[0:01] foreign

[0:32] for May 23rd yeah 2023. are there any additions or deletions to

[0:40] the agenda Brady I have one under buildings and grounds could we

[0:45] and

[0:48] a Public Health Building

[0:52] services West Human Services West building

[0:59] as uh items C yes

[1:05] like motion me through the agenda as amended

[1:08] important built in support of conversation I lost

[1:12] in favor say yes yes yes no what are you getting

[1:21] okay next item would be approval of the Linux from the May 9th

[1:26] I move that we approved the minutes from May 9th

[1:31] or movement supported conversation follow us in favor say yes yes yes yes

[1:38] no motion carry

[1:42] we are now at our first public comment for any public comment

[1:50] hello this is Callie Marshall from VM gear and Conservation District is coming

[1:54] to show bring you all our 2023 summer programming pamphlets we put together

[2:00] this year so these just have all of our dates of our upcoming summer events

[2:04] including our recycling down the centerfold as well as our annual meeting

[2:09] that's coming up on July 26th and we'll be in South Haven at the flywheelers

[2:13] Museum this year to be receiving invitations for that shortly but then

[2:18] other things like hikes and paddles with the naturalists that we partner with

[2:21] libraries on our healthy water week several options to get involved but just

[2:27] wanted to pass those out and then share we also are launching a interactive map

[2:34] on our website with the food farm and fun guide producers so that we'll be

[2:38] able to search by what product you're looking for or what kind of Farm Stand

[2:42] or park and just be able to see that live update of the map on what you want

[2:46] to see and find you guys

[2:50] thank

[2:55] you

[3:00] we'll do your next one

[3:05] all right number six presentation uh Julie

[3:09] good afternoon Commissioners Julie piak Michigan State University extension

[3:14] I am pleased to be here for uh to present our annual report for 2022 uh

[3:20] hopefully you received it in your packet and had an opportunity to look over that

[3:24] document uh again in my attempt to make things

[3:28] brief tried to make it one page long but there were so many cool stories that

[3:32] went into three darn it but uh that's where we're at with that um I did give

[3:37] you a hard copy at your places there um apologize for not being double-sided

[3:41] with a little happier snafu there but that's okay it looks nice on that glossy

[3:45] paper we're trying to use up in the office

[3:47] uh I wanted to uh draw your attention to a couple things once in my opening

[3:52] paragraph there I talk about over a million dollars worth of grants that our

[3:56] district uh has brought in our Educators within District 13 alone over a million

[4:01] dollars and I'd love to get specific on that but I don't think I want to bore

[4:04] you with those details but I'm just pleased to see how many additional funds

[4:08] our staff are bringing in to leverage programming here in the county and in my

[4:11] entire District the Seven Counties and my jurisdiction if you will another

[4:16] thing I wanted to highlight um there's a number there right

[4:20] underneath my picture you can see a little bit further down 412 programs

[4:24] including Van Buren County residents and to prove it to you I've printed out the

[4:30] 412 programs that we actually identified Van Buren residents attending and so

[4:36] um cut down this thing a little bit for you but just take a look at the breadth

[4:40] of programming that your residents here in the county are availing themselves of

[4:45] um through extension with me today I'll stop talking unless

[4:49] there are questions but I have Janice zerbr children's our children and youth

[4:54] educator uh Christopher imler our consumer veterans liaison educator and

[5:00] Cheyenne Sloan our small fruit educator focusing on blueberries in the area to

[5:05] here and they'd each like to say a few words if you don't mind

[5:13] with the children youth Institute oh with the 4-H program last year was a

[5:19] great year for 4-H we were back face to face doing things in the schools still

[5:23] have a lot of demand for the mindful me lessons of where we go in or I go in and

[5:29] read stories and teach the kids how to control their emotions or how to deal

[5:32] with their emotions so I did that and then some a highlight already from this

[5:37] year is we brought back a awareness days this is a partnership with the FFA

[5:41] agricultural resource program at the Technology Center

[5:45] um the last time we did it was in 2019 so pre-covered and we had 766 kids at

[5:51] this program plus an additional 150 adults so it was a great turnout over

[5:56] two days of impacting kids with education that was our highlight from

[6:00] this year so far hi everybody I think the last time uh I

[6:05] spoke in front of this group we had just secured approval an agreement to develop

[6:09] the land on 801 Hazen Street so I just want to give you a quick update in

[6:14] addition to the information you have in your notes uh we've been able to

[6:17] assemble about fifteen thousand dollars uh Justin grant funding that has gone

[6:21] into long-term improvements in the area if you haven't driven by we just put up

[6:25] hanging baskets red white and blue very patriotic so go take a look but uh we've

[6:30] had really smashing success uh all due to the outpouring of support from our

[6:35] local donors um besides the grant funding we've put

[6:41] together somewhere around thirty thousand dollars in terms of materials

[6:44] plan material donated and the value of uh a couple hundred hours of Labor from

[6:50] the community um and so we've been open for

[6:53] programming since last year uh but I would like to extend a special

[6:56] invitation for Memorial Day uh come by we'll have activities

[7:01] um set up for the community for all of our stakeholders so you can see the

[7:05] progress and kind of foreshadowing of the program that we're going to do I

[7:09] want to give a special shout out to the County Sheriff's Office Deputy Marshall

[7:13] Crozier have been really helpful they've been coordinating help from the the work

[7:19] release crew there helping maintain the area around there helping build some of

[7:23] the permanent features and a lot of that work would have been impossible without

[7:26] them so big shout out to the deputies uh and I look forward to seeing you all at

[7:32] this gardening season

[7:35] hi so I'm trying to

[7:40] Finance this time last year for the first time so I've been here for a

[7:43] little over a year and a half now uh the big success about last year was we had

[7:48] our first annual Blueberry field day which has been decades in the making

[7:50] apparently it was very well attended and a huge hit and we're looking forward to

[7:55] having that again in September this year um and then another uh thing that we've

[8:02] been up to lately is last week we had a pollination Workshop uh in Grand

[8:07] Junction I believe and we had 20 people in attendance to come learn more about

[8:12] how you're supposed to take care of your bees and things like that when you're

[8:16] spraying and worrying about fungicides and just how to help properly take care

[8:20] of a hive and yeah that's what we've been up to lately so lots of fun

[8:25] blueberry things thank you any questions or anything any comments

[8:30] yeah I just want to say thank you again to Janice for all the years coming out

[8:35] to the library and different library and uh I think we had gotten that invitation

[8:41] to the AG day which I went to and it was wonderful I thought that was amazing all

[8:48] second graders from the county are invited we had eight school districts

[8:52] that are out of 11. we have 37 classrooms attend in the two days if we

[8:57] if we were to add on the other school districts we'd have to explain expand to

[9:01] a third day because of the timing of the buses when certain schools can come and

[9:06] when they have to leave we could not get all 11 school districts in it

[9:10] well that is fantastic and then Cheyenne thank you for helping my friend

[9:17] I think it's gonna be his he's taking over his

[9:22] grandfather's I think it was the second or third generation yeah generation

[9:26] blueberry farm it was really fun I had a lot of fun going and meeting him he has

[9:30] an organic farm in Bangor and it was really cool you don't see a lot of

[9:33] organic farms so great thanks for veterans treatment Court we had one

[9:40] person that worked a ton of hours over there

[9:45] um right uh Chris Cannon and he I would be remiss if I didn't mention uh all the

[9:50] various projects he's worked on um improvements to uh some of the more

[9:54] permanent structures uh the barn uh that we have out there

[9:58] um uh he made a ramp that's made it more accessible he's improved uh the shade

[10:03] structures out there he helped assemble the greenhouse Foundation

[10:07] um patios and so he's been a really a tremendous help uh his feedback has been

[10:12] overwhelmingly positive he enjoys doing his his uh his uh service hours out

[10:17] there um he's you know he's just uh enormously

[10:22] enormously beneficial to the program and um kudos to the the court for uh finding

[10:27] such a great candidate to connect us with

[10:29] yeah and that's what the garden sword yeah we were having a hard time finding

[10:35] something that Chris would do could do because he didn't want to work at the

[10:40] animal shelter and there were other projects that had been suggested by the

[10:45] court of the judge and none of them seemed to work so then I suggested that

[10:49] we try this yeah and

[10:53] voila yeah he was very willing to do yeah he's a

[10:58] great sense of initiative um he's brought up and completed uh

[11:02] improvements that I didn't even consider and we've been able to rely on really

[11:07] he's got a wealth of experience related to the work that he's doing out there

[11:10] yeah foreign thank you thank you Chris what are the

[11:15] hours for Memorial Day uh so I'm there from nine to five officially and then I

[11:21] generally volunteer in the evenings uh up until about eight it's when the deer

[11:24] come out so I like to be there to scare them away so they have a familiar face

[11:27] you know yeah uh let's set up till Sundown which uh will be changing pretty

[11:33] soon here with the solstice and that's the program on Memorial Day is what I

[11:36] was talking about correct okay yep thank you set up till Sundown thanks

[11:42] I always had a friend

[11:48] have a question all right well thank you for your time uh and so thank you for

[11:53] your support uh we couldn't do our work in the county without the County's uh

[11:57] support so very much appreciated thank you

[12:10] administrative repair scale

[12:14] okay the Brownfield Redevelopment of 30 at the reappointment of Zach Morris in

[12:19] this to be expedited thank you and Zach has already been on

[12:25] the Redevelopment Authority in the past and

[12:31] I moved it we reappoint him for the new date term term date of June

[12:39] 1st 2026 that's the expiration second

[12:45] supported conversation all those in favor say yes yes yes yes

[12:50] suppose no motion carried and then we went to be a white cake show

[12:57] Howard who has also been on the board for quite a while

[13:02] and I moved that she be reappointed also report

[13:07] Ed conversation

[13:10] all those in favor say yes yes suppose no

[13:14] motion carry

[13:18] here enough buildings and grounds hey I do a

[13:22] animal control repairs the

[13:26] state inspection that was done and so we very much needed repairs done we

[13:32] would include resurfacing employers and changing out

[13:36] cages but John's going to present what his findings he's done homework and it

[13:41] looks like quite a good alternative to actually having to go in and

[13:45] rebuild the cages good afternoon so since we met last

[13:50] couple things that I did is uh we took a look at uh the floor replacement doing

[13:54] some floor replacements and Painting came up with a number of 75 000 to do

[13:59] kind of a rehab to the facility lighting get things where they need to be the

[14:03] biggest issue we have out there is defensing the the cages themselves so

[14:08] one afternoon I found some cages on you know all Marketplace uh they're in

[14:13] Lowell Michigan they're actually coming out of a facility it's a Veterinary

[14:16] Clinic that is he's retiring so I got with Tony Evans from the sheriff's

[14:20] department that oversees animal control and also Kim the director out there we

[14:24] jetted up there took a look at them they're probably five to seven years old

[14:28] they're all stainless steel the gentleman that has them now is has come

[14:32] back with a counter offer from his initial price his initial price was 2

[14:36] 700 each for these kennels Tony looked it up they're like anywhere from sixty

[14:41] seven thousand dollars just for the kennel itself that you got to pay for

[14:44] the installation so what we'd like to do is to purchase 30 of these kettles which

[14:49] they have uh and then install out there in the in the in the facility we have

[14:55] now with the understanding of the future down the road they can be removed from

[14:58] that facility being stainless and then being installed in a new facility which

[15:02] would save the county a lot of money in the future so

[15:05] um what today is what I'm seeking is permission or kind of guidance on what

[15:09] we can negotiate with this with this vendor that has them of what we can

[15:13] throw out there for a price to them kind of negotiate the purchase of these

[15:16] Kindles so do we need a motion for him to move

[15:20] ahead to negotiated

[15:28] although I would think of for the record they have a motion to authorize John to

