I can’t figure out whether Mel Paunovich is the most honest politician in Livingston County history or the most dishonest.
Paunovich recently announced that he was running for the Livingston County Board of Commissioners this year in the 7th District (Brighton Township), for the seat currently held by Republican Martin Smith.
Paunovich is also running as a Republican, which is interesting, because back when he served as Brighton Township supervisor from 1990 to 1992, he was elected as a Democrat. If you’re thinking – “What the hell? A Democrat was elected to something in Brighton Township back in 1990?” – well, I’m about to tell you a story about the most comically dysfunctional era in Livingston County political history.
But first, we have to talk about Mel Paunovich, who was indeed elected Brighton Township supervisor as a Democrat back in 1990. Because here’s the story: 34 years after he was elected supervisor in a special election, he’s finally coming clean about something:
He was never actually a Democrat. He only pretended to be a Democrat because the Democrats offered to fund his campaign. And we’re just now finding out about it 34 years later.
And I can’t figure out if he’s Livingston County’s most honest politician because he’s admitting that now. Or if he’s one of Livingston County’s most dishonest politicians because 34 years ago, he was willing to pretend he was a Democrat just to get some campaign cash.
So while we ponder all that, pull up a chair and let me tell you a story about the Most Gloriously Awful Era in Brighton Township Political History. It began in the early 1980s and continued through the early 1990s, when the board finally became competent and boring.
In the 1980s, though, the Brighton Township Board was as colorful and dysfunctional as any municipal body we’ve ever seen, which is saying a lot.
At the center of the action in the early 1980s were the Two Dorothys – Clerk Dorothy Palarchio and Trustee Dorothy Hoskins. They were bold and brash and they hated each other. Dottie Palarchio wore bold outfits and said whatever was on her mind at all times. Dottie Hoskins was a chain smoker who came into the Brighton Argus office several times a week to argue with a fellow chain smoker who was the editor at the time, Rolly Peterson.
Every single meeting of the Brighton Township Board back then featured loud and animated arguments between the Two Dorothys.
Things came to a head in October of 1980 when Dottie Palarchio announced at a meeting that she was resigning. Dottie Hoskins and the rest of the board had gotten mad at her for messing up the meeting minutes and hiring her son as deputy clerk to help with some typing and filing, and following yet another argument at a township board meeting, Dottie Palarchio said, “I’ve had enough from everyone on this board. I am walking out – something I should have done months ago.”
Now, if you’re thinking that was the last we’d hear of Dottie Palarchio, well, just stick around. You won’t be disappointed.
Over at the Brighton Argus, Rolly Peterson was promoted to managing editor and then Rich Perlberg took over as editor. A few years later, in 1986, Rich left for another job and I got promoted to Brighton Argus editor. I was all of 25 years old and it was now my great honor to be overseeing all coverage of the Brighton Township Board. These people were my problem now.
In 1984, Dottie Palarchio decided she wanted back on the board, so she ran for a trustee spot and won. Dottie Hoskins decided to run for supervisor, but she lost to the venerable John Rogers in the Republican primary. (This was Mike Rogers’ dad, Joyce Rogers’ husband, etc.)
Also winning a trustee spot on the board was a guy named Jim Dwyer. More on him in a minute. You’re going to really enjoy Jim Dwyer.
So the 1984-88 Brighton Township Board featured John Rogers as supervisor, Dottie Palarchio and Jim Dwyer as trustees, and a few other people who weren’t quite as interesting. Dottie Hoskins was gone by now, but she still stopped by the Brighton Argus office from time to time to smoke some cigarettes and give me a piece of her mind.
Everyone in office back then was a Republican, mind you. There were no Democrats who ran for anything on the Brighton Township Board back then.
Fast-forward now to the election of 1988. Once again, no Democrats ran for anything, but lots of Republicans did.
Dottie Palarchio decided she wanted to be supervisor, so she ran against John Rogers and WON. That was a big deal and a pretty big upset and by winning the election, she became the first woman to be elected township supervisor in Livingston County history. Alas, as you’re about to find out, it didn’t last long.
Among the people elected as trustees were Jim Dwyer once again and a guy named Ray Kendrick, who became the first African-American ever elected to anything in Livingston County. And again – alas – it didn’t last long.
From the moment this new board took office, all hell broke loose – and Jim Dwyer was at the center of most of it. He argued with Ray Kendrick about anything and everything, including the fact that Kendrick was bringing a gun to meetings on a regular basis. (Kendrick explained this away by saying he carried large sums of cash with him at work and he came directly from work to board meetings.)
When Dwyer wasn’t arguing with Ray Kendrick, he was arguing with Dottie Palarchio. At one point, when Dottie tried to gavel him down at a meeting, Dwyer told her to “stick your gavel where the sun don’t shine.” Dwyer swore and used highly inappropriate language at pretty much every meeting. He was a delight.
And so on and so on. Every single week, the Brighton Argus was filled with glorious tales of their escapades.
By late 1989, the residents of Brighton Township had gotten so fed up that they decided to try and recall the entire board. They took out recall petitions against all seven board members and in early 1990, the recall went to the voters. It’s the only time I can remember that an entire board was up for recall.
When the votes were counted, four of the seven were broomed from office. Dwyer and Palarchio were overwhelmingly recalled, while Clerk Mary Britten and Ray Kendrick also lost. The other three barely survived: Treasurer Margaret Wenzel and trustees Jim Kovitz and C. Gus Mitsopoulos.
Now, because the board only had three members and they needed four for a quorum, Gov. Jim Blanchard was asked to temporarily appoint a supervisor so that they could conduct business.
