Township Board - Regular Meeting

All right, we're going to call the meeting to order at this time and I'm going to offer up a prayer for guidance tonight. Bow your heads with me. Heavenly Father, we thank you uh we thank you in all seasons. We thank you at all times and uh we thank you for your courage and strength that you give us uh if we just call on your name. So tonight we call upon you. We pray for wisdom as we always need it. Lord, we pray for uh unity. Uh we pray God for uh spirit of cooperation and and uh and just wisdom looking forward as to decisions for now as well as those we need to think about for down the road. Thank you that we are not alone in this task, but we've got great people here that help us that that work on behalf of the township. prayed that their endeavors would be blessed and that you would um truly u protect and profit uh the work of our um employees of the township and of course first responders. And we thank you for our residents and all that they contribute, their businesses, their homes, their churches and schools, all that they do in these different arenas. We just pray God that it would all work together for good and that we would see um just a real a real blessing and uh real peace upon this community. Pray this in Christ's name. Amen.

Amen. If you could join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. [clears throat] Seated. Groom side here. You got only one. The bride's got all kinds of friends. [laughter] All right. The role is a little different tonight. Uh

yes. Uh Mr. Schwam and um Treasure Dwit are both absent with notice. Okay. Well, we still have a quorum and welcome all those that came tonight, board members and also those in the public. So, appreciate it. We have a number of items here. We're going to approve the agenda and then we've got several uh special items on the front end of tonight's meeting. So, is there a motion among the board to approve tonight's agenda? Some move. Support. All right. Any comments or questions? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? And the agenda is approved. I like your shirt. [laughter]

Thanks. Yeah. Right. Um item six then it's a pleasure uh from time to time when we have an opportunity to recognize someone for I think he might say and maybe you will have a chance to say I'm just being what I hope anyone be right and and being uh available in a situation of crisis but not everyone could do what this gentleman did. So at this time we want to recognize Gary Danielson uh for a heroic effort on his part being timely in a moment that helped to save and avert uh the loss of life. So I think chief would you like to come forward and address the board and then at that point you can

Yeah. Okay. Mit members of the board.

Tonight I'm honored to present the hero for the citizens hero award tonight. Recognizing Gary Danielson. I had the honor and pleasure of working with Gary Danielson when I first started my career. He retired as a 17-year veteran of Georgetown Fire Department. In the early morning hours of January 19 uh 2026 on his way to work, uh Gary Danielson noticed the flames coming from a residence. He notified 911 personally, turned around and knocked on the door, alerting the homeowners of the safe evacuation of them and their pets. Gary, anything your work says a hero award. Um, I don't consider myself a hero. I consider myself someone that was raised well and I guess I'd do any, you know, I'd hope someone would do that for my family. [laughter] Um, [clears throat] yeah, I just like like he said, I saw the flames. I turned around, called 911, went up, knocked on the door until they they got up. Uh, woke them up from their sleep. um got him out of the house safely and then as soon as I got him out, the sheriff's department showed up. So, I let them take it from there and I went on to work. So, God put me at the right place at the right time. Um I'm very thankful that everything turned out good. 17 years of fire department. It, you know, it just once a firefighter, always a firefighter.

Yep. Yep. Thank you. Yeah. [applause] YEAH. On behalf of Georgetown Fire, here's your work. We can have the board come down. We are. We're going to have a picture. That's good.

Stand here or come around? I'm sure you hear this all the time, but you're not the former quarterback, right? Help me out. Let's go in on both sides if we could next each other. [laughter] Matching soup coast tonight. Yeah, that was a good plan. We'll look this way first. Okay, there we go. Right over here. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. No problem.

Thanks so much. Thank you. That's awesome. Thank you. Welcome for being a good evening. [clears throat] A couple thoughts come to mind. One, give honor to whom honor is due. I think that's appropriate. I appreciate that we do that, Chief. I appreciate it. Yeah,

he doesn't feel like a hero. He doesn't need it. He doesn't want it. We need to give it to him. So, we need to honor those that deserve it. And then the second is just to keep our eyes open and to have the courage to act cuz any one of us could find ourselves in a unexpected situation and rather than the first thought being, well, somebody's going to do something that somebody's might be us, you know. So, he said he turned around and once he saw the flames, he turned around and you know on his way to work. [laughter] So that's awesome.

Well, all right, another special here on the front end. We've got John Teeples here tonight. John, welcome. Uh John has begun to make it a habit now to come and update us as one of our board of commissioner representatives. He's also the chairman of that uh board there with the Ottawa County Commission. So, we appreciate your leadership in that uh committee and that commission and as well as your representation of Georgetown. So, thank you, John. Thank you. But I'm no longer chairman. As of the 1st of January, we we switched. We we're at a one-year cycle. So, this is the first public comment I've made about any of this for the last year. So, first of all, I wanted to thank Justin um because last week we used the library downstairs as a county for the public hearing on community mental health authority issue.

And I like I said then, I've never seen so much county brass in Georgetown my 35 years of being here. I kept thinking about you, Gary. You appreciate this. So anyway, thanks for thanks for setting that up and allow us to happen. So um [clears throat] I'd like to address my comments tonight basically on three in three segments. One, what did we do last year as a county board? What did I learn over the last year or so? And where do I see it the county going? Um [clears throat] so I will say that um last year was the most difficult work of my entire legal career.

It was the most intense, timeconsuming um um all-incclusive. Um it was a a time that from the very beginning I simply prayed that God would give me the wisdom of Solomon to lead the county and uh and it was a real challenge but I'm very I'm feel very very uh thankful for what we've accomplished and I'll explain a little bit why. Um so when I was elected to the commission I had two primary priorities. one was stabilize the workforce and second to uh bring public trust back in the county government. Those were the two primary objectives. Then as chairman, I knew that in order for us to move ahead with the county and get to the more important issues that we need to address in the county, and I'll address some of those, we need to fix and clean up some stuff that had been happening over the last two years to put things back on firm footing to move forward. [clears throat] Um, and I knew there had to be from my perspective, we I needed to model a new leadership style, one that was more open, that allowed for diversity of opinions, um, that was more respectful, um, more tolerant of different people and views. Um, the first thing uh that I knew that we had to do was on day one dealt with and and and the what I'm going to lay out are things that I had identified that I knew that had to happen in sequence. Even though some people wanted me to move faster on certain issues, I knew that they had to play out in the course of time and it just had to play out that way. And from my perspective, so the first was the uh the assignments of commissioners to county boards. There are 29 county boards that commissioners get assigned to. On top of that, we have standing

committees and then the main board. Okay? So, [clears throat] under the prior board administration, um it was a 5 to1 ratio. If you were part of that group, you got five committees. If you were not, you got one, if any. Um on the community on the county boards on the standing committees, it was just like that. Sometimes you weren't even if you were not part of the group, you were not any standing committee. All right. So what I did is said no that's not going to happen. Um all committees are going to be equal in the assignments and the ratio was everybody got three essentially three. Um and then as the chairman I have to sit on some as a matter of course anyway. So there was some of those for me just statutoily I had to be on those but otherwise it was across the board. There was no no difference because I wasn't going to play this game. Uh I didn't want to I didn't want that perception to happen. I also wanted to streamline government. There was uh there were a number of standing committees and I can't remember how many. Something tells me in the back of my head there were seven standing committees like finance and planning and others. I narrowed it to two. Uh and instead of assigning who was going to be on those, I said we're all on it. We're all going to hear the same information. we're all going to talk about it together as a committee and then we'll bring it to the then the committees of course recommend to the standing board later on. So we were all in it together and that's and and we changed from having two meetings a month to one board meetings a month, right? Uh and uh it worked great. We only had to call a special meeting one time during the year. Um otherwise one meeting a month worked fine for the board and one day a month for those two standing committees met in the same day got them done and that was it too. So that took care of those and then all the standing committees. The second thing was the board rules. So when I got elected in November, one of the first things I did was take a look

at the rules of the board and I revamped them. And so when I came into into the my into the office of chairman in January, I presented the board with a new set of revised rules. And if you might remember, we spent over nine hours at at our second board meeting reviewing those and coming to a consensus on those board rules. I knew those board rules were a priority because they became the ground groundwork of everything that had to happen, right? So we had to get those right and we had to be in agreement. And it was actually a pretty good day. So that was the second thing that happened. The third thing that was critically important was the interim administrator. We didn't have an administrator uh in January 1st of 25. Uh I had already approached Gary Rosma several months before that, the former sheriff of Ottawa County for 40 plus odd years and asked him if he would consider stepping in and helping in his out of his come out of his retirement. He said yes. He then approached the former deputy uh chief prosecutor of Ottawa County, Ron France, who had been the prosecutor for 45 years, asked Ron to come in as deputy. The two of them stepped in and I'm we just can't thank them enough. They are the ones that stabilized the workforce in Ottawa County. There's over,200 employees. There was a survey that Mive did in the summer of 24 that showed morale at an all-time low. Um the county commissioned their own survey, employee survey in the fall of that year. It was identical and so we were losing key key people in the county and Gary and Ron came in and it was an instant uh turnaround. It's it stopped the bleeding and in 6 months people were coming back to Ottawa County. They just because they have so much respect and they knew they know all the players in the county, they knew the employees. It

