Joan Nelson Honored, Red Cross Workers' Rights, Foreclosures, 911 Plan, Campaign Update

This week at the Board meeting, we took up a few resolutions expressing the sense of the county. First, we honored Joan Nelson. Joan is the co-founder and Director of the Allen Neighborhood Center on the Eastside of Lansing. She is the driving force behind many community improvements on the east side, the farmers market, greenhouse and senior programs, and is now embarking on a commercial kitchen incubator and year-round food service endeavor. Joan was named the 2012 Woman of the Year by the Greater Lansing Woman Magazine, and I was proud to join with Commissioners McGrain and Bahar-Cook to bring this resolution to the Board. Joan spoke eloquently in thanking the Board and talking about everything going on at the Allen Street Center. The resolution, of course, passed unanimously.

We next passed a resolution urging the American Red Cross to preserve workers’ rights to collectively bargain and resolve the strike. On March 30, 2012, the American Red Cross Blood Services Division Workers of Lansing were forced to strike to protect their rights to collectively bargain. The national American Red Cross has expected its workers to accept staffing levels that could endanger blood supplies and have stated as part of their bargaining objectives that they wish to strip the rights of the workers to bargain over their wage package. There have been many safety violations assessed by the FDA resulting in millions of dollars worth of fines, and staff has been harassed and discriminated against for reporting such safety issues to the FDA. Additionally, the the American Red Cross has also been found guilty by the National Labor Relations Board of violating the rights of its workers by committing several unfair labor practices. As such, we passed a resolution strongly urging the American Red Cross to meet and bargain fairly with its employees to resolve this strike in an equitable manner that not only assists in protecting the blood supply, but also preserves workers’ rights to collectively bargain. Commissioner Schafer argued that this is not county business. Commissioner McGrain said that we should be concerned about things that concern the health and safety of our county. This affects our blood supply, and is very relevant. Commissioner Tennis agreed and said that we should examine these issues as part of our role as elected officials. People listen to our opinions, and we have an impact on our community which this greatly affects. The resolution passed 13 – 3.

We considered the contract with Legal Services of South Central Michigan. I explained this in depth last week. It deals with foreclosure assistance for Ingham County residents. Commissioner Dragonetti voting was the sole vote against this resolution. He said that he voted for the funding last year, but was opposing it this year because it is only a very small impact. He said that the lawsuit by the Register of Deeds really goes after the problem. By the time folks try to get help, it is actually too late. Register of Deeds Hertel strongly disagreed and said that it is not too late. He said that we have stopped foreclosures and gotten modifications for those facing foreclosures. He said that it is worth money we are spending and much more than that. Many people who had no legal access now have successful resolutions using this program. Additionally, we are saving people’s homes, so it is not too late. 140 people have been helped since July. I argued that this is an instance where a little bit of government money is going a long way to help our residents and that this is the best use of taxpayer dollars. Preventing foreclosure helps those people, helps the neighborhood, and helps the community because foreclosures bring down property values for everyone. Hertel also said that when title companies are forced to face the court and sanctions, they actually try to find the documents and make things right. Otherwise they don’t, and people won’t get to court and get things right, and will lose their homes when they shouldn’t. Commissioner Koenig also said that this is about the value of hope for these people. The resolution passed 15-1.

Finally, we had our public hearing on the new 911 Service Plan. State statute requires a 911 service plan. We needed to update it because of the consolidation of our 911 centers, so we adopted a new plan. The plan was provided to public agencies in the 911 service district and advertised through newspaper notification. No one opted out of the plan and there were no requested changes. Speaking of 911, we also opened our new 911 center this week. It was a great event. We had a last-minute problem when the FOP went to court and asked for an injunction because they believe their employees are not properly trained yet. This court action was the first that we had heard of this at the county. Our staff says that the employees have been provided significant training. I assume the County Services committee will look at this, but it will be played out in court.

The campaign continues to go exceedingly well. Voters are very engaged in the race. Fundraising is going well and we have our next fundraiser on Monday. If you are interested in contributing or volunteering, or just want to keep up with the campaign, please visit www.andyschor.com!