So naturally, the Democrat Blanchard appointed a Democrat – a guy named Patrick Blake. Kovitz, who was a VERY staunch Republican, did not like this, so he responded by not attending a single meeting when Blake was supervisor, thus denying him the quorum. Blake (a really nice guy, by the way) was the Brighton Township supervisor for all of one month, and never got to preside over a single meeting.
And this is the point in the story where we meet Mel Paunovich.
A special election had to be held on March of 1990 to fill the four seats that had been recalled: supervisor, clerk and two true spots.
To the surprise of EVERYONE, the Democrats actually fielded candidates for all four of those seats. Among them was a Democrat named Mel Paunovich, a local attorney and former police detective. He’d been on the ballot before, running for Michigan Supreme Court in 1986 (finishing well back of the winners) and Livingston County District Court in 1988 (finishing fourth out of four candidates).
This is how Paunovich introduced himself to the voters on the pages of the Brighton Argus and Livingston County Press in the days leading up to the March 1990 special election:
Now, does that sound like someone who was only pretending to be a Democrat?
Well, the special election came and to everyone’s surprise, the voters in staunchly Republican Brighton Township elected not just one Democrat, but TWO.
Paunovich, the fake Democrat, defeated Republican Robert Tompkins, 794 to 715. Nancy Rosso, a real Democrat, won a trustee spot. The other two spots went to Republicans.
As I said, it was an enormous shock to everyone in Livingston County that two Democrats had been elected in ruby-red Brighton Township, and there were a lot of factors at play as to why that happened. The weather was really bad on Election Day and turnout was extremely low, but the main reason the Democrats won is that the local Democratic Party worked their butts off on behalf of their candidates. They raised money and knocked on doors and were relentless. They figured the voters of Brighton Township were fed up with the dysfunction that an all-Republican board had been giving them, so maybe they’d consider voting for a Democrat.
And they were right. They got two Democrats elected – even if one of them, as we found out 34 years later, wasn’t really a Democrat.
And you’ll never guess who the leader of this was – the real Democrat who was in charge of all this.
It was Mike Hatty – the same Mike Hatty who recently retired as one of the best judges we’ve ever had. Mike was the chair of the Brighton Township Democratic Party in 1990, and he was understandably elated that two of his people had won:
So Mel Paunovich served two-plus years as the Brighton Township supervisor and while he did a good job at first restoring some dignity to the township board, it eventually all went to hell by the time 1992 rolled around. The Republicans on the board went to war with Paunovich, calling on him to resign over some assessment issues. Paunovich responded by asking the Michigan State Police to look into possible “corruption” in the township but never actually spelled out what that corruption was. It was all once again a mess.
Paunovich didn’t run for re-election in 1992. Nancy Rosso did, but she got trounced in the general election, so the era of Elected Democrats in Brighton Township came to an end. No Democrat has come close to winning an election in Brighton Township since then.
Which brings us to 2024 and the election for the Livingston County Board of Commissioners. When Mel Paunovich sent out the announcement last week that he would be running as a Republican, Maria Stuart of The Livingston Post called him and rightly asked, “Why are you running as a Republican in 2024 when you were elected as a Democrat in 1990?”
And that’s when Mel spilled the beans that he’d been holding for 34 years. He was never a Democrat after all.
This is how Maria reported it in the story:
“I got a call from the Livingston County Republicans (in 1990),” Paunovich said. “They were asking if I would run for Brighton Township supervisor as a Republican.”
Paunovich told the local GOP that he’d think about it.
“Five minutes later, the Democrats called, asking me to run,” Paunovich said. “And they said they’d fund my campaign 100 percent, so I called the GOP back, but they said they couldn’t fund me.”
And so, Paunovich ran as a Democrat — and won.
“But I was totally an independent,” he said, “but if someone’s going to fund the campaign …”
Paunovich decided to not seek re-election in 1992.
Today, Paunovich said he is a Republican “all the way.”
So that’s why I ask the question: Is Mel Paunovich the most honest or the most dishonest politician in Livingston County history? Honest for telling the truth now, or dishonest for pretending to be something he wasn’t back in 1990?
I have to admit that I was flabbergasted when I saw what Paunovich had said. He could have just said something like, “Well, I was a Democrat back then and I’m a Republican now. People change.”
But no. He told the truth. The Democrats offered him more money in 1990, so that’s why he said he was a Democrat.
And I’ll have to admit, he is likely the one and only person in Livingston County history who has lied and said he was a DEMOCRAT to run for office here.
Because this is a ruby-red county, people who are not Republicans lie all the time – and I mean, ALL THE TIME – to say they’re a Republican to run for office here. They know they’d never win as a Democrat, so they lie and say they’re a Republican. We have a township clerk here who is elected every four years as a Republican even though she is most certainly not a Republican. We’ve had people run for state representative as a Republican when they’re definitely not a Republican.
But Mel Paunovich has to be the only person in Livingston County history who lied and said he’s a Democrat when he wasn’t.
And if I were Mike Hatty or any other Democrat in Livingston County, I’m not sure how I’d feel about that. “What the hell, dude? You took our money and you weren’t even one of us?” All that pride they felt in 1990 has to feel a little empty now. But hey, at least they still had Nancy Rosso.
So anyway, Mel Paunovich is running for county commissioner now, and I guess we can assume he’s telling the truth when he says he’s a Republican. We don’t know yet if incumbent Martin Smith will be running against him in the GOP primary, but it’s going to be an interesting election either way.
And we can also assume that nobody will be sticking their gavel where the sun don’t shine.