really worked um for that on that interim basis. All right. Next thing we did is I'm trying to my objective is to stop the divisiveness in the county. Anything that was divisive, we didn't need it anymore. We timed it time to heal and move on. And one of those was the was the prayer the policy on our prayer that you just did. Right. There was a lawsuit filed for discrimination by by the against the county for how they handled their [clears throat] prayer policy under the prior administration and we changed it. Um now the commissioners say the prayer and we don't have to worry about lawsuits anymore. Right? It is an easy fix, easy done, done. But maybe the biggest thing other than the interim administer that happened in the spring of 25, April, May was we got rid of the county attorneys that had been hired originally by the former group. Um, [clears throat] it is critical to have, as you all know, critical to have attorneys who are unbiased, non-political, that will tell you what you don't want to know, not what you what they want, what you want them to tell you. And this group of attorneys, for me as an attorney, I could not trust them. They were they didn't understand municipal county law. They got the county into a lot of messes and they were politically focused and I sat down and we negotiated a settlement. And if you remember just so this is like in April in the prior December they had they had drafted and got a prepaid $300,000 contract for the next 12 months, right? So we had to negotiate that back and we did. Um and so when when they were gone then we could hire Ron Bolie from Dickinson, right? um just a competent quality lawyer that you can just trust that he's going to give you good legal advice whether you like it or

not, right? And that was a huge step also to bring morale back into the into the staff. That was huge. That was a huge step. Then we started our first administrative search. Um I can't remember how many people applied for the job. 40ome. As you might remember, we had it narrowed down to five for public comments. Two backed out for personal reasons. had nothing to do with anybody, but two others backed out because of comments made by certain commissioners um they didn't want anything to do with it once they saw that happen. So, we're down to one guy in by what it was in June or so. And uh and then we had the lawyers write a letter to all the commissioners saying, "These are the questions you can ask. This is where you cross the line legally. You can't ask us. You can't say this, but otherwise you can say what you want." We didn't have any more problems with comments after that. Um, but then the summer came. Oh, then back up. This prior group was responsible for nine lawsuits against the county in their tenure. Um, two were settled before we took over in 25. Um, and this board started one. It dealt with we went we took a we took a contract called the crack relay contract. If you heard this, where there was an agreement also in December of 24, just before we took office, the board gave a $560,000 promise to a small group, community group up in North Ottawa County for a lake association cleanup. When I looked at that contract way back then when it happened in December 10th of 24, I was couldn't believe it. This was a it was supposed to be a $560,000 contract. My view is it exposed the county to unlimited millions of dollars in the long run. But I also questioned the legality of it, whether the board even had the authority to sign a contract

like that. And so in in uh this about May, the board approved us taking that contract to the court asking the judge to decide if it's legal or not. And ultimately by midsummer, the court concluded that was the board had no legal authority to enter that contract. It was an illegal contract. threw it out and we saved $560,000, right? Uh and again, that was another thing that the lawyers were involved with when when [snorts] it went down. So then we the next as as as the summer went, you know, we talked we dealt with the the county motto. Now look, a a guy sent me an email this week um about this issue and and there are pros to both the former model and the motto and the one that was before that, right? Um where liberty rings, freedom rings or where we all belong. Those are good models in and of itself, but they both became divisive to segments of our community. So this board decided, look, let's let's try to calm the rhetoric down in the county. Let's just avoid. We don't need a motto. We have images. We don't need a motto. Got rid of it. Things have been calm. Very calm. At first, it blew up, but it was been very calm. So, we just kept the kept the rhetoric down. [clears throat] In the meantime, I'm talking to the lawyers, um, the litigation lawyers about these cases, and I'm saying, "We've got to get rid of these cases." So, we started a John Gibbs settlement and we settled uh we settled all the and we and I didn't think it was going to happen, but we finally settled the last lawsuit in December. The court dismissed the case two days ago. Uh that was a Kleiners lawsuit and I'll be talking about it tomorrow night at the board meeting because we haven't talked about it publicly yet. But finally, I didn't think it was going to happen, but we settled all of the lawsuits that were faced in the county in the last year uh

in the last two years. They're done. Thank goodness. Then in in September, we started up the administrative search again. But by this time, the whole environment in the county had changed. Morale was high. There was good momentum. People were coming back into the county. We had 58 people apply for that job. Not just the 40, 58 more. And some people applied because they saw what what had happened since January to September. And they go, "Wow, this is back on track now. We're willing to get put put our necks back in this." In fact, in the end, Patrick Waterman was one of those guys, and he couldn't be better. People love him. Love him. And uh so that's the stuff that we did, right? And [sighs] and um I mean, those are the big things that had to be checked off in sequence. I'm glad we got things to a point now where Josh Berger is going to is the new chairman. Phil Kyers is the vice chairman. Um uh and things are on track now for us to start making decisions as a board without so much animosity. I hope I hope I I have to say that personally I've been I was hoping for more than we got, but it is what it is. We accomplished a lot, but I was hoping more as a board we could do more than we did. But now that that stuff's I mean they that that group voted against every one of these things I just talked about except the last lawsuit clangence. So they weren't on board, right? We wouldn't have disclosed the minutes or the hearing transcripts of that dealt with some of these things. The public would have never known about those things. So um I uh I uh I think that it's going to be darn good going forward. So So what did I learn? And I some of this is not going to be different, but I've learned that national politics have moved into the

county board or county administration, and that's not a good thing. I've learned that you can't hire people based on ideologies or political affiliations. You got to hire the most competent person with the best skill sets, no matter what. No matter what. Everything that you saw that these these lawsuits and everything so much was because they were making decisions even especially in hiring decisions that led to poor administration. One thing after another, you can't do that. And and uh so unfortunately national politics has come in every time an attempt was made this year last year to bring a political issue to the agenda and I control the agenda. I refused. If you want to take it to the board and get them to approve it, fine. But I wasn't going to volunteer it because if it didn't benefit Ottawa County, it was a social issue, national, state, whatever that didn't benefit Kado County directly, I was not interested and would not put it on the agenda. We're a service organization really. We parks, mental health, public health, roads, you know, we're not in we don't need some statement for the sake of a statement that has no benefit, direct benefit to a resident of Ottaw County. That's how I looked at it. I still believe that and the majority of the board feels the same way. I also learned that there's a a genuine communication breakdown between what's going on in Ottawa County and how it's perceived, understood in Georgetown. Um because we don't have a radio station and newspapers here like they do in Holland and Grant Haven and Lakeshore. Those folks there know what's going on. Everybody knows what's going on. Unfortunately, we people that I would expect would know what goes on here don't. And it's really, you guys know, it's hard to find that communication link. You know, I'm I'm not one to do

that's on Facebook much on social media. Um, and and I'm not going to engage much in that personally, but that seems to be the way that most people seem to communicate, right? Um, and that's you get into too much other stuff with that. But anyway, there is a breakdown and I wish it was others. Um, and the third thing I learned is that Georgetown needs to get more involved in the county. Um Gary, you've you you've you've said the same thing basically to me before on this. There is so much going on in this county. You guys can't believe it. I was I'm shocked. I mean, I've been here 35 years, right? I was president of the Chamber of Commerce of both these chambers here. I had no idea what was going on in the lake shore. You know, when I think of economic development as the as a business guy, I'm looking at Grand Grand Grand Rapids and there's a huge organization in Holland that's doing the same thing, right? There are so many organizations and so many collaborations going on with people that we didn't even know existed because we're the far end of the county, right?

And it's like there's a barricade. And so Justin, to his credit, I've seen him more in the last two months since he's taken over. We need more of that because every time I've been to a meeting and I'm looking around and I'm seeing a township peoples or city people and I'm saying, "Where's Georgetown?" Right. How come Georgetown's not here? You can bet I'm making I'm being vocal about that, Gary. Absolutely. But it's true. You want to see more of me? Is that what you're saying?

