Board of Commissioners - Special Meeting

we have a forum entertain a motion to approve the agenda as presented i have a motion support any questions or additions yes what would you like to add i would i would like to amend the agenda go ahead i would like to add an item six which would be the second public comment opportunity

We usually have two opportunities for public comment, one before the business and one after the business is concluded. So I'd make that a motion to add item six, public comment.

Thank you. Any other additions? Hearing none, all in favor of the amended agenda, please say aye. Aye. Those opposed? We've arrived at the first opportunity for public comment. Each individual will state their name, have three minutes to openly address the board. You may only address the board once under this public comment opportunity and may not yield your time to others. Board members will not debate nor answer questions at this time. Public comment is open. Public comment is open.

My name is Jeffrey Heath. I'm Hanover Township supervisor and been a paid on-call fire department member for 36 years now. And we've went through several generations of radios and now we're with the 800 megahertz, which is a huge expensive uh opportunity to to blow up department's budget if you had to replace a radio and i'm here to um politely ask that the voters of jackson county have a chance to voice their opinion on supporting um the new radio or the replacing the radios um with the three dollar the dollar and fifty increase to the um per unit per device charge that we do in jackson county Just some background information. Hillsdale County funded their 800 megahertz radios in the towers with a countywide millage. They just recently, last Tuesday, raised their per device to the maximum of $3, and that's how they fund it going forward. I had a chance to talk with the city fire of Hillsdale, and they're putting together a plan with that $3 to set stuff aside to... pay for the next radios after these go through their life service cycle of 10 years. It's something that if the county doesn't want to try to put a millage, and I understand that with the turning down of the jail twice, but this is different. This is an operator fee, and this is important to everybody that lives in Jackson County as far as the 911, the fire, the EMS. So I respectfully ask you to put something on the ballot. It would have been better if we could have done it in the August ballot. But if not this November, the next opportunity that we do have to put it on the ballot, we need to ask the voters and give the voters the choice in Jackson County. Thank you.

Vanessa Molnick, Springport Township. I think I'm not opposed to this proposal. But I guess I have more questions and answers. Currently, Springport Township residents support their police department, we have our own township police department, we increased our millage a couple of years ago. So don't know if any of that millage money goes to replacing our radios for springport township the other concern i have is or question i have is that apparently and i listened to the the presentation um by supervisor weimer um thank you commissioner kennedy for putting that out there so it was easily accessible But it sounds like the county told the townships you had to come up with a replacement plan in 10 years to replace them in whatever time frame, 10 years. And they haven't done that. So I think that that's concerning that there was no effort made to replace those. I'm not opposed to replacing radios. It has to be done. I think it's more about the... the funding of it in the process for doing that. And now we're here at the last minute and everybody's wanting to rush the decision to make this happen by tomorrow. So that's a concern as a taxpayer that this wasn't addressed sooner than it has been. And then just trying to understand, it sounds like we have two years left on a bond that we're paying on for those radios. And now we're going to be doubling the amount of the fee to fund, And only it appears from the numbers that I saw there's only a smaller percentage of that number that's actually to replace radios and the rest is we just want to spend it however we figure it out to spend it. So I think if you're going to hope that this passes, some of those questions, at least from my perspective, would need to be answered. and i want to also thank everybody for the questions i heard everybody's questions during that presentation and that helped me too it helped answer a lot of my questions as well so thank you very much do i press

It should be green.

Should be green. Now it is. David signs Concord township supervisor. And haven't been a supervisor that long, but I can tell you that this is the one item that I know my community would totally support. We're being on the outskirts of the county and with our volunteer fire department. It isn't necessary for our police because we have a contract with the sheriff. So That's not as important, but it's very important for our fire department. And my best friend in California has been a fire chief at two different cities. So I'm aware of that importance. So Concord, I feel, would be in big time support of this.

