Guest Blogger: Commissioner Penelope Tsernoglou

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! This week, I will once again turn to a guest blogger to report on county adtivities. So...today I introduce you to Commissioner Penelope Tsernoglou of East Lansing, our newest Commissioner who won election last year in a special election. Thanks for blogging this week, Penelope!
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First, I’d like to congratulate our new Board Chair, Mark Grebner, and Vice-Chair, Deb Nolan. Brian McGrain and Carol Koenig will continue as caucus chair and treasurer. Congrats to our new committee chairs Andy Schor (Finance), Todd Tennis (Human Services), Vic Celentino (Law Enforcement), Deb DeLeon (County Services) and Rebecca Bahar-Cook (Judiciary), as well as our appointees to the Women’s Commission, Economic Development Corporation (Congrats Chong-Anna Canfora and Kristin Bellar!!), and various other Board’s and Commissions.

I’d like to take a minute to introduce myself. I am the newest County Commissioner to the Board. I was elected in May of this year in a special election after long-time Commissioner Marc Thomas resigned his post. I represent the part of East Lansing between Coolidge Road and Abbot Road, which includes part of MSU’s campus. The committees I serve on this year are Law Enforcement and Judiciary, both of which are perfect for me considering my background as a public defense attorney for Ingham County, as well as a domestic violence victim’s advocate working out of the Sheriff’s Office, and a long time animal control volunteer. I was also appointed to serve on the Ingham County Women’s Commission and Tri-County Aging Consortium. In 2011, I look forward to serving as the vice-chair of Finance, continuing to serve on Judiciary and the Women’s Commission, as well as becoming acquainted with the Park’s Board.

While we had several important issues come before the Board this week, including allocation of transition money to the townships (we agreed on an amount and will be making it available for transition provided that Williamston contracts with the Sheriff’s Office), a pollution control ordinance (sent back to committee), and our continued participation and membership dues to LEAP (also tabled), the issue I have been contacted about the most recently is actually a City of East Lansing zoning issue, but can certainly have an impact on the County as well. A few weeks ago our Health Department Director expressed an interest to us in the vacant Blue Cross/Blue Shield building and property located at the corner of Lake Lansing and Coolidge Road. Our interest is in establishing a federally qualified health center with a priority focus on geriatric services. The establishment of such a facility would likely increase our competitiveness for additional dollars in the form of access point grants from the federal Health Resources and Services Administration. We would expect to make use of the existing structures, which appear to be suitable. The site is extremely well served by public transit, with five regular routes converging nearby. With medical buildings just to the South of the location, we believe this would be a positive addition to our East Lansing community and a perfect fit for the property. It is also consistent with current zoning and East Lansing’s master plan. While this is still in the idea phase, and not a formal proposal, I believe it is certainly worth consideration as a viable option. On December 7th, the City Council will consider a proposal for re-zoning from a developer who would like to purchase the property, tear down the existing structures, and build a CVS pharmacy. A majority of my constituents are strongly opposed to this plan as they believe it is inconsistent with our master plan, and will increase traffic accidents and backups. I am inclined to agree with their position and will continue to follow the issue until a final decision is made.

Thanks to Commissioner Schor for providing me the opportunity to guest blog this week and Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Penelope Ann Tsernoglou
Ingham County Commissioner- District 8 (East Lansing)

LEAP, Police Services for Williamstown, Hawk Island Tubing Hill

In County Services and Finance, we considered funding for LEAP, Inc. (Lansing Economic Area Partnership), the regional private-public economic development organization for the greater Lansing area (Eaton, Clinton, Ingham counties). We considered a resolution for funding of $35,000 for the 2010 year. We have already approved funding of $15,000 for 2011 (the dues were reduced starting in 2011). Denyse Ferguson and Ray DeWinkle provided us with a presentation and wealth of information. LEAP has focus areas of business growth & development, strategic regional collaboration and place marketing for growth. They coordinate strategic regional growth efforts, conduct proactive business attractions, manage regionally coordinated and nationally connected entrepreneurial efforts, and proactively market the Greater Lansing Region as a destination for businesses and talent. We asked several questions, including asking for specifics on results and actual numbers to go with the concepts. The LEAP folks provided excellent information in the packets and in their responses. I was a little skeptical at first because I had not seen any specifics...but was much happier after hearing the presentation. They also talked about how they work with local municipalities and the State (MEDC) to use all available tools to attract the businesses to the region, and they assess the needs of the companies such as resources, grants, labor force, building and so on. This is in addition to their marketing and sales of the greater Lansing area. The resolution to pay the $35,000 for 2010 passed in County Services on a 4-2 vote and in Finance on a 3-2 vote.