I do. I I do want to see you more [laughter] because it's important. If we're if we're going to start to look at ourselves as a region and we have regional issues like groundwater and transportation and housing, we need to talk among the barriers of townships and cities. And the only way that happens is get in the same room. And so I would encourage you and Justin I already told him this keep keep it keep at it. Last thing I want to hit the last issue real quick. Where do I think we're going? We have big issues facing the county. First is this CH authority issue. It's it's a it's it's uh we have we have CH millage which is totally unrelated to the authority issue because the millage issue monies are not used to fund any of the services that this the entitlement benefits under Medicaid. So it's a different pool but we can't get it confused because we have a mental health population that definitely needs us to continue this service. So, we have mental health issues. We have um transportation. I'm looking I'm on going to be on three county boards this year that all deal in one way or another with transportation throughout the county to see if I can find linkages that we can cross send and provide more global transportation because it'll affect housing. It'll affect jobs, shape corporation, others that are desperately needing employees on third shift at least for an example. So we have transport, we have groundwater issue, we have water issues, right? Um, so there are big issues, but Ottawa County, and I've said this during the campaign, and it's true, we got misled a little ways, a little bit, but we aren't we aren't lost. There are so many wonderful things happening and so many dedicated people working diligently out there that that I really feel really and and the board is

just doing great. The board is really good and and uh so I'm I'm really I'm really optimistic about the future. I really am. Uh there's a lot to do. Those are just opportunities. The way I see the future are opportunities to make this county better. We project, the projections are that there are 306,000 people living in Ottawa County right now, 2014, 15 years from now, 340,000. Where are they going to live? How are they going to get to work? They can't afford a car. How do they get to work? For an example, right? Where they're going to put the subdivision and they don't have I mean Georgetown's blessed because we have public utilities, right? A lot of counties and communities don't have that. What happens, right? Because we had a groundwater aquifer problem. So there's some big issues, but I'm but I really I have such a high high belief in the integrity and the goodness of people in Ottawa County. And so my optimism is really high. That's where I'm at. And I appreciate chances to come up and say hello to you guys. [snorts]

Good report, John. And I know you didn't need to run for that position. and you probably content in retirement doing the things you were doing, but we appreciate making yourself available like that. Takes a lot of time. Pleasure. How would you assess the collegiality among the commissioners now at this point? Know it was part of your goal is to reduce the acrimony and yeah, even if you don't see eye to eye, at least work together. I would say it's cordial. Okay.

Not what I hoped. In fact, I was uh disappointed as late as November at some things that I thought, man, I thought we'd we'd move past some of this. But [sighs and gasps] but people are talking. At least we're talking, right? and and uh I really think that as we get on to more issues that are more global like housing or or u water issues or the battery plant storage facility issues or whatever else. I think that those kind of issues there'll be more common ground on those issues than in in what we've had to deal with this past year. I really do. Uh, so I don't think there'll be as much um uh um division on the board, animosity so to speak on the board, but I think overall it's been pretty respectful at least,

you know, so that's good. Um, but we have work to do. I only catch your meetings once in a while. Uh, has the number of hours spent at each meeting gone down? Uh, oh yeah, the amount of public comment or or emails you get and so on? Uh, uh, we have about, uh, I was going to say same about here. Last time I was here, this place was packed, but I figured the reason nobody's here is Eric's here. [laughter] Oh, I'm just kidding. Um, yeah, we have uh [sighs] maybe three or four comments a night and the meetings uh, so our meetings last about two and a half hours.

Pretty good. Uh, so yeah, it's uh, it's it's good. There's nothing to worry about there. Where do you fall on this mental health board or commissioner talking about taking it off from the commission and moving a separate Yeah. the issue? I've been trying to read up on it, but it's kind of confusing to be honest with you, and I just haven't seen where there's a benefit to go from what you're doing now, but maybe I'm missing something.

So, um [clears throat] I'm absolutely in favor of an authority. Um and I came to that conclusion. uh probably last fall. I've been hearing about it and trying to understand the issue for the last year. Um and uh and I still have uh work to hear. I want to hear things, but [sighs] here's the scoop if I can get it in a nutshell. There's a public hearing tonight as we speak right now in in Spring Lake. There's another one in Holland, I think, next week. Um, the federal government through the state of Michigan provides Medicaid entitlement to people. You must provide the service no matter what. If they qualify for the service, you must give it to them. It's not an option. Community mental health boards or comm across the county, state have to give it. It's an entitlement, right? The problem is is that they're not paying for it. And what they do in Ottawa County for an example is they give you pdeium payment $3,000 ahead instead of cost a million dollars to provide service to that individual individual and they call them consumers and and that's true in specifically the case because an arbitrator ruled that the county in one case had to provide services to this gentleman that cost a million dollars a year. one guy and he's not even in Michigan anymore, but we get $3,000 for that one guy. So that's just an example. So at the end of this year, last year the projected deficit was 3 million. This year and it was covered in by the legislature in the end. This year it's projected to be five. Now the state knows it's a problem. And so what they've done is there's been a there's been a tier system. So, counties have

their um community mental health or organizations, right? And over over the years, there's a a layer above them that they've divided the states into the state of Michigan into 11 regions. We're in one of those regions, and it would be Ottawa County and Moskegan and Kent, I think, and whatever. Well, the money flows into that regional group and then flows down to us. That's the theory, right? But the money wasn't coming down. Kent County was a $20 million deficit, right? We're sitting at five. Now, here's the here's the rub. As a matter of law, we cannot use county funds to pay for entitlement services. So, where's that $5 million deficit get paid from? Now, you think about it. Providers, the ones that are providing inhome care, right? And my sister was in that boat, right? For 30 years. because I was her guardian. I had her in and out of foster homes. She died in a foster home two years ago. I understand personally this this issue. So those providers, those in homes sign a contract. I signed community mental health. I bet I signed over 100 contracts last fall as a county chairman because I have to sign off on these contracts, right? So now you provide services, the provider provides a service to the customer, consumer they call them, and all of a sudden they don't get paid, right? Who pays them? Waiting for the state to pass it down. County can't pay because against it's against the Michigan Constitution to pay it. Who pays it? So the provider says, "Well, wait a minute. We got a contract with Ottawa County. People will sign the contract. We're going to sue you for breach of contract." Right? It'll be a new theory or start to sue the county under breach of contract theories. Now we're stuck in a lawsuit that we that where are we going to get the money to fund it, right? So what's what's interesting which is what tipped the scale to me after I was trying to break

all this is believe it or not, Gary, there is a law in the in the mental health code that says a county is not liable for the deficits of its community mental health if it forms an authority. Are you kidding me? It's it's so bl it's oneliner. That's why of the 83 counties in Michigan, 78 of them are already authorities. And that's why Al Vandenberg, the administrator of Kent County, could care less about the $20 million deficit because he's saying not my problem. The state of Michigan is legally obligated to play that authority and it's not my problem as a county out of Kent County. That's the that's the head. So they just did an impact study and they analyzed the four stakeholders. the consumer right the the my sister for example and they concluded that there's minimal change to them no risk same people involved same service providers a whole bit then they analyze the providers the people that provide the service moderate risk as I it's explained a little bit then they analyze the employees are their wages going to be secured are they going to collect a bargaining agreement and we're going to be working with uh the plan would be to work with the community mental health for up to three or four years to help in a transition with HR and technologies and all kind of stuff. So that'll be covered. So the only one left is taxpayers. The only one left is taxpayers. And that is a high risk given the current model as a department. And to me, I'm not willing to jeopardize that. When I know my sister's covered because the provider's covered, right? And I got a law that says state, you're stuck with this and it's not my fault, then I'm not going to screw that taxpayer. And that's where I'm coming from on this. That's where I'm on the whole thing. So, it's a big issue. It's worth a lot. And if we drop off 5 million this year, if we're owed5 million and we got a $15 million

um bank account, so to speak, that we can get access to that could potentially in three years that would be gone if we were forced to pay it up. And then what happens to the rest of the services the county provides, right? It's too big of a risk and it's an easy fix. Um, so that's a nutshell. Good explanation. Thank you. That's good because I, like I say, I've been trying to follow this like that thing's all over the board. I've done a lot of reading.

Now, there's a there's a rub to that. I mean, look, when you create an authority, uh, the question is, well, what kind of oversight does do elected officials have on that authority once it's authority, right? Like the road commission. But right now, all we do as a board now is we appoint the the members of the Ottawa the mental health board. That's not going to change. We still do that, right? When Dr. Purus comes and lays the budget out to us, he's still going to do that to us. So, there's not going to be a whole lot of change in our oversight under an authority or department as it is now. And so, I I see it as a as a no-brainer at this point because I'm worried about those taxpayers, our taxpayers, and I'm not willing to risk that when I know my sister on the bottom line is going to get covered.

All right.

So, that's that's where I'm at on this thing now. That's where I've come to, but we'll play it out. So, uh, there's a couple more public hearings. We'll hear more comments. I mean, people have been asking questions a lot. It's all going to get publicized when they all get done. Then, I think in February or so, we're going to talk about as a board. But then, even if we pass and say we're going to move forward, it still takes another year for this to go into effect, right? So, we have a whole year if we find something's not working, we can pull it back. So there's not a lot of risk to us by moving this thing along and and not get caught a year from now saying, "Okay, now you're at another year out to have to do something." So this is proactive thinking. This is what business guys do all the time. This is what we should be doing, too.

Just one more comment. Um that guy that does like the four or five minute videos on the board Yeah. on Facebook, he does a good job. Oh my gosh. I I I I pick up every board meeting from him and then he's got on the minute if you want to go back to the meeting. I I appreciate that guy. He's a He's just like that. He likes the job. He's a wonderful personality. Always upbeat, you know. [clears throat] Yeah, he's a great guy. So So anyway, all right. Thanks, guys. I'm not going to stick around. I'm not feeling well. I'm going to stick around with That's why I didn't come up and shake your hand. I apologize. But know that I care tonight, guys. I'll let you what you're doing. Thanks, John. Thanks. You didn't feel well. Thank you. Thank you.