Meijer and Free Publications, 911 Service Plan Update

Welcome to the Schor Report. Sorry for skipping a week last week. I had a death in the family and didn't have time to find a guest blogger. This week, I will try to cover the action for the last two weeks.

The County Services committee then the full Board of Commissioner took up a resolution calling on Meijer stores to continue to have City Pulse and other free magazines available in their store lobbies. Meijer's corporate offices recently decided to discontinue this service, and the City Pulse is calling on them to reverse this decision. The discussion on the Board floor was two-fold: (1) is this county business, and (2) is it a good business decision for Meijer. Commissioner Randy Schafer argued that is up to Meijer to decide what to do with their own business, and what makes business sense and what doesn't. He argued that it isn't county business. Commissioner Dianne Holman agreed, saying that she likes getting the paper there, but up to Meijer to decide. Commissioner Vickers argued that the County in the past has told people to go online (apparently he was referring to the Fair Board) and this should be no different.

Commissioner Deb Nolan pointed out that the Ingham County Commission weighs in on community issues all the time. She pointed out that others have weighed in favorable to the opinions of the Pulse, including the Lansing City Council. She said that there are 3,000 City Pulse publications picked up at Meijer locations weekly and Meijer is an important avenue to get this information out to citizens. She also pointed out that this is county business because public notices and Land Bank notices and other governmental information is in the Pulse and needs to get to residents. Commissioner Rebecca Baher-Cook also pointed out that this resolution is county business because the county shares tax foreclosures and RFP's and other county business. This must be available in places where people get public information. The elderly and others may not be in places where the City Pulse and other free publications are located, but they do go to the grocery store. She argued that this is an important resolution because the County is letting Meijer know that this is a disservice to residents. Commissioner Todd Tennis pointed out that we are not mandating anything, but encouraging Meijer to continue to allow free periodicals at their places of business.

Commissioner Schafer said that the main distribution is in Lansing and East Lansing, and the Pulse doesn't reach large portion of the rest of the county so this is just an urban issue. I responded to that saying that Meijer is in Lansing and East Lansing where the population centers are, but is also in Mason. And, I added that the Leslie paper and Stockbridge paper and other papers are free to residents and could also be carried at Meijer for the out-county residents that shop there. I pointed out that this is county business because we are acting on behalf of our constituents. I re-iterated that this is not an ordinance or mandate, but that this this is county business because the information is important to our constituents and Meijer needs to know the views of the community. The final resolution passed on a 10 - 5 vote, with the 4 Republicans and Commissioner Holman voting no and one Commissioner absent.

We also passed a resolution updating the Ingham County 911 Service Plan. The resolution updated the service plan from 1987. In includes areas services, how they all work, technical considerations, public and private agencies services by the network, etc. We had to pull this and vote on it separately from the items on the consent agenda because of state law requirements.

The final action on the Board floor involved appointments. A motion was made to make appointments to the Fair Board. We had interviewed people in the County Services Committee, but had not made a decision. The Democratic Caucus Chair moved to appoint two individuals, but apparently this information did not make it to the Republican Caucus in time. Some objected to being left out of the deliberations and decisions. Others wanted different members recommended. A motion was made to refer this back to committee for a recommendation and that motion passed 11-4. I supported the motion to send the resolution back to committee. After working in the Legislature for Democrats in the minority, I know what it is like to be kept out of the deliberations. The minority party cannot pass legislation or set the agenda, but they should at least be able to be part of the deliberation. When working in the State Senate and State House, there were plenty of times that the Republicans shut us out completely and that was frustrating when the Democrats represent Michigan residents also. As such, I agreed that the Republicans should be part of the deliberation even if the final decision may or may not be changed.

In County Services, we also heard that the Hawk Island snow park is now open. It was opened for 20 hours of service two weeks ago (Saturday for 8 hours and Sunday for 8 hours) and last weekend it was open all weekend. They are making snow at night when it is cold. With the unseasonable warm weather, it is hard to keep the snow made and not melting, but our staff is working on it. We also had a brief discussion about the Road Commission, and Chair Holman said that there will be an item on the next agenda. She said that she expected the mandatory public hearings to happen in late March or early April and expected discussions to commence soon when the Controller starts to bring recommendations.