In Finance, we spent significant time working out the details of how to give Williamstown Township money to assist them in transitioning to road patrol funded by their new assessment. As you may recall, the county ended funding for road patrol unless the rural townships agreed to pay into this service. All 13 put assessments or millages on their ballots, and the County Board reserved money in our budget to assist any township that passed the assessment/millage. Williamstown Township was the only township to do so, and we now have limited time to work out with them how to get them the transition money (until January 1st).

Commissioner Mark Grebner drafted a resolution which would give Williamstown $100,000 in 2011 for them to contract with the county, form their own township police department, contract with another township, or however they want to create police services. It also said that any new deputies hired have to be county deputies or former county deputies if available. We had lengthy discussion and passed several amendments to this resolution. First, we changed the amount to be allocated. We created a formula that allocates money based half on taxable value using 2010 numbers and half on the estimated 2009 population. Both of these are the most recent numbers that we have to use. I assume this will increase the allocation to about $130,000, but I don’t know the exact number. We next amended the resolution to require that the township has to contract with the Sheriff to get the incentive dollars. Four of us on the committee agreed with the Sheriff that the township should have to contract with the county for service rather than being able to contract with another municipality or create their own police force when using the dollars given to them by the county. Of couse, they can do whatever they want with the dollars that they collect from their own assessment. Our resolution is only for the transition/incentive dollars that we committed. We added to the resolution that the township must provide an adequate level of police service in order to receive the dollars (as determined by the sheriff). This will provide any attempt to only collect a small portion of the assessment, then use county dollars for police. Finally, we allowed the township to utilize the total allotment over two years if they want.

This resolution will be a model for other townships that may want to contract with the county for police services. Others townships could do so from their general fund balances (Commissioner Grebner says that they have healthy fund balances to do this), or other townships could go back to the ballot with a new assessment/millage proposal for their voters. We have $800,000 in total reserved for 2011, and are open to allocating that to any township that wants police services and is willing to put up the funds and request incentive/transition dollars from the County. We have heard that there is one other township interested at this point, but I won’t speculate until we receive an actual request.

In County Services, we also had a short discussion and vote on a resolution regarding the tubing hill at Hawk Island. As you may recall (as I have reported in the past), in 2007 the County was awarded a Land and Water Conservation Fund grant from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment (MDNRE) for the construction of a snow tubing hill at Hawk Island County Park. One of the requirements of the grant is that the County utilizes a Prime Professional to complete various aspects of the project. As such, the Purchasing Department solicited proposals from professional firms qualified and experienced in engineering, architectural and/or surveying for the purpose of entering into a contract to provide surveying, permitting, and site design services for the construction of the hill in compliance with the grant. We had taken bids previously, but re-bid this year and received a bid from excellent Lansing company for a maximum disbursement of $6,650. This was a savings of about $3,000 after it was. County funds will be expended from the matching amount that was put aside for this grant and project.

As always, please feel free to email or call with questions! I have heard from several people, which tells me that my blog is being read. Yay!

Andy

EDC Interviews, Road Commission, Dog Park, Pollution Prevention, Other Items

Another busy week for the county commission. Due to the election, the County Services committee was canceled last week and rescheduled for Monday. Mondays are the days that I do karate with Ryan or gymnastics with Hannah, so on Monday I went to County Services directly from Ryan’s karate class and he came with me (in full karate gear!). We had interviews for the county Economic Development Committee. Five very impressive individuals interviewed for two open spots (and we have five more to interview). Tough decision. Then, after that, we met with the Road Commission for about an hour. They updated us on what is going on at the Road Commission, and our committee members asked several questions. It was heated at times, but it is always important for the elected Commissioners to keep up with the folks we appoint to the Road Commission.

On Tuesday, we had our Board meeting. We had two controversial resolutions that were on the agenda, but both were delayed. I have reported on the resolution to establish a gate at the dog park. That was on the agenda for a second time, but we tabled it indefinitely. We are awaiting a decision by the city of Lansing regarding the Dog Park. At this time, there is no contract between the County and the City for the Soldan Dog Park. It is City land, but the County is maintaining it. Before we can establish a gate at the Dog Park, we need to hear from the City on a contract for the park. So, until that happens we have tabled the resolution.

The second resolution that was controversial is the Pollution Prevention resolution. As I reported last week, the Commission is considering passing a fee for businesses that deal with pollutants. This has been regulated due to federal and state law, but until now the county has been paying to regulate this service. The Health Department has requested that the Commission establish a fee so that the taxpayers are not on the hook for this, and so that we can move this from an administrative program to an actual ordinance. The Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce requested that we delay consideration of the ordinance for two weeks while they review it and talk to their members. As such, we decided to delay Board action for two weeks and Commissioner McGrain plans to discuss it once again at the Human Services committee on Monday to ensure that we are giving this regulation a thorough review.