Appreciate it. All right, Sheriff Dbor, your chance.

Good evening, Eric.

Before I get uh too far along, I just want to Yes. And a couple of things that that John stated. Um most a lot of people don't know, but the county uh and the sheriff's office are co-emp employers. Uh and so uh every deputy up to the under sheriff uh is both dealt with by the county and also the sheriff's office. So the the vacuum of leadership that existed when I was under sheriff uh coming into um my office is then sheriff when John and I both took office. Um I understand coming into a an agency uh where you kind of want to establish your you know your way of doing things. the the change that's occurred at the county level for us to be able to work with the administrator's office from both you know January under the uh under the you know the previous interim county administrators and then from Gary and now to Patrick has been a nice step of uh increased leadership throughout and longtime strategic planning the type of thinking that we need to to plan out in the future and not just put out fires. So to to John's first point about the things that he's done and the board's done, I can't thank um then chairman uh now just commissioner um peoples enough for for all the work that he's done and how great the board is to work with as the sheriff. It makes my job a lot easier. The other thing I said that I want to Yes. And is um Justin and his engagement and his uh his working relationship with both the county but also with the sheriff's office. Um, it's been wonderful and I have a great uh great relationship with Justin. He does a great job for you guys representing your interests. Um, whether it be to to to work as a partner or to to call me out if I've missed something. And so he's been uh he's been a good friend to the sheriff's office and I think a good representative to you. And I think it's it's good that you guys know that. So So to move on, I wanted to first introduce to you uh Lieutenant Grener. the Lieutenant Grener. I don't know if we talked about it last time I was here, but we were in the midst of a

reorganization. So, uh what happened was the under sheriff, we we brought in an under sheriff from the uh from the outside. His name is Dave Cook uh Cook, sorry. He uh he did a long time in Kent County and then retired as the chief deputy in the corrections unit. He had come from the road but did both sides and then was the instructor at GRCC's police academy for a number of years and was looking to get back into police work. And we brought him in and I was explaining kind of how we did things in Ottawa. And I don't know if you've ever had it where you've tried to explain something to someone that always made sense in your head, but when you said it out loud, you couldn't make it make sense to someone. Uh, and so we talked about kind of how we had it arranged and um said that doesn't really make any sense. And I said, well, you got to understand here this this situation is and he said, "Yeah, is that a good reason for it to make sense?" And we said, "No." So we pushed through the reorganization, which generally broke up the town or the county into three districts. which I think we've talked about in the past because it changed some of the um uh the sergeants assignments here. Um well, this finally went into effect. We were able to kind of get it moving forward and Lieutenant Grener has taken his office at the what we call the Georgetown branch. It's now District 4 headquarters or the district headquarters for Southeast. Um and so he will be Justin's point of contact. Um when Justin doesn't want to go through me, but generally Derek will be uh first point of contact just like Sergeant Taming kind of was. Um, what's nice is it'll it that lieutenants position will think a little bit more regionally. It won't just be what's going on with Georgetown. It'll be what's going on with Georgetown in the surrounding areas because crime isn't localized. People don't live in Georgetown and commit crime in Georgetown and then escape from Georgetown to hide stuff in other places in Georgetown. It's regional and so he's going to have an eye towards that. And so I might have to like take Commissioner Teles out for dinner uh because he was talking about regionalized um regionalized assets and working as a as a larger part of the group. And so I'd heard um and I'd been engaged with Jamestown Township in a conversation that might impact

Georgetown. And before I came to you guys with it, I wanted to see that Jamestown was engaged and I know some of you had been approached by outsiders uh about this and had some questions. And so Jamestown voted no to even discuss it. But I want to just bring the concept to you because it might be something that if you're open to it, I'd be willing to um look at throughout the uh throughout some other partners. And what the concept is is sometimes we get more by sharing. And so um in Holland in the Holland area, Park Township and Holland Township have long time took those unit deputies and shared them between the two organizations. And when the unit went away, they continued. Uh and so they have each have their own set of deputies. Park Township has a deputy and Holland Township has I want to say six of their own as well. Uh but then they share another eight. Uh and in doing so it it provides the possibility that eight any one of eight deputies might respond but you only have to pay for in this case six for Holland Township and two for Park Township. And so you're paying for two and you're getting eight. And so I approached Jamestown to see if they wanted to talk to and take one of their deputies, put them with the six unit deputies when the unit is put away and have eight deputies that would then both respond. Georgetown would get a deputy out of the deal and have eight instead of seven. Jamestown obviously gets a bigger share of that possible deal of saying they're going to pay for one deputy and get seven more. But that's only in response time and it's responsibility, but not necessarily patrol time. So we will have the ability to see how much time deputies are spending in each general area and either charge accordingly in Park Township and Holland Township's case. We sit down every couple years and say how much of this resource are you using? How much are you using? Okay, let's split it. It was 6040 when I started as a deputy. Then it was 7525 over there. Now it's think I don't know if they went to 8010 or 80 I'm sorry 9010. I think they went to 9010 this last year. But now when

we'll be able to see how much time is each person spending, we can then charge appropriately. Conversely, if you're a township that says, "I can't afford that much. I don't want them to patrol my area. I just want them to be able to respond." Then we can say, "Hey, no, Lieutenant, tell your sergeants to make sure those pool deputies spend more time in whatever area is looking to to have that resource more." So, if Jamestown were to say, "We like the shared concept, but we can't afford more than one deputy." We'd say, "Okay, make sure that the deputies spend the line share of their time in Georgetown, but are available for non-emergency calls out of park or out of out of Georgetown in Jamestown." I'll preface this with I don't care what the funding source is, somebody's in danger. If there's a call for service where somebody is in danger, whether a deputy calling for help, whether there's a domestic that's active and somebody's being assaulted, our deputies are going to go regardless of funding source. So, your deputy might end up in Telmage, for all I know. If somebody's hurt and they're the closest one, they're going. As a Park Township deputy, I once responded to Spring Lake because someone's shot at one of our deputies or I was in Ferrisburg actually, which short of going diagonally through the town county, there's really no farther you can go. But when somebody's possibly life in danger, we none of us care about funding source and I'm sure you feel the same way. So, I just wanted to come to talk to you about that concept and just kind of get your feelings on if you'd be open to those conversations. There's no hard and fast of how much would it cost us? What would the other township partner be? You know, be on board. I can think of two other townships that you guys are contiguous with that may may pool or may may make sense to pool. I don't know if they have the money to or the interest in, but if you looked at like Allenale, they have four deputies. Would it make sense for them to pull with your seven and say, "Okay, well, on nights where we have Grand Valley football games, we can push people up towards Allenale. On days where, you know, we know we've got an event down in Georgetown, we can push that car that

car down there. Or if we having a problem parking rides getting hit with catalytic converters, we have the ability as as the the people that are keeping our eye on on what the trends are to move people around to address those issues." So I I just want that concept to be in front of you. I don't have any plans. Past we were talking to Jamestown just because we had turnover. Both of their deputies were reassigned or promoted and it was a good time to talk to them and the unit going away was a good time to talk with you guys. But again, Jamestown Township voted no to engage. They wanted two deputies that they specifically knew. It was against my recommendation as the sheriff. But each township is its own township and they can decide how they want to work through those partnerships with me. And I'll obviously respect those those wishes. Um, but I just wanted to make sure that that concept was in front of you. Um, because ultimately with you guys, you have enough staff to staff 24/7, but for Jamestown, they're paying for two deputies. But that only means that every day cuz they're on twelves, every day there's a deputy on from 8 till 8. But when that deputy goes home, they just wait for the town, the county funded deputy that works that area. And if he's up in Allenale, it might be a while. And so sometimes people that are in fire service understand this. sometimes owning four quarters is more than owning a hole. So, I was trying to explain that to to to Jamestown Township, but even understanding that concept, they weren't interested, but I just wanted to make sure you heard that for me. Um, I had I'd spoken with Justin about it briefly. He said, "You can talk to whomever you want about whatever you want as long as you come back and talk to us in the board when you're done." And so we were doing that and and it ended up being nothing worth uh worth a conversation about, but I know some of you may have been contacted uh and may have some questions for me about that and I wanted to be the one to talk to you about it. So um past that, you might see our deputies changing uniforms within the next couple weeks. Uh the days of pink tan pants are soon to be behind us. Um, so actually the deputy standing in the back, Deputy Kilgore, who you may have

seen at at uh at meetings from time to time, was a part of a committee um that had looked at uh possible uniform changes. Those changes were taken up by our um our transportation and asset manager and we have come out, you might have seen the Facebook post. Uh we didn't have enough pink tan pants sitting in the back closet for six guys that started on the road on Sunday, so we had to give them their new ones quicker. Uh we're still waiting on a couple more boxes. So you'll see in the next couple weeks uh a uniform change to green pants with black tops and uh un our class A's will be all black from now on. So you won't see us in brown any longer. So and they're relatively comfortable, I believe. Have you tried yours on yet, Jason? Derek has. I know I have. They've been sitting my because I'm a sheriff. I got mine early because I'm a sheriff. I don't get to wear it yet. So I sit and stare at it in the morning when I'm looking what suit I'm going to wear today and counting down the days. So we'll be there soon. Um, short of that, I don't think we have any other bigger bigger thing. We have lots of little stuff going on. Always something new, but I think that's the big changes that you guys will see. And so with that, I'll ask if there are any questions for me.

