Road Commission, Mowing Lansing Parks, Health Care Millage Proposal

Another busy week for the Ingham County Commission!

After many months of discussion and consideration, the County Services committee considered the resolution to dissolve the Road Commission Board and have the Ingham County Commission take over the powers of the Road Commission. Commissioner Celentino lead off the discussion and talked about the December Dec 15-1 vote of intention to take over the road commission. He said that the 15-1 vote was a vote of no confidence in the road commission and leadership at that time. Since that time, though, a new chair was installed and there is a new direction and restored relationships. Also, the road commission board is dealing with the problems and bad decisions that have occurred in the past. He said that the first phase to solving the problems at the Road Commission was for the county to absorb the Information Technology (IT), Finance, and Human Resources (HR) operations. This has been done with passage of resolutions by the Road Commission Board. Celentino argued that we need to give Chairman Dravenstatt-Moceri a chance to reach his goal s. His proposal was to pass amendments saying that the County Commission would take over these operations and give the Road Commission Board 6 months to show that they have fixed things. At that time, the County Commission would re-assess the situation and decide what needs to be done.

Commissioner Grebner argued against any such amendments or plan. He said that the Road Commission Board is guilty of meddling with employees and that they should not make decisions for anyone other than managing director. He said that the managing director currently doesn’t have the authority to hire his own employees. He can’t hire an operating director, and can’t get rid of an assistant that disagrees with his decisions. Grenber said that as long as the managing director doesn’t have control over subordinate positions, there is a problem with the Board.

I asked Chair Dravenstatt-Moceri if this is still the case and he said that the Road Commission Board gave the power of hiring and firing to the managing director though a resolution passed on March 19th. And he mentioned that the meeting before that, the Road Commission Board passed a resolution to contract with the county for IT, Finance, and HR. There is now a contract in place between the County and the Road Commission for the County to provide HR services. The county HR division does the scoring and recommendations for positions, class and pay analysis, recruiting , complaint resolution, etc. and the managing director does the actual hiring and firing. The Road Commission Board has been removed from the process and simply deals with roads.

After hearing all of this, I offered to draft language for a substitute that could be offered to do what Commissioner Celentino recommended. I did not have the time to draft it that night and doing amendments one-by-one wouldn’t make sense because of the many changes that needed to be made. A motion to table the resolution until the next meeting was offered so a substitute could be drafted. That motion was defeated 3-3. The resolution then was voted on, and it passed 4-2. Commissioner Todd Tennis offered the substitute that I worked on when the Finance committee met the next night. My understanding is that the substitute failed 5-1, and the resolution passed Finance 5-1 as well. The substitute will be offered on the Board floor when the resolution comes up on Tuesday.

The County Services Committee also again discussed the contract for mowing of small parks in the City of Lansing and the Lansing River Trail. The City of Lansing Parks Director attended the meeting and gave some good answers to our questions. He said that City seasonal employees are not being called back because of budget difficulties and not because of the contract with the County. While I appreciate his attendance and his answers, several questions were not really answered. I asked how many seasonals were called back in previous years and how many are being called back this year. He didn’t have the numbers, but said it was at least 17 or so. Knowing that the City has had budget difficulties the last few years, it is hard for me to believe that the County contract is not contributing to the lack of call-backs. I also could not get past the commitments made to us when we passed the contract that seasonal employees would be moved to other departments . That did not happen either. When asked what would happen if the County cancels the contract, the Lansing Parks Director said that either another public entity would contract with them to do the services, or they would call back more employees. It would depend on which is more cost efficient. As I said to Mlive, this was never a question about service. The County Parks Department does a terrific job. But I do not want to County to be the reason that Lansing seasonal employees are not called back and not making a living. As such, I voted to end the contract. First, Commissioner Grebner offered a motion for the resolution to be delayed until the end of the summer so that the contract could just end and not be renewed. That died without support. The resolution was then considered and passed 4-2.

In the Human Services committee, the Ingham Health Plan (note: this originally said Ingham Health Department, which was an error) made the case for a Health Care Millage to be put on the November ballot. The gave us a powerpoint talking about the Ingham Health Plan and how they are providing local solutions to local problems – specifically access to health care for low income folks. There are over 11,500 plan B members (which is the primary program). There are over 32,000 uninsured Ingham County adults. They said that the limitations on the program without more funding are lack of providers, access to timely care (people are seen in 6 weeks for new patients, or in 2-3 weeks for existing patients). Our Federally Qualified Health Centers are at capacity which cause these delays. Additionally, the IHP Board is looking at freezing or limiting enrollment. Hospital Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) ceilings are dropping so there is less hospital funding. DSH funding is based on uncompensated care, so when ceilings drop the federal DSH funding goes down. What we need are more providers, and the only way to get those is with higher reimbursement rates. There are questions that will only be answered when the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the Affordable Care Act in June. IHP costs will continue to rise, though, and with more members comes more assistance needed. Even if the ACA is not struck down by the courts, there are still 18,000 residents that remain uninsured . 40% of these people will receive Medicaid, but 60% will not realize that they are Medicaid eligible and will need the IHP to help them find that out. They said that with a millage, they can expand infrastructure and access, increase reimbursement rates for providers, help people navigate the system for services, etc. They are asking for .61 mills, which would be $4 million. The average household of $75,000 taxable value would pay $45.75 per year. We had a lot of questions for them. I reminded them that about five years ago, we had a glidepath towards 100% coverage, but hit a point where we just couldn’t find more people to be enrolled. Some people just don’t trust government and we hit a plateau. There were also other questions about the campaign and process, and about how this will relate with the other ballot initiatives on the November ballot. Personally, I am still not convinced that we should go to the ballot with this but I am open to the discussions which will continue throughout the summer.

We also considered lots of other issues, but this blog is long enough as it is. See you next week!

Hotel/Motel Money to Fair, Road Commission, Public Health Programs, Neighborhood Meeting on Saturday for Campaign

This week was relatively quiet in terms of action at the full Board of Commissioners meeting. We had just one item pulled from the consent agenda, and it was to transfer $110,000 from hotel/motel fund balance to the Fair capital improvement account for maintenance and exhibits. Commissioner Nolan mentioned that we do not have a fair director and wanted to know where this money would go. She wants the incoming interim fair director to make the decisions and indicated this could be \premature. She also indicated an interest in Commissioners having a strategic plan on facility upgrades. Commissioner Koenig, who serves on the Fair Board, said that the original amount was three times the $110,000 and that the Fair Board reduced it in order to only deal with the necessities. She said that she doesn’t want to prevent the money from going to the fair because the money is needed August is coming up quickly. Commissioner Grenbner pointed out that the new interim fair director will be able to veto this as needed. Commissioner Bahar-Cook said that we need to approve the transfer to ensure time for competitive bids. I asked if this money will affect the hotel/motel fund, and was assured that we have significant dollars in that fund. During public comment, a member of the Fair Board indicated that this money is needed for rabbit cages and sheep pens and other things need to be fixed, and said that this is about animal safety and youth safety (petting zoos). We approved the movement of the money unanimously.

We also held our second public comment period on the Road Commission Board transfer of powers. Our Controller first went through the proposed summary of transition plan, which can be viewed at www.ingham.org. She explained that existing contracts and benefits stay intact until expiration; the County Commission would create a budget and make employees and assets part of the county (they are on the financial statement currently); central services, finance, and purchasing would become part of the county; nothing would change for the public and the day to day operations would stay the same; federal dollars would continue through tri-county planning; staff would work with the townships for priorities and with citizens for complaints; and strategic planning would either happen through an independent board or by the County Commission.

Labor testified opposed to the dissolution of the road commission, including OPEIU 512 which has 2 road commission units and the AFL-CIO (and the UAW by proxy). They said that the knowledge and experience of the road commissions would go away. They asked for one year for the Road Commission to show that it has fixed the internal problems and to implement their new plan. A few employees upset about the firing of the former operations manager continued to complain about what they said was corruption on the existing board and asked to get rid of the existing board. The new Chair of the Road Commission, Jim Dravenstatt-Moceri, explained his new plan. He said that the Road Commission this year has passed resolutions asking the county to take over the HR, Finance, and IT functions of the road commission. They also passed a resolution to empower the managing director to do hiring and firing of employees. That leaves the roads up to the Road Commission Board. He asked for a year to implement this and see how it is going, and said he wants to work collaboratively for the future for the benefit of the county residents. Delhi Township testified that if there is a new consulting Board regarding roads, they want representation on the advisory board to reflect their population size and the number of roads. Another employee mentioned that a positive to elimination of the Road Commission Board would be that drain assessments, which have gone to litigation in the past to the chagrin of the County Commission, would no longer be a problem because the County Commission will be in charge. Finally, the County Road Association of Michigan testified and offered to be a resource for the County Commission either way. They pointed out that Ingham County will be a member regardless. They also said that we may want to delay a decision until July, when the liability pool will change its policies to allow for road agencies to participate. We will now start taking up the resolutions for this in County Services, which should be interesting!

