Adult Refreshment Tent at Fair, Sun Country Landing Rights, Ingham Health Plan, Campaign Update

Sorry this blog is so late. Due to personal family reasons, last week was very crazy for me and next week may be the same. As such, this will be a short blog.

The Ingham County Commission met this week. The only resolution that we passed which was controversial was permanently allowing the Fair Board to offer an Adult Refreshment Tent (with beer and wine) at the Ingham County Fair. As was raised in committee, none of the predicted problems have happened over the last two years. No drunken people causing mischief, no public safety problems, no drunk driving, etc. In fact, there have been no problems at all with this. Commissioner Vickers said that the fair has the 4-H and it is not a proper venue for a beer tent. Commissioner Koenig responded that there hasn't been a problem. Commissioner Bahar-Cook added that she patronized the refreshment tent, and the staff did a great job of IDing those that entered the tent and of watching the drinking. I also added that this is an option that can be used to attract to people to the fair, which was mentioned to me by constituents. Commissioner Dougan then weighed in and said that this is not an option to raise money that he supports. The resolution passed on a bi-partisan vote with 11 Commissioners voting yes (10 Democrats and 1 Republican) and Commissioners Dougan, Vickers, Schafer, Celentino, and Copedge voting no (3 GOP and 2 Dems).http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

In non-controversial votes, the Board took a position calling on the federal government not to shut down the landing rights for Sun Country Airlines, which flies from Lansing to DC. We also authorized over $3 million to go to the Ingham Health Plan Corporation for health care benefits to those without health insurance through the Ingham Health Plan.

On the campaign trail, everything continues to go very well. I have been meeting with neighborhood groups and other groups in Lansing and Lansing Township. More and more people (electeds, neighborhood leaders, unions, business leaders,http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif etc) are signing on to my campaign every week. Fundraising is going very well, and we have our next fundraiser on March 14th in Lansing (check it out here on facebook!). If you want to contribute, sign up to volunteer to knock doors or help out otherwise, have a lawn sign outside your house or business, or just keep up with the campaign...you can go to and click on the appropriate link.

Thanks everyone for all your support! I will keep fighting for Ingham County residents on the County Commission, and look forward to the opportunity to fight for Lansing are residents in the Michigan House of Representatives!

Andy

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!

Beer Tent at Fair, Incentive Clause for Fair Manager, Honoring MLK and Dot Wilson and Cristo Rey

Sorry to be late with this blog. As my campaign for State Representative heats up, I will be going to more and more events and have less time. But I will not neglect my county duties and will try to get this blog out as quickly as possible.

In County Services this week, we took up a resolution to permanently authorize the Fair Board to allow for an adult refreshment tent at the Ingham County Fairgrounds. A few years ago, we debated this and voted to authorize the Fair Board to allow the fair to offer alcohol in a segregated and controlled environment, but only for a two year pilot. That vote was controversial because several people gave public comment that having a beer/alcohol tent would result in all kinds of problems - drunk people letting animals out of the pens, fights, drunk driving, etc. Now that we have two years experience and have had absolutely zero problems at the fair dealing with the beer/alcohol tents, we were considering a resolution to make this permanently allowed (but still up to the discretion of the Fair Board). Commissioner Grebner commented that he wanted to be sure to alert the people who opposed this that we would be taking up this resolution before we actually vote on it. He reiterated that there have been no problems and that the concerns were unfounded, but thought we should proactively notify these residents. It was also pointed out that the fair made money on the beer/alcohol tent which kept the fair in the black. Commissioner Vickers agreed that there were no problems, but requested the financials for the last two years for the fair. Both he and Commissioner Dragonetti questioned whether the financial numbers included set-up and staffing costs for the beer tent. The resolution was tabled for a meeting in order to invite the members of the public that testified previously, and to have the financial information presented to the committee.