Thank you. Anybody? How many how many deputies do we have in the township right now? In your township, you have you have four community, one traffic, so five plus another seven in unit. So you have currently 12. 12, I believe. Is that am I missing any Jason there? Yeah, the school of the SRO cars. Obviously, we have two two deputies in Jennison, two deputies in Hudsonville. You have a portion of those that I don't know. I'd have to look to look at your exhibit. Maybe just But do you know how many of them? Do you have both of a third of both of the ones in Jennison? I believe so. And then do you have any of the ones in Hudsonville? Have one.

Yeah, cuz the one is in the in the middle school. So Jamestown has a little portion of one. We we split that up depending on where they're located, but but as far as call taking cars, you have the 12. So I I only asked the question because I I I'm just curious if we're being covered properly.

Yeah. And actually Justin and I are having conversations about that and that'll be a nice thing when So the other the transition that's going on right now with Derek coming in is he's kind of illtimed because he's also in uh staff and command school with four other lieutenants and a sergeant. So, he's in school for a week and then back out for two weeks. But, we actually had conversations that that he and Justin will sit down uh a little later in the year and really look at what our what our coverage looks like and look at. Um, honestly, historically, we haven't been in a position, even if you wanted the spots to recruit. Uh, but I can say that we're actually doing really great right now as far as recruiting goes. I think on paper, we're down one deputy. Um we just uh because last Friday we we uh let someone go out of field training that didn't pass through. Um we have nine in field training right now. Uh one in the academy and two in backgrounds. Uh and so we're only minus one. So historically if you'd asked us I'd have been like yeah we're 25 guys down. I can't even if you wanted them I couldn't find them. But I think if you get to the point once the conversations are had if we believe that it's smart to move forward with additional units um we could probably uh recruit uh and get that up and running. Uh Allenale just added a deputy um not too long ago. So I know we're able to to to actually entertain that. Holland Township's also looking at some additions and there's another township that's kind of asking around. So this is the time if we think that that's something we want to address and once I think I think uh once we get some other things kind of worked out, we'll definitely have that conversation and if that's something you guys want, we can definitely

Well, I I just look at it from even these meetings. We've been short anybody being at the meetings. Well, yeah. So that honestly was uh that wasn't a shortage issue. that was a a handoff issue. Uh and we'll own that. Uh in the handoff from having a sergeant assigned to the township to having a lieutenant in the area, that detail wasn't uh wasn't provided to the lieutenant. And so when when it was mentioned to Justin, Justin mentioned it to Michael and myself and Derek. And so now we're aware of it. And so that will won't be a problem going forward. It just wasn't communicated to Lieutenant. No. But so that shouldn't be an issue. When you were here last, you you talked about you were hoping to be in full force by March. You still on that still?

Yeah. So, we're Yeah, we're looking good for it. A couple of additions made it so that we might not be fully staffed. Fully staffed, but we're not in the place that um you know, that had to do with those six that or seven. We had seven in the academy, one broke his finger, right? We had to roll him back. Uh and he's in the academy now and we don't have any expectations that he'll have any problems. Uh, so yeah, we're we're still on task and honestly, we're getting emails and phone calls from friends from other agencies saying, "Hey, are you guys hiring?"

So, um, I think enough there's been a decent enough culture change that's starting to get out some of the stuff that's happening here. And, uh, there's some excitement growing around auto account. My biggest I mean, if you have friends that are in corrections, u, family members that are in corrections that are looking to relocate, that's where I'm having my hardest time. Um, but honestly, corrections is a is a hard uh, recruit, right? I think Kevin's got relatives in correction. I don't think you mean that though when they get out. [laughter]

I don't think it helps as much as if they're employees there. But uh but yeah, you know, we'll look at anybody. It's the backgrounds that actually is the issue. But but yeah, our corrections unit uh our division is still is still under is still under um understaffed at this point, but we're interviewing weekly on that. So, thank you. Appreciate all your time. Thank you very much. Thanks, Eric. All right. A lot of information tonight [clears throat] and more information. It's item nine, communication letters and reports. We receive for information. I do have a a couple of questions on

uh I think both of them are related to the utilities committee meeting minutes. Uh two questions. the first I just um as I've mentioned before there's not a lot of detail in those minutes and so I would just be curious the rationale for granting um one of those relief items and not the other. So, somebody had asked for a relief on a late charge, you know, and I read through their their letter and kind of understood the explanation, but then the other request for relief was on a leak. And I just sort of wanted a little bit of a clarification on do we have a formal litmus test, if you will, for when we grant relief or don't, or is it just totally subjective based on the committee's discussion? I'd just be curious to bring that here for a minute. So if somebody from the committee can either answer that question of how that was determined or if Justin if you

I can answer that question. So we also we have a policy and an ordinance that we have to follow and the community in in the ordinance um I have to notify you as the clerk and it it comes to the committee for review. In this case the church had a personage and it was a leak between the church and the personage and the water never entered the drain. So, should the church have to pay for the the cost of the sewer for that event? And the committee agreed that there should be relief.

Okay. Uh that makes sense. And then my other question was related to the denial of upgrading the crosswalk signaling. Um, and I wasn't sure if um, the thing that I'm curious about is my understanding is that based on the changes a couple years ago to the ADA that if and when that signal at that intersection should need replacing, the township or whoever the municipality is, the authority for that signaling would be required now by law to bring that signaling into conformance with the ADA, which is the visual or the audio signaling that was requested. And so I thought we might be a bit shortsighted to not only be responsible for 50% of that payment instead of the day coming when it needs replacing and we're responsible for 100% of it. But I don't really know how long signals last. I mean maybe that's not for 20 more years. I don't know. But I just didn't know if we had really understood the benefits of only being required to pay 50% at this point in time because of the way I understand it is that upgrade will be required at some point based on the ADA.

They're going to put the signal in. We we denied help. We're just denied help paying for it. But I guess what I'm saying is do we not feel some sense of responsibility as a public entity? the one who is normally responsible for that signal. If that school didn't go there and then that signal failed, we would have to put it in anyway. So, it feels like I'm not trying to unnecessarily spend taxpayer dollars, but is there not some sense of responsibility to assist in a public function that is for the safety of our residents potentially at that corner? That'd be

I I denied this funding because because of the safety. I feel that to put a signal sound device there on the second busiest corner in the township for somebody who is blind is being not safe because you are relying on a signal for somebody to cross that street. And so I said you're going to do it. That's fine. But I don't I don't want I don't want the township liability funding that because I don't think it should be there. But the signal would be required to be upgraded to that type of signaling if they're going to do they're going to do it. But I also said to them, you guys almost got as much millage for

Yeah. as what we do as a township. And so I said they're going to do it. They they're going to do it. It's just we denied funding it.

And I think I Yeah. And I appreciate that explanation. And I think the the second part of that conversation or the second part of what I wanted to bring up was related to the ADA requirements and is that something that we will have to be thinking about moving forward. So my understanding was that with act or title two of the ADA and section 504 that now all signalings are required to be this audio style signaling at all intersections. So when they need to be replaced, we'll have to be replacing them to that level of signaling anyway. Do we know for sure? Uh Mr. Rainer talked to Secret Rampids that operates our streets and signals and he's probably the best resource for that.

Yes. So the the short answer is yes and no. So in our case in in this specific situation they they were requesting speakers to be on not the full audio. So, if you wanted full audio to be fully ADA compliant, that was going to require a major major reconstruction of the entire intersection, which was going to cost up to $200 to $300,000 after everything was said and done. So, the ISD backtracked and said, "Whoa, we don't want to do that. We just want and so when you see the hand come up or the five, four, three, they're going to install a speaker that literally just vocally says that and that's not ADA compliant. So that intersection will not be ADA compliant even with the upgrades. Now the big discussion back and forth between Fred at the road commission and uh the gentleman in Grand Rapids who runs the signals, they were going back and forth. Fred was like, "Yes, it does need ADA." And this guy's like, "Yeah, I think so." And then they finally determined that no, it does not have to be full ADA compliant if you're only putting speakers to announce the signal and all they're going to be doing is replacing the push buttons that are local that are already there

with a ton, not installing the other ones. So full ADA would be eight buttons like we have at Baldwin and Brewer cuz that had to be ADA compliant because it's a new crosswalk. Um, however, this one, it would not be ADA compliant. And yeah, the road commission has no interest in making that ADA compliant anytime soon. Matter of fact, the guy in Gr is like, "This is the reason why we do not make old ones and make them ADA in right now." Anyway, so it was an unprecedented type of thing.