My apologies. You'd think I'd be better at that stuff. Jay Niles, Chief of Police, Columbia Township. I watched the... presentation performed by Mr. Weimer. And I listened to the questions and comments made by the commission and I appreciate their time as well. But I wanted to point out a couple of things that I gleaned from that. One, the count on the radios is very accurate. I can tell you that it doesn't get any better than that. I was a part of that process when they were soliciting all, how many radios do we need? I think another variable that no one's brought up as well. I don't know how the county is affected by this, but I can speak on my township's behalf that You know, efforts to save money for the radials has been hindered greatly because we lost a lot of revenue through the revenue sharing from the state of Michigan. I mean, that was a large hit that we took that we had to adjust our budget to make it work. So efforts to save for radios have been hindered. Cost of fire trucks have doubled. Cost of police cars have doubled. Cost of keeping personnel have doubled. So all efforts to save for radios have been, I don't wanna say pushed to the back burner, but you gotta prioritize things as best you can. We're not asking the commission to foot the bill for this. We're just asking the commission, let the voters speak. Give them their opportunity they deserve. The voters speak and they say whatever they're gonna say. We'll have to deal with that. But this is an opportunity for the board, for the commission to do the right thing and to help out the constituents, make this a safer community than it already is, support the police and fire service as we're doing tremendously dangerous jobs and we need the communication to work. If it fails and someone gets hurt, It would be a process that I would not want to have to deal with. So I just appreciate the commission's consideration and think carefully about this. So we need to have these radios work. If you call for help, we will be there. And this is a partnership, not just so much one side versus the other. Thank you.

Any other public comment?

Trying to make sure I'm in the right meeting for this comment. Yeah.

Make sure it's green. You just turned it red. There we go. Thank you.

So Michelle Merrill from Summit Township. One second. Hopefully I'm in the right meeting because I was reading the article posted on News 6 that this was supposed to be about the AI for policing.

This is about the 911 surcharge for radios.

Okay, then I guess it's the wrong meeting because the news report had the wrong one. Thanks.

Hello, my name is Kurt Cole. I'm from Leone Township, former Leone Township trustee. I'm here today to talk about the fact that this is really a funding angle. I think most everyone in this room understands that. Now, as far as putting this on the ballot, you could do so with your own millage and your own township. Now, like many people, including Dan Wymer, I was on a board. Years ago and the county was nice enough to purchase the first set of radios from us Because people were caught off guard by these new changes and there's been multiple generations as everyone in this room knows of these radios But when I was there they said listen, we're gonna do this We're gonna bond this and it's gonna give you ten year time frame to make your own plan for funding in ten years and I, like many other people, had brung this up to my administration when I was on the board three different times to no avail. They simply didn't want to take the steps necessary to do so. They talk now as if this is on another board to listen to their constituents to quote Mr. Weimer. Well, Mr. Weimer should have done so and listened to his. He was given a gift 10 years ago by the county. It was a great thing you did that. But the problem is, is when you do so, too often no one makes a plan because they think, hey, they'll do it again. We can leverage them. I did not like the frame or the tone that he had when he gave his speech to you guys. I don't like him leveraging you in a way to obfuscate his duties upon you as if you're the ones not listening to your constituents. It couldn't be further from the truth. And I'm just here to ask you not to look at this as a way of just confirming maybe his lack of duty to his people. More importantly, the town he leads to look at this as a A really good way to understand that the townships, if they move forward in police and they have to limit their police because they can't afford them, they will take out and have deals with your county police officers for extra patrols. And doing so will help you with your budget. You will have radios because you have a plan. Do not open up this extra fee upon the people when they're not asking for it. The townships have every ability to run their own millages. Exactly the way you guys have done it. It doesn't need to start here. It needs to start at local government and work its way up. And that's the problem. They're trying to skip that step. So please do not support their bad behavior. And I don't mean to be so harsh, but it's true. Local government, I'm a big advocate of local government. They've skipped a step. So thank you.

