Washington Township is known for its quality schools, apple orchards, Stony Creek Metropark and the historic Octagon House.
But these days, the northwestern Macomb County community is gaining notoriety for political wars that center on bullying, rumors, harassment and infighting among elected officials and a three-community interlocal parks and recreation commission.
And that could spell trouble come the August primary election when its main funding source is up for renewal.
The controversy involves the Romeo-Washington-Bruce Parks & Rec Commission’s director and Washington Township Trustee Daniel Detkowski who serves on the panel.
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Following numerous complaints from recreation employees, and the resignation of two commissioners, the commission will consider removing Detkowski next month.
“I never expected any of this to happen,” Clara Russell, the township’s longtime recreation director, said Thursday. “All I ever wanted to do was run this department and provide these communities with the best programs we could afford to.”
Russell — a one-time waitress who has worked in the department for 30 years, including the past 12 years as director — has found herself and her staff the targets of alleged harassment by Washington Township Trustee Detkowski.
Clara Russell, director of the Romeo-Washington-Bruce Parks & Recreation Department. (PHOTO — ROMEO-WASHINGTON-BRUCE PARKS & RECREATION DEPARTMENT WEBSITE)
Russell said she has endured what she describes as Detkowski’s criticism and bullying behavior over how the parks and rec department is run since 2022 and it only continues to increase. It finally got to the point where she has written — twice — to township leaders about his behavior, but problems persist.
Detkowski, who moved to Washington in 2011, says the brouhaha over his actions is nothing more than election year theatrics.
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“It’s election season with everyone jockeying to make themselves look good,” he said. “I could care less about all that. I want to complete the task the best I can, that’s what the residents of this township expect of me.”
‘Done with Dan’
Russell said the trouble with Detkwoski has been going on since he became a member of the recreation commission. That’s when she began to contact township officials about removing him from the commission.
Russell said her research of the inter-local agreement binding Washington, Bruce Township and the Village of Romeo to the recreation commission states a member may be removed due to misfeasance, malfeasance or nonfeasance by a majority vote of each township board.
Commissioner Pam Gedert and Chair Bob Biluk, of Bruce Township listen to resident comments at a recent Romeo-Washington-Bruce Parks & Rec Commission meeting. (GEORGE NORKUS FOR THE MACOMB DAILY)
She has submitted video copies of commission meetings that she says demonstrates the “hostile environment” the trustee allegedly invokes, adding he repeatedly berates her for perceived shortcomings.
“I’m done with Dan,” Russell said. “I’ve never been treated more unprofessionally in my career. He has been continually degrading to myself and others.”
The two sides have been at odds over the parks & rec budget, payroll, master plan, resurfacing of the Community Center parking lot, and other day-to-day issues, as well as ones that extend beyond the recreation department.
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The Macomb Daily has reviewed videotapes of recent board meetings as well memos from recreation employees and letters from residents who have complained about Detkowski’s behavior:
For example, Bruce Township Supervisor Mike Fillbrook in 2022 sent an email to Bruce and Washington elected officials after receiving the initial complaint from Russell, the recreation director who labeled Detkowski’s “unacceptable” actions.
“These issues between Dan Detkowski and Parks and Rec have become personal, and his actions are creating a situation in which both Townships could possibly face legal action,” Fillbrook said in his letter. “Please give this request your upmost priority.”
Resident Marty Hutnick wrote about Detkowski’s incessant name-calling led to some female members to resign from the Macomb Optimist Club. He alleges Detkowski also harassed him at his house and place of business in Romeo, resulting in “slanderous” police reports being filed with the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office by the trustee.
In October of 2023, Parks and Recreation Commission member Phyllis Zimmerman broke down in tears as she resigned from the commission over what she said was hostile treatment by Detkowski. “I have never been so rudely treated by a narcissist and misogynistic manner by Mr. Detkowski,” she said.
Earlier this month, Tom Matthews — who once sought a seat on the parks panel — suggested Detkowski seek and receive professional psychological help. “I think we should attempt to suggest to (Detkowski) that he be evaluated and seek professional help to be a better person, then we all win,” Matthews said.