In the Human Services Committee, we had an excellent presentation from the Greater Lansing Food Bank. I can't list everything they said, but they are definitely doing greater work for our community. They estimate 71,540 people in Ingham, Eaton, and Clinton counties don't know where their next meal is coming from. 1.3 million pounds of food was distributed to the Ingham County Food Bank network pantries from 2010 to 2011. Beginning July 1, 2012, the Greater Lansing Food Bank and the Mid-Michigan Food Bank will become one food bank. This will create efficiencies in the system. We had a great discussion about how we can get the word out. The Food Bank people mentioned the Lansing State Journal editorial and said that many people responded to that. I also mentioned that we need to keep pushing out the 2-1-1 phone number. People can call this if they have extra food they want to donate, or for any other social safety net needs. This prevents every different agency from havinghttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif to market their own contact information. If you need to know if there are community services to fit your needs, call 2-1-1!

On the campaign front, things continue to be very busy. I have gained a few more endorsements in the last few weeks that I will roll out soon. Some big ones! And the first fundraiser of 2012 is set and ready to go. We have new Host Committee members being added every day. If you haven't already heard about it, block off March 14th from 5:30 to 7:30 and come join us at the home of Jim McClurken and Sergei Kvitko. All the details can be found on my website at .

Thanks for all the sympathy notes, and for all the well wishes for the commission stuff and the campaign!

911 Dispatch System Costs, Hiring Freeze, 911 Dispatch Center Ready for Construction

The County Board of Commissioners met last night. While there were several significant issues on the agenda, only one turned out to be controversial.

We considered a resolution that would extend the contract with the company that maintains the county emergency 911 dispatch system. As faithful readers of this blog may recall, several years ago the county approved a new emergency dispatch 911 system that was paid for with 911 millage dollars. The system went from an inefficient analog system to what was supposed to be a much better digital system. We looked at various proposals and, in the end, chose M/A Com to install and maintain the system. Over the course of that contract, many problems arose. There were significant problems with 911 dispatch calls dropped in the southwest part of Lansing, resulting in police officers having to use cell phones instead of radios and in increased staffing needed. The company technically met the qualifications of the contract, and the Board of Commissioners was very upset that M/A Com would not fix the problem without a significant purchase from the county. In the end, the county paid but also received discounted maintenance.

Fast forward to last night. The Board considered a resolution that would extend the maintenance contract with Harris (which was formerly M/A Com). The contract originally proposed by Harris called for a 7% increase in the first year and 3% increases in years two through five. The company’s argument was that they had more equipment to maintain because of the problems that we needed to fix in southwest Lansing. County staff told the company that this amount was too high, and Harris agreed to lower this to 5% then 3% for the balance (for a total of about $1.5 million over 5 years). When this came before the Board in Finance last week, the committee still thought that was too high but the company was only willing to discount this another $15,000.

When it came before the Board last night, I strenuously objected to this amount. The County has had $7-8 million dollar deficits and our tax collections have been going down. We have questioned every vendor about why we should be paying 3% or more when inflation is not at that amount and County revenues are not going up at that rate. I reminded commissioners that Harris received increases of 5.5% over the last two years as part of the current contract, and expressed opposition to the resolution before us. Several Commissioners agreed and we had a good discussion and debate about what we could do to reduce this amount.

During debate staff alerted us that the contract ends on Friday, and if we don’t extend it we would have no one to service the contract for 911 dispatch. That made many of us very mad because it seemed as if we were being backed into a corner and would have to approve this contract. I proposed a shorter renewal time so we could work out a new rate with the company, but logistically that was not possible. I then worked with Commissioner Grebner to craft language that creates a 90-day termination clause, and language that instructs staff to get a better rate from the company. If the company refuses to provide a better rate, we have instructed staff to start a bid process to ask other companies for competitive prices to maintain the system. This passed unanimously. So the county agreed to the contact for now, but will look at others who can provide this service and will change systems if Harris doesn’t come down with the rates. Even though the system now seems to be working, I am again very disappointed in this company and expect that we will revisit this again soon.