Good afternoon, board. Tim McEldowney, Fire Chiefs Summit in Spring Arbor Township, and the chairman of the Jackson County Fire Chiefs. From my perspective, you've heard a lot about the money issues, and that's obviously a big part of it. But I wanted to make sure that I had a moment, I wasn't gonna speak, but what I'm hopeful for or one of the reasons that I think it's important for you as the commissioners to look at this is for the, if it's left to each individual municipality to purchase their radios, you run the 911 dispatch center I have some concerns about interoperability. When we do that, if we have a hodgepodge of radios, is that gonna be a problem? And then let's say Tim McElhaney says, I'm going, Chief McElhaney, I've done some research and I'm gonna buy my radios off the internet to save money. And now those radios are bonking or they're not going through. I'm gonna come and I'm gonna say, that's a county problem. And the county, of course, is gonna say, no, that's a radio problem. So one of the nice things about what we did 10 years ago is when we did partner with Motorola, who runs the 911 statewide system, is we kinda took that away. And that's important, because we all are trying to figure out, just like you are, is there a cheaper way of doing it? There is a cheaper way of doing this, potentially, but is it a better way? And during a true emergency, are those dollars saved? You know, are we thinking about what the long-term problems that could be created by having radios that are a hodgepodge? Prior to when we were VHF, we had that. We had a lot of those issues. If you go back and talk to Jason Hammond, and even go back, if you want, to the directors before. That was one of the problems that we were able to solve. I served on the committee, the radio committee back then, and that was something that we wanted to make sure that everybody had the same equipment so that it operated the same and there was no your fault, my fault. They were all the same. So thank you and hopefully that adds to your consideration.

My name is Mike Jester. I'm a Leone Township resident. The only thing that I wanted to bring up, well, two things actually. Number one, I think it's important to allow the voters to be heard if they If this fails, it fails. And then each township will have to determine what they want to do. But I also think that the 911 surcharge to pay for equipment and for dispatch services is more of a fair way to do it. There are a lot of people that live in apartments, mobile home communities, that don't pay millages so i've heard a couple commissioners said well the individual townships could have a small millage to pay for equipment but then you are taking the costs of that and putting it on the people that that pay taxes because they're a homeowner and you have certain segments that aren't paying anything towards that it's also to me unfair that if your house is $700,000, $800,000 that you're paying that much more than someone that has a $100,000 house. It just doesn't make sense that they would pay that much more when you have people paying less, and they're probably not using that service any more than anybody else. So to me, the 911 surcharge is the fairest way to do it. And that's my personal opinion, and I appreciate you considering this, and thank you.

Hi, good afternoon. My name is Nicholas Thurston. I live in Jackson, Michigan. I wanted to get some feedback on the proposed surcharge increase. While I'm not totally against it, I can understand why people are frustrated about the process not going to a millage vote or a public vote. It's a difficult situation because people, right, the local governments have dropped the ball. You guys see in the city of Jackson, basically there's been like a traffic jam on the sidewalk in front of the library They say homeless people, but most of them are nomadic criminals that just go from city to city, robbing people, breaking into the cars, doing drugs right out in the open. Many of those people don't have any intention to changing their lives or turning their lives around. Some of them are sex offenders living in front of the library. And one of the contributing factors of this was all the money that was going to nonprofits that have poor oversight. And sadly, law enforcement never does anything about it. Even when the county has contracts with local businesses that are supposed to respond to those things, I don't see the county take initiative with law enforcement to investigate why those businesses are not fulfilling the terms and conditions of their contracts. And then I see millages asking for more money from the county. We see the city, whenever they think they have extra money, they start spending it on things that are completely irrelevant to government. DEI projects, parties for illegal aliens, gay parades, contracts that never come to fruition, large scale contracts by businesses, individuals and organizations that view government contracts as basically reparations or something that is owed to them rather than a labor contract to do work for the general public that would benefit people that may be different than them and people that live in a geographic location. So if there is an increase in the cost of 911 services, and I'm sure their phones get blown up quite a lot with all the stuff that's going on, especially in the city, we want the money to be used for law enforcement. Don't say you're going to increase taxes or increase charges and then use it for something else, because that happens a lot. Living in the city, I can tell you, I've seen it a million times. And when the government does that, usually what ends up happening is the people that they're giving preferences to or their friends or family that they're hiring or political party members or whatever that drop the ball and don't actually do the work, everybody is overall worse off. It happens in the USA, it happens in other countries. Right now in Brazil, their economy is getting crushed by their DEI policies that are picking people for arbitrary reasons rather than talent and skills. Thank you.

Nicholas, could you please restate your name for the minutes?

Nicholas Thurston, D-H-U-R-S-T-O-N, Elephant City District 8.

