It’s the wrong time, in the wrong place, and the State Police do NOT want it. Over 200 state police of all ranks have contacted me and asked me to fight it. The Col. and those at the top had to go along with the idea or face losing their jobs.

“Representative Jones should be careful,” said Liz Boyd, spokeswoman for Gov. Jennifer Granholm. “His suggestion is inappropriate and wrongheaded. I spoke with Col. Munoz earlier, and Col. Munoz supports the new Michigan State Police headquarters.”

Kelly Rossman-McKinney, a spokeswoman for project developers Gary Granger and Joel Ferguson, said Munoz had been intimately involved in the planning and development of the project.

“I toured the building today with the project manager and a number of the questions we had about the design, the response was that they were specifically directed by Col. Munoz,” Rossman-McKinney said. “The building and design process have been directed, from day one, by the state police in tandem with the Department of Management and Budget. There have been a number of changes made specifically at the request of the state police.”

Jones has opposed the project since its inception and said it is a “bad deal for taxpayers.” His reasoning is that the developers are spending $39 million to build the new facility, but will rake in $45.2 million in the first 11 years of the lease agreement with the state. He also said the new building is not large enough.

“This isn’t truly a consolidation like it should be,” Jones said. “We’re still going to have our state police in multiple buildings.”

He put the cost per year at $5 million when costs such as new furniture, computers and other items are added to the costs of the lease.

The main building of the current Michigan State Police headquarters near Michigan State University.

The main building of the current Michigan State Police headquarters near Michigan State University on Harrison Road in East Lansing. (Photo by Todd A. Heywood/Michigan Messenger)

But Rossman-McKinney said the move to consolidate the Michigan State Police from its 70-year-old East Lansing campus comprised of about seven buildings adjacent to Michigan State University will end up saving the state $4 million.

She noted that in order to stay at the East Lansing campus, the current buildings would necessitate extensive upgrades such as heating and cooling systems, new plumbing and a new roof. Annual costs for basic upkeep of the current facility on Harrison Road is about $400,000 a year. She also noted that all 550 state police officials currently housed in East Lansing would be moved to the new facility downtown.

The project plan dates back to the administration of then-Gov. John Engler. According to Rossman-McKinney, then-MSU President M. Peter McPherson wanted to move the Michigan State Police from the Harrison Road location so the growing university could take over the property.

David Hollister, then the mayor of Lansing, wanted to lure the state police downtown. Between the three of them, a plan was hatched to build the new state police headquarters at the corner of Kalamazoo Street and Grand Avenue, a few blocks from the state Capitol. Some media reports indicated Engler approached Lansing developer and MSU Board of Trustees Chairman Joel Ferguson and asked him to build the project. But Rossman-McKinney said that is legend, and no one is certain how Ferguson and partner Gary Granger actually landed the no-bid contract to build the new building.

The two did put in the only bid for the property on which the project is being built, Rossman-McKinney noted.

Jones is putting on a lobbying effort to push through an approval of a Senate-adopted amendment passed last week that would strip the appropriations for the new building, a move that would effectively end the lease agreement. That legislation is likely to be taken up by a House Appropriations subcommittee as early as Tuesday, and could land on the floor of the full House as early as Wednesday.

In order to get the Democratic-controlled House to support a measure in the Republican-controlled Senate, Jones pleaded with fellow lawmakers in his letter distributed on Monday:

You will face many pressures trying to persuade you to go ahead and spend money to lease the HQ. I urge you to face the decision with integrity and courage. The citizens of Michigan will hold us accountable. In a bi-partisan vote the Senate voted NO on the funding of the MSP HQ. The media will be watching and reporting on us.

Jones asked for legal counsel from Attorney General Mike Cox in January about the project, specifically seeking to end the lease. Cox’s office responded late last week noting that the lease could be ended under the agreement, and Jones is now pushing to end the deal.

Rossman-McKinney and Boyd both pointed out that Cox and Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land served on the State Administrative Board, which approved the deal in August 2007. It was then approved by a joint legislative committee in November 2007.