[15:35] negotiate up to a certain amount I think we we talked about 75 000 in the past so

[15:41] we'll give you the flexibility that you go up and do that

[15:47] um

[15:51] perhaps most people probably don't have the time nor inclination to necessarily

[15:56] go through our commission notes but uh if I am on the other side

[16:04] I know a level that's been yeah

[16:08] yeah so uh

[16:12] typically we do these things in closed session

[16:15] we're talking about bigger things than this yeah but

[16:18] I don't know how that works but it seems like in the past when we've enabled our

[16:23] administrator or someone to negotiate we're not we're not necessarily making a

[16:28] public tap because that public cap is announcing to people who's talking to

[16:33] this is what we're going to pay you and uh that's okay I suppose but

[16:39] you know the more we pay for these kennels the less we have for everything

[16:41] else but it won't be in the minutes for two

[16:44] more weeks unless they're listening live yeah but listen to 75 000 also including

[16:52] other things the 75 000 was total cost of the the of the entire repair

[16:57] including light and everything else so that was the last cost you said 75 000

[17:02] for the entire repair no no for each candle 2700 27.50 2750 is what he wanted

[17:09] he came back with a price of 75 000 when I talked on the second day after we went

[17:15] out and visited the site and then I told him that we I had to go

[17:18] through the proper traded command to see which one direction we were going to go

[17:22] with this what's the vet's name okay

[17:28] I want to say it's Dave I don't have a complete file but I

[17:31] believe his name is David Lowell he owns two facilities there he's closing them

[17:36] both he's retiring yeah

[17:40] so that so that figures are you out there he threw that after 75. oh he came

[17:45] out with 75 yeah it strikes me as being high and the

[17:51] reason why I say that is when we talk about uh collateral and things like that

[17:56] at the EGC board um

[18:00] 10 cents on the dollars whatever we kind of end up so if a person had spent a

[18:06] hundred thousand dollars on equipment at auction you're going to get ten

[18:10] thousand maybe so this guy seems to me he's high he seems high tonight

[18:16] I I think it ought to be more like six hundred dollars per unit I'm thinking

[18:21] when negotiations I'm thinking you know if we get them around 40 I think I think

[18:25] I think it'd be a good good sell to him you know he's not removing him we'd I'd

[18:30] get a crew up there to take him out of jail the jail crew no cost to us and

[18:33] then also he's not dealing with you know the little one or person you come get

[18:36] one or two kettles it's a one shot for him

[18:39] boom so what if we live the total being 75

[18:46] it seems reasonable for us to as you suggested use that as the the

[18:52] total but there's a whole lot of other stuff going on besides the cost of these

[18:56] things from this guy and that's where he's going to have to negotiate that's

[19:01] that my overall cost for the entire repair I'm focused on 75 000. that's

[19:06] where my total cost and repair would want to be

[19:09] um out of negotiation I can get on these kennels the better it's for the account

[19:13] yes the more we can still do with that exactly with what we've allocated yep

[19:19] so how about if we give him the authorization to act on behalf of the

[19:24] county for the best and best price that he can negotiate yeah

[19:33] this is jobs I don't like 200 000.

[19:38] I'll be working for free yeah well it's very yeah it's very public I mean it's

[19:45] obvious we're looking at this price that 75 is the whole thing right yeah so he

[19:51] can negotiate a lesson price for the kennels that's you know

[19:55] to allow him to do that and you know trust his judgment I do what you said

[20:00] you put an ALT two cost on it yeah

[20:04] actually right while the motion can be not to exceed 75

[20:09] for the entire project right right

[20:17] so we have a motion in a second to authorize John

[20:24] the proceed attack with the project

[20:28] 75 000 dollars but then that to negotiate whatever is

[20:34] reasonable for the Kennels

[20:38] whatever that is okay

[20:42] sounds good yes we have a motion with a second found

[20:46] further conversation all those in favor say yes yes suppose

[20:52] no motion caring okay the next item is Donald Hanson

[20:58] for the Commissioners for which just dealing with some signage issues

[21:02] it's in process I know Rachel my staff support is getting some pricing yeah she

[21:08] sent the the font and or we're still working on it we're moving forward with

[21:12] it yeah exclusive we're going to go to school with I think it's gonna be on the

[21:15] door yeah so if you look behind you where it says Board of Commissioners to

[21:20] agree

[21:25] motion was I think for Donald Hansen Board of commissioner's room right put

[21:30] that right on the door um this came you know across my desk

[21:34] when I first started I didn't know if you wanted if you want to back we can

[21:38] certainly do that but we would want some direction of where

[21:41] you would like to put them if you go above the door itself it kind of gets

[21:45] lost up there I'm not at this interior designer but whatever the pleasure of

[21:49] the I think it's more visible if it's on the door itself I agree it's a lot

[21:55] cleaner too and so I had plaques and stuff hanging all over the walls I like

[21:58] that yeah me too yeah I'd say continue on with that

[22:04] thought

[22:08] okay item C is a human services West building

[22:12] um is in need of space for the upcoming

[22:18] nine-day early voting so Susan's going to help present on this one

[22:23] jump over here so I can see all of you that's the post in the way

[22:27] so um as all of you know by now in 2022 proposal 2 passed

[22:35] and it is multi-faceted changes on how we conduct our elections

[22:43] um but part of it that I want to talk to you about today and that bore you with

[22:48] all the other stuff because we wouldn't be here or we would be here for another

[22:52] week is the early voting part so the proposal actually states that the

[22:59] implementation of early voting is the responsibility of the local

[23:03] jurisdictions in the townships and the cities however

[23:08] the local jurisdictions do not have the resources to individually do this

[23:14] in a letter that I sent to the local clerks back in April I had a meeting

[23:21] with them and brought down Christie Dugan from the Bureau of Elections and

[23:25] we kind of went over all of the changes that this proposal is going to affect

[23:32] and I took a poll afterwards I was like okay how do you guys want to proceed

[23:37] with this you can all do it individually um we can possibly look at doing

[23:45] quadrants four quadrants within the county of having voting centers for the

[23:50] early voting or we can go with one centrally located

[23:56] um Center so I have spent hours and hours running

[24:03] numbers and looking at different things and basically what I've come up with is

[24:09] that I am more than willing to participate in the process with the

[24:13] local clerks and organize with their assistants one county-wide early voting

[24:20] site um I know that with because of the fact

[24:23] that I program our elections I don't farm that out it saves the county an

[24:28] immense amount of money for me to do that I am not able to organize multiple

[24:35] voting sites that has to be off the table

[24:39] so with the offer to do one county-wide voting site for the early voting

[24:47] um I kind of talked with John and John um and I had an idea about the empty

[24:53] building over by the fairgrounds Human Services building and so we took a field

[25:00] trip over there on Monday and looked at it there is a large room

[25:07] that would work for it with um some changes to it and I will let

[25:14] John go over some of those changes there's partitions in there that will

[25:18] all have to be removed and some other things

[25:22] um but it's big enough it has ample parking it's literally in the middle of

[25:28] the county um it also has a room right off of the

[25:33] large room that uh would be a secure location for all of the election

[25:38] equipment that will have to be stored there for the nine days

[25:43] the Bureau of Elections as they've gone through and talked to us at our

[25:47] conferences and different meetings and stuff some of the suggestions that

[25:52] they're offering if you're doing central locations is uh you know we know

[25:57] churches are out we can't do that because you've got two weekends well you

[26:01] can't have voters coming in on two Sundays when they're trying to hold

[26:05] church service we can't really do anything as schools

[26:09] anymore because it's just not the society we live in anymore

[26:14] um so a lot of them are going with County facilities the other idea is to

[26:18] rent a storefront you know the thought well there's lots of empty storefronts

[26:22] yes there are but then if somebody buys that building or that storefront or

[26:28] rents it you're changing location every time and you are going to confuse the

[26:33] veggies out of your voters um and you're required to notify voters

[26:39] where this early voting sites are going to be so if we have one county-wide

[26:44] location and it remains that same location all the time is going to be

[26:50] beneficial for everybody the other thought is if we do make some

[26:54] changes to that room over there at that building it can also be used by the

[27:00] county for other items you know if you guys have a big meeting or you want to

[27:05] have a retreat over there there's been talk before in these meetings about

[27:09] setting something up like but the ISD has with you know all of the uh

[27:14] different technology capabilities I'm not asking for that part of it I don't

[27:20] need that part of it I just need the location so

[27:24] um that's basically what I'm here for

[27:29] um I wanted to bring this to you today and kind of get your thoughts on it I

[27:34] um plan on meeting with the supervisors group on Thursday so I did not want to

[27:40] talk to them before I talk to you guys and just get a feel if you guys think

[27:45] this is uh feasible or not um

[27:48] we can't charge the townships to do the

[27:54] renovations that might need to be done um but what my vision is for this voting

[28:00] Center is and as of right now the vast majority

[28:04] are on board that they want to join this I have a couple of locations that are

[28:10] indicating that they want to conduct their own but I I have no doubt that

[28:17] they will readily change their mind just as an example with the uh if they choke

[28:23] if they choose to do it themselves it would cost them almost five thousand

[28:29] three hundred dollars for labor for their election inspectors per election

[28:35] it's going to cost them seven thousand dollars to buy a new tabulator they

[28:40] cannot use the tabulator that they currently have because it has to be

[28:44] under security after their public accuracy test up until the election and

[28:50] that time frame doesn't coexist with this nine days of early voting

[28:55] um so they've got um you know fifty three hundred dollars

[28:59] just in labor a seven thousand dollar tabulator and icx that they're updating

[29:04] that right now so I'm guessing that's going to be twenty five hundred dollars

[29:08] so next year we will have three elections that require this early voting

[29:13] and the early voting is only required for if there's a state or federal

[29:18] election or office in that election so it's only going to be on even years

[29:25] if unless there's a special election like

[29:29] when there was redistricting or if you have an instance where you have

[29:33] something happen to uh say a senator or something and you have to have an

[29:38] election to fill that seat um so in odd years you would probably

[29:43] not have to do it but in your presidential years you've got three

[29:46] elections in those years so next year's presidential so if they were to run it

[29:52] themselves just in labor with three election workers which is the minimum

[29:58] that you have to have they would spend fifteen thousand seven hundred and

[30:02] ninety five dollars on just wages for their election workers

[30:08] if we have this early voting site and everybody comes together I can run it

[30:13] with four election inspectors and that would end up costing each jurisdiction

[30:18] nine hundred and thirty nine dollars so I can't imagine if they're good stewards

[30:23] of their tax dollars that they will choose to go it alone but I could be

[30:28] wrong and it's not my decision it is their decision

[30:31] um but that's why I'm offering this that's why I'd like to do this because

[30:35] we're all taxpayers we all want to see our tax dollars you know spent the best

[30:40] way that they can be and again I do think that eventually it will help the

[30:45] county giving the giving the county another resource another room to use

[30:50] for different things training um I you know if I had the tables and

[30:55] chairs I have to do training for 400 election inspectors every other year and

[31:01] uh I'm at the ISD for nine days um you know if we have this available

[31:06] and we have the you know uh enough tables and chairs I could do my training

[31:11] at that location and I'm sure there's other offices that could use the area as

[31:16] well so

[31:19] um in my budget I just to give you a heads up for the equipment this is

[31:24] separate from the building but for the equipment my ask and my budget for

[31:29] Capital Improvements is going to be about twenty five thousand dollars and

[31:34] that's to buy new tabulators new icx's and everything I would need to set that

[31:39] up my again my vision is the cost of the security guard that

[31:46] would be there which I've already spoken with uh Dan and I can have a Reserve

[31:52] officer there for the hours that were open at a cost of only twenty dollars

[31:58] um an hour once you divide that up um that's going to cost each

[32:03] jurisdiction 74 dollars so um doing my best that I can to keep

[32:09] their costs down um

[32:11] but of course they're going to be involved in this too because technically