The second controversial resolution at County Services was the resolution to hire a new Fair Manager. The resolution was much more controversial. Instead of hiring a county employee, this would hire a gentleman who was highly qualified through a company he had formed. He wanted to forego benefits and just get paid a salary. The catch is that he also wanted incentive dollars. The resolution would have authorized a salary at $80,000, plus an additional $7,500 at the end of first year and up to $15,000 at the end of the 2nd year. It was pointed out that this is cheaper than what the county pays for a full time employee at the lowest step (because benefits are not being paid, and they could be up t0 $40,000). Incentives could include making money, increased customers at the fair, effective marketing techniques, filling the commercial sponsors by some %, filling the spaces, etc...and would be created by the Fair Board with approval from the Controller.

I had serious concerns about voting for a contract with incentive money. I was especially concerned about the idea of approving this when we don't even know what the incentives will be. Because the resolution already required the controller to approve the incentives used before incentive money is disbursed, I proposed an amendment that was passed that requires the Controller to report the conditions to the County Services Committee. This will ensure that we know what those incentives are, and that we approve. I agreed to support this resolution because Controller Lannoye and Committee Chair DeLeon said that this candidate was the best that we had and that they want to finalize this contract over the next week or two.

In Finance Committee, this resolution saw even further scrutiny. Commissioner Nolan argued that Ingham County doesn't need a full time fair director for a fair that is one week in the summer, and for other random bookings of the fair grounds. She asked about comparable fairs, and said that $80,000 is a lot of money. Honestly, she made a lot of sense. Then, Commissioner Bahar-Cook also made some great points. She asked if this is the only contract he will have. Will he be available as we need him? Is he doing other fairs? If we are contracting with him through a company, how do we know that he will be doing our work first and foremost? Other questions arose from committee members about whether he will be principally based here, and if he would be doing the day to day supervision of our county staff. It was expressed that there should be a statement of hours provided to controller, and expectation of day-to-day supervision of county staff and hours, and requirements of working on site - as would be expected of a full time county employee. Commissioner Grebner and Bahar-Cook proposed an amendment which passed requiring a statement of hours worked on a regular basis to assure that services provided are comparable to a full time employee. Additionally, an amendment was passed to eliminate the incentives. Again, several committee members mentioned that an incentive bonus is not something we do with any other employee. The parks director doesn't get this for the number of users of the parks; the health department doesn't get this for assisting clients; etc. Commissioner McGrain along with Commissioners Bahar-Cook and Nolan said that even if this way is cheaper, it is still something we don't do with our county directors. Also, it was pointed out that other employees could decide not to take benefits, and we don't offer them incentives. It was a very convincing argument and I decided to support the amendment. Commissioner McGrain pointed out that we could review the county policy and implement these countywide, but not just for the Fair Director. After these amendments were passed, the resolution was passed and will now go to the Board floor.

We also approved several resolutions, including a resolution honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a resolution honoring Dorothy (Dot) Wilson who recently passed away, and a resolution honoring Cristo Rey Church on the event of its 50th Anniversary.

I will note that these were the last committee meetings of the year. Next year I will be on the Human Services and County Services committees, so you will hear about the issues that those two committees discuss. We have one more Board meeting, on Tuesday, where we will deal with the Intent to Dissolve the Road Commission resolution in addition to the resolutions mentioned in this blog.

Beer Tents, Commissioner Compensation, and Rayner Park...and a political update and clarification.

At the Board meeting tonight, Commissioners McGrain and Davis introduced the resolution to allow for a beer tent at the Ingham County Fair. Because it failed in committee, these Commissioners had to introduce this as a personal resolution. Since I blogged about this last week, I have heard from an interesting cross-section of people. I have heard from 4-H people who are opposed because they think it is immoral to serve alcohol in a place where children are. I have also heard from a variety of people who say that a beer tent will allow adults to enjoy the fair even more, especially at night. I was told that in SE Michigan, even the churches have beer tents these days. And I was told that in our area, there is beer at the Williamston Jubilee (where they serve in milk jugs, the Charlotte Frontier Days, the Mint Festival, and the Eagle days. All of these have children at them, all serve alcohol, and none have seen the dire predictions of the 4-H come true. In the end, it seems to me that we want the fair to be self-sustaining. How can we expect that, then shut down the ideas that they have to actually bring in revenue. If they try it one year and the revenue goes down because people are not coming or because of dangers, then they will stop (or we will make them stop). But I am open to this and other solutions to ensure that we still have a County Fair, but do not have to subsidize it with county tax dollars. The debate was very interesting and passionate, and the resolution passed 11-5.

