[0:00] thank you everyone for your patience if we could um i'd like to call the meeting

[0:05] of the human services committee to order we could all stand for the pledge of

[0:08] allegiance please i pledge

[0:12] [Music] allegiance and to the republic for which

[0:17] it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for

[0:24] all

[0:26] could the clerk take the role please commissioner mcconnell here commissioner

[0:30] baldwin commissioner boehm commissioner dunn

[0:33] here commissioner rushing here commissioner vandenbosch here

[0:37] commissioner beaton president are there any additions deletions or

[0:41] changes to the agenda make a motion to accept the

[0:44] agenda as presented support all in favor

[0:49] any opposed uh are there any citizens wishing to be

[0:53] heard tonight moving on

[0:56] any updates any conceptual initiatives

[1:02] no old business so moving into new business item a

[1:06] contract renewal approval request for a stat courier service make a motion to

[1:10] send it full board support any discussion

[1:15] all in favor any opposed

[1:19] motion carries item b resolution 2210 placing proposed sinclair county library

[1:24] system millage on the ballot i'd make the motion to send it to the full board

[1:28] support any discussion

[1:32] all in favor aye any opposed motion carries item c

[1:36] sinclair county library system 2022 closings request

[1:41] make a motion to send that full board support

[1:44] any discussion all in favor

[1:48] any opposed motion carries

[1:51] are there any other human services matters this evening

[1:56] we did receive in our packets information only the health department

[1:59] points of interest make a motion to receive and file

[2:03] support any discussion

[2:06] all in favor all right any opposed question carries

[2:11] damn should we receive in final sport all in favor all right any opposed

[2:17] no she carries [Applause]

[2:22] we need a motion to adjourn yeah i moved

[2:26] we did that no no we didn't we didn't receive it

[2:29] support i'm rusty yeah you are yeah a motion to adjourn

[2:35] support so moved

[2:37] all in favor aye aye motion carrying i'll get better

[2:42] spring break okay we will call the judiciary public

[2:45] safety committee meeting to order roll call please commissioner baldwin

[2:49] commissioner beaton president commissioner boehm commissioner dunn

[2:52] here commissioner rushing here commissioner vandenbosch here mr

[2:56] mcconnell here thank you i see no auditions so if

[3:00] we could get a motion to accept the agendas presented so moved support all

[3:04] in favor all right opposed motion carries are there any citizens

[3:09] wishing to be heard tonight seeing none

[3:14] any updates seeing non-conceptual initiatives

[3:19] we have no old business before us tonight new business

[3:22] um 7 8 resolution 2211 placing the proposed sanctuary county ambulance

[3:26] service millage on the ballot so

[3:29] just send it to the full board support

[3:33] okay so we have motion and support we we don't need to do these for final action

[3:38] yet we have a couple days after our meeting or there is time after the full

[3:43] board meeting to still make the ballot deadline okay

[3:47] all right any questions yes definitely um i want to know what kind of funding

[3:52] breaking down so what that's going to generate if the millage goes through and

[3:55] gets approved by the residents if this goes through the full board and it does

[3:58] get put on the ballot what kind of money is going to be generated three million

[4:03] it's in there it is part of the the language it's right in the language

[4:06] it's three million i don't know three hundred thousand

[4:09] three hundred and thirty six thousand sometimes i ask that so the public will

[4:12] get that also so sometimes okay i've read it i do have questions for uh

[4:17] for ken yes ken and

[4:20] jeff if they have it because i think both of you serve

[4:24] my townships my six townships how's that to affect the funding for the volunteer

[4:29] fire departments

[4:35] good evening commissioners um my understanding is this would have no

[4:39] impact on funding for fire departments uh the language as it's written right

[4:43] now uh this is specifically for ambulance service and ambulance service

[4:48] really defined in in michigan statute is for agencies that transport uh fire