On the Consent Agenda, we passed a resolution to amend our 2011-2012 Comprehensive
Planning, Budgeting and Contracting (CPBC) Agreement with the Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH). The CPBC Agreement is the annual process whereby MDCH transmits State and Federal funds to Ingham County to support public health programs. The Amendment makes the following specific changes in the budget:
1. Increases support for Highly Targeted HIV Prevention by $52,968 - increasing the total amount to
$105,936.
2. Increases funding for HIV/AIDS Care by $137,500 – increasing the total amount to $275,000.
3. Raises funding for HIV Prevention by $87,190 – increasing the total amount to $174,380.
4. Increases funding for STD Control by $20,342 - increasing the total amount to $44,998.
5. Increases support for TB Control by $2,111 – increasing the total amount to $21,973.
6. Raises funding for WIC Resident Services by $21,300 – increasing the total amount to $1,195,132.
7. Adds new funding for the Nurse Family Partnership Services in the amount of $245,000.
8. Adds new funding for the Michigan Climate and Health Adaptation Program in the amount of $15,000.
9. Adds new funding for the PRIME Local Learning Collaborative in the amount of $5,200.
10. Adds new funding for the Asthma Control through Education and Environment project in the amount of $12,495.

On the campaign trail, things are going very well! Fundraising donations continue to come in, I am having great response at doors and neighborhood meetings, and I am happy to announce my first Neighborhood Meeting this Saturday at the home of Monica Zuchowski in downtown Lansing (320 North Walnut Road in Lansing) from 10-12. I am looking forward to sharing my thoughts about the important issues facing our area and all of Michigan, and I want to hear from Lansing and Lansing Township residents about priorities for moving us forward! I hope to see you there, and ask you to please RSVP at rsvp@andyschor.com so we can have an approximate count for food.

Have a great week!

Road Commission, St Vincent and Living Wage, LCC Community Strategic Forums, Campaign Update

Happy Ideas of March (is that a happy occasion?). Sorry once again for not blogging last week. No excuses...I just forgot. But don't fret! I will report today on the actions of the last two weeks.

Road Commission came up once again. I am sure readers would be surprised if it didn't. Not much new this time. We considered a resolution setting public hearings on the transfer of powers, duties and functions of the Road Commission to the Board of Commissioners. Although we have had much testimony already, state law requires two public hearings before we can take any action. In committee, Jim Dravenstatt-Moceri (the Chair of the Road Commission Board) presented a resolution passed by the Road Commission Board (4-0-1) that would have the county take over the HR, Finance, and IT functions from the Road Commission. I thought this was a well written resolution and showed a call for cooperation from the Road Commission. After hearing that information, we considered and passed the resolution setting hearings for the public to comment on the idea of transferring powers. The hearings will be March 27th and April 10th before the Board of Commissioners at 6:30 p.m. in the Board of Commissioners’ Room at the Ingham County Courthouse in Mason. This passed County Services unanimously. It passed the full Board of Commissioners 14-2. Commissioner Todd Tennis said he was being consistent in opposing the takeover and voted no. Commissioner Dale Copedge joined him in opposing the resolution.

The really controversial resolution was a request from St. Vincent Catholic Charities for a permanent waiver of the requirements of the Ingham County Living Wage Policy. In Ingham County, living wage is defined as an hourly wage rate which is equivalent to 125% of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services poverty threshold for a family of four, based on 2,000 hours worked annually. For 2012, the living wage rate is $14.42/hour. Twenty percent (20%) of the hourly rate paid by the employer may be reduced if a comprehensive health care benefits package is provided. Vendors contracting with the County primarily to perform services are required to pay their employees a living wage if (1) the total expenditure of the contract or the total value of all contracts the vendor has with the County exceeds $50,000 in a twelve-month calendar, and (2) The vendor employs five or more employees. Non-profit human services agencies may request a waiver of the provisions of the policy if it
believes that the application of the policy would cause economic harm to the agency in a fashion that would result in the harm created by application of the policy outweighing the benefits of applying the policy.

In 2003, 2004, and again in 2008, the county agreed to requests from St. Vincent for a waiver from the policy provided that adequate yearly progress was being made toward paying its employees a living wage. The 2008 waiver expired on December 31, 2011. St. Vincent again came before the committee requesting an exemption. I asked them several questions. I reminded them that they were supportive of the Living Wage policy and asked us to pass it several years ago. [Note: St Vincent has since responded that they support the living wage concept and are committed to paying a fair and just wage.] They then came in for an exemption and said that they would work towards paying their employees a living wage. [The following is added at the request of St. Vincent] They said that they currently pay staff on this contract at least $10 per hour plus they receive benefits and a pension plan. The discussed that if they were to pay staff under this contract at a higher rate to meet the living wage requirements, they would have to shift all wages in the agency to adjust for this change as they use a system that is just across the board. They stated that doing this would impact their funding as they would have to lay off staff to afford the pay increase and provide fewer services to fewer numbers of clients. They said that the living wage requirement is not a fair market rate and if they were to adjust all the salaries they would probably lose funding due to not being able to meet contractual requirements and outcomes, etc. They stated that this will not only cause the refugee services program to suffer or ultimately shut down, it would also impact all programs within the agency in a negative way.

While I am still very disappointed that they are a charitable organization yet their employees may need public assistance if they are not making the living wage, I don't want to see the Refugee Program shuttered (which would affect 400-500 clients per year). As such, I proposed an amendment that would change the permanent exemption to a three-year exemption so they have to again come to the County Commission and tell us what progress has been made. That amendment passed on a 3-2 vote in committee, then the resolution was passed on to the Board floor.

Before the Board meeting, I had an opportunity to talk to the employees. They said that St. Vincent is not making much progress. They asked us to reduce the exemption time to one year so that they can work with St Vincent to get closer to the living wage. If they can work together, then the employees will join St Vincent in coming to the County Commission next year to discuss progress. I indicated support for this idea and, on the Board floor, proposed and passed an amendment to reduce the exemption to one year. On the Board floor, several Commissioners indicated disappointment in St Vincent for not meeting the goal that was committed to several times. It was stated that taxpayer dollars are being used to pay employees wages so low that they need to use other governmental services such as the Ingham Health Plan. The final resolution which granted a one-year waiver passed. I think the vote was 11-5 or so. Commissioners Vickers, Dougan, and Grebner opposed this because they thought that there should be a permanent exemption. Commissioner Tennis and one or two others (my apologies...I can't remember and don't have my notes) opposed it because they don't think there should be an exemption at all.

[Note: I met with St. Vincent at their request a few weeks after this blog was posted. They told me that their wages are not “so low” and they meet or exceed market value. They gave me their information from their perspective. They said that the employees that are unionized are not eligible for the living wage, and they said that these employees are not part of the discussions with the county. They said that they pay fair and just wages and conduct market analysis studies each year to assure that they are paying within the market value of all positions. They also said that they work with union staff who are exempt under this living wage requirement to negotiate wages per the union contract. I can't say that I agree with them on all counts, but they were very interested in discussing this issue and having Commissioners understand their perspective. I appreciate that. I told them that this will be reviewed again next year, and highly encouraged them to meet with the union and Commissioners so that another controversial debate doesn't happen in committee next year. I am encouraged by their comments.]

In other community news, Lansing Community College is holding community strategic forums. They want to hear from involved community members about how the college can better serve our community. They want to know what our community needs and what role should the college play. Here is the schedule of the upcoming forums:

I attended the first one on Monday, March 12 and was very impressed. They are really trying to hear what the community wants, needs, and expects from the college. I have also heard good things from the Tuesday, March 13th event. The third event happened this evening.

Here is information about future forums:

Friday, March 16 8-9:30 am LCC West Campus Auditorium
5708 Cornerstone Drive, Lansing

Tuesday, March 20 6:30-8 pm Eaton Rapids Public Schools, 912 S Greyhound,
Eaton Rapids

Thursday, March 22 8-9:30 am LCC University Center, rooms 203-204
210 W Shiawassee, Lansing

Thursday, March 22 7-8:30 pm LCC West Campus, rooms M119-M120
5708 Cornerstone Drive, Lansing

Monday, March 26 4:30-6 pm LCC Livingston County Center at Parker Campus, Room 201, 402 Wright Rd, Howell

Tuesday, March 27 4:30-6 pm LCC Clinton County Center, Room 172, 1013 S US 27, St. Johns

Thursday, March 29 4:30-6 pm LCC East, Room 112, 2827 Eyde Parkway, East Lansing

Please RSVP to Adrienne Jenkins at (517) 483-1415 or jenkina6@email.lcc.edu

Campaign Update: I had a GREAT fundraiser on Wednesday. Thanks to Jim McGurkin for hosting and opening up his wonderful house. We raised a lot of money, and the checks are still coming in from those who couldn't make it. I continue to attend meetings and talk to constituents at events, and am enjoying getting out in the great weather. Anyone who is looking to help out will have opportunities, apparently earlier than expected due to the awesome weather. Please sign up to volunteer or contribute at www.andyschor.com. Thanks again to everyone who is helping or supportive!