[32:14] it is their responsibility not mine to set up this early voting

[32:19] um so along with that what I would do is I

[32:24] would charge them a rent fee for the equipment after we purchased it

[32:30] up front and then there would be a rent fee for the location and that rent fee

[32:37] would cover the cost of the utilities because uh next year you'll have two

[32:42] elections that you're going to have to heat the building one election in August

[32:46] you're going to have to have AC running you're going to have to have your lights

[32:49] going so there's you know costs at the county would incur that they would need

[32:54] to pay back to us and then instead of them having to buy the equipment I would

[33:00] buy it up front and then rent that to them and So eventually we would recoup

[33:06] it would we recoup all of it next year in one year no

[33:12] um at the initial cost it will be close but it would not recoup at all in the

[33:17] first year but it will eventually and then with that I guess John will

[33:22] talk about what he thinks needs to be done with that uh room and the cost

[33:28] so once we entered in the building it is it's a good facility uh it's got great

[33:32] bones to it so you know when everything's there it's just there's one

[33:36] big meeting room that's got dividers in it where it was like built-in cubicles

[33:39] so we established their non-supporting walls they've got columns in there and

[33:43] then they've got walls built off the columns so to come in and do a demo on

[33:47] the support you know on the sport walls will remain the stationary walls we

[33:51] removed then we got some drywall you know estimated costs I'm looking at

[33:54] probably ten thousand dollars the biggest portion would be the carpet so

[33:58] we got some lighting some HVAC issues but all in all we're like ten thousand

[34:02] dollars on the repairs

[34:11] it's in the same building but next door

[34:17] even it would have a different entrance yes yeah main entrance it has two ends

[34:22] you want to have a front entrance anywhere entrance and there's adequate

[34:26] parking there and two of the Bureau of Elections the

[34:29] way that they suggest that you set up a pulley location it's in one door now a

[34:34] different door and there are two doors in that large room so it can be set up

[34:40] perfectly according to the recommendation of the Bureau of

[34:43] Elections foreign

[34:50] it really has everything that they require for a location

[34:55] great job on all that you got a question though so he says for early voting does

[35:00] that mean it will be open on Election Day also or on Election Day everybody

[35:03] has to go to their regular one they have to go to the regular one

[35:08] or one day before the election so there's no early voting the day before

[35:12] the election or on election of course election day here at your regular

[35:16] facility all right thanks

[35:21] are you gonna have to reissue once you establish the precinct we have to

[35:25] reissue voting no because it's just for early voting okay it's our regular

[35:30] polling location will be there regular where they've always been that's not

[35:34] changing notify the voters I don't they don't

[35:38] have that figured out yet there's a lot of stuff that the state doesn't have

[35:41] figured out yet um

[35:43] but I think I don't know if we'll have to send

[35:47] everybody a letter which I'm hoping or a postcard I hope we don't have to do that

[35:51] because that's a huge expense that will be on the uh townships not on us

[35:57] um but I'm hoping Publications in the different newspapers in the long run

[36:03] that would be cheaper

[36:06] I want to applaud Applause for going the extra mile here

[36:10] because the best clerks are the ones who who actually assisted and help the local

[36:16] clerks so don't leave them out there hanging because

[36:19] by rights you could just say hey it's up to you but as she explained the cost

[36:24] would be so prohibitive for all the locals to do it themselves so we do have

[36:28] a neighbor to the north of us who has said

[36:32] the Constitutional Amendment does not include me and I'm not touching it

[36:42] I think we're all in the same boat we're all taxpayers so

[36:45] and this will provide some when you you've got to run it what eight

[36:50] to eight or it just says eight hours it doesn't designate what hours are

[36:57] um I I think the thought would be to maybe you know

[37:02] use some different hours maybe one night or two nights of evening hours so that

[37:07] you could yeah it does include the two weekends the two Saturday and Sundays

[37:12] before the election I think those will be your busiest days and if we have an

[37:17] evening a couple evenings that they can come in and I'm hoping to put together

[37:21] my own team of election inspectors and they'll be trained just a little bit

[37:25] different than the regular election inspectors that you'll see at your

[37:29] election day polling places Network

[37:37] I do but I haven't been gone oh well I I was just

[37:42] I think this is a great way to to uh

[37:48] handle this whole nine days plus effects

[37:56] um I was just wondering for music foreign elections but just to

[38:02] cover all of them I don't think that you're gonna have any

[38:07] one day that's going to be overly busy um I you know as I said I think the

[38:13] weekends and any evenings that you're open would probably be the busiest but

[38:19] um even a school election a lot of people run that with only three election

[38:23] inspectors okay so um they say in other states that this

[38:28] has been established for quite a while you're looking at thirds

[38:32] a third of the people are doing early voting a third of the people are doing

[38:36] AV and a third of the people are voting on Election Day so if you if it does end

[38:41] up being 30 percent you know that's over nine days so you're not I don't and yes

[38:48] it would be the whole County but I still don't anticipate there being like this

[38:52] big long line and if there is then we'll learn our lesson and we'll have to

[38:57] increase how many what we're doing there it will all be a learning experience all

[39:02] right thank you so

[39:06] um The Proposal just to refresh my memory it requires those nine days of

[39:10] early voting yes yes and but there's there's no funding mechanisms

[39:15] there's talk but that's what it is at this point is

[39:19] talk what they came out with a guesstimate I

[39:23] guess it was about a month ago 60 days ago something like

[39:28] that and what they have put together the cost for

[39:33] um the first year of implementing proposal two is

[39:38] 177 million dollars

[39:43] but that's what we the people voted for so we shall do it

[39:51] and regardless of whether is an unfunded mandate so to speak with

[39:57] her something else comes from the state yeah I mean it's it's part of the state

[40:02] constitution now we have no choice it's just how we accomplish it there have

[40:07] there have been a lot of times so Paul that this the state has been very

[40:10] generous with yes with funds when we've gotten voting changes yeah like um all

[40:15] of our election equipment right now was paid for so so and then any idea why

[40:21] that one day prior was because there's so many things that the

[40:26] clerks have to do to prepare for the election

[40:35] s sure um

[40:38] a couple things strike me and as first I understand that this will be the first

[40:44] time and so we really don't know what the

[40:48] long-term effect is going to be some things across my mind is why do I have

[40:53] to drive down I want to stay in south I mean who knows

[40:58] what we're going to see uh you know going forward after this assembled

[41:02] with that said so it's a little bit of the unknown

[41:07] and then the other thing that really bugs me is I thought

[41:11] no unfunded mandate this is a mandate where's the funding

[41:17] you know that really bothers me and not so much for the county but for the local

[41:21] humans they're getting stuck again that's why

[41:25] you know these other laws have passed heavily Etc to stop that kind of crap

[41:31] and here we are it's going on and I know they're funding part of it like another

[41:36] part of The Proposal was um the um postage

[41:42] they now have to the townships have to pay the postage to send the ballot

[41:49] um and for have it prepaid for the voter to send the ballot back

[41:55] so I could get into a whole bunch of things

[41:58] but I won't because again we don't have enough time but they they changed it it

[42:02] used to be you could be put on a um permanent voter list okay and that

[42:08] permanent voter list meant that you would get an application sent to you

[42:12] automatically for every election and then you would fill that out return

[42:17] it to your Clerk and once they received that back they would send you their

[42:20] ballot okay so now with this new what changed with proposal two is that it's a

[42:27] permanent ballot list now so all you have to do is one time say I want to be

[42:33] on there and now they're sending you an actual ballot

[42:37] and they're also including an envelope with Prepaid postage to come back so if

[42:43] that person doesn't open it and they didn't want it for that election it

[42:48] doesn't matter the cost is still being sent so you're going to increase your

[42:51] cost of the number of ballots that you have to buy you're going to increase the

[42:55] cost of postage um as if nobody has figured it out by

[43:00] now I'm not a fan of what happened what I'm supposed to do

[43:03] but you know it is what it is and we have to work with it and we have to

[43:07] implement it um but as far as the unfunded mandate

[43:10] they are working on um

[43:14] a process to reimburse for the postage um they're going through the um

[43:20] federally they're doing that getting it all set up and uh

[43:24] envelopes with Prepaid postage on it and for this may election we just had they

[43:29] have to send it to the state to get reimbursed for that so there are

[43:32] portions of it and like I said there is some talk right now in Appropriations

[43:37] but I don't know where it's going to go the last legislative meeting that we had

[43:42] well last week we had a legislative lunch in up in Lansing and um nothing's

[43:48] been decided yet or guaranteed I'm feeling on the space that we're

[43:54] talking about is that that's premium space

[43:58] that's above ground we own it it you know checks a lot of boxes as being some

[44:04] really nice space something like this it's only going to

[44:07] be used for nine days three times next year and not used at all in odd years I

[44:13] don't want to spend a lot of money on that I I would thank myself this would

[44:18] be an ideal situation to put where the Friend of the Court used to be

[44:23] um

[44:28] that's the logistics of you know rather than it's not then take

[44:34] premium space for something that is an ideal application for something that

[44:40] could go on a basis because you're not down there you know all year long you're

[44:45] down there for nine days at a time so to me just a couple of considerations

[44:51] though this is this is a space that County already owns and it's just

[44:55] where if if for a minimal amount I think John was talking about maybe ten

[45:00] thousand dollars you're actually going to equip the county with a very nice

[45:03] facility that as Susie said she would not have to start what in February or

[45:08] March getting your dates for your summer training or something comes up that we

[45:13] want to have strategic planning meetings we don't have to we could have that be

[45:18] our new ISD yeah but why do we need a new ISD we already have one but I'm just

[45:23] saying it's County property that's sitting there just we can do the

[45:27] demolition class so if we do this then somebody comes along

[45:32] conservation I mean somebody comes along and wants to rent that space which has

[45:37] happened and well you know these dying days and these none knows so you kill

[45:42] your deal I would put it in the basement I would

[45:46] put it right here in the basement with free bed space up especially we don't

[45:50] know what's going to happen you know as far as long term is concerned well long

[45:54] term this is this doesn't change unless there's another you would have to have a

[45:58] constitutional amendment for this to change and I would also offer that

[46:03] all of us not centrally located and we are going to get Kickback on the first

[46:09] statement that you made this as well I live in South Haven why do I have to

[46:12] drive to Hartford well so if we do this and we try to you know

[46:19] centrally locate it that's going to be better than to say that you're catering

[46:24] only to the east side of the county additionally you're gonna

[46:29] you know increase the foot traffic into this building

[46:33] um you know I I don't work in this building so I don't really want to

[46:37] comment on that of what that may or may not affect but it would obviously affect

[46:42] it because you know and then there's going to be parking issues

[46:47] um you know if we have a jury trial going during those nine days there's not

[46:52] going to be a place for these people to park anywhere

[46:55] um and you know the answer the best one that we can give to people about I don't

[47:02] want to have to drive to a different location is you know you don't have to

[47:07] you have other options you can vote from home you can do an AV

[47:12] um you can go to your local polling location on Election Day so you know

[47:16] they have three options they have more options now than that you know than

[47:20] they've ever had um but it you know and like I said I I'm

[47:24] not asking for this just for me I My Hope Is that it's available for other

[47:30] County functions um you know if the facility did end up

[47:35] getting lease out to somebody whoever you know I I don't know is there a

[47:41] possibility that that could be part of the lease that you know we need this for

[47:46] um you know this many days to accommodate what's in the Michigan

[47:50] Constitution um if not then at that point I I suppose

[47:54] we would have to look at a different option anything that we do decide to do

[48:00] if we decide to do one central location we do have to have per the Constitution

[48:06] now we have to enter into a contract with the local jurisdictions the

[48:11] contract would run for two years at a time

[48:14] so if we were in the middle of a contract and something you know if if we