[4:53] departments in our county with the exception of the city of marysville um

[4:57] does not they do not transport so they would not be uh involved in this funding

[5:01] at all marysville however would because they do operate an ambulance service

[5:05] part of my question is because when i was township supervisor in riley

[5:09] one of the townships out there that i now represent

[5:13] wanted to eliminate all the ems from the fire department or

[5:17] emt to come out and make calls and they also proposed that for riley

[5:22] township and as supervisor when i was there i said no i want 10 trucks there

[5:26] you're going to pay for it if my wife needs somebody i want 10 trucks they're

[5:29] not to try to save a couple of pennies

[5:32] because if your ambulance is someplace else i want

[5:36] the first and the fastest they can get there for the residents that i support

[5:40] so i do the same thing for all district six so if i was put that question was

[5:43] put to me uh like the city of memphis

[5:47] uh they wouldn't get any funding of this at

[5:50] all but potentially maybe they would uh and i can talk to al titus on that but

[5:54] potentially would their funding or cost go down to the memphis or amit you know

[6:00] i i jeff serves the memphis area i mean i

[6:03] could stalk more talk more globally since tri-hospital does i mean we

[6:07] provide service to 26 of the of the 31 municipalities in the county so we're

[6:12] certainly the largest provider here in sinclair county um

[6:16] the the language in the ballot if approved by

[6:19] the voters would would not defer any funds to fire departments as it sits

[6:24] right now however part of the the intent behind receiving the additional funds

[6:30] is that as ambulance providers we're seeing a significant increase in call

[6:35] volume so demand for for for service is increasing revenues that are used to

[6:41] support ambulance services today are not increasing and that means that we as

[6:45] providers are forced to add and deploy more resources out there we cannot do

[6:50] that without additional funding and so a part of these funds will certainly go

[6:55] to the to adding hopefully adding more resources out into the marketplace so

[7:00] that we can respond some of those calls some of that may very well end up

[7:05] reducing some of the fire department's need the need for fire departments but i

[7:09] i couldn't tell you how much or or what impact that would have it i don't have

[7:13] if i could and because i'm kind of being like an attorney here i kind of know the

[7:17] answer to my questions before i ask you but same thing with the city of memphis

[7:21] and the uh emmett or both fire departments that serve riley they have a

[7:26] set budget i believe it's right around 120 000 that the communities have to

[7:30] come up with that money if they have zero runs

[7:33] or 150 runs they still have pretty much basic same cost they got to have the

[7:37] equipment and the personnel whether so even if it eliminated some runs i

[7:42] think the cost to the uh memphis fire department remain constant boy if i

[7:46] could respond to that because that is a great point commissioner i glad i'm glad

[7:49] you bring that that's precisely why we're here tonight as ambulance

[7:53] companies we have the same problem it's it's what we call the cost of readiness

[7:58] we operate in this county right now we do not receive any uh government support

[8:03] whatsoever to operate ambulance service in cyclone county it is 100

[8:08] fee for service based which means if we're transporting patients we're

[8:12] generating income if we're not transporting patients there is no income

[8:16] being generated by your ambulance providers right now in in ambulance

[8:20] service we have what's called the cost of

[8:23] readiness right now today there's an ambulance sitting across the street

[8:27] waiting staffed equipped ready to go upon a moment's notice and i think

[8:32] that's what the public expects and demands quite frankly and they should

[8:36] that's the way it should operate the problem with it is we are not generating

[8:40] revenue to help support the cost of that and that's why one of the reasons why

[8:44] we're here asking for some assistance so that we

[8:47] can continue to keep those resources staffed equipped strategically located

[8:52] throughout the county so that upon a moment's notice we have that resource

[8:56] available to a citizen when they need it and i talked to jeff

[9:00] because i he sure he lives in riley so i talked to him more but i'll share the

[9:04] podium initially initially i wasn't sure where i'd go on this but i definitely

[9:08] support it and i would support it uh and same thing with firefighters but you