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!

Dental Director, Future Health Services Issues, Employee Negotiations, Alcohol Tent at Fair, Road Commission, Sun Country Landing Rights in DC

What started out as an easy week was not as easy as I thought! The Human Services Committee met on Monday. We revisited the re-creation of a Dental Director position. After reviewing the scoring of the position by our HR, and re-reviewing the benefit in terms of dollars and service, we all agreed that this was a wise move. Commissioner Vickers asked for language in the resolution specifying this is a 20% administrative position and 80% dental position. The amendment and resolution both passed unanimously. It also passed the County Services committee unanimously on Tuesday. The other major item on the agenda was a presentation on the Transformation of Health Care Delivery by the Health Department. It was interesting. Lots of new regulations and codes and things as a result of the national health care law. We also learned of the increased need, which has led to increased hours and weekend hours for health department staff. We also heard that we will need to look at capacity issue that are coming as soon as 2014, and we heard that federal funds for the Ingham Health Plan will be ending by 2016 with medicaid picking up the slack, and we will need to figure out how to pay for this program. The Ingham County Commission will have lots of outstanding health care issues to solve for our residents!

The County Services meeting was much more controversial. We lead off with a quick review of the language that we passed last week dealing with employee negotiations. The language said, "TO GIVE THE CONTROLLER THE AUTHORITY TO CONTINUE TO PROPOSE TO THE BARGAINING UNITS A HYBRID RETIREMENT PLAN FOR EMPLOYEES HIRED ON OR AFTER JANUARY 12, 2012 AND UNDERSTANDING THAT THE CONTRIBUTION RATES AND MULTIPLIER ARE SUBJECT TO COLLECTIVE BARGAINING." Commissioner Holman (the Chair) clarified that this language is intended to allow for all options to be discussed [previous blog language deleted because of differing interpretations]. Several of the unions expressed appreciation of this clarification, including the UAW, the Michigan Association of Police, the Ingham County Employees Association, and the Michigan Nurses Association.

We then passed a resolution to make the beer/alcohol tent permanent at the County Fair (as long as the Fair Board wants it). The Adult Refreshment Tent was open from 5:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. on weekdays and 3:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. on Saturdays during Fair Week in 2010 and 2011. The 4-H council liaison raised opposition to this because the Fair is integral part of 4-H, and 4-H is a youth development program. He also questioned the income that they county has realized and said that it has only been a few thousand dollars when it was projected to be $50,000. He argued that it is not worth the risk for the low revenue, and that the Fair will lose money because people are not coming due to the alcohol. Commissioner Grebner pointed out that when we first passed this, we were told that there would be drunks and animals let out of cages and accidents and many other disasters. None of these happened. I pointed out that many people have told me that they attend the fair because they can see the show and have a beer or glass of wine. I also pointed out that there is alcohol in other fairs and art festivals and a variety of child-friendly settings. I said that this attracts people to our fair. The Fair Manager agreed that it is not making enough money, but that he will be changing that. He also said that he will put it in a more confined place away from the 4-H and children. Commissioner Vickers said that he does not think that a youth event should have alcohol. The resolution passed 4-2, with Commissioners Vickers and Celentino voting against it.

We had a scheduled presentation from the Road Commission Board. In an interesting coincidence, that afternoon the Michigan House passed the bill allowing County Commissions to eliminate Road Commission Boards and bring the operations in-house. The new Road Commission Chair - Jim Dravenstatt-Moceri - talked about the potential hiring of an HR person in coordination with the county HR staff, and how an HR person will help to prevent the internal problems that exist by meeting with staff confidentially and identifying the problems. He also said that the Road Commission is doing good job with roads. His foal is for the Road Commission to be a good place for employees. He also said that the HR director would meet with union leadership to build a relationship for creditability and trust, which is not existent now. And, he said that the HR director will result in savings by certain things in-house that they now pay lawyers to do. He finally said that they are looking to revamp employee policies and procedures, that they Board has unanimously approved the managing director (Bill Conklin) for another year, and are looking to fill the finance director position in conjunction with the county HR director. Road Commissioner Norm Gear sad that they don't want to undermine the system, want a safe environment, and want efficient work for the constituents of Ingham County. Commissioner Milton Scales said that he supports the Chair and what he wants to accomplish. Road Commissioner Marc Thomas was also in attendance.

Commissioner Mark Grebner forcefully stated that the plan presented by the road commission was unnecessary and irrelevant because the County Commission passed a resolution to disband the Road Commission Board on a 15-1 vote, and that the Road Commission Board should simply talk about how they will assist the transition. Committee Chair Holman said that the Road Commission could present ideas and options, but Grebner pushed back that the County Commission didn't want ideas because we are on record eliminating the Board. Road Commission Chair asked for a year until the County Commission implemented that takeover resolution, but Grebner said that dissolving the Road Commission was the way the County Commission is going until a resolution is passed otherwise. He also told the Road Commission members to stop the hiring process, and that any new staff would be decided by the County Commissioners and County Controller once the Board is dissolved. The County Controller indicated that she is pulling together recommendations to move the operations to the County, including recommendations on benefits and retirement plans and al other factors that need to be figured out. No timeline was given, but indicated that with the imminent signing of the bills, the recommendations will need to be considered soon. With that, the discussion was ended.

Finally, I would point out that we unanimously passed a resolution in support of sun country airlines having landing rights at Reagan National Airport. Sun Country has two inside perimeter slot exemptions at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Sun Country has used these slots for daily roundtrip service between Reagan and Lansing since April of 2011. This service has proven to be popular, with the Sun Country airlines experiencing a 156% increase in daily passengers in the third quarter of 2011 from the year earlier. If Lansing loses this service, it would be one of the few state capitals without non-stop service to Washington, DC. The resolution supports Sun Country Airlines' appeal to retain landing rights and slot exemptions at Reagan airport, and was forwarded to the US Department of Transportation, the Capital Region Airport Authority, Congressman Mike Rogers, Senator Debbie Stabenow, and Senator Carl Levin.

Whew...lots done for the residents of Ingham County this week!

Dental Director Position, Physician Assistant and Pay Level, Road Commission, MLK Jr Day

While I will normally have two committees in the first and third weeks of the month, this week we only had County Services. Human Services was rescheduled to next Monday because of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

The first big item up in County Services dealt with restoration of the Dental Director position, which was eliminated in 2005 as a cost saving measure. According to the Health Department, since 2005 the number of dental patients has grown by more than 3,000 patients as the dental health centers have expanded their service areas to include both local elementary schools and community events. The Community Health Center supervisor and Dental Health Center staff have requested the supervision of a Dental Director to direct the dental health center staff. A dental professional is needed to respond to clinical oral health concerns such as the appropriate course of treatment or proper infection control measures. The restoration of this position will result in an increase in productivity and a consistent standard of care across the health center network. The Health Director identified funding for this by converting a vacant dentist position (which has been vacant since May 28) to a Dental Director/Dentist position, and increasing it one level on the pay scale. The additional salary on the pay scale would come from the Healthy Smiles Dental Center budget, which was formerly dedicated to the University of Michigan School of Dentistry (UMSD) program. The Health Department terminated this agreement with UMSD effective August 31, 2011 due to lack of physical space for the interns to work within the dental centers. We had some good debate about this position. We had many questions about how this would work, and we were assured it would be both a dentist and administrator position. We asked if this would reduce the backlog, and why not just add a new dentist with the money. We were told that it will not greatly reduce the backlog, which is large, because we would need many new dentists to do that. We were also told that there are administrative needs so the staff is asking for the position. I was uncomfortable moving the position to the higher level, and asked for the scoring that was used by our human resources department. They didn’t have that, and other agreed with me that they would like to see that information. I also pointed out that we are only 17 days into the budget and are already being asked to add a new position and have money moved around. There was no good answer as to why this was not done during the budget process last year. As such, I moved to table this item until can have the answers to the scoring and budget questions.