Detkowski: ‘We need to do better’
But Dekowski’s allies say township Supervisor Sebastian “Sam” Previti shares some of the blame for the political quandary.
At last Thursday’s Washington board meeting, Cindy Knight resigned as commission treasurer, saying Previti’s “slanderous” social media posts over the Detkowski matter were negatively impacting her real estate business.
“I really had high hopes for parks and rec,” she told the Washington Township Board of Trustees. “However, it is difficult to serve on a board where the supervisor thinks he is in charge and has authority over our employees, of the board, and money.”
Knight told the Washington board that Previti had claimed in social media posts that she failed to show up at a recent recreation committee meeting in order to hold up a possible vote on Detkowski. She said she was ill.
“Those all were huge lies” that Previti shared with Knight’s real estate clientele, friends, family and co-workers, she said.
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“It makes me look bad and extends to my clients,” said Knight in announcing her resignation.
Knight went on to say the township supervisor used “undue influence” in matters where he proposed to take $3.1 million out of the recreation budget for a new Washington Town Center and give parks and recreation a 99-year lease for the current township hall. As treasurer of the commission, Knight denied the fund had $3.1 million accrued.
Detkowski, an engineering estimator for the past 30 years, was elected in 2020 after serving on the Zoning Board of Appeals. According to his bio page on the township website, his qualifications include his problem solving, critical thinking, and logical reasoning in his business position.
He says Russell, the recreation director, hasn’t followed the master plan for recreation, adding his perceived brusqueness is simply a matter of him wanting to get right to the point of a topic.
He further states Rusell doesn’t respond to his question or requests for information about basic items, such as broken equipment.
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“We need to do better,” Detkowski said of the parks and recreation commission. “As a commission member, we are overseers, we ask the questions and we expect answers. When he don’t get the answers, we ask why.
“In any government entity, you should have full transparency. You should never be roadblocked, because it’s taxpayer money. At the end of the day, it’s not about me, it’s not about Clara, and I’m sorry if you think it is. It’s about doing the right thing.”
Detkowski, who says he hasn’t yet decided on running for another four-year term, also has yet to also decide on whether the parks interlocal agreement should somehow be dissolved.
Washington Township resident Tom Matthews address the Romeo-Washington-Bruce Parks & Rec Commission at a recent meeting. (GEORGE NORKUS FOR THE MACOMB DAILY)
“The events, sometimes I question the amount, but when I look at broken down equipment or no pieces, I have to ask where are we spending our money. What do get for our money. Let’s give our residents what they expect,” he said.
How Detkowski came to be appointed to recreation commission
Romeo, Washington and Bruce townships are part of a shared joint operating agreement they say provides amenities at reduced costs.
In 2022, Trustee Cindy Olsen made a motion to remove Greg Brynaert as the Washington Township representative to the Parks and Recreation Commission, as well as township Supervisor Previti, who was his alternate. After that motion passed 5-2, Olsen nominated Detkowski to be the new township representative with her as the alternate. That motion passed 6-1.
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The next year, Detkowski was the target of a recall effort that failed. Over 1,800 signatures were collected, but fell short of the 2,100 needed due to a 120-day notice.
Residents of three communities will vote this August on a 1-mill renewal to fund the recreation program. Three-quarters of a mill go to the recreation department, with the remainder financing the Star Transportation community transportation program.
Previti said the joint hearing on whether to remove the commission member will require both boards to vote in a majority of vacating his seat.
“It will be an open forum with both board listening simultaneously to residents, staff, and board members’ concerns on Dan Detkwoski’s alleged behavior so both boards can make a decision that night to vote to either remove him or let him remain,” Previti said.
The hearing on whether to remove Detkowski from the parks & recreation commission will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 7. Both boards of Bruce and Washington townships will hold the hearing at Washington Township Municipal Hall, 57900 Van Dyke Avenue in Washington Township.