[9:14] have additional costs now for the requirements of the training for your

[9:17] emt it isn't like it was 15 20 years ago they have to be more trained than they

[9:21] were before yeah and and you know to be real honest with you and i and i i don't

[9:25] want to repeat what i did i was here back in october gave a presentation to

[9:28] the board uh kind of outlining the reasons behind this to to to help

[9:33] justify why but you know we are we like every other employer in really probably

[9:38] the country but certainly in michigan are facing extreme staffing shortages

[9:42] right now uh we are coming out of a pandemic uh our personnel are tired i i

[9:47] don't think i i i think i can speak for jeff as well we we are all seeing

[9:53] shortfalls in personnel for us to to fill that gap we have got

[9:59] to create positions in ems that are attractive that people want to pursue

[10:03] for careers but but when we get them interested in those positions we have to

[10:08] have the training programs available to train them ems personnel have to be

[10:13] licensed it is a regulated industry we cannot hire people off the street like

[10:17] walmart or home depot or some of those organizations can all of our people must

[10:22] be licensed they have to meet a very specific set of criteria before we can

[10:27] even employ them and put them on an ambulance and there is not an abundance

[10:31] of those out there right now in michigan it's estimated there are over a thousand

[10:35] ems vacancies across the state of michigan right now so we are hurting big

[10:40] time and so again part of the funds if approved by the voters will go towards

[10:45] beefing up our training and education programs i would just say one thing that

[10:49] really caught this community by surprise was we had we had partnered with the

[10:55] community college for a number of years to do ems training for us we as an

[10:59] organization got out of the training program because the college had stepped

[11:04] up to do it however in july of 2020 i was notified by the

[11:08] college that they were getting out of it and they were done

[11:11] so it kind of left us high and dry and so we have had to

[11:14] to struggle to try and partner with agencies or train programs

[11:19] outside of sinclair county which becomes a real challenge for us to have

[11:23] our people commute back and forth to neighboring counties to get their

[11:27] train so we need to bring that training in-house back to our county and that's

[11:32] what we're committed to do uh with these funds uh if if approved by the voters

[11:37] i'm good uh

[11:40] ken i spoke with uh chief uh giro before the meeting about the city of mary as

[11:44] well as obviously they have their own ems service right and he said they will

[11:49] receive an annual check for 199 000 yeah as as

[11:55] i'm sorry no i'm just checking with so the

[11:58] the way it's going to work is if this if this millage is passed every

[12:01] municipality that collects tax is going to collect their porsche or receive

[12:05] their portion and then they would in turn

[12:08] pay it back to the provider of their choice okay the county is not going to

[12:13] hire tri hospital the county is not hiring

[12:16] lennox richmond lennox so the county is not going to hold that money they're

[12:20] going to give it out right

[12:23] that's correct we'll distribute all of it okay

[12:26] and commissioner if i could add to that the reason i think the reason for that

[12:29] is for as long as i've been in in the ambulance business which quite frankly

[12:33] is 44 years in this county we have always contracted for ambulance

[12:38] services directly with the local municipality we have never contracted

[12:41] with the county so the ambulance contracts the 26 municipalities that i

[12:45] mentioned earlier that we provide service to we are under contract with

[12:49] each of those municipalities to provide that service and so it just sort of made

[12:53] sense that when the dollars are collected it would go to those

[12:57] communities who are actually the ones that are contracting for those services

[13:00] and in the case of marysville and richmond they essentially are the

[13:04] provider for those municipalities in which they have contracts with her very

[13:07] good thank you that's all i have all right does anybody else have anything i

[13:11] just wanted to explain too a lot of these lift assists that try goes to

[13:15] they're not billable for so they we can't they can't get any

[13:21] income out of that and there's a large number of calls we

[13:25] multiplier and ems go on that are non-billable for track yeah and those

[13:30] numbers are going up steadily one of one of the things that um i i

[13:34] looked at as a part of this and and just for your benefit in the last 10 years we