The second controversial Health Department resolution was to hire a new Physicians Assistant, but to have her come in at the Step 5 (highest) pay level. In public comment, we heard from the UAW representative who said that they are being asked for pay cuts and step freezes and other concessions in negotiations, and it is not right to bring someone new in at the highest pay level. Our Health Department representative said that they are not at full capacity and that they constantly struggle to bring in P/A’s, nurse practitioners, and physicians. Our salary level is greatly below what they can make in the private sector, so positions stay open. And when people do agree to come, they want to come in at the highest level. The person being considered for this position has 11 years of experience and likes the population that we are working with, but is taking a large pay cut to come here. We were told that this person would not come for anything but the highest level available, and if we did not approve that then she would walk away and we would continue to have an open medical position. Many of us complained that we have to bring people in at Step 5 and asked, once again, for a study to be done to see if we can re-adjust the pay scales for the jobs that we have people doing. Our new Human Resources director said that this study is being done, and they would have the information for us in a few months. I offered an amendment to reduce the offer from the top of the scale to the second highest because I believe that we should at least try to offer somewhat less than the top amount. I have great concerns that we are asking our current employees to freeze step increases. As was pointed out last week, this means that those hired in at the lower end of the scale and work their way up will take a salary hit, but those that are at the top (usually administrators) will continue to get the top. A step freeze really does seem to be discriminatory against those who make less. This amendment was defeated on a 2-3 vote. With the defeat of the amendment, our choice was to approve or not approve the highest salary. As was pointed out by the Health Department, not approving this salary will leave the position vacant. Doing that would hurt the residents of the community that need the medical services. In addition, doing this would cost the county $400,000 in revenue (reimbursement from the federal government) because of a few thousand dollars in a step increase. Our medical providers are reimbursed by the federal government at a high level because they are federally qualified health department providers. Most of us were not willing to cost the county up to $400,000 in revenue or lose the potential aide to our residents, so we approved the resolution on a 4-1 vote (Vickers opposing). I am looking forward to seeing the study, and to the opportunity to re-evaluate these and other positions to make sure that they are appropriately compensated in relation to the private sector and other public sector jobs (as the budget will allow, of course!).

We took up a few other resolutions, but nothing really too controversial. We reviewed the recent road commission legislation, where there has been no change. We also talked about the road commission hiring new employees in human resources and finance, and there was discontent about this hiring with the status of the road commission in question. I pointed out that the new Chair of the Road Commission has expressed interest in coming to County Services to talk about his views on the potential future of the road commission, and said that I hope that he can be invited to the committee at the next regular meeting. I believe the Chair of the committee, Dianne Holman, is planning to have them in to discuss their plans and how they would like to move forward. So, with the Legislature not taking any action, we will continue to talk to the Road Commission members and assess our options as a County Commission to decide what further actions we intend to take.

I hope everyone had a great MLK, Jr Day and remembered the great man and his message of equality for all. My family watched the “I Have a Dream” speech and my children really enjoyed hearing it and learning more. We are proud that they are learning about his message of equality and diversity in the Lansing Public Schools.

I hope everyone has a great weekend, and I will report on the Human Services committee and the Board of Commissioners meeting next week!

Road Commission, Fair Director, Tubing/Snow Board Hill, Post Office Closure, Storm Ready County, Congrats!

I have finally managed to do it! Work all day, attended two events, home to get the kids to bed, and this blog done before Thursday. I am getting better at this!

This week, we had our final Board of Commissioners meeting of the year. I guess it is fitting that we spent so much time on the Road Commission, and that was the central issue of our last meeting.

The resolution of intent to disband the Ingham County Road Commission and instead create a Department of Transportation and Roads was taken up on the Board floor. I have gone through the arguments several times, so I will just go through the debate. Several Commissioners weighed in with important debate. Commissioner Todd Tennis led off, and said that he believes there are many questions still to answer. He also said he has concerns that the county will be pressured to use general fund dollars on roads if we deal absorb the road commission. He said that he is not necessarily against merging the operation, but that he has unanswered questions and is not ready to support the resolution at this time. I respect that, and appreciate his thoughts on the issue.

Commissioner Dianne Holman said that while she didn't think the language was perfect, she supports the concept and said that we are ready and willing to take action. Commissioner Celentino said basically everything I wanted to say. He said that we have a lot more to do in terms of details, and that we support the employees and will not let them be negatively effective in this whole process. Commissioners Dougan and Schafer and Vickers said that they support the resolution. Schafer said there have been problems with the road commission for years, and Vickers said that the Board doesn't work. Commissioner Rebecca Bahar Cook agreed that this is not targeted at employees, and is is targeted at a broken system. I then weighed in and said that this will be a long implementation process, but that we have done it before with the zoo which was more complex. I also pointed out that we can supplement road funding with county dollars now, so it makes no difference whether or not we have a Road Commission or internal department. Commissioner Vince Dragonetti said that this is a resolution of intent and an option, and said that we can re-establish the Board if needed. Board Chair Grebner said that this communicates to the Road Commission and their upper staff our intentions, and that they should take short term actions and avoid commitments that we will have to deal with later. After this debate, the resolution passed on a roll-call vote 15-1 with Commissioner Tennis voting no. I am sure their will be more on this early next year!

Last week, I wrote about the Fair Director position. That came up tonight. A substitute was introduced that re-inserted performance incentives for the position (reminder - the position will be staffed by a person as part of a company) in addition to the $80,000 salary. It was once again mentioned that there will be no benefits and this will be cheaper than a full time employee. Several people raised the point that we need to have an official policy on incentives. Commissioners Deb Nolan and Rebecca Bahar Cook specifically requested that the County Services committee discuss this at the first meeting next year. That being said, commissioner agreed to allow for it for this one position which is unique. The incentives were listed in the resolution, which said that the factors would be based on fair gate admissions, off-season revenues, and total revenues, benchmarked against a rolling average of the three previous fiscal years' data. I raised my concern that I had in County Services that this really didn't clarify the factors enough. Commissioner Carol Koenig, our Fair Board representative, said that they still needed to work out the details and that it would all be in the contract. I offered an amendment adding language ensuring that these three factors are not the only ones, and that there must be improvement in each of these factors. That way we are ensured that the incentives are significant and are met before incentives are granted. The amendment passed unanimously, then the resolution passed unanimously.

We also considered a resolution that will create a season rate for usage of the tubing hill and snow board hill. We already had daily pass rates, but this created season rates. We amended the resolution to reduce the seasonal rate from $150 to $99 for adults and from $75 to $59 for children. This passed unanimously.

I also sponsored a late resolution opposing the closure of the Collins Road Post Office. The postal service is consolidating nationwide and closing branch office. On their list of potential closures is the Collins Road post office, which is the processing facility for the mid-Michigan area. If this closes, the mail for our area will go through Grand Rapids. It is crazy to me that the Capitol area not have a postal facility for mail processing. The resolution passed unanimously, and we are now on record against this. We will be joining LEAP and others who will be actively fighting this closure and pushing Congressman Mike Rogers to get involved against this closure.

Finally, Ingham County was approved as a “Storm Ready County” by the National Weather Service and received a seal and commendation for this. The Local
Planning Team (LPT) has expanded outdoor warning sirens in the County using grant funds, distributed weather alert radios to residents and businesses, hosted weather spotter seminars, and expanded warning notification using the CodeRED system.

As this was the last meeting, congratulations are in order for several commissioners. Congratulations and thanks to the committee chairs - Commissioner Todd Tennis (Human Services), Rebecca Bahar Cook (Judiciary), Debbie DeLeon (County Services), and Celentino (Law Enforcement). Finally, a special congratulations to Commissioner Mark Grebner, who was Chair of the Board of Commissioners for the last time. He has served as a Commissioner for over 35 years, and this was the last time he will serve as Chair of our Board. Thanks for everything, Mark!

Happy holidays and a happy new year to all!

Road Commission Dissolution Resolution, Thanks to Supporters of My State Rep Race

Happy Thanksgiving! I took last week off due to Thanksgiving, and the fact that there was nothing controversial at the Board meeting last Tuesday.

This week we only had County Services, and it was a special meeting to discuss the proposed road commission resolutions. There were four - my resolution to disband the road commission board and bring the operations in-house, the Grebner resolution to call on all five road commissioners to resign, the resolution calling on the road commission to pass ethics and other policies, and the Vickers/Dragonetti/Schafer/Dougan resolution calling for Shirley Rodgers to resign.

We started with a discussion of procedure. Committee Chair De Leon said that we have four resolutions on the table and someone needs to move one off the table and before the committee. Before that, though, Commissioner Vickers moved to have Chair De Leon replaced by the committee Vice Chair or the Board Chair. This was defeated on a 2-4 vote, and Commissioner Grebner pointed out that there is no actual motion to do this in our rules or Mason's rules (which we use as our rules when our Board rules don't govern).

After that, I moved that my resolution - intending to disband the Road Commission Board and bring the operations in-house - be taken off the table and put before the committee. Our Administrator/Controller Mary Lannoye gave a good update. She went through different potential issues. She said that the HR and Finance operations could easily be brought in to the county. She said there are differences in employee contracts (health care contributions, etc) as well as pension stuff, but these could be worked out easily. We could either maintain separate systems, create a hybrid, or merge them. These are incidental decisions that would have to be made if we determined that the direction of the County Board was to dissolve the Road Commission Board.