[48:17] were able to do this and something came up we would have to be able to fulfill

[48:22] that contract for the full two years

[48:26] well two comments number one and it's more of a generalized comment because I

[48:31] hear this so often regarding so many topics regarding this County

[48:37] there's a geographic center and there is a population Center

[48:42] and we are so hyper focused on geographic center

[48:46] that for example if I'm looking at the United

[48:50] States and I remember seeing this map recently the geographic center of the

[48:54] lower 48 is somewhere in pretty close to Iowa

[48:57] the population Center shifts probably a good thousand eight hundred miles

[49:04] so can we all relax about this it's got to be right in the middle of the county

[49:07] thing all the time because that helps a much smaller number of individuals

[49:12] travel to that location while a greater number of individuals now have to travel

[49:16] further to accomplish the same goal because it's an educated guess but

[49:22] more than half the County's population is

[49:25] within about or

[49:30] uh conscious Hartford is the center of the universe

[49:36] that ship from Iowa goes all the way to Hartford for the United States but not

[49:41] for the county so so that's just a philosophical thing

[49:45] sure let's relax about this need to be in the center for all every service that

[49:49] is illogical if we're worried about the inconvenience to our citizens who are by

[49:55] and large on the east side of the county number two

[50:00] um to your point um

[50:03] regarding this thing she's talking about the contract for two

[50:08] years in the event that something especially

[50:12] an agency or or whatever you utilizing that facility

[50:18] um if that were prohibitive because of those nine days in the future we could

[50:22] look at it we can look at it I mean a change could

[50:26] be made and you know any changes difficult and and also the 25 that I

[50:33] talked about for equipment that's an expense no matter where it's located so

[50:37] um you know that's there and as far as you know

[50:42] this is a statement of you know we don't need to you know the ISD thing I mean as

[50:46] Tina stated I literally am in December and January trying to book

[50:53] nine consecutive days or close they're in because I have

[50:57] um a very small time window that I'm required to train those 400 people and

[51:04] get them certified for an election I I think it's it's less than a three-week

[51:09] time period and they get hooked up so fast over there you know a lot of people

[51:15] just have standing meetings month after month after month so um that does pose a

[51:21] little bit of difficulty as well I guess what I would like to see is a

[51:27] further investigation done on the space that we have in this building

[51:33] you know before we automatically take our premium space

[51:37] I know there's nobody in there now but certainly if we put something like this

[51:41] in there that's going to grow yeah the most Runners from being interested

[51:47] so we already have the space we cleaned it out this is a perfect below ground

[51:52] application you're not expecting people to work there every day of the week

[51:57] is storage and then three three of those three nine day things you set her up and

[52:03] use it for early voting act distorted she goes

[52:06] through this place what do you mean back to storage I mean I need uh to set up uh

[52:12] a polling location for nine days to accommodate voters from all 22

[52:17] jurisdictions I mean I can't be put in a small a real small area I'm going to

[52:23] need at least a big enough area at least this room oh yeah yeah but I mean if

[52:30] because I know there's been talk about it being utilized for storage I I just

[52:34] don't see how storage and having that of you know moving stuff back and forth

[52:39] doesn't but again your guys's call

[52:43] yeah I offer another perspective on this with with some basic some simple

[52:49] updating and renovation maybe it becomes a more attractive space you know the

[52:54] notion of it being prohibitive because there's a nine-day Pay Here's a nine day

[52:59] obstacle but

[53:03] it becomes a more attractive space or the possibility of what you've

[53:08] suggested there is always the option too to go

[53:13] back to the townships and say to them you know it's not feasible for the

[53:17] county you guys are going to have to figure it out for yourselves

[53:20] I mean I don't think that's a good solution I mean we do need to take and I

[53:27] applaud you for taking a leadership position on this because sometimes

[53:31] regardless of what the law says the county should do it and I think this is

[53:35] one of those cases it's just you know I'm just thinking this is a good

[53:39] basement application and that's all you know for a basement that we just

[53:43] cleaned out because we want to get people out of there

[53:47] so and it's right here and we've got security right here you're right here

[53:51] automatically got 88 of the elevator yeah it's the elevator

[53:56] yeah yeah um my office and my staff are not

[54:00] going to be the ones working right the polling location

[54:04] so so can you tell me

[54:09] um why you would

[54:11] prefer the location in Hartford you go over that again because of the where

[54:18] it's located and then a larger space in a sample space yes it's definitely

[54:27] ample space there's ample parking I think parking can be a very big issue

[54:32] especially if there's a jury trial we've all heard Susan zeitervine and the

[54:36] judges in here talking about how many jury trials we have coming up in the

[54:40] next couple of years um if you've got a jury trial they're

[54:44] not going to find any place to park the employees can't even find a place to

[54:48] park um I I know Paul disagrees with me but

[54:52] I'm going to go back to the geographical center

[54:55] um I realize there's more population in the Antwerp Township but you still have

[55:01] to drive from South Haven if you choose to vote so coming from area with less

[55:05] population I agree it needs to be geographical

[55:10] you're not forcing anyone to do early

[55:14] and there's always the absentee voting that they can do

[55:19] so they have they have the options it's just the law says we now have to to make

[55:24] the accommodation so this can happen and I think this is a good solution and the

[55:28] other thing too with um if you I don't have it on me I can pull it up if you

[55:32] wanted me to but the um recommendation from the Bureau of Elections for a

[55:37] polling location the preference is definitely to have your voters enter in

[55:42] one door and exit out a different or that could never happen in the basement

[55:47] here they could yes well those are three

[55:52] points and I'm in favor of going ahead with this

[55:57] uh you first you had to talk to your Clerks

[56:00] I I've already sent them an initial letter of what my ideas are that

[56:04] nothing's carved in stone um my plan was to go to the supervisors

[56:08] meeting on Thursday and and give them a heads up because I believe after today

[56:12] they don't meet again until fall so I did not want to wait that long to

[56:17] give them some kind of information when does that mean Thursday Thursday

[56:22] and just you know a basis ISD but it could be at the other place

[56:28] there you go yeah what

[56:32] here's what I'm hearing it for a reason I have this sense of

[56:38] wanting to move stuff along today just personally

[56:41] because you know stuff um it's it has to get backed up a little

[56:47] bit um

[56:48] you're she's verbalizing the rationale for why it's better over there than in

[56:53] the basement um and we I think

[56:57] just full disclosure at this moment if somebody worked in motion before this I

[57:02] would support it um I'm not planning to motion for it uh

[57:06] respect for the for the investigative process that you think makes sense

[57:12] but I'm thinking if if she were to do that I'm hearing that it's going to be

[57:17] fairly evident on paper and there and things can change when it goes on paper

[57:21] and when there's more formal investigation so I respect that

[57:24] tremendously because I've seen many occasions where things have changed

[57:27] from the first blush request however um

[57:32] I'm hearing that if you talk the parties involved internally and we look at the

[57:37] factors involved even despite it being a little bit more convenient for Antwerp

[57:42] residents to come here versus going to Hartford

[57:45] um uh

[57:48] it makes sense to me it sounds like a lot of homework's already been done

[57:52] um and my gut tells me there's a lot of

[57:55] problems with the basement with this so if someone emotions for this I'm going

[58:00] to support it right now but if she comes if you come back and unfortunately you'd

[58:04] have to skip Thursday's meeting if you come back with something a little more

[58:07] formal in terms of a study then I'll listen to that oh well I hear

[58:13] what you're saying uh the justification for the Hartford

[58:18] location is being made by just looking at the Hartford location no one has

[58:24] looked at the location that they have in this building see if it would be

[58:28] suitable or not so I I would favor at least doing that

[58:34] yeah thank you John small how

[58:41] can you put another interest way down please there's another there's an exit

[58:46] there now but you have to go through the entire facility to get to it there's no

[58:50] elevator in the back axis

[58:56] I mean it doesn't make it doesn't sound like it makes sense

[59:01] use the base I really have to take a look at the whole thing

[59:05] we have water issues in the basement with the Elevator Fan uh right now it's

[59:09] like I stated once FOC is out of there you know they move so you don't have the

[59:14] circulation of everybody another it is very musty down there right now we have

[59:17] two dehumidifiers running which are clutching water constantly so if you go

[59:21] on in the basement now it is not a good atmosphere

[59:26] we could take a look at different HVAC down there until overall cost and

[59:30] remodeling down there yes

[59:35] and that would be more than the ten thousand dollars

[59:39] you were look at maybe ten thousand dollars ten thousand for the Hartford

[59:43] locations to get it yeah and what spaces

[59:48] you're only taking up maybe an eighth okay so if somebody wants to come in at

[59:55] some point we've got another agency that wants to do a rental there that doesn't

[59:58] prohibit it plus it gives them an automatic

[1:00:01] um you said it with the room is large enough you could put a panel down and

[1:00:05] have two conference rooms so no matter what

[1:00:08] if somebody wants to run it they're not going to do Renovations they're going to

[1:00:12] want us to do the renovations to get up to what they this this just moves that

[1:00:15] ahead I think going from memory I think that the facilities are like 11 000

[1:00:19] square feet and you're talking about using

[1:00:24] don't worry about you like 30 by 36 you know somewhere in that area 30 by 40. so

[1:00:29] it's it's implementing some improvements that no matter what are going to need to

[1:00:35] be made whether we at some point somebody approaches and wants the whole

[1:00:40] building so

[1:00:43] say margin can be provided or can be applied the downstairs should be a good

[1:00:49] opportunity to make it more desirable as well yeah

[1:00:54] correct nine days okay three times a year

[1:01:00] that's where I'm coming from and we have a basement

[1:01:04] and that is Prime real estate out there as far as I'm concerned because it's

[1:01:09] above ground seems to me that we already voted funds

[1:01:13] to make that available for a jury election room where our jurors could go

[1:01:18] out there and we could select jurors from that I thought we already approved

[1:01:22] funds yeah a long time ago during covet for that to make these improvements that

[1:01:27] building so we would have a large Gathering Place

[1:01:31] whatever we needed it for at that time it was jury selection yeah but I think

[1:01:37] we've probably spent enough time on this subject and I I don't think you were

[1:01:42] looking for a motion today just an update correct Susie well I I mean if we

[1:01:47] need to know if if it's going to be if we're still going to talk about that

[1:01:51] song all of that but I mean that's what you want

[1:01:54] I guess I'm just not really sure whether to even approach these supervisors

[1:01:59] because could I make a suggestions

[1:02:04] for Ms Roman um two things one she mentioned storage I know there was a lot

[1:02:09] of talk about you know

[1:02:12] now we have more storage space although humidity matters with paper I

[1:02:18] understand that but so storage space if that's a legitimate

[1:02:22] thing and I think it is for that space going forward but wouldn't couldn't you

[1:02:28] comfortably talk about this with the townships and

[1:02:32] the township clerks you're just not specifically sure whether it's

[1:02:40] but it's a central location for all of us to deal with and what what she

[1:02:44] initially was looking for was something that was already County owned and I get

[1:02:47] where you're coming from we've got something but it's it's it's not in a

[1:02:50] condition that you could use it for an election but

[1:02:54] are there any other County buildings that are even

[1:02:58] could be utilized I don't know I mean where I I should know where I'll kind of

[1:03:04] oh John is there any other buildings that

[1:03:07] are empty or available or not with that kind of space no the accessibility of

[1:03:12] you know what we talked about getting voters in and out with one you know with

[1:03:15] two accesses okay

[1:03:25] um to be blind I mean in order for me to pull this off I have to have the vast

[1:03:31] majority of the townships come on board sure and in all honesty if I can't get

[1:03:36] them a location I don't see that happening and I can't put this off until

[1:03:41] the fall and then try to make it happen before the February presidential primary