Workers at the university’s Vancouver campus fear mass layoffs after the approval of a $6 million budget reduction this week.
Washington State University Vancouver will feel the brunt of the university system’s budget cuts. In this undated, provided photo a student sits on the grounds of the Southwest Washington campus.
Courtesy Washington State University Vancouver
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Faculty and staff at Washington State University’s Vancouver campus say they are on pins and needles, as they wait to hear who will be impacted by the university system’s budget cuts.
In May, WSU’s Board of Regents announced the university would need to trim nearly $12 million from its core operating funds to run a balanced budget next fiscal year. Washington’s public universities are required to operate a balanced budget by state law.
The institution’s Vancouver campus will feel the brunt of the reductions soon. It was given a mandate to slash 15% from its budget. At just over $6 million in cuts, that’s close to half of the targeted cuts for the entire university system, which includes five campuses across Washington.
Amid Portland State budget cuts, a new plan for growth emerges
University leaders approved cuts to Vancouver’s budget on Wednesday. WSU spokesperson Brenda Alling said the university will not be releasing details of the plan.
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“What seems really problematic is this exceptional requirement that Vancouver get a significantly higher cut than any other campus in the whole state,” said WSUV Liberal Arts and History professor Sue Peabody.
Peabody is a tenured professor who has been teaching at the satellite campus since 1996. She said WSUV has weathered cuts in the past, including a 10% budget reduction just last year, but it has so far avoided layoffs.
“This time [WSU] is asking for very, very deep cuts that can only be met with personnel,” Peabody said. “There’s no other way to meet the 15% than eliminating employees.”
WSU is Washington’s land-grant university and it’s the second largest public university system in the state, with more than 25,000 students enrolled in 2025. The Vancouver campus is the institution’s second largest physical campus, enrolling close to 2,700 students.
Amid warnings of future cuts, University of Oregon trustees approve next year’s budget
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WSU is facing a multitude of financial headwinds, as are colleges and universities in Oregon and across the nation.
Washington State’s budget woes are primarily driven by decreasing state funds, anticipated losses in federal research grants, declining student enrollment and increasing personnel costs.
At a packed town hall-style meeting on Monday, university administrators acknowledged that the impending cuts are causing stress among the campus community.
“This is a time of incredibly high anxiety for us all,” Sandra Haynes, WSU executive vice president for statewide campuses, said at the June 15 meeting. “It’s hard not knowing what our futures will be. It’s hard not knowing how we’re going to take these cuts.”
In this provided photo Washington State University Vancouver faculty and staff filled a budget town hall hosted by university administrators on Monday, June 15, 2026.
Susan Lavender
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Administrators also attempted to clear up why the Vancouver campus is taking a disproportionate cut compared to the university’s other campuses and colleges.
According to Damien Sinnott, WSU senior vice president for finance and operations, Vancouver’s 15% cut reflects an effort to align per-student state funding across the WSU system.
“When you look at the Vancouver, Tri-Cities and Everett campuses, Vancouver receives substantially more state funding per student — about $2,500 more per student,” Sinnott explained to faculty last week. “So I think the board used that metric as a sign that Vancouver could withstand a larger budget reduction.”
Linfield University considers controversial program cuts to close budget deficit
Both Sinnott and Haynes said the approved budget cuts seek to minimize impacts to students, jobs and research at the campus. They said they would not be adopting a “do more with less” attitude in the coming fiscal year.
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But those statements are doing little to calm the frustration and fears that some faculty and staff are feeling over the mandated reductions.
“Those cuts will be felt by the students. Those cuts will diminish the quality of instruction at WSU Vancouver,” said WSU English professor Desiree Hellegers. “What we’re really seeing is a divestment from Southwest Washington.”
Hellegers has taught at the Vancouver campus for 33 years. She plans to retire this fall, partly to help shield some of her colleagues from layoffs.
“I know there’s a lot of young professors who may be on the chopping block,” Hellegers said. “To me, it’s kind of a question of, ‘What are administrators willing to sacrifice, themselves, in order to avert the worst of the damage?’”