My name is John Lozinski. I'm Grass Lake Charter Township supervisor. I have nothing really to add other than the fact that I believe a decision like this comes to the safety of our first responders. When I think about the amount of mutual aids that take place in our area as well as the county as a whole, and if you take in what happened in Napoleon or in Napoleon last few months ago before school got let out if there's miscommunication between our first responders i think it poses a safety issue and i think that's the only thing i want to add to this because i think i know when i took my oath the first thing we say is that we're here to protect our our our constituents and i believe also our first responders that's it

There you go. There you go. Good afternoon. My name is Bobbie Norman, and I'm the Parma Township Supervisor. And I would like to say that I agree with what I've heard here today from the other supervisors. And I think this is a real opportunity for the Commission to be proactive and not reactive. Why wait for a tragedy to happen when we can do something to prevent it? And I also think that it's very important that we give the people the opportunity to make the decision and not have it made in a boardroom. It needs to be our community's decision on whether they believe this is correct in paying more money in a surcharge that would be spread across everybody for everyone and not just property owners. And the county has been very gracious in supporting the firefighters in the past by asking the voters to approve the funding for this essential equipment. So it was right then, it's right now, and it is the right thing to do. Thank you.

Commissioner. State your name, please. Yeah, I'm just trying to think of the words. Barry Marsh, Columbia Chartered Township, supervisor. So I thank the Board of Commissioners, Mr. Chairman, I thank you for the time. I thank you for the thoughtful conversation. My perspective is very much like I think my fellow supervisors that are here today, the importance that it will allow for the residents to have a voice from a countywide millage perspective. i understand hesitations with you don't want to waste your opportunity at the ballot you want to be thoughtful with that i think this is a thoughtful thing i don't think any of our constituents our constituents are also your constituents we share these things and we partner and we are very grateful for the partnership that we have from the local township level to the county level mutual aid essential we all know that it's critical So I would just ask you to consider that opportunity and let the voters decide and then we can plan from there It's very important. Thank you all

Yeah, I'm Jeff Mitchell, Springport township supervisor. I'm also a former paid on call firefighter and former reserve police officer. I think the best opportunity, but we talked to all those supervisors on our is to put them. The surcharge on the cell phones, like everybody said, it's more. Fair for everybody. because it's not just our first responders that are going to be in danger if we have radios that aren't communicated aren't the same it's also going to be our citizens who were there to protect and so i just want to encourage you to put on the ballot let the people decide and i think it's just a safety all the way around for everybody that's involved not just our first responders as well so thank you for your time

Hello, commissioners. David Elwell, Blackmon Township. Here, having served on the commission with most of you, served as a police chief, and I'm currently the clerk for Blackmon Township, although I'm not speaking in that capacity and I don't speak for the board. So I know you struggle with this. I was on the original radio committee, strongly supported moving to the 800 system. I do recall at the time that there was conversation that the next time radios were bought, that it would not be on the county's dime, but I think We're in a different position now, and at this point, I know it's a tough call to make, but I do support letting the voters make the decision on it. There's been some good points raised about a millage, how that puts it on property owners versus allowing people to vote on it, and it would be assessed on everybody with a phone. Seems like a much more fair way to me. I've talked with some of you before the meeting and over the last several days, and i think a couple of things that you maybe hadn't thought about maybe some had is the fact that you've got at least 110 radios i think portable radios for the sheriff department and just the price of those alone by my math is about six hundred and sixty thousand dollars you may very well have that in your capital improvement fund uh but i think there could be potentially other more important things to spend it on or other things to spend it on probably nothing more important than this So I'm hopeful that you do give the users of the system the opportunity to vote on it, and I appreciate your taking the time to study the issue.

uh good good afternoon uh andrew haystead norval township supervisor um i'm kind of coming into this whole thing a little late in the game um as i just took over supervisor a few months ago so i'm not completely up speed on whatever everything has been discussed i did watch uh supervisor weimer's uh presentation to you all um just going by my figures This would be $36 a year passed on to residents countywide, as opposed to a millage, which then, like others have stated, just affects property owners. There's a large amount of renters that utilize the service as well. But looking at a personal side, I have children that attend Paul Ann schools, and the incident that happened in the spring, while hopefully it never happens again, our first responders need to pretty much have all the same radios, be familiar with the radios. We don't want a hodgepodge of different municipalities having gone with a quote unquote cheaper radio because that's all their budget allows. If we have a first responder show up and it's an emergency situation like this, We need to know that they're handed a radio that's going to be, for one, compatible with everybody else's radios. And also, they're going to look at this radio and know how to operate it. They're going to be familiar with the radio because that's what everybody's using. So that's my personal opinion on this. So thank you all.