In other action, the Board took steps to close our budget gap for next year (2011 calendar year) by passing a hiring freeze. The county currently has a hiring freeze for all positions supported by the general fund. The resolution passed last night will extend that through December 2011, and will include all county positions. Department Heads will be able to request waivers to the hiring freeze when necessary from the County Services Committee. The Controller/Administrator will also have authority to exempt positions from the hiring freeze in cases where positions are funded primarily from non-general fund sources. This resolution will minimize the affect of anticipated position reductions in 2011 and years after, and will free up more county positions for employees that could be laid off. It would also provide more vacant positions to be evaluated for additional permanent position reductions.

The Board also last night passed the final resolution needed to get the new 911 dispatch started for construction by authorizing the Building Authority to contract with the Architect/Engineering (A/E) and Construction Management (CM) Firms to begin the design process for the Ingham County Consolidated 911 Dispatch Center. We also approved $500,000 from 911 Funds for preliminary costs associated with this project. As previously reported, the Ingham County Consolidated 911 Dispatch Center site has been approved to be located on County owned land just west of the CMH property on Jolly Road in Lansing. We expect the project to cost about $5.2 million ($4,000,000 for the building and $1.2 Million to equip the facility and establish a contingency fund). We have also worked out all the legacy cost agreements with Lansing and East Lansing, so it seems that we are now ready to finalize constructions costs through our PLA policy and begin construction. Yay!

Tonight the Finance Committee meets and will finalize the budget to be presented to the Board of Commissioners. I will report on in a future blog when the budget is considered by the full Board. I also have two other committees meeting next week. October is shaping up to be a busy month (and that doesn’t include the election coming up!).

911 Intergovernmental Agreement, 2011 Budget, and Economic Development Through Smartzone

This week, I had three different important county meetings. On Tuesday, the Board of Commissioners met. As I have said before, most of our tough work is done in committee. The Board meeting approved several resolutions, but not much controversial. One important resolution that passed (and not reported on here previously) was an intergovernmental agreement between Ingham, Eaton, Clinton and Livingston counties. This agreement will allow the four counties to combine in purchasing and maintaining new phone technology for the 911 centers in mid-Michigan and to develop virtual backup capabilities. All four counties need to upgrade their 911 phone systems in order to take advantage of internet protocol technology, and all four need to develop emergency backup E-9-1-1 capabilities in the event of primary system failure. Signing this agreement and approving the bylaws allows us to work collaboratively in order to reduce costs and provide for inter-connectivity between counties. It also allows each county to forgo the capital costs of building a physical E-9-1-1 backup center in each county. I had some questions about the makeup of the agreement and bylaws – specifically how decisions are made and how the funding is done – but county staff assured me that the decisions and funding will be done in a fair and equitable way. This agreement will be a good regional tool for savings and efficiency, and I am happy that we passed it unanimously.

The County Services committee held the first of the budget meetings. First it needs to be said that our staff – especially Mary Lannoye (controller) and Teri Morton (budget director) – was able to greatly minimize the impacts of the budget deficit and they need to be greatly commended by the employees and the citizens of Ingham County.

The budget books were handed out on Tuesday, so this there was not much time to read through the extensive budget before committee on Wednesday…but Commissioners and department heads were able to effectively parse and understand the proposals. Every department was happy with their budget allocations in the County Services committee. Not one department head objected to their recommended budget (which is rare). Commissioners did have some questions for some of the department heads, though. I asked our Parks director several questions about the line items in the budget, and he gave good answers. Parks are truly doing a lot more with very little money. I also had issues with our funding of the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission. This is an entity that Eaton, Clinton and Ingham counties all belong to, and it handles land use issues for the region. While I have no problem with their work or staff, I did have a problem with the fact that we are giving them the same $102,000 that we gave them last year. I inquired why we should cut all our departments yet give tri-county the same allocation, and they said that cuts would be matched by other entities and would result in lost matching funds from the federal government. Some money we provide goes to administration, but the bulk of the money goes to services that receive an 80% match, so cutting would lose federal funding. Most Commissioners were satisfied with that answer, but I still believe that we shouldn’t be cutting our own departments yet leaving the regional entities whole. As such, I voted against that one appropriation (I was the only no vote on that part of the budget). The rest of the County Services items passed unanimously. The other committees – Human Services, Judiciary, Law Enforcement, and Finance – will be holding budget hearings over the next three weeks or so.

