[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