Livonia — Want proof that we need for local journalism? A Michigan Enjoyer investigation into the retirement benefits of a member of Livonia City Council has apparently brought a halt to a career politician’s tireless effort to grab a bag of taxpayer money on her way out the door.
According to a slew of outraged sources, current councilwoman Laura Toy—a lifelong Livonia resident and small business owner who’s held almost every elected position in the city except dog catcher—has been lobbying anyone and everyone for years to gain access to retirement benefits she opted out of early in her career in the 1980s.
At issue are the retirement qualifications for accrued contributions, which salaried elected officials can opt out of within 30 days of being first elected to office. Councilwoman Toy, 73, was once a staunch opponent of such benefits for elected officials and was part of an emergent group, including the current mayor, in the late 1980s who campaigned on and opted out of the retirement benefits.
Sources within the city detailed Toy’s dogged attempts to circumvent eligibility requirements that could’ve netted her a going-away present of several thousand dollars.
How Toy’s grift made its way to city council docket last week isn’t immediately clear, and few noticed as Toy and two other council members oddly recused themselves and exited the hearing before the issue was muddied by rules of order, but a change to the ordinance was placed on the docket for the next meeting. Even odder is that this proposed change was never first discussed in a study meeting, which is customary when taxpayer money is going to be set on fire.
Former City Council Vice President Scott Bahr was the first to call foul. Known locally for his biweekly email newsletter summarizing city events, Bahr spotlighted the suspicious recusals and swift first reading, with no residents in the chamber speaking during public comment, ostensibly because they didn’t understand what was happening.
The change in ordinance was presented to the public as minor housekeeping, stirring an agitated Bahr to state: “Three council members don’t recuse themselves for a housekeeping item.”
A change to the ordinance striking the opt-out language would have immediately made Laura Toy and other councilmembers eligible for a lump-sum payment from a defined contribution plan with retroactive accrued vestment from time served, which in Toy’s case is eight years.
In laymen’s terms, the once fiscal-reform watchdog Laura Toy could have opt in to her previously waived benefits with only a month left in her term, immediately yanking out a nice bag of taxpayer money as she rolls into retirement.
The timing is hilarious, if not depressingly gross, which explains the urgency and fast tactics on the council, but again, the question looms large: Why?
Every source that spoke to Michigan Enjoyer, and there were a lot, described the same story. Toy has been relentlessly fixated in her pursuit of benefits that she feels entitled to. She had been horse trading votes with fellow councilmembers, seeking favors from city officials, and pursuing appointments to positions that could help her meet certain time requirements.
Pointing out hypocrisy is tired at this point, but as recently as July, Toy was in city budgetary meetings lamenting Livonia’s thin operating budget and pondering the notion of freezing employee raises and other cost-cutting measures. Chasing after taxpayer money she previously waived is too ironic to let pass.
But it could be worse than that.
One source close to these proceedings who asked not to be named highlighted pernicious second- and third-order effects to this “minor housekeeping item.”
Ostensibly, the proposed ordinance change would have pertained to the defined contribution plan for elected officials, and in Toy’s case could secure up to $25,000 in walking-around money, but it could open the door to her qualifying for retirement medical benefits she currently can’t access due to a two-year break in time served.
It gets kind of wonky, but the short story is that due to gaps in her service to the city, with breaks in the action for time served as a state representative and senator in Lansing, Toy did not have enough time served as a city employee to access retirement healthcare benefits.
By altering the existing ordinance, a permission structure could be constructed for a fight over retirement health care, which a source inside city hall called “a slippery slope” that other elected officials could and likely will take advantage of. In fact, one major elected official in the city allegedly called HR first thing the next morning about what benefits he could get.
The toxicity of these events has set off silent alarms in the city. A former elected official and highly prominent current Livonia resident with political influence was disgusted when reached for comment and stated, “The optics look bad because this is bad.”
A source inside city hall close to the mayor but without authorization to speak on her behalf strongly implied Toy’s tactics were in stupendous bad form suggesting Mayor Brosnan still holds true to her original position on retirement benefits from the late 1980s—benefits she also opted out of early in her career.
Councilwoman Lynda Scheel spoke with Enjoyer and voiced her disdain for the proposed ordinance change and the deleterious potential down-order effects it might have on public trust. Without hesitation she signaled her position on the matter stating, “As it currently is proposed, I’m a ‘no’ vote on this at the next council meeting.”
Toy did not immediately respond to Enjoyer’s attempts to reach her for comment, but several questions for her and others who’ve seemingly bent to her will loom large. Why was a senior city official with a career narrative seemingly built on fiscal responsibility trying to grift taxpayer money and benefits she once disavowed? Why was she opposed to a taxpayer-funded new downtown, but not a taxpayer-funded retirement gift?
Perhaps most important: Why during a moment with trust in federal, state, and local institutions and politicians at all-time lows, and populism energized against establishment machine politics, is an elected member of Livonia’s elite self-dealing?
Those efforts presumably appear over. Multiple sources report the matter is now dead-on-arrival with enough “no” votes on the council to kill the proposed change before this term ends.
Although Toy’s access to a taxpayer-funded one-time money-bomb has failed, the larger issue over the retiree benefits for elected officials lingers on for the next city council to tackle.
Forty years ago, lifetime benefits for elected city officials swept Laura Toy onto the city council. Her departure from the council four decades later might reignite that battle. How ironic.
Jay Murray is a writer for Michigan Enjoyer and has been a Metro Detroit-based professional investigator for 22 years. Follow him on X @Stainless31.