In addition to serving on official county committees, I also represent Ingham County on the Local Development Financing Authority (also known as the Smartzone). This Authority oversees economic development activities that are a result of dollars that are captured for these purposes. We heard reports from East Lansing staff on the Technology Innovation Center (TIC), which has about 14 entrepreneurial businesses in it (mostly professor or student-run businesses who receive low-cost rent to get their idea off the ground). I am encouraged by the products that we are helping to get to market and the many people who are creating jobs through innovation that we can assist. I was not thrilled, though, that several of the businesses are looking at moving out of town after their lease with the TIC is up. East Lansing staff is trying to assist these entrepreneurs to stay in the East Lansing/Lansing area, but other areas are offering venture capital and appropriate space (i.e. hundreds of square feet of wet lab space) and other incentives that we cannot offer. I hope to bring forth a proposal to rectify that situation…but that is in development and will be reported on in a future County Blog. We also heard from the Lansing Economic Development Corporation staff about the University Research Corridor and the Knapps building project. I am very encouraged by the Knapps project. We did not receive a $2 million grant due to technical problems, but we hope to re-apply for that and get the money. In the meantime, it seems that the developers are still working to get all the appropriate financing and start the reconstruction. Severeal local, state and federal incentives will be used. The goal is to have residential space, incubator space, and retail in the building. It would be a great boon for downtown Lansing, and I am hoping that this can move forward as soon as possible. I have great faith in the Lansing Economic Development Corporation, and I think this will be yet another example of Lansing rebuilding its downtown and drawing young and talented workers and residents back to our city.

That’s it for now. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Emergency 911 Issues, Google Fiber and other County Board action

I feel like I created this blog at the calmest time for Ingham County in a while! Over the last 6 months, we have resolved severe budget deficits and had many cuts. We don’t start considering our next budget, though, until late summer. For now, life on the Boards is a little less crazy.

This week, our full Board of Commissioners met. We had very little controversial on the agenda. We do most of our major work (amendments, debate, etc) in committees and our Board meetings are normally calm and cordial.

The City of Lansing sent us a letter requesting that the county take legal action against M/A-Com. The background on this….About 7 years ago, the county revamped its emergency 911 dispatch system. If you live in Ingham County, you pay a dedicated millage for 911 service, and that money was used for the new 911 system. We had two major bidders – M/A-Com and Motorola. The State Police came in late with a bid as well, but it was way too expensive. After many meetings and much debate, the County Board of Commissioners voted to accept the M/A-Com proposal, which was the recommendation from the to us by our 911 Advisory Committee (made up of fire and police chiefs from the communities in the county, as well as our Sheriff).

The system was put into place and all was seemingly well. Officers throughout the county (community and county) were given new digital dispatch radios to call in emergencies (replacing the old analog ones), and the dispatch centers in Lansing and East Lansing had upgraded equipment. About 2 or 3 years later, though, we found out that officers using these new digital radios in the southwest area of Lansing were having problems. Calls were not going through and were being dropped. They complained to us and we complained to M/A-Com. We found out that several buildings in the area were not allowing for signal penetration. The contract required that 95% or so of the calls made on the radios had to go through, and this was happening county-wide. It was not happening in the southwest Lansing area, though.

So after extreme tensions and negotiations, the County Board negotiated a settlement where we paid for special devices to boost the signal in the buildings in the southwest Lansing area, and M/A-Com agreed to provide certain services for free.

The City of Lansing is upset that they had to dedicate additional staff and resources to this area because the radios weren’t working. They have requested that the County take legal action against M/A-Com. Our Controller and Board Chair and Law Enforcement committee will review our options.

Otherwise, we passed a resolution supporting the Google Fiber effort. Google is offering a super high-speed product called Google Fiber to a few communities throughout the country. Lansing/East Lansing is trying to become one of those served communities. Ingham County, of course, supports this effort.

We also accepted several Homeland Security funds from the federal government for equipment and training.

To see the full agenda, click here.