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My grandmother met Harold Washington once. I was young when she told me the story, so I don’t remember every detail. What I remember is what she kept: a mug he gave her, which she held onto until the day she died.
I grew up on South Shore Drive, sold the Sun-Times for a quarter at a paper stand at 75th and Stony Island, right in front of the KFC, and graduated from Hyde Park Academy. I did not know then that I would spend my career studying the civil rights terrain Washington had walked. But I understood, even as a child, what it meant that he was there.
I am thinking about him now.
Harold Washington served barely two terms in Congress before becoming Chicago’s first Black mayor in 1983. In that brief time on Capitol Hill, he did something that does not get remembered often enough. From the House Judiciary Committee in 1982, he helped lead the extension of key sections of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, including protections requiring jurisdictions with documented histories of racial discrimination to obtain federal approval before changing their voting rules.
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The Congressional Black Caucus chose Washington to manage that bill on the House floor, where he spent seven weeks in hearings fighting to keep the enforcement mechanisms that protected Black voters from states that would prefer to be rid of them.
He won that fight.
Now, more than four decades later, we are fighting it again.
I am recalling Mayor Washington because of the efforts by President Donald Trump and many Republicans to pass the SAVE America Act, a proposed federal election law that would make it much tougher for many citizens to vote and is currently stalled in the U.S. Senate.
States curtail voting rights
Republican governors in Florida, Mississippi, Utah and South Dakota have already signed bills requiring documentary proof of citizenship for voter registration or citizenship checks, with similar legislation passed in Tennessee. Five states, Arizona, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming, will have show-your-papers requirements in place for the 2026 midterms.
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In New Hampshire, the law has already produced its intended effect: In 2025 town elections, married women who did not have their marriage license on hand could not register, with at least one woman required to come back three times.
The infrastructure of exclusion does not require a federal law to take effect. It requires the threat of one, and the states that were waiting have already moved.
Washington would have recognized this immediately. The Voting Rights Act extension he managed in 1982 was not a symbolic gesture. It was a structural intervention, closing the door on states that wanted to escape accountability for their documented histories of discrimination.
The SAVE Act opens that door again, not with a return to literacy tests or poll taxes as such, but with a documentary requirement that functions identically: neutral on its face, devastating in its application and concentrated in its harm on the communities Washington spent his life trying to bring into the democratic process.
Washington’s 1983 mayoral campaign brought together Black voters on the South and West sides, Latino voters long excluded from the machine’s benefits and progressive white voters who believed Chicago could be something other than what it had always been.
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His campaign was powered by a voter registration drive that added nearly 100,000 new voters to the rolls before the primary. He understood, instinctively and strategically, that expanding access to the ballot was not a prelude to political power. It was political power.
The SAVE Act would dismantle the registration infrastructure Black and Brown turnout campaigns depend on. Only 6% of voters register in person at an elections office. Washington’s coalition was built on the other 94%.
What Washington’s record demands of us
Washington deserves a reckoning, not a commemoration. He knew that formal equality was not enough, that the machinery of democratic participation had to be actively maintained against those who would narrow the circle.
His mug sat on my grandmother’s shelf for decades. She was not a politician. She was a Black woman on the South Side of Chicago who met a man running for mayor and felt, maybe for the first time, that he was talking to her. He gave her a mug. She kept it her whole life.
That is what is at stake. Not abstractions. People. The kind of people who keep a mug for decades because a politician made them feel like they mattered.
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Harold Washington fought this battle once, from the Judiciary Committee floor, in seven weeks of hearings most people have forgotten. We are fighting it again, this time against a bill that would quietly push millions back out of the process, with six states already implementing versions of it before Congress even acts. The least we can do is remember who showed us how.
Donathan L. Brown, Ph.D., is an associate professor at Northeastern University, a former U.S. Fulbright professor, and the author of five books on civil rights and voting rights. A native of the South Side, he graduated from Hyde Park Academy.