Yeah. I guess something to just consider moving forward. I don't know. I I don't really understand that rationale like we just don't feel like making it ADA compliant. I'm curious if it was

No, I I I understand. Let me finish my thought. I'm I'm curious the rationale for we don't feel like making it ADA compliant. Is there a legal basis for just saying we don't feel like it? I just I it brought up other questions in my mind of gosh thinking about budgeting and dollars spent moving forward. Are we going to have to think about bringing uh crosswalks into ADA compliance at some point which I understand is costly. So it just got me thinking about being on aware of potential upcoming budget items. That's that's sort of where I was going with it. That was the only questions I had on those minutes.

All right. Anyone else? Item 10, public comments for action items remaining on tonight's agenda. So the public comment period is open.

That was fun. Plumbing Georgetown or um 6877 Creek Ridge Court. Um great conversation on the ISD. Basically, the bottom line is, you know, that they're doing their own thing and they picked one of the worst place to put a building, one of the busiest corners in the county, and then they're going to train people to walk across that street. I don't know how many people have to get hurt or killed before they stop doing that or move that location because someone's going to get hurt and then the person who's driving the car has to live with that. It's going to be sad. It's really going to be sad. um the CH part that uh John Toples talked about, they're going to be their own separate authority. They have their they're going to have their own budget. As he said, there's um statutes that says the county doesn't have to pay for that. They could use their lawyers to fight that. Um, but the big struggle I have cuz I went to the meeting that was here at Georgetown in the library is that um, so when if someone has gender dysphoria and they don't if they come to some point that they don't recognize that, does that now mean that they can make guidelines that boys can play in girls sports? And you may laugh at me, h that will never happen. Yeah, but we had that happen with the uh health department closing businesses and bankrupting them. So, don't say that government doesn't keep walking in that direction. That's my fear that's going to happen there. The other side of the coin is I see that you're going to change the rule on the bid part process. One of the items that you might have missed because you talk about materials, equipment, you didn't put in there services when you go out for a bid. So, just like Dean's excavating, it was a service for 100,000. We didn't get three bids, but uh that was a service that should have been gone out

for three bids. So, on the services part of that new change in your bylaw or the policy, you should put services in there as well. Um what was the other thing? Oh, so also at the Ottawa County Board, uh, John Toples was talking about how he's tried to stabilize the board, put everybody on committee. We have a new chair. Now, the former board members that are on the board now have been stripped of their committee ships. So, the division on the board at the county level is still there. So, just to know that the pendulum has swung the other way. So, we'll be seeing what's going to happen out of the county because the remaining board members do not have a majority vote. So, they get pushed out of a lot of different things. So, just look for that coming up.

Thank you. Thank you. Good. All right. Anyone else? Hearing none, we'll close the initial public comment period. Item 11, consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda? Support. Move and supported. and discussion hearing. None. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? It's passed. Item 12, resolution to update the charges for connection to the township's public sewer system as recommended by the utilities committee. Do we need discussion first or someone wish to make a motion before? I move that we upgrade the sewer connections support.

Okay. Moved and support is before you board. floor is open. So, we're doing this because we don't have a we do not we have not raised a commercial sewer connections in Blendon Township and so we need to revisit that and um increase those to to to coincide what we've been doing on our

had it before. So, this is as different parcels are being bought in Blendon and we have a quarter down 48th A. um we're preparing for whatever comes next. So this aligns us so that we have this in place others that it a roll call vote. Yep. We wearing yes yes. Kyper a yes. Kelly yes. Grassman yes. All in favor.

Great. Thank you. We're moved to item 13 this time. This is the air handler repairs. Is there a motion to approve the quote from Plume Service Company? So move. All right. I'll support it. again out of utilities and might bear some discussion as it relates to the choice of plume and how we came to the need for this repair. Either utility member or otherwise Justin

I think basically comes down to is is that we have a system air handler system that that uh definitely needs repair. It's the system that services this boardroom. Um, we've been told by the plume that it needs to be taken care of. The reason used to plune is their they serviced it. It's their product. Uh, can't necessarily have another outside entity come in and service it. Um, because again, it's it's somebody coming in and working on somebody else's somebody else's air handler. So, it was just natural to go to a plume. And we feel like that decision falls within one of the criteria for not getting three.

Yeah. [clears throat]

Eventually, this would be the most efficient way to handle this if I have different vendors servicing different parts of the system. Either I replace the entire system and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars or just repair one segment. Talking with our service rep, um, we have a system, it's 25 years old. Um, but it's reliable. It's been here. um he was able to make it work for two summers. He told me last summer, you're running on you're running out of gas here. Like, you can't keep on kicking the can. So, I pushed this as far as I could. So, okay. Anyone else? Hearing none then there's a motion before you. All in favor say I.

I. Any opposed? This pass. Item 14, local civic organization request. To approve their resolution recognizing a nonprofit organization operating in the community. I guess this is for an event that will take place outside the community, but by rule has to come through this board for permission. Yes. Cost nothing to us. So, is there a motion to approve of this resolution? I'll make that motion. I'll support it. Moved and supported. Any discussion? All right. Hearing none, this a roll call vote. Grassman. Yes. Pipers, yes. Wearing, yes. Kelly, yes.

Belink. I abstain. Four in favor. One abstain. Usually we have to approve an absension. Um, [laughter] I don't know it's worth the time to dig in here cuz it's passed. So, I think I'm going let that go. Um, Miss Gort's here. So, if after Kelly signs this, uh, we'll give it to Miss Gort and she can be on her way. So, we're thankful for her time.

Nope, just me. There you go. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Item 15, uh, election early voting, printing, and mailing services contract. Somewhat goes hand in hand with number 16. This did come through the finance committee. I'll make a motion to approve of this early election voting, printing, and mailing services contract. support

moved and supported. Uh this simply came down to for those of you who are not on committee um we will otherwise expend our own funds to do the election printing uh less efficiently, more expensively. It's a cost savings to us. Not to mention a time savings in terms of our people staff. Our staff. Our staff. Yeah. So, um yeah, those are our thoughts and okay, hearing none. All in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? Passes. Item 16 again, election printing services contract. This is to approve election printing service contract as recommended by the finance committee. Is there a motion to approve? So moved to support. Supported. Same rationale as previous. Yep. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Is passed. Item 17. This is a revision to policy 2005-06 about bid and quotation requirements uh arising out of you might recall I believe is the last meeting maybe the one before we were talking about the MI deal. Yeah.

So we tried to jump on that and had to bring that uh revision. So, is there a motion to approve the addition? So, moved. Support. Sorry, the revision. Okay. Moved and supported.

I have a couple of questions. There are a couple of potential minor revisions. [snorts] Um, I do think uh Mr. Plowman's comment uh is potentially warranted. I don't think it hurts in that second paragraph to amend that to say all supplies, materials, equipments, and services. uh I don't know what the process would be for amending that or if there would be support for that. And then I do have a question on in that first paragraph the three uh kind of exceptions. Number two, when the materials purchased are of such a nature that price negotiations would not result in a savings to the township. Is that trying to say when we can negotiate for a better price than just if we bid or is that not really meant to be in that sentence? It reads weird to me.

This is the I guess the finance committee um I guess language and I'm going to lean on our finance partners here. Say it more clearly. I we'd be happy to [clears throat] uh make number two. My understanding would be we do three bids always except for these scenarios. So for number two, I think it should read we would do three bids except when price negotiations would result in a savings to the township. Don't you isn't

I think by price negotiations are we referring to to the bidding process? So, I I thought it meant we would either bid or if you think you could negotiate a better deal than what you're going to get through bidding. That's why I think it should read in the affirmative that we do bids except when we think we can negotiate for a better deal. A better deal than would be bid. I was a little confused. I don't know why we would why we would say except when negotiations would not result. It that feels like a the sentence doesn't even need to be there then. Mhm.

I had read that to for the price negotiations to refer to the bid process. Oh, okay. But if it's so it's an artful because that isn't doesn't involve a lot of negotiation as much as a submitt. Correct. Yeah. So that's where I sort of felt like, you know, like in the case of a plune, if you knew that by asking plune you're going to get a better price than going out to bid by somebody, then to me that should read that we should remove the word not. It should be when negotiations produce a better price than the bidding process. That that would be an exception to the bidding rule.

I'm guessing the reason for the exception though is just that that we're not so much focused on the ability to negotiate. We may not be able, it might be one of the situations intended to be covered where you can only really get one bid uh when the deposit is. Okay. Yeah, there you go. That's number three. Fair enough. I mean, would it make sense if it said when the materials purchased are such are such a nature or of such a nature that um the solicitation of bids would not result in a savings to the township? What what comes to mind, Justin, under this number two? Because I don't think this is the one that was added. This is one that was already in the language. No, that's one that we changed.