Both Mary and I gave an update on the legislative action. We cannot bring the Road Commission in-house under current law, but the Legislature is moving bills to allow us to do this. At the time of the committee, the House had considered the bills on second reading and only had to finalize them with a third reading vote. They changed the bills to indicate that county boards could dissolve appointed road commissions, but elected road commissions would have to be dissolved at the ballot box. So, this won't affect our situation at all. Since then, the House has passed the bills and they are now on to the Senate for consideration. We had someone indicate that they heard from senior Senate staff that the bills will be done by the end of the year. Additionally, the Governor called for these bills and wants them.

The debate was interesting after that. There were lots of comments and questions about the details of what we would do to bring them within the county structure. Mary had answers for all of these questions. We had a long conversation about including an advisory board similar to the 911 advisory board that would deide how the money is expended. The dollars come from Public Act 51 and would be dedicated to road operations as per that law, and the advisory committee would decide what roads, equipment, etc would receive funding. It would likely include members of the service area, so probably township supervisors and other township people. They would make recommendations to the County Board that we could accept or reject and send back to them (which is how it works with 911). It would not, however, deal with internal employee issues. Those would likely go through our normal HR complaint processes and end with the County Services committee (like all other employee complaints). While I did not include this in my resolution, I am wholly supportive of this being added on the Board floor or as a separate resolution. Commissioner Victor Celentino has been as tremendous advocate for the township residents and Supervisors to have inclusion in the process and I expect him to be a leader in crafting this language.

During debate, I talked about the need to do this now because of all the issues that we have had. Things have been more politicized due to the fact that the Road Commissioners are political appointees. They do not necessarily have experience with road issues. And, of course, the biggest problem is that they are appointed for 6 years and have no responsibility to listen to the elected officials or residents or anyone. They can only be removed for malfeasance. To me, it seems that roads should be done as a department of the county just like parks and the health department and animal control and other departments. The management structure will remain intact, with the Controller/Administrator as the top staff and the Board of Commissioners the final decision makers.

Board Chair Grebner said that the road commission is dysfunctional. He said that the problems are not perceived… they are real and the system has broken down. He pushed for the advisory board and said that the county commissioners are still in charge and the final decision makers. He encouraged the adoption of the resolution.

Commissioner Celentino said that passing this resolution will clearly show our intent, and our staff can start working towards getting all the details in place. He said that in his 11 years, the Road Commission has been a roller-coaster ride; and we keep appointing new people but it still doesn't seem to work so now is the time to do this.

Commissioner Copedge said that he is optimistic that the road commission board will can work better. He said that he was opposed to passing the resolution without having discussions with the road commission. He said that we need to invite them in to talk to us. He said that he wasn't necessarily against the resolution but wanted to do his due diligence. He did eventually agree to support the resolution when it was amended (see below). I pointed out that road commissioners were invited to the Tuesday meeting but were advised by local counsel not to attend. I thought that was a mistake because we had yet to hear from them as a body, except for a letter we recently received saying that they are still planning to hire new HR and Finance directors even though the Road Commission Board may be dissolved and both HR and Finance can be done by the existent county staff.

Commissioner Dragonetti said that he was wholly supportive of the resolution and needed change on the Road Commission Board. He and Commissioner Vickers indicated their displeasure with the existing road commission and said that they think we should do this now. Commissioner Vickers asked what would change tomorrow if we do this today. I responded that we cannot take a final action today, and that none of the resolutions on the docket would produce results that quickly. And, in fact, the only resolution that could produce results quick is the one that I introduced. His resolution calling on the Road Commission Chair to resign would not do anything, and removal procedures would require us to provide notification and have the road commissioner then do a resolution and would take a long time.

Commissioners Nolan, Holman, Tsernoglou, McGrain, Schafer were also in attendance. Commissioner Nolan said she is supportive of the resolution and disappointed in the letter from the road commission about hiring. Commissioner McGrain said that he originally was skeptical because this is a lot to take on, but the controller has done her work (and has more to do) but this is the right move to take. Commissioner Schafer said he supports the resolution and the advisory board, and said that commissioners get calls now from constituents and they pass those on and get issues taken care of (brush in the road, etc).

Commissioner Holman said that a department is a good idea but wants to make sure that this is well planned out like 911 and the zoo. She actually pointed out that she had concerns with the effective date in the resolution, at which point I told her that I thought that had been removed. I had several different drafts and thought I removed the effective date in the most recent draft (previous drafts said the resolution is effective 30 days after the Governor signs the bills). The language remained in, though, so Commissioner Grebner and I drafted an amendment to remove that language. Now, the resolution says that we intend to disband the road commission board and create a Department of Transportation and Roads, and once the legislation is passed into law allowing use to do this we will pass another resolution that sets a timeline for this merger and that solves the other details that are being worked on (i.e. employee benefits and pensions and other things).

Commissioner De Leon said she has concerns about additional burdens to our staff, but is more comfortable with this than when it was first brought up. Commissioner Copedge also said at the end of the debate that removal of the 30 days provides him more comfort because he can be sure that the details are taken care of before this is finalized.

So... the resolution passed unanimously (6-0)!!! And with 5 more Commissioners at the meeting saying they will vote for it and at least one or two others telling me they will vote for it, this resolution will pass the Board meeting on the 13th. So we will take the first step. We have been told that the Legislature will pass the bills and they will be signed by the Governor by the end of the year. As soon as we have all the details worked out, we will pass the final resolution and officially bring the county roads in-house.

After we finished that resolution, there was a motion to not take up the other three resolutions (as the preferred one was passed) so they remain on the table indefinitely. They can still be taken up if the Legislature doesn't act, but we are hoping that they are not needed.

It was a long meeting, but a good one. Hopefully this will start us on the path of solving the problems at the road commission. I commend the members of the road commission board who are all trying to do what they think is best, but at this point we have not heard anything in any of our meetings about why decisions have been made in the past and what the plans are for working out the problems in the future. So, we took our own action. I guess we'll see how this continues to play out.

On a personal note, thanks to all who have wished me luck in my State Rep race and to everyone who has expressed their support. The offers to knock doors and contribute and help out have been overwhelming, and I am excited for the campaign and for the opportunity to serve Lansing and Lansing Township in the State House of Representatives!

State Rep Announcement, Road Commission, Parks Hardship Passes, Parks Free Days, Contracts

First, my exciting news. After looking at the possibility for a few months, I have formally announced that I will be running for the State House of Representatives next year. With Rep. Joan Bauer unable to run again due to term limits, I will be seeking to represent most of Lansing and all of Lansing Township. You can see the announcement and other information at www.andyschor.com. The campaign has already knocked hundreds of doors and raised over $45,000, and will continue pushing forward until the August Democratic primary! This also means it is now official that this will be my last term on the County Board of Commissioners. More on that in the future.

On to county business...County Services this week continued talking about the Road Commission. I was unable to be at the committee meeting due to a death in the family and funeral being held that day. My understanding is that they discussed the various options, including my proposal to disband the Road Commission when state law allows us to do so. The committee directed our Administrator/Controller to provide a document with the pros and cons of such a move. The County Services will again take up the road commission issue on November 29th in a special meeting. My hope is for some movement to me made at that point.

They also discussed a resolution that was brought to committee from the Parks Board which would restructure the County policy on hardship admissions to the parks. Currently, if someone cannot afford to pay the car entrance fee they simply state that they need a hardship waiver and are allowed admittance for free. They fill out a form and can be mailed a free parking pass. While this is done for those that cannot afford to pay, the Parks Department is seeing a lot of abuse of this system. They presented a new system where people would fill out a form and provide proof of hardship in order to receive the yearly pass. They would also have to pay a $1 fee for the processing of the free pass to offset money spent on staff time and postage to mail the free passes. Oh, and folks not from Ingham County would no longer be eligible for the waiver. The County Services committee had lots of discussion about this proposal, and tabled it because several were uncomfortable with it.

They did pass one piece of the proposal, though, which would change the weekly free park day from Monday to Wednesday. This would save about $10,000, mostly because Mondays have a lot of holidays and people take Mondays off as part of an extended weekend. The Finance committee also debated this resolution (both the table part and the passed part), and I was there for that meeting. Commissioner Nolan commented that she does not want to see fee increases outside of the normal county budget and fee process. I agreed with that and said that we should deal with all fees at the same time. She also commented that she doesn't like the vehicle adn entrance fees for the zoo because people already pay the millage. She also said that the parks will make a lot of money off of the new tubing and snowboarding hills and shouldn't need the revenue. Commissioner Bahar-Cook agreed that non-county people should not be given a waiver, but expressed problems with the $1 fee and said that seniors should receive parks discounts. Commissoner McGrain suggested that we look at driver's licenses in order to decide who gets the waiver. This is not currently done becuase some people have addresses in Lansing and East Lansing but are not in Ingham County, and it is hard for the young people at the ticket booths to differentiate.
charging for weekdays. He also pointed out that we just started charging for weekdays, so changing from Mondays to Wednesdays should not be a big problem. The resolution passed with Commissioner Nolan voting no (because she likes having the free day on Mondays, and wants to send a message to the Parks Board to do the fees on an annual basis).

