Detroit Free Press pays littering fines

Federal case against Orion Twp. continues

 

By Jim Newell
Review Staff Writer
The attorney for the Detroit Free Press paid two $800 littering fines in district court on Thursday, but that does not end the fight, and the federal case and the $5 million lawsuit against Orion Twp. will continue.
Herschel Fink, attorney for the Free Press, submitted the personal checks in the 52nd District Court in Rochester Hills Sept. 22.
“The Free Press admitted responsibility to littering and paid two $800 fines to Orion Twp. That’s a fact,” said Orion Twp. Supervisor Chris Barnett. “Herschel Fink handed to our attorney two $800 personal checks to pay for the tickets, and he signed the back of the tickets admitting responsibility.”
However, in an interview with The Lake Orion Review, Fink said rather than fight the littering fines, he paid the tickets to remove that issue and focus on the first amendment case.
“We removed the technical block that the township argued. Now the federal case continues,” Fink said. “Our position is that it violates our constitutional rights. We are continuing, there’s no question about it.”
At issue is the Free Press weekly publication Select, a mix of editorial content, advertising and coupons, that arrives in a plastic bag along driveways on a weekly basis and is delivered free of charge to households, including about 2,500 homes in Orion Township since 2012.
Barnett said he’s received hundreds of complaints from residents who don’t want Select delivered to their homes, and that the Free Press opt-out option isn’t working.
“I literally spend dozens and dozens of hours, mostly in the wintertime, dealing with residents’ concerns,” Barnett said. “People don’t want them (the Select).”
Barnett said residents’ concerns are that they go on vacation, the paper piles up in the driveway and it says to thieves, “Hey, come take a look at my house if you’re up to no good.”
He also said that residents have complained about the paper ruining snowblowers when the papers become buried in the snow, and that the papers pile up in driveways, blow into streams and lakes and are a general nuisance.
“So we sent them a warning letter saying please stop delivering to the people who don’t want them, we never said don’t deliver at all in Orion, and that’s what they’re trying to make this case now … that we’re violating their first amendment rights,” Barnett said.
The township warned the Free Press in a letter February 4 that the “leaving of unrequested and undesired newspapers and/or flyers circulated by your company” would result in the township fining the newspaper for littering.
The township issued two littering tickets on April 20 and May 26.
Fink has admitted in the past that the opt-out system has its issues.
“It’s not a perfect system, and I believe that we could probably do better and are trying,” he said to The Lake Orion Review in May. “But the law is we don’t have to ask permission. We do [ask permission] because we want people to desire this.”
Fink filed the civil rights lawsuit in federal court May 12 after the Free Press received two $800 littering fines from Orion Township.
“The law is very clear: the state district court cannot declare a law, an ordinance, to be unconstitutional,” Fink said. “The question for the federal court is: Is the ordinance itself constitutional, with leaving it at someone’s house without their permission?”
“What I feel like is happening is that the argument is shifting from what it originally was to now, and I feel like they’re trying to bully us,” Barnett said. “And we can’t simply just say, “Okay, well, we’ll stop this thing because we are the ones that are the defendants, they sued us, not the other way around.”
Fink said the Free Press’ position is that dropping its newspapers off at someone’s house is the “same as if someone wants to leave campaign literature at your house without your permission…this has broad implications. The application of littering ordinances to constitutional rights is everyone’s battle.”
“So, it’s going to probably last a long time, and it’s going to cost a lot of money,” Barnett said.
“Personally, I think that’s unfortunate. But at the end of the day we have had people reach out to us literally from Downriver to Lansing to Lapeer on this issue, saying “we’ve been fighting this, we’ve been having our city hall trying to help us, our village council, our township board, we’ve had other attorneys from local municipalities, other mayors, other colleagues of mine saying we get these same complaints, saying please don’t give up this fight, this is intriguing to all of us, how this is going to play out,” Barnett said.
Barnett said the free press offered previously to come to terms, but the township refused.
“Two months ago their offer to us was to pay them $48, 000 in legal fees and essentially write an apology saying we were wrong and we’ll drop this case,” he said.
“Well, that’s an absolute waste of taxpayer dollars,” Barnett said. “I don’t think we’re wrong, so we said ‘no thank you,’ which took us to this court date.”
When asked if Orion will seek reimbursement for its attorney fees, Barnett said that’s a decision the township board will have to make as a whole.
“I would say, personally, absolutely, unequivocally, yes,” Barnett said, adding that if Orion Twp. wins in court, “they should pay our attorney fees. It shouldn’t cost our taxpayers money. We don’t have a choice but to defend ourselves at this point.”
Fink, however, has said that the township’s ordinance is unconstitutional as applied.
“Government has no business drawing those lines, that’s what this case is about,” Fink said. “You can’t make ad-hoc decisions that one type of speech is protected and one isn’t.”
“This is a fight for freedom of speech, freedom of expression,” Fink said.
For now, the township has stopped citing the Free Press for delivering its publication to residents who do not want it.
“Our board actually passed a resolution saying that until this gets resolved in court we won’t issue anymore tickets. Kind of like a gentlemen’s agreement,” Barnett said.