[1:03:48] it's not going to happen I don't have that kind of time can we

[1:03:53] put it off two weeks what are we doing in two weeks so you

[1:03:58] have John and John and the clerk look at the space downstairs and determine is it

[1:04:04] acceptable or not that's all I'm asking we've just jumped right to this other

[1:04:09] location without you know fully vetting the idea in my opinion

[1:04:15] I mean it was acceptable to have the front of the court down there a couple

[1:04:20] weeks ago and now it's not acceptable to have people go down there nine days for

[1:04:25] three times a year I I see what you're saying Randy but

[1:04:29] also the fact that the parking I mean is so much more parking over there I mean

[1:04:35] Susie seems like she's really studying what would be best for the

[1:04:42] residents and and you know sometimes with the parking even if this is ideal

[1:04:48] down stairs how do we solve that uh you know again

[1:04:54] I'm not saying whether I like either location 100 one way or the other all

[1:05:00] I'm saying is look at it Don Sam you know before we just run off on this

[1:05:05] direction you know we've dealt with that space

[1:05:08] downstairs ever since I've been a commissioner to get people out of there

[1:05:12] so it could be freed up we've accomplished that task now it's sitting

[1:05:16] there in an unused capacity this to me would be a perfect use for that

[1:05:23] reverses buying up premium real estate but again you know

[1:05:27] well I'm gonna go back to you know what but uh commissioner shankario said too

[1:05:33] about the location geographical or you know whatever I think it is a good

[1:05:38] geographic location I mean here would suffice for you know your side of the

[1:05:43] county if you would um that's not really in this particular

[1:05:47] occasion that's that is

[1:05:50] more philosophical because that comes up a lot okay for things that matter more I

[1:05:56] understand it yep so it would matter to you know my side of the county too we

[1:05:59] don't want to come all the way to Papa sure so

[1:06:03] um I think if we took a struggle right now you'd probably be in favor of doing

[1:06:07] it in Hartford you know I you know the problems that we've had

[1:06:11] down there with you know the Friend of the Court

[1:06:14] like uh Pete said you know we've been trying to

[1:06:17] get them out of there since I started and finally got admire there now we're

[1:06:20] talking about putting something back in there

[1:06:22] it's been standard about all the there everybody was so anxious to have that

[1:06:27] spot for storage if you're going to use that for storage what you're putting

[1:06:31] down there is not public a lot in a lot of instances things that are good so if

[1:06:37] you were going to have public come in what are you going to do with the things

[1:06:40] that are being stored okay how are you going to partition stuff off so there's

[1:06:45] no public access to it I'm just throwing that out there too

[1:06:49] and again Randy I understand you you just saying why should we throw money

[1:06:53] into something we're only going to use part of the time but if you ever are

[1:06:56] going to Market that building and make it so somebody does want to rent it

[1:07:01] or lease it you're going to have to do upgrades anyway this gets it done and

[1:07:06] we only know what happens when you put stuff off as far as construction and it

[1:07:09] the price doesn't go down and it's only for two year lease that we could

[1:07:14] possibly well yes for now and then we could be

[1:07:18] but there's there's still the greatest percentage of that building is still

[1:07:23] open open and I don't know that we've had anybody

[1:07:27] knocking on the door unless there's just been talks that I'm not aware of anybody

[1:07:31] who's looking to release it automobile conference room too that the other

[1:07:35] people at least could use just not during lunch or that might not even be

[1:07:40] yes it would probably continue it was made as and it's a big room The Logical

[1:07:45] use is generally if you've got a comments

[1:07:51] with all due respect any sentences starts that way

[1:07:57] yeah one Robert's Rules come and make it gosh version but

[1:08:02] um no the FSA the USDA office conservation history extension or plan

[1:08:08] to go there that fell off we've had lots of changes

[1:08:11] in administration and a new board and that hasn't come up we've been sitting

[1:08:15] out here waiting to know when we're moving

[1:08:18] um from the extension's point of view we're fine with that we're happy we're

[1:08:23] unable to grow we need more space Conservation District I don't know where

[1:08:26] that proposal is there was a million dollars coming from the feds

[1:08:30] in rent money my opinion if you want it right now is

[1:08:35] that renovate that space we wanted that space that was a we need a large

[1:08:40] conference room and so this would lean right into that if that was the pleasure

[1:08:46] of the county to move extension and USDA out there we've just been kind of out

[1:08:50] here waiting I don't know families brought that up to the board she's here

[1:08:52] more often than I am but however renovating that space would get you

[1:08:58] closer to having us an USDA move in there because clearly we want conference

[1:09:01] rooms so that was just that and and just you know it's saying for you

[1:09:06] commissioner Larry it's this has been talked about and it's been

[1:09:09] two years it's been we're three administrators now going to be four

[1:09:13] a lot of times spent on talking and so that's right so thank you I appreciate

[1:09:17] the commissioner for your afternoon John do you know where that stand thank

[1:09:22] you and I know we talked about it back in the day when I was here before Kobe

[1:09:26] did and I think you were saying pause okay so I will there's a couple of

[1:09:31] points if I can long term I think we really need to do a facilities master

[1:09:37] plan study to see what we do with all the space right now we have two bacon

[1:09:44] bases I guess for lack of a better word the basement here and out there let me

[1:09:48] know what are we going to do with that but also we have the Big Blocks that

[1:09:52] take advantage so that would be a big facilities master plan we don't have

[1:09:55] time for that for this particular discussion

[1:09:58] talked about this space for the voting um we did kick it around it wasn't that

[1:10:04] we just counted it immediately it was mostly the access I'm not comfortable

[1:10:08] with that elevator being used that much for the Boating that could possibly use

[1:10:13] there's no exit the traffic patterns not good the parking's not good so we went

[1:10:20] out to a vacant space that we know we have with those sort of issues taken

[1:10:24] care of and I was thinking regardless of and this is where the conversation has

[1:10:30] been brought to me that if nothing else that conference room I think increases

[1:10:33] the value of that rental space whoever goes out there whether it's uh MSU

[1:10:38] Extension the Conservation District I don't know about USDA where they are but

[1:10:42] these land-based educational programs that tie in well with with the

[1:10:48] fairgrounds I think that's a great location for that type of operation

[1:10:51] those operations and they need conference spaces for educational

[1:10:55] purposes so um you know we we did

[1:10:59] talk about the basement here and we landed at its better

[1:11:03] um to start talking about out in Hartford so we came to think about it so

[1:11:08] it's What's the total John of that whole base there now that's available

[1:11:14] it's all remodel no the space they're available right I believe it's 11 000

[1:11:18] square feet okay and how much will take 4x30

[1:11:24] so it's a room yeah

[1:11:31] I mean is that if all of a sudden that happens you go oh you took that space

[1:11:37] that was going to be my office we don't want it

[1:11:43] here's my recollection of where things stand as far as the federal government's

[1:11:49] concerned unleashing that space initially there was a proposal that was

[1:11:56] made by us to them that included uh building out everything

[1:12:01] that was this goes back to when Frank was here it included building out you

[1:12:08] know everything a new sign in front all kinds of stuff and the FEDS came back

[1:12:12] and said wait a minute you know way too much redo it and so we did we redid it

[1:12:19] and it was kind of going back and forth but as I recall it was about a million

[1:12:25] dollars a year that federal government was going to pay us to rent that space

[1:12:31] now where it stands as of today is a hell of a good question and I don't know

[1:12:35] and I'm going to be asking John to figure out where does it stand because

[1:12:40] if we're sitting on a lease that we need to sign to make million dollars a year

[1:12:45] give me the least to sign but this all feeds into let's cool it

[1:12:51] and take a couple of weeks here have John figure out where are we on that

[1:12:56] space and if we did something like this would that mean that they're no longer

[1:13:01] interested I don't know maybe the feds have got some kind of uh requirement I

[1:13:07] don't know all I'm saying is let's find out

[1:13:10] let's take another look at the space downstairs and as far as parking and all

[1:13:14] that stuff is concerned it's the way it goes we've got all kinds of parking

[1:13:18] around here and again for those nine days a year you might have to walk a

[1:13:22] little bit if there's a if if you know I'm not going to over worry about

[1:13:27] parking and again using the elevator we're

[1:13:31] talking nine days you know 27 days over the course of a

[1:13:36] year that the elevator might get more usage I

[1:13:39] mean come on doesn't strike me as being you know

[1:13:42] excessive or anything like that all I'm suggesting is that when we look at these

[1:13:47] things and then we can discuss it make a decision

[1:13:51] yes I think we would kick ourselves if we did something like this and then

[1:13:55] somehow you know negated the at least with the fats

[1:14:01] foreign

[1:14:13] I will make emotions

[1:14:16] that we will go ahead with first uh request

[1:14:22] for the um Human Services West building

[1:14:31] and I won't talk about the discussion now but

[1:14:35] um my request is for the we uh construction

[1:14:40] of the area for the clerks to have the voting space there

[1:14:46] for two year lease

[1:14:52] for that okay we have a motion with support

[1:14:57] conversation I'll just remind everybody that this

[1:15:01] doesn't guarantee it's going to happen she's got to be able to get consensus

[1:15:04] from her from her Township clerks as well that

[1:15:09] led us to this that that doesn't fall into it they've already said that they

[1:15:14] want the majority all that a couple are saying we want you to help us with this

[1:15:18] it's just she's got she has to find the location they're all already on board

[1:15:22] and the only reason she was going to go talk to the supervisors is to let them

[1:15:26] know and for budgeting purposes and stuff too that's it and Julie's already

[1:15:30] mentioned this would help facilitate something that you want if you're going

[1:15:34] to move out there you want to see happen anyway so it's it's to me it is a

[1:15:38] no-brainer because it's moving the building ahead as I said for the third

[1:15:43] time I raise boys um

[1:15:46] whatever happens we're gonna have to do renovations

[1:15:50] so this just moves that part of that that little portion of the building a

[1:15:55] room this size moves that part down okay well you said part of what you said is

[1:16:00] not exactly correct the renovations are being paid for will

[1:16:05] be paid for by the tenant whoever that is

[1:16:08] just like the ending contract that we had with the Feds that space they paid

[1:16:13] for all the resumes Renovations not us we did them and then we factored it into

[1:16:19] our rank and what we were charging them we didn't

[1:16:23] we didn't pay for any of them we would not be paying for any of that

[1:16:27] just to get it you know so that they were talking about ten thousand whatever

[1:16:34] okay any other conversation all right Susie let's do a roll call on

[1:16:39] this commissioner yes

[1:16:43] Mr Chapel yes Mr Toro yes Mr Godfrey yes

[1:16:49] Mr O'Leary yes Mr shankario yes Mr P no

[1:16:57] okay I would just ask that as we go forward John make sure that whatever we

[1:17:03] do hasn't been in the way of having a lease with a bet that space okay I'll

[1:17:09] follow up with them because I'm completely unaware of the conversations

[1:17:12] on them well there was an actual document that was going back and forth

[1:17:18] that's

[1:17:24] Ryan left and everything and you know I don't know that wouldn't it's not the

[1:17:28] first file I can't find around right there's a file there and I think the

[1:17:32] lease is supposed to be existing

[1:17:38] I worked with Ryan Anne with Frank on that okay

[1:17:43] okay cool and and chairman B personally if

[1:17:50] if Mr fall sees any flying the ointment on that possibility I would I would I

[1:17:57] would gladly ask that we re-evaluate and and I would motion to

[1:18:02] revolt if he were to find something I don't think he's gonna

[1:18:06] I don't think so no thanks for a good direction

[1:18:11] yeah yes yes

[1:18:18] uh Julie yeah a question do you remember about the

[1:18:24] lease I mean it was that

[1:18:29] that John would know they had to resubmit and then it came back

[1:18:37] will find out where um no one's been pushing that because I

[1:18:42] think I think it's been waiting for the account to react to and so I I think but

[1:18:48] so but you know we've had changes and that's what's caused the problem so