We also approved contracts for the 2012 budget. Mostly they were noncontroversial, but a few questions were raised about the appraisals for equalization, tree trimming at zoo and whether or not Lansing City Forestry can do it (which is unlikely becayuse they are overworked now), why Animal Control spay/neutering is going down $8,000 (answer - because we hired a veterinarian), and questions about the Sheriff's secondary road patrol being down 40,000 (answer - the general fund picking this up to ensure the deputy will not be laid off).

That's it for this week!

Road Commission Legal Opinions Released, Locals and Civil Rights, Domestic Partner Benefits, Zoo Director, Zoo Door Safety, Political Stuff

Welcome once again to the Schor blog!

This week, I only had a full County Board of Commissioners meeting. As has happened for the last few weeks, we had public comment about the road commission. After that, we considered a few controversial resolutions.

First, we considered the resolution authorizing the release of attorney/client privileged opinions. The resolution allowed for opinions regarding electing road commissioners and complaints from road commission employees to be released. After hearing from some folks about not knowing the legal definition of malfeasance and misfeasance, I offered an amendment that added the legal opinion regarding how to remove a road commissioner to the list of opinions to be released. My amendment passed unanimously, as did the final resolution releasing all three opinions.

We also considered two resolutions dealing with state legislation. I explained these last week, so I will briefly recap. The first resolution opposed legislation that would prohibit locals from passing regulations that are stronger than the state Civil Rights Act. The moist obvious example is that some local communities pass protections for sexual orientation, which is not covered in the state Civil Rights Act. Other examples include East Lansing's regulation protecting people of non-families or Lansing's housing regulations. Commissioner Grebner explained that locals protect vulnerable individuals that are not in the state act. Commissioner Vickers said that he opposes this because he thinks that all communities should be the same. I disagreed and said that this is about differences in communities and local control. The resolution passed 14-2 (Commissioners Dougan and Vickers opposed). The second resolution called for the Governor to veto the bill eliminating domestic benefits for public employees. Several entities, including Ingham County, allow for domestic partner benefits to cover roommates and others of county employees. This is the same as many private companies. Commissioner Vickers said that there is a $600,000 price tag for the state to do this. Commissioner Tennis replied that this would be far less than the amount to cover married families, yet they are covered without complaint. I also reminded everyone that this is not just about the state, but would affect Ingham County's policy. This resolution passed 13-3 with Commissioners Vickers, Schafer, and Dougan opposing them.

We also considered a resolution which authorized a contract with Sherrie Graham to be the interim zoo director until a new director is found. She would start immediately to assist Gerry Brady, but wouldn't be paid by the county until January when Brady retires officially. Negotiations are still happening regarding pay, so that will come in a separate resolution. Commissioner Dougan was the only person to oppose this.

The last controversial resolution that we considered authorized an increase in the contract to install a new feline shift door. Apparently, the bid packet was incorrect so all that bid on this project bid on something that is more expensive than expected. The resolution approves no more than $30,000 for the construction company that won the bid. While many commissioners had problems with this, we learned that the blame goes to the architect that came up with the bid specs and not the constriction company. In fact, even with the $30,000, the winning bidder is less than the second lowest bidder. There was discussion about re-bidding this, but the doors need to be installed by December 9th when the new lions and tigers arrive at the zoo. We do not want to put zookeepers at risk while we re-bid this, so most agreed that safety is more important than re-bidding this (and likely paying more anyway). This passed 15-1 with Commissioner Dragonetti being the only opposing vote (and he said he was opposing this as a philosophical objection).

Finally, in announcements I announced that I had drafted and introduced a resolution to dissolve the Road Commission Board if the Legislature passes bills to allow us to do this. My resolution would dissolve the Board and bring the operation in-house and under the control of the County Administrator and County Commissioners. The Lansing State Journal had a good article on this. The Legislature is now discussing these bills (I believe they passed the House today) and this is now potentially an option for us. I look forward to discussing this as an option when we discuss the road commission in the County Services committee either on November 15 or 29 (a special meeting).

On a political note, congratulations to all those who were victorious on Tuesday in the local elections. And thanks to all those that ran but were not successful. Running for election is hard, and I think the Cities of Lansing and East Lansing will be well served for the next four years. Additionally, the Lansing and East Lansing School Boards should see new blood that will provide great new and fresh ideas. Now that the local elections are over, my focus will be on my county duties and my race for State Representative in 2012. I should have more on that soon. Stay tuned...

Road Commission, Hawk Island Snow Boarding Hill, Zoo Director, Civil Rights, Domestic Partner Benefits

Another busy week this week. The road commission debate kicked up a notch. In County Services, we considered a resolution to remove Shirley Rodgers from the road Commission Board. There was a ton of discussion by committee members, after hearing lots of testimony from the public. Commissioner Grebner proposed an alternate resolution which stated that the Road Commission Board is dysfunctional. It said that the Road Commissioners do not trust the manager, the manager doesn't respect or take direction from the Road Commission, and the employees don't seem to trust either. The resolution attempted to wipe the slate clean by calling on all five Road Commissioners to resign so we can start over. If they did not resign, the resolution said that we would not re-appoint any of them.

I have not decided yet which way I want to go. I don't know if there is enough evidence to reach malfeasance or misfeasance to remove any of the Road Commissioners. I was asked after the meeting what I thought malfeasance was and I said I wasn't sure how to explain it. I then realized that I am not allowed to explain it because it is contained in an opinion from our attorney. This Tuesday, I am planning to make a motion to release that legal opinion so I can tell people what we believe malfeasance and misfeasance is. We are releasing two other legal opinions so I will attempt to add this one to the list.

I also firmly believe that it is time to abolish the Road Commission Board and bring the road commission in-house and make it a county department. Two other counties have done this, and Ingham needs to do it as well. The Legislature is working on bills that will allow for this, and I am hopeful that they will pass soon. I plan to introduce a resolution that will accomplish this once it the legislation passed and signed into law.

The road commission resolution was tabled until the next county services meeting. While it is my preference to have a special committee set up to explore the allegations, my understanding is that County Services will continue to work on this and has scheduled a special meeting on November 29th at 6 pm for this purpose.

In other news, we passed a resolution allowing for scope changes to the Hawk Island Snow Boarding Hill project to allow for the addition of obstacles, rails and snow sculpted features and potentially a separate warming facility. These items would put the Hawk Island Boarding Hill on Michigan’s map as a destination. The Friends of Ingham County Parks, a non-profit 501c3 organization, will enter into an agreement with Urban Snowparks LLC to act as the fiduciary in regard to fundraising for any and all additions to the current project scope. Any of these additions will not cost the county a dime. They will be paid for by Urban Snowparks, who will do the fundraising and will keep a small percentage (somewhere around 17%) of the dollars as a fee. It is understood by all parties involved that no changes of a permanent nature will be undertaken until all funding is secured and notification has been provided to the Ingham County Parks and Recreation Commission. Additionally, it is understood that the Ingham County Board of Commissioners will not approve further funding for the construction of the Snow Board Hill. We also have no liability in this process. The resolution passed 5-1. Commissioner Vickers voted no because he said he doesn’t know how this fundraising group are presenting themselves to the public.

We also appointed Sherrie Graham as interim zoo director. We needed to do this to ensure we have a zoo director for re-accreditation. Potter Park Zoo society revenue stream increased 20% with Sherrie as leader, and she can do the business stuff for the zoo until a final decision has been made for a permanent zoo director. The Zoo Society is covering Sherrie’s expense until the current Zoo Director retires on Jan 18th. We talked about adding a salary figure into the resolution in both County Services and Finance committees, but are still negotiating that number.

Finally, we passed resolutions opposing two bills in the Legislature. We opposed HB 5039, which says that local units of government can't protect any citizens that aren't protected by the state Elliot Larsen Civil Rights Act. One example of local protections is to prevent those discriminated against for sexual orientation. There are other examples of local protections, though...including East Lansing protecting students. I pointed out that this bill is anti-local control. The resolution passed 4-2, with Commissioners Vickers and Dragonetti voting against it.

We also voted to oppose HB 4770 and 4771. These bills prevent local units of government from providing domestic partner benefits for people that live with county employees. This passed on a 5-1 vote, with Commissioner Vickers opposing it.

This week, we will have the Board of Commissioners meeting on Tuesday. It is also Veterans Day on Friday, and I wish to thank all those that have served in the military and defended our country. You have kept us safe and free, and I thank you!

Until next week...