[13:39] have seen an increase in requests for ambulance services go up 38

[13:45] um many of those as as commissioner van bosch said are are calls on which we

[13:50] don't generate any any revenue whatsoever the resources are avail

[13:54] available they're allocated they respond but there's no revenue coming in to

[13:59] support them and so that's why we're having a shortfall right now um in in

[14:04] the ability to function as uh providers um you know ems i think most people if

[14:09] you were to ask them today uh believe that ambulance service is an essential

[14:14] service it's something they expect to be available when they dial 9-1-1

[14:19] and these funds are absolutely critical for

[14:23] us to ensure that those services are going to continue to be available moving

[14:27] forward and they're also a backstop for our fire

[14:30] and police because they do stand by for every major incident we have

[14:35] and a lot of times ken has to call in overtime to backfill

[14:40] that and uh without them being there i know we

[14:44] wouldn't be as safe doing our jobs in the fire or police services

[14:51] anybody else have any other questions seeing none all in

[14:56] favor aye opposed motion carries thank you gentlemen

[15:01] um are there any other judici other judiciary public safety matters

[15:08] motion to receive and file so moved sport

[15:12] motion to adjourn support all in favor

[15:28] i know

[15:36] good evening i'd like to call the saint county board of commissioners

[15:39] environmental public works committee to order could have a roll call please

[15:42] commissioner mcconnell president commissioner baldwin commissioner beeden

[15:46] present commissioner boehm commissioner rushing

[15:49] here commissioner vandenbosch here commissioner dunn here

[15:53] item number two addition deletion changes to the agenda saying none i'd

[15:57] make a motion to approve the agendas presented support

[16:00] all in favor aye any opposed motion carries any citizens

[16:05] to be heard tonight seeing none any updates from

[16:09] commissioners moving on any conceptual initiatives

[16:14] and this evening no old business will move into new business

[16:17] um sinclair county board road commissioner's annual report mr

[16:21] weston is here with his full entourage tonight i would make a motion to bring

[16:26] this okay all right sport

[16:30] good evening uh thanks for having us tonight

[16:33] um the only thing i want to do tonight

[16:35] you've got a packet there that's our annual report that we'll submit to you

[16:39] won't take a lot of time on that but one of the reasons we're here tonight

[16:42] uh for introductions we have bill bloomrick in the

[16:46] audience which is the chair of the road commission uh greg owens which is

[16:50] internal services but we have some new faces out here been with the royal

[16:54] convention for a number of years but i'll be retiring into august and

[16:59] we have replacements here tonight and i wanted more to introduce you to those

[17:03] folks than anything else we have tammy holzberger that is our interim uh deputy

[17:10] director at this time and was our cpa or still our cpa and

[17:14] bill hazleton will be our director of uh

[17:18] our managing director so taking my spot the future i've got a

[17:22] cold and i'm struggling here so that's why i'm not doing a presentation

[17:26] so um the the part here is i think the road

[17:31] commission is going to be in very very good hands

[17:34] uh we worked hard on behalf of the residents of sinclair county

[17:39] over the years i appreciate this board the road board that was put in place and

[17:43] we've been able to do some great things but

[17:46] with bill's expertise his background along with tammy's

[17:51] i feel we're going to be in great shape so

[17:54] as far as the presentation goes a lot of it's there

[17:58] similar to what we've done in back in past years

[18:01] it was unique like we all know with colwood

[18:04] different things like that we commend the employees for being there

[18:08] for us didn't miss any time where we did have

[18:11] some cases things like that but very minimal

[18:14] and uh with the work with the with the board

[18:18] and the employees i think we did okay with that so

[18:21] that being said instead of struggling through here i'll let you go

[18:25] and thank you very much

[18:29] anybody got anything for uh mr weston tonight just when you feel better i'm