11 responses to “Detroit Free Press pays littering fines”

  1. I contacted Julia Stevenson, Director of Consumer Solutions (jstevenson@michigan.com), filed a BBB complaint and will be filing a complaint with the Attorney General. I also plan to continue to email and call Julia if deliveries continue. Once I have her direct line, I will post here, so that others can follow up with Julia to ensure that Michigan.com / Free Press honors the opt-out of this BS garbage. So F-ing annoying!

  2. Just got a delivery today, even though I opted out.

    “…we don’t need consent” – Fink
    These jerks ignore your requests so they can continue getting their meager revenue dollars from advertisers.

    Print is dying, I just wish it were sooner.

  3. I suggest everyone start their own “first amendment news paper” and publish it on 1000lb rocks, that they drop off in Fink’s driveway, and everyone with a title at the Free Press’s driveways too.
    We don’t HAVE to let them opt out, didn’t he just say that?
    I think I’m going to publish a daily 1000lb paper called “The RockHead Press”..
    At least my paper won’t clog up the sewer system, or suffocate children or pets..

  4. I am from Independence township, but have been having this issue for over a year. Last year it clogged my snowblower, but I was never able to get the paper to respond to me via email.

  5. Just like a failing newspaper to make a big deal out of a simple request: stop delivering what we don’t want. I tried using the opt-out system a number of times, called and emailed the person in-charge and the trash kept coming. How interesting is it that now that we issued them a littering fine, I finally no longer get a free dose of trash every week and I don’t see them blowing around. As far as their comment about their “noble” attempts to protect election campaign materials being dropped off without request, I don’t have that problem with election materials. I have never received election propaganda without request on my door or otherwise. Those come through the mail and have paid postage on them. Supporters do come to the door but any unwanted information is simply not taken and it is definitely not left.

  6. This is what I love about our township supervisor. He listens to his community and follows through with action. This may seem like a small issue but to many he represents, including my family, it has become a nuisance that can no longer be tolerated. Punch the bully in the mouth; that’s how they go away. Well done, Chris.

  7. I have called the Free Press at least a dozen times to “opt out” and guess what…3 weeks ago I was in my driveway as I saw the delivery person approaching my house. She yelled out the window “DON’T WORRY, I’M NOT GOING TO GIVE YOU ONE YOU ARE STILL ON MY LIST”. this last week they started delivering it again. They are throwing trash in my yard and apparently I have no recourse. There is only one thing that could be thrown into my yard that I would not consider trash, and that would be MONEY. Will the Township please write a littering ticket on my behalf? Consider it a “gentleman’s agreement” to protect the property rights of Township property owners.

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