This is the one. Okay. So, number three is not the one. I thought number three was the one that was being added here. It was three, but two, I think, was always been there or we was in the two was in there, right? We only added one here. Yeah. I may be reading it wrong. So, I'm either looking for somebody to help me understand why it reads that way or if it does need to be. Might be best if you gave an example, Justin, so that we can kind of frame it in our mind. Can you think of a situation pressure is not resolved in I'm draw a blank right now. Um

it it's interesting because whenever that language was added you weren't here, right? I mean it's like okay there was an impetus behind that at that time that apparently doesn't arise very often. There's generally though when you have a bidding process, you're not you're not getting you're not negotiating pricing during a bidding process, right? So that would make me think then an exception should be the ability to negotiate a better price. And the exception with Plume was that the system we have currently was is

old. However, very serviceable and and able to upgrade it and fix it without having to replace it. Having to replace it doesn't necessarily mean we'd be getting a better system. So that's why was it was cost savings to repair as opposed to replace. Um but again and during the bidding process I don't I don't you're never you're never negotiating a price during a bid. You're just accepting the bids when they come in.

Right. So but we're saying we are providing exceptions to the bidding process. So understood that a bidding process doesn't inherently means no negotiation. But if we're offering three exceptions to the bidding process rule, then we should be accepting or allowing a negotiation as an exception to the the standard rule. That's the way I read it. That's why I was so confused why why the word not trying to discern that language. I'm trying to discern that language as was added. I I mean does it make sense either the way that Kelly's describing or for to say when the materials purchased are of such a nature that

the bid process would not result in any savings to the township materials purchasers price

I move that we table this send it back to finance I hate to do that but it is a little confusing No big deal. It wasn't a rush to get it here. So, we'll we'll think about that more. Yeah. Go ahead. I thought this was low hanging fruit, so I can Yeah. No, no, [laughter] sorry. It's funny we've gone back in question language that was there because it's like, oh, that's there already. What do we need to add and the focus wasn't on what was there? So, yeah, that's fine. We'll sleep on it. Maybe we maybe a light bulb will come off, right? And you remember why it was written that way. I do have difficulty just because the way [clears throat] it doesn't read clearly. I

look at the top of the page here. adopted, revised, revised, revised. It's something that has been looked at and and examined from time to time. And I think rather than have another revision right away in 6 months, send it back and we'll talk about it further. Right. There's no no rush. There isn't a rush. No. Okay. We did have a motion and and the support on the floor to recommend approval of it. So, how do we Whoever made the motion, if you want to move to withdraw your motion and uh send it back to committee. Yeah, I think I uh I think I made the motion. So, Gary, would that be your motion then to withdraw your Yeah, withdraw the motion to send it back to committee. All right. And second. All right. Fair enough.

And on the two items for the clarification on wording on item number two and for consideration of adding services to paragraph number two. Mhm. Sir. Yep. Very good. All right. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? All right. It's been sent back to finance. Um, item number 18, addition of benefits manual related to gym memberships with the fire department came out of uh, finance. Is there a motion to approve the addition of these memberships for qualifying members? I'll move to support there. A second. Second.

All right. It's before the board at this time. uh just as a reminder came through our committee but I think we talked about it I want to say we talked about it openly in a meeting right so it's it's not a new topic to any of us here on the board I do know that it was intended the way it came to us uh to um memorialize in writing what was being done and that uh when Justin first brought it finance I think the thought was look we're doing this but we don't have the policy in place so you either don't do it or you put the policy in place. So that is the nature of how this originated. And uh thoughts, thoughts, questions, ideas.

So my thought is going to go back to the same discussion is that if we're going to offer it to part of the employees, we should offer it to all the employees. I don't think it's fair that we offer gym memberships to part of our employees, not all of our employees. I think it has to be across the board. We're going to go to a full-time fire department. They have to be they're going to be employees. I think it should be an offer to everybody. So, I would I wouldn't support this. All right. Um, yes,

firefighters should want to be fit on their own for their own job and their own duties. So, I do not feel the township should be and our taxpayers should be paying for this. Um, all of our firefighters gym costs. Um, I would support like a treadmill, a bike, some hand weights maybe at the DPW building and have like a little fitness area if they want to work out. But running is cardio and aerobic and that is totally free on the lovely streets in Georgetown. Um, so that's a great fitness option. So I am kind of a no for the okay the gym memberships. Kind of no kind of

kind of no. [laughter] I take for my own. Yeah, I had a couple thoughts. I mean, it was something we were doing. We refined it or I should say the chief presented in a more refined fashion to say it's not covering families and there is some accountability in terms of of go and report that you've gone so many times you lose it. And then furthermore, there's a inclusion of its benefit as it as part of the W2. So you get tax on it as if it were a benefit that had a value to it. So that helped me get across the finish line as far as my point of view.

Yeah, I agree with that. I mean, this is very different than just, you know, offering free snacks in the breakroom. This is not um a a a benefit in the sense of it's something that we just willy-nilly feel like we'd like to uh offer to folks. I do feel I have two um kind of thoughts on this that their health and well-being is as critical as the oxygen tank on their back when they go into a fire. So, for me, the health and well-being and providing the gym membership is the same as providing uh personal protective gear to these firefighters. That's the way I look at it. That's very different than a township employee. It's also very different than simply being a DPW worker who also should be relatively fit. There is more at stake in the health uh and safety of our firefighters as it relates directly to the health and safety of our residents. And I think that direct correlation is something that cannot be forgotten in a simple statement like this is just a benefit that needs to be offered to everyone. I don't I do not think the two are the same. And then the other is just the unfortunate can of worms that was open. This is something that's always been uh a benefit if you will. We're sort of memorializing it in a in a more formal and more appropriate sense. Um, and so I'd hate to see something get taken away because we're trying to clarify some language. Um, because it was brought to everybody's attention even though it was sort of already a thing. I just I think if if that were the intention of this, there should be sort of a bigger conversation which I thought we had. Um, but it is always the the unfortunate can of worms when you try to clarify something um, and then you sort of go back to square one of of intent. And I don't know that that's why we brought it to the table.

We brought it to the table because legally any benefit I give I have to ingrain it in my book or have a policy so that if one group like the fire department gets it then other employees I can I say no you can't get this benefit for equity standpoint. So then my my first part of my statement saying that I believe that offering this membership is the equivalent of personal protective gear to the firefighters. I stand by that statement.

I guess my comment on that is is if it was as important as the O2 tank on their back and and their health and well-being, I' I'd like to see more of the guys participate. with only a third of them taking advantage of the of the benefit that it seems to me that it's it's a benefit, you know, and and a benefit is something that you're using and and and taking advantage of and and again outside looking in and we're looking to cost save and again it's not a huge expense of the township and and and I I agree in the sense that we're just trying to codify it, put it on the on the books and say, "Hey, we're offering this already, I'm okay with that side of it." I would just wish there were a way that we would say since we are offering this benefit, we we need to see people take advantage of it. And especially if if the fire department this is to keep them physically fit for their personal or for their job, you know, hopefully reduce the cost of of insurance claims or or time off or injuries, then I just again would love to see it being utilized more than it is. And you know, granted, there's probably a group of people that are are going to go, "Yeah, heck yeah, I use it." And there's probably a group of people say, "Well, I might use it, but I don't they don't want my handheld to the fire." And there's another group that says, "No way. I'm not going to do that." Or they might have their own equipment at home.

But to that point, if they're not using it, we don't pay for it then. I get that. I do get that. I understand that. But I guess I would really like to see it. Granted, I can't make people do what they don't want to do, right? But but if it's if it's being added because of it's for the health and wellbeing of the fire department, then there probably some some merit to that. So why aren't we saying we're giving you this benefit? Please take advantage of it. You know, I wish there would be a way that we could, you know, force the issue and say, well, are you physically fit for the job? Can you do the job? And and is there some checks and balances in place for that?

I think that's great. And I think now in the move to moving to these having these full-time firefighters and I don't know the standard protocol. I mean, if we offer a physical fitness test upon hiring, do we do physical fitness tests annually? I mean, is it something that if we want to hold, especially in this move to full-time firefighters a bit more accountable? Um, you know, is that something we want to see from the full-time firefighters? of the things that I kind of think when I think about benefits too and um to me when you use the benefits you're sending a message to your employer that you're grateful for the benefits and that you want to be a part of the culture that they're setting forth and that you're sort of like worthy of the job and you want to be a team player. I think it sends a message when you don't take advantage of it and I think that's worthy of note in terms of an annual review or something along those lines. I think that's a very fair point.

I think we're doing physical fitness testing, aren't we? For the newers. We did that on Saturday for our Yeah. Okay. So, you are okay. For new employees, but not for existing. Correct. There's nothing. Is there anything for existing employees or I mean I Why don't we have something for existing employees? Should should we have something? I don't know. and just speak to why they don't all participate. Chief, come to the mic, please. Thank you. We have a fair amount that

participate with other um what do you want to say? Through their wife. Their wife has the benefit. So, they participate through the Y because of that. Um there's this huge push in the medical community to have free gym memberships being offered for general fitness for anybody. Um, so with that, everybody's got their own kind of direction they've gone. Some have their own membership, some have their own equipment in their basement. Um, they do their own thing. So, because of that, we have a smaller amount that are participating gym thing. And again, I assumed that was a part of it, you know, that that there was probably those that had their own Yes. to begin with, but again, it' be that was a big part of it. Yeah.