[18:33] sure you'll be back and uh of course thank you before august we'll be talking

[18:37] to you yeah thank you yeah it's been it's been great to be able to

[18:41] call when we have a problem um

[18:45] and what's the best way to say this pawn it

[18:48] off on somebody else it's nice when you call somebody and you

[18:52] get get a response everybody's been very good at the road

[18:57] commission so that's been it's been helpful yeah we appreciate

[19:02] that we feel we'll be able to continue to do that or these folks will be able

[19:05] to do that along with the employees they have and the foreman that they use and

[19:08] just everyone there is a team player so we're proud of

[19:11] all those employees so mr hazelton is going to be on speed dial too isn't he

[19:15] yeah yep that's right i've already got him on so this is the earliest yeah

[19:20] i just like to say kurt thanks for everything you've done in this position

[19:24] the team you've built the people around you i've got some experience with

[19:27] everybody here and i thoroughly feel they're being left in

[19:31] good hands so yeah absolutely that operation is a fine-tuned machine

[19:35] and i appreciate what you guys have done thank you so much

[19:39] all right thank you yes sir thank you uh um all in favor aye aye aye any

[19:44] opposed motion carries

[19:47] contract approval request for raymond excavating for final action for the work

[19:51] at the uh goodwill park park yes i'll make a

[19:54] motion for to approve it final action

[19:58] support um do we have nancy with sean here we

[20:03] have uh brad okay tennis tonight anybody can give us a two minute spiel on it

[20:09] start that's a good because it's a good chunk of money i think the public should

[20:12] hear what the money's being spent on

[20:18] good evening my name is brad brensky i'm the deputy director of projects for

[20:21] saint claire county parks and uh tonight we're talking about our new playground

[20:25] that's going in out at goodwill's country park now the one we currently

[20:30] have in out there is 22 years old so it's a bit outdated and we're looking uh

[20:35] and the older they get the more safety hazards start to come along with it and

[20:40] we've been maintaining them very well throughout our our system

[20:44] uh but this one's owed and we need to update it and we're looking at a

[20:49] farm themed playground that will tie it in nicely with the the barns and the

[20:54] farm area with the farm museum being there

[20:58] and uh really nice pieces that are all set to come

[21:02] we're looking at we just heard that our

[21:06] playground equipment should be on site by mid-june and we're hoping to have

[21:11] everything placed by fair so

[21:15] that's uh quite an aggressive schedule and we're going to set up our pre-con

[21:19] with our contractor at the end of the month so we can get everything lined up

[21:23] and ready to go

[21:27] any other questions from red if it's farm why why aren't we using

[21:31] barbed wire fence instead of that expensive plastic stuff

[21:35] that's the biggest cost of that product that might help keep the kids off it

[21:39] right right um you know it's neat it's

[21:44] some people wonder why we have fences around the playgrounds

[21:48] it helps with public safety and channelizing the kids and more

[21:54] importantly it helps

[21:56] prevent from like snatching grabs for existence when we have our county

[22:01] fair going on we uh we have an ex a barricade fence we put around the

[22:06] splash pad because there's just so many people out there that we want to keep

[22:12] from having that unexplainable event happening so

[22:17] we have that out there for the safety part of the could part of the cost of

[22:21] this why it's expensive and we had the thing when i was township supervisor and

[22:25] riley one of the slides was a quarter inch off

[22:29] and we had to get that repaired we had to close the slide down or playground

[22:32] down because it didn't pass inspection and a

[22:35] kid's foot could get caught in there i mean it was that big but it was a

[22:38] quarter inch off acceptable and we had to close playground down until we got

[22:42] that fixed oh yes and that's why we require a certified playground installer