Andy

Road Commission Resolution Referred to Committee, Health Director Appointed, Medical Officer Re-Created, Dentists Hired

To begin my blog this week, I would like to welcome a variety of new readers of my blog. We once again heard from those unhappy with the Road Commission Board, and this time my blog was read during public comment. As the only person that writes a weekly blog on the County Board, I am happy that people are reading it!

As assumed in my blog last week, we again had a personal resolution introduced calling for Road Commissioner Shirley Rodgers to resign. Before I get into that, I would like to address some confusion with what I have written in my blog.

The Road Commission and its employees are not a “Democrat or Republican” issue. I never meant to insinuate that they are. The Ingham County Road Commission employees do a great job getting the roads fixed and cleared, and I am proud of the work they do. But it is a fact that the late resolutions were introduced by the four Republicans on the County Board. In committee last week and on the Board floor, the late and personal resolutions were introduce by Commissioners Dragonetti,Vickers, Schafer, and Dougan. As far as I know, no Democrats were even talked to about these resolutions before they were introduced. So…it is true that the Republicans introducved these resolutions. As for the motivations of the public that show up, I take them at their word that they are not there because someone asked them to be. It is odd, though, that we had no public coming to committee about the Road Commission problems until the late resolution (introduced by the four Republicans) was sprung on us without any notice. But whatever.

At the Board meeting, we heard significant public testimony from several Road Commission employees and from friends and family of Mr. Jim Benjamin, who was fired from the Road Commission. We then had the resolution calling for Shirley Rodgers to resign or face removal proceedings moved for immediate consideration. Board Chair Grebner explained the Board policy that all personal and late resolutions are automatically referred to committee unless they have already been considered at committee or the Board votes to overrule the rules on a 2/3 vote. This is to ensure that the public has the appropriate notice of the resolution because it is on the official agenda, ensure that the attorney can review it and comment on the legality, and to ensure that committee work (language details) can be done in committee. The motion was made to have the resolution not be referred to committee, but it was defeated 5-11. 4 Republicans and 1 Democrat voted to keep the resolution on the Board floor. Personally, I voted against it because I think that this needs to be worked on in committee. I read the resolution. It said a lot of bad things about Shirley Rodgers, but included not one thing that she did wrong. I would like for some of those things to be included so we can at least have the allegations written down before, and any accompanying proof given to us, before considering something like this on the Board floor. I also am not comfortable calling for a resignation. That does nothing and is a waste of everyone’s time. If there is proof of malfeasance or misfeasance of any Road Commissioner, I am willing to consider that. This is the role of the County Commission. Under state law, we cannot overrule decisions made by the Road Commission nor can we reinstate any employees such as Mr. Benjamin. We can take written proof given to us and decide if a Road Commissioner has committed malfeasance or misfeasance in office as according to the conditions in the law and case law.

The resolution was referred to County Services, where it is on the agenda for Tuesday. So I will report more on this next week. Personally, I look forward to actually seeing the evidence that is out there in support of malfeasance. Instead of hearing about police reports and secret investigations, I hope that information is given to us proving these and all other accusations so we can find finality on this resolution. Again, we can’t re-hire Mr. Benjamin. He was terminated with a majority vote by the Road Commission (EDITORS'S NOTE...In the original blog posting, I said that it was ironic that Shirley Rodgers voted against it. That was incorrect and was brought to my attention by a member of the public. Milton Scales voted against it and the other 4 Commissioners voted for it. I confused this vote with another voted taken by the by the road commission. My apologies) and we have no say over their management employees. I have no opinion on whether he should or should not have been terminated. I don’t know him and have never met him. I don’t know if he is a good or bad manager . He clearly has many supporters. He also has some detractors. He has filed a complaint and we will look at it and deem if county policies were violated or not and act accordingly.

In other business, we bid farewell to our Health Director, Dean Sienko. He has been an incredible Health Director for Ingham County, and is a state and national leader. We also welcomed Dr. Renee Canady, who will be our new Health Department Director. Dr. Sienko had been serving as the Health Officer/Medical Director/Medical Examiner in his role as Director. We recently discovered that we re-created the Health Officer position, as needed, and appointed Dr. Canady to that position. We neglected, though, to re-establish an independent Medical Director position. This needs to be done immediately as we need to have one as soon as Dr. Sienko is retired. We had a late resolution to re-establish this position. Again, because it is a late resolution, we needed a 2/3 vote to consider it that night. Commissioners Vickers and Dragonetti voted against consideration and passage of this resolution because they were upset that this was considered immediately but the Road Commission resolution was not. It did pass, though, on a bi-partisan 14-2 vote (with bi-partisan support).

The only other resolution that was controversial on the agenda was a resolution to authorize dental services contracts with our licensed dentists. Ingham County’s Community Health Center Network (CHCN) operates two dental health centers and uses a mix of employed and contracted dentists to provide services. The Health Department’s 2012 Budget includes $159,120 to pay for contractual dentists. This resolution approved the contracts through the end of 2012. Commissioner Vickers opposed this as well and said that the pay for the dentists is too much compared to the amount that we pay our other employees. While I understand that we are paying our dentists higher than other employees, we also are well aware that dentists are very hard to hire. We have had dentist shortages in the recent years because we can't pay them enough. The result is reduced service to those in Ingham County that have severe dental needs. We are still paying lower than private dentists receive but are at least able to actually hire dentists and provide the service to those who desperately need it in Ingham County. The resolution passed 14-2 (again with bi-partisan support).

Well, that's about it. I hope you are having a great weekend and I will report back again at the end of the week!

Airport Update, Road Commission, Health Care Costs, Zoo Entrance Fees Increased, Health and Fair Directors selected, Office,Congrats Bob Trezise!

This week was a busy week, as it always is when we have multiple committees meeting.

The most significant, and yet least contentious, thing that we did this week was to pass the 2012 Spending Resolution. This implements our budget for next year. Yay! That's just about done!

In County Services, hear an update from the Capitol Area Airport Authority Executive Director. It was a good presentation. He pointed out many things, including the fact that the airport has a return on investment of $178 for each tax dollar invested. This is a stat used to justify the millage, and is convincing. It is worth noting, though, that the Airport (located in Clinton County) is wholly supported publicly through a millage that Ingham County and City of Lansing residents pay even though it provides benefit for Ingham, Eaton, and Clinton counties. I asked what the return on investment would be if Eaton and Clinton and county resident contributed, and the answer was that there would be about $375 in return on investment per dollar invested!. Other highlights were the great work the Authority is doing attracting airlines and cargo, that we have the only Foreign Trade Zone outside of Chicago and Detroit in the midwest, and that the that Port Lansing Foreigh Trade Zone takes in 8 counties. With the approval of a tax sharing agreement (called a 425 agreement) between Lansing and DeWitt Twp, they are hoping to create a Next Michigan District that will provide incentives to businesses to locate on Airport land and create more revenues for the local units of government.

After hearing this presentation, Commissioners Vickers and Dragonetti attempted to add a resolution to the agenda to call for the resignation of Ingham County Road Commissioner Shirley Rodgers. As background, resolutions are usually presented for the agenda of a committee about a week in advance and placed on that agenda. Because the resolution was introduced at the last minute, I voted against suspending the rules to add it to the agenda. I had not even read it when it came up for a vote about adding it to the agenda. After hearing public comment for the last month, this was not something that needed to be done at the last minute. As such, I voted against this and suggested that this be done through the normal process. The resolution failed 2-4. I expect to see it again introduced as a late item on the Board floor on Tuesday and, if history repeats itself, I expect that the four Republicans will contact the media and tell residents to come because the Road Commisison will be on the agenda. Of course, that is not true and it will simply be the Republicans manipulating the public just to have them be let down...but that seems to be par for the course. They are trying to create anger instead of trying to go through the actual process and govern.

Health care costs are always a concern to any local government. In Ingham County, we receive recommendations from a coalition of employers and employees. This week in Finance and County Services, we received the Health Care recommendations for the year. We were recently notified by PHP that our 2012 health insurance premiums would need to be modified to include the 1% state claims tax that was recently passed by the Legislature and signed by the Governor.
Half this cost was borne by the employees and half by the County. Increase in our employee’s contribution levels, though, resulted in a change to the benefits as required under the Federal Health Reform Act. The Act requires that all preventive medical services be provided with no co-pays. We believed our plan was under a grandfather provision which allowed us to delay implementation of these provisions until 2014. This is no longer true, though, because of the increase. As such, we had another small increase (.09%) in our premium rates for 2012. Since this amount is due to the employee’s contribution increase, the County is agreeing to absorb this
portion of the rate increase. Even with both of these changes, we are still in compliance with State requirement that employees must pay at least 80% of their health care costs (the so-called 80/20 law). Both the County and the unions supported this plan for health care for 2012.