As mentioned last week, we also considered and passed (15-1) Commissioner Compensation with no pay increase. Commissioner Grebner made an eloquent speech about the necessity to have well compensated elected offiials in order to make good decisions for the county. He argued that if we don't compensate people for the many hours they spend on county issues, then we will not have good representation on the Board. While I understand the argument, I voted against pay raises for Commissioners because I believe that if our employees are not getting pay raises in the future (which will likely happen) and if they are forced to take furlough days, then so should the Commissioners. Our employees work hard and deserve to be compensated. We Commissioners cannot take pay raises if our employees do not. That is also why a few years ago I voted to eliminate the 2009 pay raise and have given back my 2010 pay raise this year (starting in January, before my contested campaign began).

Finally, we considered moving Rayner Park to the City of Mason. As you may recall, in County Services and Finance we agree to a resolution that would require the City to maintain the park as parkland for 20 years. After that, they would be able to change the use or sell it (as according to their charter requirements). But we limited the transfer of property to the park only, and not the woods between the park and the fairgrounds. The City came back to us agreeing to the proposal only if it also included the woods. During testimony, there were several Mason residents and others who talked about the necessity of using the woods for its trails and other purposes. Upon seeing that both the Commission and the residents want to use the property as woods, Commissioner Todd Tennis moved an amendment to re-include the woods in the deal. This amendment passed 13-3. The resolution then passed 16-0. So the entire parkland was moved to the City of Mason for $1 per year, and they cannot use it for anything other than parks for 20 years. After that, the entire thing is the property of the city to do as they wish, and they will answer to their constituents if they try to make any changes. Both the County and the City agreed to this and will sign a legal agreement, and the park will open very soon.

Oh, and the Board unanimously passed a resolution I sponsored commending Donna Olds on her retirement. Donna is the principal at Mt. Hope Elementary (in my district). She is retiring after 37 years in the Lansing School District...and I thank her for everything she has done for our children!!!

On the political front, the campaign continues to go extremely well! While my opponent has attacked me with distortions of my record in an email to Democratic Party members and at voter doors, constituents are seeing through this nonsense. I have a fundraiser coming up to raise money so I can continue to spread the truth about my record and let voters honestly decide if I deserve another term. If you would like to contribute or put up a yard sign or assist in any other way, please let me know!

NOTE: In one of my previous blogs, I said that the City doesn’t allow political yard signs to go up until July 1. When I first ran for office, the city had an ordinance not allowing political yard signs until 30 days before the election. A few years later, the Supreme Court ruled that all yard sign ordinances were unconstitutional and could be ignored. As such, the City repealed the ordinance. Candidates in Lansing, though, have generally observed the spirit of the ordinance and have not put up political yard signs until 30 days before the primary. Neither I nor my Republican opponents have put up yard signs before this time in my other elections. My opponent in the Democratic primary chose to put up his signs about 2½ months before election day. While I know residents don’t like having signs up that early, I had to respond in-kind and get mine up (thanks to all those who are helping with that!). Sorry for any confusion!

Land Bank, Beer Tent at Fair, and 0% Pay Increase for Commissioners (as promised!)