Yep. They have their own thing. They've already been doing their own thing. they've gone to their own place. They've gone through their wife's Y or or or out in Holland or whatever, they've got their own place that they go, so they don't want to participate in it. Um, I'm also in the camp with Gary that if we're offering it to the fire department full-time employees or basically all the paid on call, which aren't full-time, but I I'm I'm in the camp with Gary of why aren't we offering it to the individual in the office that are full-time or parks and the guys in the parks department or public works that are full-time? And again, you obviously don't have any control over that, but it seems to me that if it's a benefit, it's benefit for one group of the of the township employees, it should be offered to all the township.

We have a duty to respond. And there's certain things that fall under NFPA guidelines, fall under uh things that we put forth that are going to be just for us, just like the water department when they get a call out, they have certain things that guidelines that they fall under for water department issues. So, this for us looking forward, we're like, "Okay, we don't have a location to work out." Um, speaking to Amy's point, having some equipment, that's our ultimate goal. This is more of a band-aid so that we can offer this. We've already started the program. We're going to continue it until we get to the point where we can get our own equipment. And then at that point, we would do away with the benefit. So, thanks, Chief. Yep. Appreciate it. Thank you. Anyone else before we

Okay, hearing none. Would you want to maybe call roll just so I can tell how it came out? So, sure. Uh, Grassman, no. Yeah, I was going to say no means no. All right. Yep. Kelly, yes. Kyper is yes. Wearing yes. Beldink. No. All right, it passes. Favor.

Three, two. All right. Uh, moving on now to item number 19. second public comment period. At this time, uh, anyone in the public who wishes to step forward, address the board, you can address any item you wish on the agenda or anything outside the agenda. Preferably related to the township, not your personal life. Okay.

You um, uh, 1482 Winterfred Street. Just interesting the commentary that we just had about the gym membership. It's just something I was going to point out. But I uh just read a book called Younger Next Year: Living into Your 80s, like you're 50 years old. And it had a whole bunch of stuff about health. And [clears throat] one thing that was interesting about that was when they talked about the different types of training and what they actually do. Like Trustee Grassman mentioned, well, you can go out and walk and run in beautiful Georgetown. And I do that quite a bit, walking, you know, during the summer lot, three miles around our various lakes that we have at the parks. And that is very good for you. But I was reading over that book, one of the things that really pointed out was when it comes to that type of training and in it helps you all things equal live longer. It really works your heart really well. Weight training increases the quality of your life. Uh aerobic exercise a lot of time uh increases the length. And there's a lot of things. Yeah, you can do push-ups and sit-ups, but there's a lot of, as somebody that spent a lot of time over the years going to the gym, just different things you can use with the weights that you really can't do through, you know, push-ups and situps and stuff that's all free. And another point that's very I found out through years was when I had a buddy that would go with me and people I met at the gym. I was able to do a lot more and was motivated to go there more if and so sometimes when you're going to a gym membership, you meet somebody. I I see uh Mr. Tibbitz at the gym I go to all the time, but he uh I actually talked to him about this previously before once and uh I don't believe he's uh on the membership that we're talking about, but I see him there all the time. he's doing different things that he can't do at home and gym uh equipment can be pretty expensive and unless you have a really big house sometimes you just kind of run

out of space to put it. So take it for what it's worth. I'm not blaming anybody for how they voted or you know in the situation. But um I I do think strength training does offer a lot when it comes to uh your quality of life, not just the length of your life. Thank you. Thanks Sean. Thank you. Anyone else? And by that I mean Pete, no one else here.

Pete Plowman. Um 6877 Creek Ridge Court, Hudsonville. Uh a couple things. Um Eric Dbor, the the sheriff talked about his idea of sharing um um patrol officers and so on so forth. I think as many of I think you guys think the same thing. We would like to have dedicated officers to Georgetown and if we need more, I think we will pay for them. pretty straight shoot in that way. Not maybe share them with Allenale or Jamestown or Blendon or whatever. We're more than willing to pay for the coverage. And one of the big deterrents for crime is actually having the presence of the police on the roads so people can see them that they're we're well covered. And it's like, okay, we don't want to strike here. Otherwise, I think based upon what I heard from the sheriff, it's like whack-a-ole. So they go put more guys over at one like Blendon and now we have crime here. Now they put them here. So it's goes back and forth. I think you guys will probably might agree that we'll pay for more sheriffs if we deem to have more. The other thing is on the uh bid process. I'm thinking the M deals MI deals. I think we probably will run everything through my deals and see what the prices will be. Um because it sounds like it's a great opportunity because on the flip side on the plume contract that you just approved based upon what I heard from our superintendent Justin I mean it sounded almost as if they'll get all the business from Georgetown because they have this track record with us and I just want to that means he'll have to check every so often to make sure that he is getting a good price for that kind of stuff if that's the track we go. And then the third thing I want to talk about is the way we do agendas. Um there's many versions of agendas like this meeting. There's several versions

of the agendas and I think things get added and deleted at times. I would check on Friday, see the agenda. I would look at it maybe on Sunday and everything's changed. So I think it's almost it feels to me deceptive. That may not be the what you're trying to do, but it seems like it's like at the last minute things get changed on the agenda. And if I was like most residents, I would look on Friday, oh, nothing's going on. I won't come. And then Sunday or Monday, things change and they miss that meeting. So, I'm hoping when you print an agenda that you stay to that agenda. And if you want to add to it, add it to the next meeting or here you can vote to add items to your agenda through Robert's rules. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. See no one else. We'll close the second public comment period. Item 20. Discussion, general information among the board. Anyone wish to bring anything to the board's attention tonight? Yeah, just um I'm kind of excited about the 250th birthday of our nation. I remember the bsentennial. My parents took me to DC school. I just wonder if I just wonder if that's something we should have on the forefront as a township of whether a banner across the road. I talked to Justin about that. He's kind of expensive, but I mean is there something that we should be looking at? the more flags down Baldin or

I have a whole list of things for the services meeting and I am going to address I digress to Amy then [laughter] come to the services meeting she's almost as patriotic as me or maybe even more so I'm not even going to I'm not even going to get into hunting I'll let her so but that's that's my thing nice Gary I remember that too remember the license plates and all that they did that was that was a big deal others I have something I'd to read, but if there's other general public comment, I can wait. Anybody before Kelly closes us with a reading here.

I guess I just like to say how impressed I am that we filled the banners for the veterans so quickly. It makes me wish that maybe we had room to put another 24 someplace um other than just around here at the the downtown building. But it's amazing that how quickly those filled up. We were worried about can we get 24 and we got 24 in what, two weeks. So to me, I'm just impressed by that project. I'm I guess excited to see how it it pans out throughout the summer. John and I thought we could get a hundred easily. You could you two could that that we were would go to Meyer and say, "Can we hang them at Meyer? Can we, you know, in different places?" So I mean, let me know. Yeah.

If we would Meyer underwrite that be a question, would they? Yeah, too. I I don't think anybody would stay in the way of that if and the bank is supporting us. Yeah. Remember you you John I mean you have a this is right down your alley and like he said if there were 24 more that wanted to do it I suppose the concern might be okay they're covering you know a percentage of the cost but boy if there was a place like my said you can hang them in here and we'll we'll underwrite it. Yeah. Well no one's going to stand in the way of that you know. Yeah I don't mind making those calls. Great concept. Doesn't need Doesn't need permission beyond that. Right. Right here. I mean, it's like represent us that way and see what you could do.

Yeah. Yeah. All right, Kelly.

Um, I just, you know, it's funny that, um, uh, Commissioner Tles brought up not talking about personal things or not talking about items that don't directly serve the people of the township. just obviously with everything that's going on, something's been really weighing on me and so I would like to read something that I I wrote. Um, and I just want to make very clear that this is my personal opinion. For the record, this does not reflect the opinion of the board. But I do feel like there are times when we are tasked with this platform to use our voices in a way um that's bigger than just the day-to-day services of the township. I will also say that for somebody who is um normally not at a loss for words and very uh strong in my statement that this is just um it's very heavy. Um, but as an elected official and a Republican, I believe that I need to use my platform to affirm my commitment to the rule of law and to our Constitution and to my belief that the limited role of government is protecting life and liberty. Recent events in Minnesota, including multiple fatal encounters between federal agents and civilians, have raised questions about the use of force, civil liberties, and due process. the very principles of what I believe to be our government's limited role. These actions, regardless of who they were carried out by, are de by definition the antithesis of the foundational principles of the Republican party. And I do not believe they reflect the best values and traditions of conservatism. True conservatism means respect for individual rights, adherence to our constitution, accountability in law enforcement, and due respect for human dignity. No matter how small my role

here is uh as an elected official in the scheme of things, I believe that upholding the rule of law also means standing up against abuses when they occur. And I believe we must disassociate constitutional conservatism from recent conduct that jeopardizes civil liberties. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? All right. With that, is there a motion to adjourn? So move supported. All in favor say I. Opposed. Meeting is adjourned. Service uh meeting will start.