Other important resolutions that we did pass on Tuesday which I have already reported on are: the 2011 community agency funding, increasing the local purchasing preference policy from 5% to 10%, and adopting a policy on cost increases that will inform vendors that any cost increase more than 1% will receive more intense scrutiny.

At the next County Services committee on Monday, we are expecting to discuss the Lansing Area Economic Partnership (LEAP). The County owes dues for the year, but there are some who are uncomfortable with what benefits we are receiving from LEAP. Should be an interesting discussion! I know you are eagerly awaiting my report for next week…

Election Over!, Pollution Prevention Regulation, Community Agency Funding, Police Funding

Sorry for the late posting of the blog this week. As you know, though, there was an election on Tuesday and life has been very busy. I am happy to announce that I won another term! Thanks to my wife and family, my honorable opponent Chris Christensen, and all of my supporters for all the help and support! All commissioners were re-elected, and the Democrats were able to hold a 12-4 majority. The one empty seat went from a Democrat to a Republican. While I was happy to win, several of my friends will be out of a job due to the Republican victories and they will be in my thoughts. If you know of any jobs, please let me know and I will pass them on to those who are looking!

Now on to the County News for the week…

The Finance Committee this week passed a new Pollution Prevention Regulation. The Ingham County Health Department currently does a variety of inspection and reporting on businesses that store, process, use, and manufacture polluting materials. We do this both as a requirement of federal law, and also as an issue of public safety.

Up until now, this has been done administratively and using general fund dollars (taxpayer dollars). The Health Department and the Human Services Committee have spend the last few months crafting an ordinance to officially address this, and to have the businesses who handle these materials pay the fees for pollution prevention instead of the taxpayers. They crafted language on what will be required by the businesses, and they settled on a fee of 75% to start (so that businesses are not hit with 100% of the fee in the first year). The Health Department is working through what businesses will need to pay the fee, and will be notifying businesses after the ordinance passes. Those who believe they should not be responsible for the fee can work with the Health Department. Commissioner Don Vickers has already worked with the Health Department to eliminate some who should not be on the list.

In addition to committee meetings on the ordinance, the Human Services committee conducted a public hearing and heard no opposition to the proposed ordinance. I am not on the committee so I learned much of this at the Finance Committee. When this was considered in Finance, I raised questions about having appeals go to the Board of Health instead of the elected Board of Commissioners. I was told that all health ordinance appeals go to the Board of Health, and I was satisfied with this answer after the Health Department accepted that they need to report the number and status of appeals to the Board of Commissioners. The resolution passed Finance 4-1 and will be considered by the full Board on Tuesday.

The Finance committee this week also took up the resolution to fund community agencies, as passed by the Human Services committee. For 2011, 35 agencies submitted applications totaling $248,084.50. The 2011 budget contains $187,261 available for community agencies. The Human Services committee funded the requests of the 19 agencies that “meet basic needs.” The remaining agencies were funded at 50% of their 2010 allocation or 50% of their 2011 request, whichever was lower. This resulted in 33 total agencies receiving funding. The Finance Committee did not change this allocation.

After a lengthy discussion last meeting, the Finance Committee passed a resolution amending the County Local Preference policy regarding contracts. We increased the preference threshold from the current 5% to a 10% local purchasing preference. As such, local registered vendors will have a greater opportunity to be awarded County contracts by being able to match other non-local bidders if within 10% of the lowest bid. Hopefully, this will help to keep county tax dollars in the county and help our local unemployment rates.

Finally, the committee began discussions of providing transition dollars for the one township that passed the police assessment. As you recall, the County Board of Commissioners eliminated funding for Road Patrol in the townships. I won’t go into the reasoning…you can look up previous versions of this blog for that! But we committed that any township that passed the special millage would receive dollars from us as they transition into their own funded police. Williamstown Township was the only township of the 13 to pass this millage (although several townships that defeated the millage actually voted for the zoo, which was a surprise to me). Commissioner Grebner introduced a resolution to give them $100,000 for any purpose (create their own police department, contract with another municipality, contract with the county) as long as any laid off sheriff deputies are hired first. The resolution was then referred to the Law Enforcement Committee to discuss. We also encouraged the Law Enforcement Committee to hold a committee meeting earlier than it is currently scheduled, but that will be up to the Chair of that committee. Time is definitely of the essence, and there are many things to do (contracts, details, etc) before January 1.

So, that’s it for this week. I hope everyone is over the election and glad that all the commercials are done!