The County Services and Finance committees this week took up a resolution moving properties to the Ingham County Land Bank. Several of these were in my district so I took particular notice of them. This is a good time to talk about the Land Bank and how it works. When properties are foreclosed, the county and the city have a chance to use them for public use. If they don’t the properties go to sale at auction. If no one buys them, the county sells them to the Land Bank, which is a relatively new tool (created in the last 10 years or so). The Land Bank has money in a revolving loan fund that they spend to acquire the property then fix it up and sell it at fair market value. They also have received a significant amount of federal dollars (a few million) for properties in the City of Lansing. In essence, they rehab existing properties using economic development tools (Brownfield, etc) and cash on hand. This is exceptionally useful in urban areas as there are tons of foreclosed and vacant properties (but is also great in rural areas for fixing properties). The Land Bank puts those properties back on the tax rolls. Ingham County Treasurer Eric Schertzing is a leader in the Land Bank community and is a pioneer in redevelopment. I served on the Land Bank and witnessed first-hand the exceptional things they do. The resolution we passed this week will allow the Land Bank to rehab several properties and get them back on the tax rolls. I am a proud supporter of that effort!

The Fair Board sent the Board of Commissioners a resolution asking us to create a beer tent at the annual Ingham County Fair. As I have mentioned before, the Fair is self-sustaining and takes no general fund dollars. They have had problems actually being self-sustaining in recent years and this is one revenue generating measure they recommended to us. They anticipated that two volunteer groups would work the tent and will be recruited and trained by the distributor. These volunteer groups would be required to carry liability insurance. The hours of operation would be limited to Monday – Friday from 5:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. with service stopped at 11:00 p.m.; and Saturday 3:30 p.m. – 11:30 p.m. with service stopped at 11:00 p.m. A conservative estimate is that the net revenue generated from the adult refreshment tent would be $12,000 - $15,000 and would be split 50/50 by the fair and the volunteer group(s). The Sheriff is supportive if there is an officer at the gate of the tent. The tent will be located in the Midway area, on the north side of the grandstand. This area will be fenced and admittance will be limited to adults 21 years and older. This will allow adults to sit and observe the Grand stand events from the refreshment area. No one will be permitted to leave the fenced area with a beverage. Beer, malt liquor, and wine will be the only alcohol served. Pricing will not be discounted below industry standards. Individuals will only be able to purchase two drinks at a time. Licensee for the tent will be 501C (3) non-profit group/s. Six other Michigan fairs have beer tents and have not had problems. A woman from Bunker Hill Township representing the 4-H (I can't remember her name) opposed this resolution with concern that children will get alcohol. I supported this resolution with the safeguards outlined (security, seperate area, age requirements, etc.). The resolution was defeated 3-3 in County Services. There are indications, though, that this will be brought up as a personal resolution on the Boad floor, so the full Board will vote on this on Tuesday.


The County Services and Finance Committees passed a resolution setting Commissioner pay for the 2011 and 2012 years. We always set them a term in advance. We passed compensation that is the same as the current year, with no payraise. I have been adamant that Commissioners should not receive pay raises when employees don't receive them. We work hard, but so do our employees and everyone needs to sacrifice. We should not take pay raises if county employees are not. In fact, last year I voted to eliminate the 2009 payraise and reduce the 2010 payraise. Because I don't think Commissioners should be receiving a payraise in 2010, I contributed mine back to the county to go towards necessary county services. Commissioner Grebner will argue that Commissioners should have payraises, and he will make that passionate argument on Tuesday at our full Board meeting. I will report on that next week!


We also started to deal with Rayner Park. The County closed the Park last year and now is in the process of trying to give it to the City of Mason. But, as always, issues have arisen. We are working through those and I expect this to be cleared up soon. This blog is long enough already, so stay tuned and I will give more on the background of this issue in a future blog.


On the political front, the campaign continues to go well. I have talked to many voters who think I am doing a good job and who are unhappy with the negative campaign of my opponent. In an email to county Democratic party members, he made many of the same negative allegations against all of the County Commissioners and again failed to list any issues he wants to advocate for. I also found out that he lied to the Military Order of the Purple Heart about my vote on funding for them. I supported funding for them two years in a row, and he is saying that I opposed it. He is also saying that I am moving out of the district in two years. Where am I going? This was news to me! Thanks to my supporters who told me about both of these falsifications that he is spreading. Should be an interesting 60 days until the election. If you want a lawn sign or want to assist in some other way, please email me at aschor@yahoo.com.

Thanks!

Andy