Finally, we had a recommendation from the Potter Park Zoo Committee and the Parks Board to increase entrance fees for the zoo. The Potter Park Zoo staff researched zoo admission fees, using other zoos for comparison purposes, and they believe that the fee changes will continue to put the Potter Park Zoo in a favorable position relative to Detroit Zoo, Binder Park Zoo, and John Ball Zoo entry fees. They indicated that the need the additional $90,000 in funding to provide adequate funding for the Potter Park Zoo operations in order to offset rising costs and decreased millage amounts being collected, and to ensure AZA certification.

The resolution presented in County Services included a $2 proposed increase in the Resident Adult (from $4 to $6) and Non-Resident Adult (from $10 to $12) fees, and an increase in Children fees from $2 to $3 in addition to reducing the age from3-16 to 3-12 years of age. I argued against the fee increases. I said that residents are already paying $2.8 million, in additon to paying the parking fees and the entrance fees. I am opposed to increasing the fees again, especially after the millage was just renewed and the parking just went up for daily and yearly passed. In County Services, this opposition was agreed to by all (Commissioner Vickers said he agreed with me and we all had a good laugh!). The resolution failed 0-6.

When the resolution came up in Finance, Commissioner Bahar-Cook argued stongly for the fee increase. She said that the voters have passed two millages and want a strong zoo. She also said that if AZA funding is jeopardized, then the Zoo will be nothing more than a petting zoo and all will be for naught. Commissioner McGrain proposed an amendment that changed the fees around a bit. His amendment changed the Resident Adult fees to only going up $1 (from $4 to $5), had the non-Resident Adult fees going up $4 more (from $10 to $14), and left the Children where there are today with the fee and age staying at $2 for children 3-16 years of age. This amendment passed unanimously. It would generate the same amount as the originally proposed fees and, for those paying the millage, would only have Resident adults paying $1 more than now. With the new language, the fee increase resolution passed on a 4-2 vote. I continued to oppose it because I still think that we shouldn't be raising the fees again.

Finally, we accepted the Health Officer Selection Committee’s recommendation and passed a resolution appointing Renee Canady to the permanent full-time position of Ingham County Health Officer. We also made an offer to a person for the job of the Fair Manager.

And one last thing to mention...I wish to offer congratulations to Bob Trezise, new incoming President of the Lansing Economic Area Partnership (LEAP). Bob has done an excellent job at the Lansing Economic Development Corporation and will be missed by Lansing residents, but he is exactly what the region needs for LEAP to succeed and bring us forward. CONGRATS, BOB! We are all counting on you! (no pressure, though)

Whew...I'm done! Till next week...

Road Commission Public Comment, Ingham Maintaining Lansing Parks

This the Board of Commissioners meeting was mostly about an item that was not on the agenda!

We spent an hour and a half hearing from folks about the road commission. About 70 people came to the Board meeting to complain about the Road Commission members and to support certain senior members of the staff. We clearly heard one side of the story, and the large number of people was set up by someone. At the end of the meeting, during Commissioner announcements, the issue came up again when a few Commissioners commented on their opinions.

I won’t go into the comments because there were a lot of accusations and innuendo made that don’t really need repeating. The one thing I do want to repeat are the comments that were made by Commissioner Carol Koenig. She said what I was thinking, which is that the County Board of Commissioners has ABSOLUTELY NO POWER in regards to the inner workings of the Road Commission. We appoint the Road Commissioners, and we don’t have appointments up again until the end of next year. We can also remove a road commissioner if there is malfeasance in office. If someone commits a crime or something egregious, we could take action to remove a commissioner. To date, no one has brought us any evidence of malfeasance. As such, under state law, there is nothing that we can do. Complaints can and should be made to the Road Commission members, who are the ones that govern the Road Commission operations. If people want a change in Road Commission members, they can make that request when Road Commission appointments are again considered next year. I honestly feel that all these 70 or so people were tricked a bit because they were told that they should come to the Board of Commissioners to make their comments. Unless it was a media ploy…which I guess is possible.

The actual Board meeting lasted about 20 minutes. There was one resolution that had dissenting votes – the resolution amending the agreement between Ingham County and the City of Lansing for the County to maintain certain City parks (and be compensated by the City). The vote was 12-3, with 3 of the Republicans opposing the resolution (and the 4^th being absent). There was no explanation given for the opposition votes. My only assumption, based on what was said in committee, is that the Republicans don’t want the County to assist the City of Lansing even though the County is being fully compensated for all its expenses. This was actually said in committee, when one of the Repubvlican Commissioners said that after the zoo and now this, he didn’t want to keep helping the City of Lansing. That is tremendously disappoinbting to me. This resolution is about regionalism and government efficiency, and the Republicans voted against it because they don’t want to help Lansing. They donb’t want to help the central city of the region, which is nothing but short-sighted. I would have voted for this resolution had it been for Lansing, East Lansing, Leslie or Mason. If we can help any of our local governments and get paid fully for our expenses, then that is just good government. I am disappointed that the Repiublicans didn’t explain themselves at the Board and that they have purposely voted against the resolution because it assists the City of Lansing. Very upsetting.

Well, that’s it for me. I hope everyone has a great week and weekend. And Happy New Year to those of the Jewish faith!

Road Commission, Drain Assessor, Parks Vending Machines, Zoo, Land Bank

This week we had a meeting of the full Board of Commissioners. We once again had issues with the road commission come up. Several employees attended the meeting to protest the allegations that have been made at the road commission. Commissioner Deb DeLeon informed them that the County Services will take up the issues at the road commission and listen to all points of view as we try to determine what is happening. As expected, the Board appointed Marc Thomas and Milton Scales to the two road commission spots.

We also hear from a gentleman who represented Michigan Open Carry, Incorporated. He indicated that he is against the library policy of prohibiting open carry and that it is against the law, and indicated a possibility of pending litigation. I assume he brought this to us because the Ingham County Commission appoints people to the Capital Area District Library Board.

For the items on the agenda, we once again considered the resolution to create a position in the Drain Commissioner’s office to do assessments for the drainage districts. I again mentioned that this was a matter of efficiency. We eliminated a 1/2 time position from the general fund, and the Drain Commissioner is funding a full-time position through the drainage districts which he says is a cast savings to taxpayers. The Republicans argued that this is reckless spending at the Drain office. The resolution passed 12-4.

We also unanimously passed a resolution authorizing a contract with the Dr. Pepper/Snapple group for vending machine service at all Ingham County parks. This project involved soliciting proposals from qualified and experienced vendors interested in entering into a contract with the County to provide beverage vending machines and product at the three county parks: Burchfield Park, Lake Lansing Park, and Hawk Island Park. The request for proposals included evaluations of many different options with respect to the placement of the vending machines, sponsoring options (e.g. banners, field signage, etc.), promotional incentives, advertisements, and commission/rebate options. The final contract includes a 40% commission on all product priced at $1.25, and no extra delivery fees for concession sales. The Dr.
Pepper proposal was the most financially advantageous proposal to the County. Dr. Pepper will also provide and place all equipment and vending machines, and repair and maintain the equipment and machines based on need or predetermined service intervals during the term of the 3-year agreement.

Yet another resolution that we passed unamimously amended the Potter Park Zoo Master plan by removing the Meerkat Exhibit due to a lack of available funding. The 20010 master plan is laid out by world regions with a new area focused on North American.
The master plan lists current projects as; the Rhinoceros exhibit, Meerkat exhibit and Eagle owl exhibit. The Eagle owl exhibit was completed in 2010 and the Rhinoceros exhibit will be completed in 2011. In 2010, $58,000 of the $100,000 of funding planned for the Meerkat exhibit renovation was transferred to the Rhinoceros exhibit. This leaves a balance of $42,000 in the Meerkat exhibit which is
insufficient to complete a renovation, without a significant fund raising campaign. In the new master plan the Meerkat exhibit is located in a new location. During the course of implementing the zoo master plan, constructing a new Meerkat exhibit which will be located in the Lake Tanganyika region, should be done when that region of the zoo is embarked upon. In 2011 the Potter Park Zoological Society will start a capital campaign that will concurrently seek financial support for phase one, Michigan Great Lakes, as well as phase two, the Animal Health Care and Teaching Facility. The Zoo Board and Parks & Recreation Commission supported the amendment
of the Potter Park Zoo Master Plan at their December 2010 meetings.

Finally, I would like to add in a report on economic development in Ingham County. The Land Bank reports that 2010 was another great year of growth for the Land Bank. We had 22 home sales and moved forward on a number of commercial redevelopments. At year end we owned 657 parcels, including 201 structures with demolition slated for 60. More renovation, new homes and demolition to follow! 2011 will be another big year as the Neighborhood Stabilization Program funding kicks into high gear. We have a dozen homes wrapping up renovation in the next 6 weeks. Please visit www.inghamlandbank.org for updates and homes for sale. Also, the Ingham County Brownfield Authority Land Bank/Brownfield Plans are one special funding source we bring to the table. We had a great bond sale this week for $2,685,000 at just under 4.65% interest cost on a 15 year issue.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!