Washington state is currently experiencing an early-season flare-up of wildfire activity, particularly in the southeastern and central parts of the state, as well as the Upriver Fire, a fast-moving incident East of Spokane.
A combination of an ongoing statewide drought emergency and critical fire weather—including a strong, dry cold front with high wind gusts—has caused several fires to grow rapidly over the last few days.
The most significant other current active blazes include:
Omak Lake Road Fire: Things are moving fast up there right now. As of this afternoon (Wednesday, June 17), the Omak Lake Road Fire has officially merged with the nearby Kartar Fire, creating a massive blaze that has already burned roughly 6,500 acres on Colville Reservation land. Tule Fire (Yakima Region): Ignited on June 14 south of Toppenish, this is currently the largest wildfire in the state, having ballooned to approximately 20,665 acres with 0% containment. It is burning primarily in dry grass and brush and has been producing a massive smoke plume that is impacting air quality throughout the Columbia River Gorge. Juniper Dunes Fire (Franklin County): This fire has burned over 10,577 acres and is 10% contained. It has pushed into the challenging, roadless terrain of the Juniper Dunes Wilderness area, making ground access difficult for crews. A Red Flag Warning remains in effect across much of Eastern Washington due to sustained high winds and low relative humidity, meaning any ongoing fires face an extreme risk of rapid spread, and new starts can ignite easily.
Is smoke from around the state forecasted to arrive in NCW?
Right now, North Central Washington is in the clear. The active wildfire smoke is staying well away from the Wenatchee Valley and surrounding areas, and local air quality remains firmly in the “Good” category. The main reason for this breaks down to wind direction and fire locations: Westerly Winds are Our Friend: Strong winds blowing from the west across the Cascades are actively dispersing air over NCW and pushing regional smoke eastward.
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Where the Smoke is Heading Instead:
South: Earlier this week, massive plumes from the Tule Fire down in Yakima drifted west/southwest into the Columbia River Gorge and Portland-Vancouver metro. East: With the current wind shift, smoke from the large fires in the Columbia Basin (like Tule and Juniper Dunes) is now being carried east toward the Tri-Cities, Walla Walla, and the Palouse. North/Northeast: Up north, the Kartar and Omak Lake fires east of Omak are causing localized downwind smoke impacts, but the smoke is drifting east toward Nespelem and the Coulee Dam rather than dropping south into Chelan or Douglas counties. Because these breezy, dry conditions are expected to persist through the rest of the week, weather and air quality officials note that intermittent smoke impacts will mostly be a concern for communities situated directly downwind (east) of the active blazes.
Wildfire smoke (on file via Canva)Wildfire smoke (on file via Canva)
Where can I look online to see where wildfire smoke is coming from?
A few years ago, I discovered a Canadian website that not only shows you where wildfire smoke is coming from, but also how the smoke forecast will affect you in the coming days. It comes from the BC Wildfire Service. Click on this helpful wildfire smoke map and bookmark it. A couple of things to know about this BC Wildfire Service website. 1) When you first find the smoke map, select the Smoke Forecast button.
The map will come to life, showing where current wind conditions are directing wildfire smoke and where it is forecast to travel in the coming days. 2) Since it’s a service of the BC Wildfire Service, it doesn’t provide any information on fires here in the US, but it does show where smoke is forecast to come from any wildfires north and south of the border.
Where can I find updated information about wildfires in Washington?
The Watch Duty app for any device. The Washington DNR fire dashboard is active throughout the fire season and shows up-to-date information on wildfires affecting Washington state. View a full-screen version of the DNR fire dashboard with this link.
Oregon Coast Getaway Photos
Oregon Coast Getaway Photos
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Gallery Credit: KEVIN MILLER
LOOK: These Photos Show Why ’70s Cars Were Something Special (and Obviously Better)
Big, bold, and built different — these ’70s cars looked and felt like nothing on the road today. Take a ride back and see them in their prime. [And we did our best to identify the models and dates, so if we got it wrong, gearheads, don’t come after us!]