[22:46] to be present when this is going in

[22:50] any other questions this contract is in the amount of 345

[22:55] thousand dollars um i will be abstaining from the vote we

[22:58] need a motion for that or we have motion but we need no he needs a

[23:03] motion to allow him to abstain oh i would make a motion that he

[23:09] support or all in favor any opposed

[23:13] motion carries uh could i have a roll call please

[23:16] commissioner mcconnell yes commissioner beeden yes

[23:20] commissioner rushing yes commissioner vandenbosch yes

[23:24] motion carries oro

[23:28] uh item c resolution 22-09 authorizing some cog as a collective designated

[23:34] planning agency and authorizing the application of the materials management

[23:38] grant make a motion senate full board support

[23:42] all in favor aye aye aye any opposed

[23:46] motion carries uh item eight the smith creek landfill

[23:49] activities report motion to receive and file support

[23:53] all in favor aye any opposed motion carries any other environmental public

[23:57] works matters item 10 is information only for the

[24:02] monthly parks and rec financial documents

[24:04] motion to receive and file support all in favor all right any

[24:09] opposed item 11 receive and file make a motion to receive and file

[24:13] support all in favor aye opposed item 12 adjournment

[24:18] make a motion to adjourn all in favor

[24:21] all right

[24:24] getting adjourned

[24:27] this time i'd like to call the ways and means committee to order roll call

[24:31] please commissioner mcconnell here commissioner baldwin commissioner beaton

[24:36] present commissioner boom commissioner dunn here commissioner vandenbosch here

[24:41] commissioner rushing here item two i see we have an addition uh i

[24:46] need to have that move to 7f somebody would make that i would make a motion to

[24:50] move uh item 2a to item 7f smart

[24:54] for final action any discussion

[24:58] all in favor aye aye aye aye and i now have a motion to accept the

[25:03] amended agenda so moved support

[25:07] any discussion all in favor aye aye aye aye aye any opposed motion

[25:12] passed this time do we have any citizens wishing to be heard

[25:17] seeing none do we have any updates none no conceptual initiatives no old

[25:23] business we'll move on to seven a change to the 2022 budget public

[25:28] guardian's office i'd move this be sent to the full board

[25:31] support any discussion

[25:34] all in favor aye aye any opposed motion passed

[25:40] uh 7b this prosecuting attorney's office manning table uh apparently he can make

[25:45] it for the 21st meeting but so i need a motion to send this to the full board

[25:49] motion to send a full board support any discussion

[25:54] all in favor aye aye aye any opposed motion passed 7c is for final action

[25:59] this is the foreclosure mowing agreement with kevin's lawn care and snow removal

[26:04] i would make a motion that we proved kevin's lawn care and snow

[26:08] removal i'll support that foreclosure mowing

[26:11] agreement any discussion

[26:16] it's not that much money but we need a roll call correct yes if you would

[26:19] please commissioner mcconnell yes commissioner beaton yes commissioner

[26:23] dunn yes commissioner bandenbosch yes commissioner rushing

[26:28] yes uh moving on to 7d

[26:32] uh commissioner vanderbosh district 7 erpa or american rescue plan project

[26:38] generator i would make a motion to send to the

[26:41] pull board i would support that and your discussion

[26:46] you feel like it may be at the full board yeah maybe i'll be doing better

[26:49] than that all in favor aye aye any opposed motion

[26:52] passed seven eight if we could have a motion for the

[26:56] warning sirens make a motion support board

[27:01] any discussion all in favor aye aye aye any opposed

[27:05] motion passed uh moving on to seven f

[27:10] uh resolution 2212 authorizing signatory administrator controller deputy

[27:15] administrator for final action so moved support

[27:19] and your discussion all in favor

[27:22] aye any opposed ocean past

[27:25] this time do we have any other ways and means matters

[27:29] seeing none information only motion to receive file packets report

[27:34] any discussion all in favor aye aye aye aye any opposed

[27:39] motion passed you need a motion to adjourn so moved support

[27:43] all in favor aye aye aye any opposed

[27:47] you stand adjourned

April 7, 2022 St Clair County Board of Commissioners

Transcript