[1:18:53] wow

[1:18:58] oh I I believe last conversation with Ryan and the Spain

[1:19:07] we used to spend everything that they're required

[1:19:12] well we'll find out where it's at and when we report back and then we can make

[1:19:18] it for whatever it's worth okay anything further on that

[1:19:29] Circuit Court Family Division contract renewals as presented by Mr Veronica

[1:19:35] I'm not sure that I want to go next so I have here six juvenile court

[1:19:42] contracts four of these actually started at the beginning of the fiscal year we

[1:19:47] were at the very beginning stages of a child care fund audit at that time and

[1:19:51] so I wanted to wait to work on these contracts until I knew if I had findings

[1:19:55] then I need to modify some of the language so that has all been completed

[1:19:59] the child care fund audit finally finished up I believe it was in February

[1:20:04] and so the contracts did have the language added went back to the

[1:20:09] providers and that's where we are today uh so these are just presented for your

[1:20:15] signature previously we had the chief judge sign

[1:20:19] our juvenile court contracts but now we come to the chair of the board for that

[1:20:23] I would make a motion to authorize the board chair to sign in

[1:20:27] front of the court contract or

[1:20:31] who can support a conversation follow us in favor say yes yes

[1:20:41] thank you sometimes going next after a long time

[1:20:50] legal self-help center Grant is

[1:20:54] so this is very exciting the state court Administrative Office presented a grant

[1:20:59] opportunity that would allow for the expansion or establishment of legal

[1:21:03] self-help centers and so I approached first the pawpaw library to find out if

[1:21:07] they would be interested in being a site for a legal self-help center they

[1:21:11] responded enthusiastically in fact I believe her word was delighted and so

[1:21:16] then I um talked to the Decatur District Library

[1:21:20] and all of his seven libraries were also interested and so then I talked to the

[1:21:26] other libraries that were in The District in

[1:21:29] the county the there's three others so 11 total all of the libraries were very

[1:21:33] supportive of establishing a legal self-help center in their location and

[1:21:38] so this grant is small and does not actually benefit the county but it will

[1:21:44] be a huge help to our community members because to have a legal self-help center

[1:21:49] in all 11 libraries would put a lot of people within walking distance and so

[1:21:54] this grant would allow each library to have site Navigators so their Librarians

[1:21:59] would be trained to navigate Michigan legalhelp.org they would not provide

[1:22:03] legal advice but they could show people how to use the site and so this grant

[1:22:08] reimburses those Librarians for their time

[1:22:11] there's a couple of libraries that requested new computers and they'll also

[1:22:15] have printers so this grant is submitted for the chair's approval and then it

[1:22:22] would be submitted by a doc you signed to the state court administrative office

[1:22:25] if accepted Mike Walsh weeks up the Grant and

[1:22:30] authorized support share to sign the necessary documents report

[1:22:33] in support of conversation will the funds be distributed equally or based on

[1:22:39] size how will that happen based on size and number of librarians that are

[1:22:43] participating so for example the decade or District

[1:22:47] had 40 40 or 41 Librarians that would be participating whereas Papa might have

[1:22:54] three or four so it just depends on how many they have

[1:22:58] Dr Senator the county moves out yeah

[1:23:17] the chief judge has instructed us in the clerk's office if we ever have anybody

[1:23:22] come in they always want legal advice from our office

[1:23:27] and that is the website that she has on this that they'll be working with is the

[1:23:32] website that we're required to direct everybody to

[1:23:36] one of the really amazing features about this site is that it's presented

[1:23:40] initially in English so that a site Navigator could help

[1:23:44] someone finds the appropriate page but if they're Spanish-speaking individual

[1:23:48] they can just click a button and it will translate the page into Spanish

[1:23:51] it's really a fantastic website that this is provide them with forms which

[1:23:56] they would always come in the office and they want to file something they don't

[1:23:59] have a right paperwork well can't you give me a formal no we couldn't we could

[1:24:02] direct them again just direct them this is giving them instead of their a site

[1:24:07] that they've gotta navigate by themselves at home on their computer

[1:24:11] they've got someone who actually knows how to navigate to sites a printer and a

[1:24:16] printer which a lot of people don't have so you go in and you answer some

[1:24:19] questions that they initially bring up you fill it in and then it

[1:24:23] um fills in all of the forms that the individual will need and prints it out

[1:24:28] and also prints a set of instructions of when to file which documents and this is

[1:24:35] a website that's been in in place for years so it's just giving it a easier

[1:24:41] access and some some help with along with it

[1:24:44] libraries and as you were seeing uh this has been

[1:24:49] that website that's been in the back for years but a lot of the Librarians myself

[1:24:54] include it we try our best but we you know we have not been trained to

[1:25:01] find some of the paperwork we put in this and go back to the importance yeah

[1:25:08] right it even includes topics such as special education Wills immigration

[1:25:14] they're just a plethora of topics thank you so much

[1:25:18] thank you so I sorry it feels like even if this were even if this were a

[1:25:24] one-time thing it certainly would be at least temporarily helpful but

[1:25:29] considering that it's a grant that doesn't involve new employees Etc it's

[1:25:32] just training and a couple pieces of Hardware correct yeah what's the what's

[1:25:37] the long-term perspective on this on this help so Michigan legal Health

[1:25:43] provides the long-term training this is an initial blast I guess you could say

[1:25:49] so that we have a lot of people educated all at one time Michigan little help

[1:25:52] will also help with community outreach so that we can make everybody aware of

[1:25:56] this um and then they would have ongoing

[1:25:59] trainings this first set of training is in person and then there are recorded

[1:26:03] trainings that people can Avail themselves of any time

[1:26:10] anything else

[1:26:18] thank you thank you

[1:26:29] um do we have to wait to vote we have to vote on this

[1:26:33] there was a motion in a second I believe advice yeah

[1:26:40] ocean with a second conversation all those in favor say yes yes yes yes

[1:26:46] both no motion caring

[1:26:55] uh item C 2022 audit efficiency correction Plan update

[1:27:02] as presented by Gloria gosh I don't think I've ever I

[1:27:08] don't think I've ever said your last name out loud

[1:27:11] and I'm still not gonna

[1:27:17] okay

[1:27:20] I've made a lot of reservations at Smith myself

[1:27:26] that you're really like fettuccine

[1:27:31] so miss fettuccine

[1:27:36] thank you

[1:27:42] afternoon commissioners

[1:27:46] haven't thought about this uh item since we put it in the packet I have to get my

[1:27:52] get my mind from approving invoices back to here uh as a result

[1:27:59] of submitting our audit uh in not a timely fashion we would receive a letter

[1:28:07] from the state a notice of deficiency letter even though they approved

[1:28:13] um our later filing we would we would always receive this later on top of that

[1:28:20] the Auditors uh prepare a an APR and audit procedures report and if another

[1:28:28] report card of their findings to the state and

[1:28:34] between the audit being in not quite timely and the notations that our

[1:28:41] Auditors made a um an automated program picks out a

[1:28:47] letter this request for corrective action

[1:28:50] it is fairly boilerplate we do have some

[1:28:57] deficiencies that were reported 22 years in a row so the state will will start

[1:29:05] looking harder at that that has to do with the timely bank reconciliations and

[1:29:12] I think we've really really turned a corner on the last two months and and

[1:29:17] getting the audit put to bed this year I think there's really been a breakthrough

[1:29:21] let's see another one of the issues is that uh

[1:29:27] um each

[1:29:29] activity or Department must stay within budget uh by state by Public Act One of

[1:29:37] the items we a sheriff activity um the whole Sheriff Department was well

[1:29:45] within its budget one of the substrata exceeded uh went over 900 about 927

[1:29:53] dollars out of a two million dollar budget

[1:29:56] so I wanted to say to the state like really as a response but that wouldn't

[1:30:01] quite be professional so we do recognize that again getting back to that this is

[1:30:06] a you know computer-generated letter um and talk to the Auditors on our

[1:30:13] responses they're fairly short responses and I think we'll be in okay shape when

[1:30:19] we submit this but it because the letter did come to

[1:30:23] the board um really we would like the board to

[1:30:27] review it and if there's any comments or concerns

[1:30:30] so we can deal with it and if not we'll send it on its way by June 2nd

[1:30:40] questions

[1:30:44] so you'd like approval to submit the letter please yes motion

[1:30:57] conversation all those in favor say yes yes yes no

[1:31:04] motion caring thank you

[1:31:09] thank you exactly

[1:31:12] first item is for out-of-state training for the prosecutor's office

[1:31:21] I know that we have anyone here

[1:31:27] I think it's a training that was in their budget it's in their budget and

[1:31:31] it's part of their Grant I think

[1:31:35] they're Grant with this one I don't believe there's Grandpa was they're

[1:31:39] either budget anyway employee training budget

[1:31:46] and support it conversation

[1:31:51] all those in favor say yes yes yes suppose no

[1:31:55] motion carry

[1:31:59] we have Paris Joe salary exception

[1:32:05] okay and I'm sure you guys are tired of the seller assumptions but uh

[1:32:09] for the sake of time and so don't stress the vegetables out of you the TVs that's

[1:32:14] a good word that's great I've heard that a long time I have not

[1:32:19] heard that a long time um so I'm asking for a seller exception

[1:32:23] for the chief Deputy drain commissioner it's been posted for a year now

[1:32:29] um originally when I started the position it was three grand higher but

[1:32:32] then we took it out of the union and dropped the bottom and top range of it

[1:32:37] um I have a really good candidate here um probably one of the better interviews

[1:32:41] I've had in the 17 years so and this is my first

[1:32:44] asking for this in 17 years for a seller exception so

[1:32:48] um and it's been bacon for a year so yeah I could use this appreciate it any

[1:32:53] questions

[1:32:58] case foreign

[1:33:25] okay

[1:33:36] well I get the impression from talking to some of the Commissioners that

[1:33:42] a little more time would be appreciated to you know Maul all this over and think

[1:33:48] it through so uh I'm okay with that myself

[1:33:53] but uh if anybody wants to bring anything up at this point or

[1:33:58] or I don't see any of the department heads out there right now but

[1:34:02] if anybody wants to discuss it further now it's a good time

[1:34:13] pretty handsome up there that's him

[1:34:21] a news article that I sent to you I didn't know if that should be sent also

[1:34:29] elect officials or do we discuss it it doesn't mean that it's a no order yes

[1:34:36] but it just something that was concerning so the article that you sent

[1:34:41] to me was sent to the other commissioner elect officials

[1:34:48] it's our ultimate decision

[1:34:53] I read through that I don't know what the treasure had done yeah to be

[1:34:59] dismissed I could understand if it was embezzlement or something like that

[1:35:03] because the board did support it

[1:35:10] but they had said they said that he did it in the wrong order

[1:35:15] you had to come to them before the person could be dismissed that's how I

[1:35:19] run it yeah in all fairness there were others as I

[1:35:24] looked at some of these you can find um I found another one

[1:35:28] um that the council allegedly seeks to remove a person

[1:35:32] so if we're going to point out one I need to point out all of them well I

[1:35:35] would like to see that information too

[1:35:45] closed session of Albion Council allegedly seeks to remove city manager

[1:35:49] Haley Schneider he wasn't removed and doesn't say what

[1:35:52] for but you know these things are out there so

[1:35:56] um we're gonna start pulling them up we should do on all the folks not just you

[1:36:00] know that was mentioned at the

[1:36:04] meeting but had happened and that like you said

[1:36:09] sometimes these things happen and right but we should no I'm glad that it was

[1:36:13] mentioned there but this one wasn't well this is a big decision and uh you

[1:36:20] know think this thing through for a couple of weeks I mean all this data

[1:36:24] some of it we just got Friday you know last week so to not be too quick

[1:36:31] all right foreign

[1:36:39] that's what happened to one of them last time right took a job took the Ionia

