WAYNE COUNTY -You may have read or heard some nasty things about the Wayne County Commission recently. Most of it is greatly exaggerated, distorted or entirely untrue.

Inaccuracies in a few Detroit News opinion columns were repeated and reported as if they were fact. The editorials stoked the fire, which got the attention of TV and radio news, which helped it spread to social media, and suddenly, it started to catch fire.   

It was the most misunderstood and misreported story in town at that moment. 

There are two truths about news reporting. One, information is sometimes inaccurate and, more often, incomplete; it is difficult to boil down details of some issues within the space and time limitations for each news report. Two, people largely believe what they read, especially if it makes them angry (I don’t fully understand this phenomenon), and once they have a negative impression, even if it’s based on information they don’t know is inaccurate, the impression sticks.

Here’s an example of the latter. Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, on one of those local Sunday morning news-talk shows, said some people like Donald Trump because they’re fed up with government. Fair enough, but then to make his point, he adds, “Even locally, the Wayne County Commission, they just gave themselves a big raise when everyone else is cutting back.”

That could be something to be fed up about, except for that it isn’t true. Like, not even a little. County elected officials’ pay, which is set by ordinance (as opposed to “voting themselves raises”), was last increased 14 years ago. In fact, all that’s happened with commissioners’ pay in the last 14 years is that it was reduced by 10 percent in 2009.

So, Patterson read or heard something negative about the Commission, translated what he read into something that was totally unrelated and pure fiction, and said it on TV, where people heard it, would have no reason to not to believe it, and the negative impression is spread.

It’s pretty frustrating, but it’s also part of the business of politics and government.  It’s my job to push back against the negative, inaccurate reports with facts and explanation. Otherwise, if all people hear or read is half the story, they’ll have no choice but to believe it, in the absence of anyone telling them otherwise.

There are two main chapters to the story that has sputtered along the past few weeks.

First, it was said that the Wayne County Commission had enriched itself at the expense of workers, by “voting itself lifetime health care after ending health care for retirees.”

Many county retirees who had been receiving health care benefits have been switched to a program that pays them monthly stipends to put toward insurance they buy on their own. Current county employees are no longer eligible for retirement health care, though some may still qualify for the stipend program.

Let’s be clear: The Wayne County Commission did not end health care for retirees. In fact, the most astounding thing about this very effective orchestration of ill will was that the Commission became the villain to some retirees who lost health care, when it was the County Executive and his administration who targeted that health care, and who used collective bargaining agreements and a lawsuit settlement to end it.

The Commission did not have a role in negotiating those agreements. And the standard, legally required votes we take on contracts and settlements are not an endorsement of the terms, but a recognition that the two sides have reached agreement, and have requested our approval. That’s what happened in these instances. 

And, just as commissioners did not end retiree health care, neither have we voted ourselves lifetime health benefits.

The benefit that caused all the fuss was one that offered post-employment health care to county employees who held specific elected or appointed positions for a certain period of time. It did, at one time, include all county elected officials. Note the phrase, “did, at one time.” 

Despite the attempts to portray it as something more than it is, this benefit is not something we just now created for ourselves. It was created more than 20 years ago, and is a benefit that the Commission actually ended four years ago, by a resolution I introduced, for anyone coming to the county after October 2011. 

Most of the current members of the Wayne County Commission either do not qualify for the benefit, or will never use it because they have health care from other sources. The notion that the Commission voted a benefit for itself is simply not true.

What the Commission did to this benefit – which the administration did not have any legal basis to revoke on its own — was to say the small, closed-off and shrinking group, less than 100, who were legally entitled to it would still get it, but at a lower level than they had been — the same as the 1,100 or so retirees who still receive the same health care as existing employees, because it was contained in their union contracts when they retired in the last eight years.

That’s way different than the Commission voting itself lifetime health care.

Now, briefly, the second chapter to the story. After the initial attack, an editorial writer decided to keep stirring anger toward the Commission by talking about commissioner compensation and workload. It’s an old, cheap trick, claiming the Commission is a part-time job because of its meeting schedule, as if the number of meetings are the sum total of our work. Commission meetings are just a small measure of the work that commissioners perform.

Let’s be clear about this, too. The county charter does not define the Commission as part time, nor does it describe the County Executive, Sheriff or Prosecutor as full time. We are all elected to perform the duties of our respective jobs.

I don’t argue for a moment that members of the Commission in Wayne County, the largest county in the state, aren’t well compensated. But the impression given in some reports is that commissioners’ pay keeps going up and up.  Here are the facts: The Commission’s pay is less than half of the County Executive’s. And, as I noted earlier, the last time commissioners’ pay was increased was 14 years ago, and it was cut by 10 percent five years ago.  

I’m certainly not complaining, I’m just pointing out that commissioners have not been enriching themselves at anyone’s expense. 

Presenting an accurate picture of all of this, in the wake of waves of misinformation, hasn’t been easy, but it is getting some notice. The Wayne County Labor Coalition sent the Commission a scathing letter Dec. 2 expressing they were “deeply disappointed in your decision to reward yourself at our expense.” The very next day, upon getting the facts, the Coalition withdrew the letter with an apology, and a statement that, “Your report this morning was very creditable and honest.” 

Even after this explanation, some people still might have concerns, and will undoubtedly communicate those with us. I respect and encourage that. But, hopefully those concerns will not be based on untrue statement and distorted impressions that resulted from inaccurate reporting in some opinion columns.    

Gary Woronchak represents Dearborn and Allen Park on the Wayne County Commission, and is a former newspaper editor and state legislator. He can be contacted at gworonch@waynecounty.com