[1:36:44] County job before we could get to interview that person no

[1:36:49] what's happening you always run that risk any delay you know we could lose

[1:36:54] some some or all of the candidates but with that said

[1:36:59] never think it's a good idea to rush it professionally

[1:37:04] this job I've talked first

[1:37:09] will there be some something sent to each one of the

[1:37:13] interviewees just to advise them that I mean it's I think it's

[1:37:19] but when they interview when someone comes to interview in a week I think

[1:37:22] they're expecting to hear something so we've already gone a few days but I know

[1:37:26] two weeks isn't forever but at least advising them that

[1:37:30] good idea

[1:37:35] yeah either way as long as they're notified I

[1:37:38] mean right just some way of letting them know

[1:37:41] hey John would you please make sure that candidates know that work still in

[1:37:46] deliberation

[1:37:50] so do we want a motion to put this on the next agenda oh I'm

[1:37:57] would like to add since it's you know some

[1:38:02] we are doing our due diligence here we want to

[1:38:07] make a good decision personally with

[1:38:12] what I've seen with our top considerations what I've

[1:38:16] seen and heard and asking a couple questions of folks

[1:38:20] from here I don't see anything that I don't see anything

[1:38:25] no major red flags I just

[1:38:29] us being deliberate and thoughtful is is key at this moment I don't really see

[1:38:35] anything

[1:38:38] I think we have good choices I don't see anything that's

[1:38:43] really off-putting

[1:38:46] when you consider the the length of an average

[1:38:51] person in a role like this we don't have stats on city managers but

[1:38:56] uh the folks were considering I mean our

[1:39:00] our lead as a pretty

[1:39:04] darn good track record now it would appear

[1:39:10] Ed

[1:39:13] I mean I mean we talked a lot about it last meeting

[1:39:19] before we left on Friday we were trying to talk about it we talked about each of

[1:39:24] our individual but I did not

[1:39:27] oh okay

[1:39:32] all right anything further otherwise emotion or do we even need emotions

[1:39:37] we can just put it on and put it on the next object

[1:39:41] that's all right that's what we're gonna do

[1:39:46] okay

[1:39:48] just one question if we wanted to do second interviews

[1:39:54] is it okay to have and and there it was obvious we were all

[1:39:59] talking about Marty that um

[1:40:04] and he's the one that that has been there's some red flags now if you and

[1:40:08] maybe not as you know we don't know all the circumstances

[1:40:12] is it I don't know that much about making this in public about it but it's

[1:40:17] legal or not to do or what's good or not to do an interview process but to do a

[1:40:22] second interview and have him explain I mean there can be a lot of reasons

[1:40:27] there's personality um issues that go on with boards and I'm sure over the course

[1:40:34] of time they've been very qualified very um

[1:40:38] good administrators or people in any position that end up losing their jobs

[1:40:42] personality

[1:40:50] yes in a second interview absolutely into a second interview we could reject

[1:40:57] all candidates I mean again right now it's all on the table

[1:41:03] so it would with the second interview would it be

[1:41:08] from all five or the top three that we might have well whoever would choose to

[1:41:15] and there would be no reason to get all five back in I don't think because there

[1:41:17] was something we could choose one or two we could choose what we want

[1:41:22] but if we don't do anything for two weeks what's going to go on in those two

[1:41:26] weeks yeah that's a good idea I mean Mr Walsh told us last time that we would

[1:41:31] only have four because one of them has already taken a position

[1:41:35] so there were only four left of our five

[1:41:41] how do you determine let's say the top two we I

[1:41:45] from the talk it's like uh his advice to us remember was go with

[1:41:51] your gut

[1:41:54] because we talked about scoring systems and all of that

[1:41:59] well and we couldn't really do before we did not do that

[1:42:04] we um

[1:42:09] we can do a while I would suggest us we're fortunate in the sense that we

[1:42:13] have we have good leadership currently

[1:42:17] so we're not panicked we don't have to

[1:42:22] dynamic um but we certainly with good people we

[1:42:29] you know we were ready to go we were ready to go Friday we decided to wait

[1:42:33] four days now we're gonna wait two more weeks and that's fine I understand

[1:42:35] totally why but maybe we we don't want to wait that

[1:42:40] long if we think we got the right right person

[1:42:48] so do you do whatever you want if everybody has I mean if the majority

[1:42:52] sort of their idea of who they want

[1:42:57] then I might be in the minority so I don't want to hold everybody out

[1:43:02] I mean I can't vote wow

[1:43:08] you know I can make a decision making another couple weeks doesn't

[1:43:13] strike me as being bad

[1:43:17] and we are we are in good shape right now unfortunately

[1:43:21] but we're not under the gun we can take

[1:43:28] I go back to my again my private sector days

[1:43:33] the watchword that we used was higher slow Fire fast

[1:43:42] [Laughter] and Julian

[1:43:51] what's the pleasure of the board wait

[1:43:55] I say two weeks but if we say two weeks then we're gonna ask

[1:44:01] them I would say we meet again in two weeks

[1:44:05] with the idea that we're going to make a decision yeah it's up to us whether we

[1:44:09] do or not but in my mind two weeks we're making it

[1:44:15] in the meantime we could take interviews if we wanted to I mean

[1:44:21] in the meantime any investigation that a board member wants to do is wide open

[1:44:26] do it

[1:44:31] legally yeah okay if we're good with that and

[1:44:36] I'll move on the agenda okay so this will be on the agenda again

[1:44:41] in two weeks with an idea to to make a decision

[1:44:46] and Mr Paul is going to advise the candidates and Mr Walsh that we are

[1:44:53] still in deliberation and uh you know what our status is

[1:45:01] thanks

[1:45:05] number 11 I.T update afternoon

[1:45:11] do my best to keep this brief in the interest of time uh so there's been a

[1:45:15] lot of changes in the county in the last two years since I've been here

[1:45:18] um and I.T is not an exception either so that's all I wanted to show you guys the

[1:45:21] organizational chart there so with me becoming uh filling this director role

[1:45:26] we had some really good in-house Talent we posted the operations manager role uh

[1:45:30] we had really actually no external applicants I was really surprised to see

[1:45:34] that I think our compensation is fair especially in this area

[1:45:38] um but luckily we had two really strong internal candidates and it was a really

[1:45:41] tough pick for me but I elevated code of the operations manager position he's

[1:45:46] been there for about three weeks now and he's doing a great job he's very

[1:45:49] technically skilled he has a lot of of leadership experience in his past jobs

[1:45:54] and he's been a great mentor the whole time he's been here so I think he's

[1:45:57] really going to Excel and do well for the county in that regard

[1:46:01] um you know with that with that in mind it opens up our it General's three

[1:46:06] positions so we've had that job posted now for three weeks we've had 10 or 15

[1:46:09] applicants so far about 3 four of them were viable they met the the metrics on

[1:46:15] their resume anyway and would fit the role one we we brought two interviews in

[1:46:19] one of them was a very good interview we would he's in the running for for a

[1:46:23] potential hire and we have two additional interviews we're trying to

[1:46:26] schedule uh currently so we're hoping to wrap that up next week and get somebody

[1:46:29] in within the the week after that so all goes well we'll have a full team which

[1:46:34] will be the first time since I've been here actually there's always a series of

[1:46:37] events where we get full staffed and then somebody ends up leaving or going

[1:46:41] down a National Guard deployment so really looking forward to that and uh

[1:46:44] and and growing this team especially since the average age of the team the

[1:46:48] average tenure here is just over two years so we're starting to get back some

[1:46:52] of that institutional knowledge that was lost in 2021 uh in 2020 and so one of

[1:46:58] the things that we're trying to do to build that knowledge is what I'm what I

[1:47:02] call an Institutional or excuse me a systems overview

[1:47:06] uh documentation sheet so I formed a team within the department with three

[1:47:11] individuals so our Network infrastructure engineer Josh perk as

[1:47:15] well as uh Colin Coe and they've been here longer than

[1:47:19] um anyone other than Aaron and Pedro who are it generalist too is who they have a

[1:47:23] lot of help desk knowledge which is fantastic especially as we were going

[1:47:26] through that first turnover they really kept things running on the ground but

[1:47:30] what we're missing was that higher level uh understanding of the whole

[1:47:33] organization as a whole and all the systems at play so between the three of

[1:47:37] us we meet every two weeks we sit down and we we use a standard template to

[1:47:41] document the systems on one page that's easy at a glance and we really tie in

[1:47:45] you know where they're located who the vendor is what the support process is

[1:47:49] and a ton of other details and it's something that we're really we're hoping

[1:47:52] that will make training the lower level positions and and new people coming on

[1:47:57] board a lot easier so the benefit to that is

[1:48:01] um it's it's everything's in one spot everything's linked in one place and as

[1:48:04] we're building those documents we're putting an old documentation for some of

[1:48:07] the day-to-day tasks and reviewing those and updating those as well so I really

[1:48:10] think that'll help just everyone on the team get this this high level overview

[1:48:14] that sometimes you miss if you're in some of those more helpless level

[1:48:17] positions so and what that does is also Poise us to be able to promote

[1:48:20] internally as as positions become available I think that'll poison us

[1:48:24] really well for the future um

[1:48:27] some of the big the big projects we've been working on uh have been our switch

[1:48:31] Replacements so I'm sure you guys most of you remember the lightning strike of

[1:48:35] 2021 I call it the worst Christmas gift ever it was December 27th when it

[1:48:39] happened so with the supply chain issues it took us quite a while to get the

[1:48:43] switches in place or excuse me ordered and acquired in-house so we got those

[1:48:48] late last year we built uh a configuration for them and we got them

[1:48:52] ready to deploy out we have nine data closets which is about 17 switches that

[1:48:57] we had that had to be replaced so far we're out of nine data closets we've

[1:49:01] replaced five of them we've been running into some issues we'd hope to have this

[1:49:04] done already but we've identified some Fiber issues between buildings that

[1:49:08] we're working to resolve without spending any money we have alternate

[1:49:11] paths that we're trying to to pursue and I think we can achieve this and complete

[1:49:15] this project by the end of June the next thing earlier in the year you guys

[1:49:20] approved the purchase of over 200 handset devices to replace all these

[1:49:25] aging handsets around the county so happy to report over one short from

[1:49:29] having it completed year of 205 to phones scheduled to go out we've

[1:49:32] replaced uh 204 so we're waiting on a headset for that last one and I should

[1:49:37] arrive this week and go out the field so we can wrap that up and that's a good

[1:49:40] one it really prevents us from any issues moving forward we've had some

[1:49:43] phone issues and these ones have been have been really solid so appreciate the

[1:49:47] boards you know support from since I've been here to be able to buy large

[1:49:50] purchases like that that really put us in a good position for long-term support

[1:49:56] um next couple projects the uh we'll get to in the technical weeds here a lot of

[1:50:01] our we have over 70 plus servers within the organization every year the we run

[1:50:06] different operating systems on each one every year Microsoft kind of Ages some

[1:50:10] of them out that are no longer supported so we're keeping an eye on that we've

[1:50:13] identified 15 servers that will go end of life in October of those 15 we've

[1:50:18] already updated or migrated four of them so there's 11 left we have plans for all

[1:50:24] those in place and and we have a Target goal to have those done by the the month

[1:50:27] of September so we can feed that into life term by uh by one month so and we

[1:50:32] can probably get it done sooner than that actually uh the next thing uh you

[1:50:36] guys will be hearing from me pretty soon we're doing a PC refresh for this year

[1:50:39] with some of the projects going on we haven't been able to do this early on in

[1:50:42] the year but we've identified 40 computers we typically do 50 but with a

[1:50:46] Friend of the Court move we purchase some laptops early on in the year

[1:50:49] replaced about 13 devices out of the the general 50 that we would do so we're a

[1:50:54] little ahead of the curve there so with these 40 we're in the process of getting

[1:50:57] quotes on so then hopefully by the next board meeting I'll have a an approval

[1:51:03] amount for you guys to have a new order of 40 laptops coming in we've already

[1:51:07] budgeted for that so it won't be a monetary ask it's really just getting

[1:51:11] your approval to make such a big purchase so

[1:51:14] big projects we have there's plenty more but uh I don't want to bore you guys too

[1:51:18] much and the meeting's already a little over so if you guys have any questions

[1:51:20] for me

[1:51:24] thanks thank you thank you thank you thanks for the update and

[1:51:28] internal internal um

[1:51:33] rising up internally should help with institutional knowledge

[1:51:37] oh that's good or of course man we have a really really strong smart team so I

[1:51:42] think we have a lot of room to grill there

[1:51:48] okay anything for public transit well other than um I don't know if

[1:51:53] everybody knew this but our former director Tony chipola's mother passed

[1:51:56] away and uh she was uh Services were yesterday she was 99 years

[1:52:01] old

[1:52:04] she was really well liked too that was a big service

[1:52:11] okay um

[1:52:16] okay we are at public comment thank you

[1:52:21] please don't talk about buildings

[1:52:35] I don't see anything online so we are at adjournment

[1:52:42] we'll move support we've been supporting to a journalism

[1:52:49] all right um will Joseph uh Village manager for

[1:52:54] the village of paw paw and I just noted that item 9A related to the Hazen Street

[1:53:00] Road Extension in uh Village of pava housing

[1:53:04] developments on the consent uh calendar and I just wanted to thank the board for

[1:53:10] their cooperation in this regard and we look forward to the results of the

[1:53:16] survey and looking forward to working together as

[1:53:20] that project unfold so thank you thank you thank you

[1:53:30] John do you have a um

[1:53:37] God will John John explain me your timeline so I'll make sure you get that

[1:53:40] ahead of time I just give you a kind of update what's going on over the road

[1:53:45] commission we talk about engineering to do this on a monthly basis uh we have

[1:53:49] taken delivery of two plow trucks you can see the cost of air of the truck

[1:53:53] plus the other equipment runs about three hundred thousand dollars per truck

[1:53:57] and obviously not going down we're going to have a pretty good size auction later

[1:54:01] this year as we start removing some of the fleet that we don't need anymore and

[1:54:06] kind of right size as I would say it our audits down and completed on time it's

[1:54:12] going to be presented to the board of commissions on June 7th uh everything

[1:54:16] looks good on that part you can tell this is what we spent uh on

[1:54:21] New Roads last year eight million four hundred thousand which sadly is getting

[1:54:25] less and less of a mile with each passing month now those just

[1:54:30] you can see the sources of our funding Michigan Transportation fund is most

[1:54:34] commonly called Act 51. uh Township contributions which is phenomenal you

[1:54:39] don't see that across the state very much tiny wide millage and then other I

[1:54:44] wrote expenditures you can see how they're listed out there between

[1:54:47] maintenance and heavy maintenance Administration and equipment and capital

[1:54:52] outlay I think this part's incredible 17 of the 18 townships have a millage again

[1:54:58] I don't think that'd be a high percentage to find across anywhere

[1:55:01] across the state of Michigan I think absolutely phenomenal average millage

[1:55:06] rate is 1.784 brings in roughly around 4.2

[1:55:11] million dollars there was three townships that did have millions votes

[1:55:14] up at the beginning of the month that was Bangor Keeler and covert may pass by

[1:55:19] average margin of 69 to 31 we had 15 road closures so far

[1:55:25] this month all of them are ready to do this

[1:55:27] uh culverts trees me in down and we had one in covert Township we had cows on

[1:55:32] the road so that was a good call that came through might want to get that

[1:55:36] guy's number that was on the news this morning you see that no I did not on the

[1:55:40] I-75 yeah I said had to get a cowboy out there and it lasted

[1:55:45] yeah the traffic's just present by and yeah

[1:55:51] I think the Kyle's finally just kind of meandered across the road and got to

[1:55:54] where they wanted to go uh so far you know through

[1:55:58] um we have that c click fix which works really well when people have complaints

[1:56:02] and they obviously they can call too we've had 84 of those so far this month

[1:56:07] 14 for potholes all 14 were filled within the three-day time period as per

[1:56:12] policy uh in addition to anyone wanting to do permits in person anyone can do

[1:56:19] them all online now too so I think that helps out

[1:56:22] a couple weeks ago last week Road Commission won the Moody on Market won

[1:56:27] best places to work in a three County area and they're going to be honored

[1:56:31] tomorrow night uh down at Harbor Shores maintenance

[1:56:35] wise that's fantastic well congratulations well it's not to me it's

[1:56:40] the credit to the board and to the staff you know I think when you look at one of

[1:56:44] the reasons I did choose Road commissions they had no vacancies

[1:56:48] and that's you you go around different places in this environment that's pretty

[1:56:52] rare and so nothing worse than having to come

[1:56:56] into any organization I don't care where you're at what job and knowing you have

[1:56:59] to fill a bunch of slots it's just difficult to do in this environment

[1:57:04] uh maintenance wise roadside mowing has started dust control starts this week we

[1:57:09] have two types of the oil brine which I think is seven townships and chloride is

[1:57:14] being used by six townships you can see the road work that's going

[1:57:19] on in the area one of the things the board will approve will be uh we're

[1:57:24] gonna start putting signs up when we do like redo a rope and it says how much a

[1:57:29] project is because I think most people don't realize how much it costs to do a

[1:57:32] road and then who's finding it and you know I know who the Harper funds you

[1:57:37] will donate or get our infrasion I put it that 1.2 million so when that road

[1:57:43] pops up then we'll do that we have uh Senator Peter's office to that office or

[1:57:47] put the names where the funds are coming from including the township so people

[1:57:51] know it's a collaborative effort not just an endless stream of money that

[1:57:55] comes from a tree um

[1:57:59] and the last thing we're really working on trying to finalize is the equipment

[1:58:04] and vehicle replacement program not just replacing

[1:58:07] based on I want to say feelings well based on facts based on vehicles getting

[1:58:13] up in Miles getting up in age and we got one that's 39 years old we've got three

[1:58:18] or four that a quarter million in miles at what point does it not pay to keep

[1:58:23] fixing stuff and so you know I'd rather not sell for

[1:58:27] scrap I'd rather sell for some value and so we're looking at that and

[1:58:32] probably we'll end up doing is replace on average about three and a half so one

[1:58:36] year three one year four uh plow trucks dump trucks however words you want to

[1:58:40] put toward the happy multi-task I don't want them but they can only plow than

[1:58:44] they sit for nine months a year that's foolish in today's environment and same

[1:58:49] with our trucks and cars that we have in the fleet about three of those a year

[1:58:53] the main purpose is to give our Engineers a streamline of funds that

[1:58:57] they know they have for rooms and so we're going to hear mark x amount

[1:59:01] of dollars based on historical perspective of what we spent on

[1:59:04] equipment in vehicles and um and it's going to go to facilities

[1:59:09] too so our Engineers are not saying well that's we got 500 000 left to work with

[1:59:13] this year I have a steady stream and then we'll allocate the money to those

[1:59:18] different areas on a spreadsheet that will look and make sense to everybody so

[1:59:23] I don't want us to buy eight Vehicles one year and one another just doesn't

[1:59:26] make any sense from a financial perspective

[1:59:29] so those are things we're working on I don't know if the chair has any comments

[1:59:35] we'll need to Echo director says you're extremely proud to

[1:59:41] have been named one of the best places to work in Southwest Michigan

[1:59:45] wow and as he points out you know does that

[1:59:51] reputation kind of precedes him but he's done a very good job of carrying it on

[1:59:57] also so we're going to go down and accept

[2:00:01] that award along with some other Employers in the Tri-County area

[2:00:06] um and we're proud of it and we hope that we

[2:00:12] do things the cause our staff to

[2:00:19] continue to appreciate working for us we're very proud of it

[2:00:27] I just want to thank John and Joe for helping me out we've you get five inches

[2:00:32] of rain in two days I get a lot of calls and so does Joe so he's met me on a few

[2:00:37] projects and you know a few boards and different things like that and John

[2:00:41] you've been very good to work with helping me get things through the county

[2:00:45] so I appreciate it and I'll be glad if you get any questions happy to answer

[2:00:49] those okay if you have questions well first thing is I'd like to tell you

[2:00:53] congratulations on that award that is an amazing achievement

[2:00:56] the signs I think that is genius I've seen them up in other places like you

[2:01:01] say people know where the money comes from them I think that's a great idea

[2:01:05] um the one question I had or two questions 17 18 townships have a millage

[2:01:09] which one does not uh uh

[2:01:13] one south of Hanford

[2:01:16] okay that would be the one okay the other question was you said you're

[2:01:22] getting two new plow trucks out of how many how many plow trucks are there well

[2:01:26] 51. 51 and that will be cut down okay we have 37 plow routes

[2:01:31] uh We've met and we need to keep six backups frame three and uh Lawrence one

[2:01:40] in Bangor one in Bloomingdale um so when they fail you can't just tell

[2:01:44] them that the president well guess what our plow truck stops they don't care

[2:01:47] about that right go get it plowed so we're going to be cutting it down and

[2:01:50] that includes the new deliveries so you can actually get trucks now or is there

[2:01:54] how long yeah they're coming in I can't tell you lead time yet okay

[2:01:59] um so they they came in one day well one came out of money one

[2:02:03] came on Tuesday so I think they're right off the snuff I'm speaking we're having

[2:02:06] a hard time getting piped for Culver so that is causing us a lot of problems

[2:02:11] right thanks

[2:02:14] when is that um Awards uh tomorrow night at six at Harbor

[2:02:20] Harbor Shores in

[2:02:24] six oh that's mingle time six of six fifteen then the awards are from 6 15 I

[2:02:29] think to 7 30. who's the outfit uh Market okay

[2:02:37] some people have kind of seen it pop up let's get more prevalent not just

[2:02:41] invariance kind of going Tri-County area

[2:02:48] thanks for your time thanks thank you

[2:02:53] and I can only think that with the history of earning this award

[2:02:59] and with the job that you two are doing now it's going to be nothing but Awards

[2:03:04] as we go into the future I'd rather have money

[2:03:09] and he sounds like me yeah once again congratulations putting

[2:03:16] the hand of Paving contractor or certificate of achievement

[2:03:21] I think they were you know we really can't building asphalt spreader with

[2:03:25] this

[2:03:30] okay uh administrative Affairs Gail you've got a couple I see okay yes the

[2:03:35] Brownfield Redevelopment Authority I move that we reappoint Zach Morris

[2:03:41] or moved and supported conversation all those in favor say yes yes yes no

[2:03:48] motion carries and then uh the realtor appointment of Katie strollhour also to

[2:03:55] Brownfield Redevelopment Authority conversation

[2:04:03] follow us in favor say yes yes yes suppose no motion caring thank you

[2:04:11] all right uh looks like we're going on to Mr Godfrey

[2:04:23] yeah no it isn't it's our exception for the chief drain

[2:04:28] commissioner and

[2:04:38] move to accept it as written there we go there it is

[2:04:42] Court moved into part of the conversation

[2:04:46] all those in favor say yes yes yes suppose now

[2:04:50] suppose you Karen and then uh

[2:04:54] see we've already talked about that and hurt anything in public transit

[2:05:00] don't like anything exactly when we are in public comment and public

[2:05:07] comments public comments for last time

[2:05:13] I would come have to ask that people

[2:05:18] Madam Chairman's update I really don't have anything today

[2:05:24] yeah board correspondence and no reason for a closed session

[2:05:36] yes yes

[2:05:40] thank you everyone

5/23/2023 Board of Commissioners Meeting

Transcript