Any other public comment?

Howdy, howdy. My name is Douglas Williams. I'm supposed to push a button here? No, it's all set. Okay, good. Douglas Williams, resident business owner, former government teacher. I just have one question for you. Why wouldn't you put it on the ballot? Thank you.

Any other public comment? Any other public comment? Public comment is now closed. As chairman, I'm going to take again the opportunity and the liberty to allow each commissioner to speak before a motion is accepted. We'll go around. If you would like to speak, you're free to. If you don't, don't feel that you have to. If you feel your message was given at study session or by one of our fellow constituents that was here. I will start with Commissioner Behr. Do you have any comments, Commissioner Behr?

Thank you for this opportunity. I'm in favor of the, What is on BoardDocs is titled the revised ballot language. It puts the, it's that ballot language the Board of Commissioners is not making the decision on how to finance radio purchase. All we are doing is saying let the citizens decide. And what better way to run a government than to let your citizens decide how they want their government run and financed. If you don't trust your citizens with these decisions, maybe they shouldn't vote for you next time. But I am totally in support of the 911 proposal. Thank you.

Commissioner Walz.

Thank you, Chairman Shotwell. I just want to clarify that I'm reading correctly. It's up to $3 per month. We won't necessarily have to levy that entire tax. Correct. Thank you.

Commissioner Kennedy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Few things. Tonight, something was clarified by one of the speakers that wasn't clear in the last meeting as it was presented to us. There was confusion of whether 10 years ago when the radios were purchased via a bond by the county for the townships, there was confusion from Mr. Wymer's end, it sounded anyways, that it wasn't made clear that the township's responsibility would be for repairs and replacements on them. That's been confirmed tonight that indeed they were. Beyond that, since that date, multiple townships have purchased additional radios and replaced radios. So that core issue is why we're sitting here today, is because some townships planned for it, some didn't. And that's the reality of it. We talk about our constituents and what our constituents want. Well, I went to social media, I had my email available, I took phone calls. I can tell you from the residents I heard from, No, this isn't something they're demanding. They want to see government be responsible with the money that they do have. And because local township governments were irresponsible and didn't come up with a plan, that doesn't mean you kick the can and you take it to the voters and say, bail us out again. I do believe the police and fire need these radios. There's no doubt about it. The second point about it being fair, I'm doing it this way. Four municipalities make up over 50% of Jackson County. That's Blackman, Leone, Summit, and the City of Jackson. If you look at it that way, with 57% of the population represented by them, they're essentially subsidizing smaller communities for being irresponsible. So that's another way to look at it. Is it really fair? I don't know. Sounds like one of my townships that I represent will be carrying a heavier burden. It doesn't surprise me to see township supervisors up here advocating it. If I was in their seat, I would too, right? Because it's their general fund that's gonna be affected. And if they can get a windfall from the voters, of course they're gonna want it. So those are still my core concerns, along with I brought up in the first meeting, every time we go take out another bond, Affects our bond rating. We have to think about that and also if we cap it at $3 and something arises down the future. It's capped. We can never go back to the voters for more so. This happened once before the fire Chiefs filled the room and wanted wanted the three $3 increase. It went to the voters that failed. I'm not so certain it wouldn't again. In fact, from what I've heard. It's not gonna, so I do not support this. I'm sorry.

Commissioner Duckham.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. First off, other than Chairman Shotwell, excuse me, I'm probably the most senior commissioner here. I can tell you that I know, I have personally talked to township officials of the townships I represent and several other townships that the county would not be buying radios the second round. We borrowed between seven and eight million dollars to provide the 800 radio systems and the towers and the repeaters on them And every first responder unit in the county, they knew 800 radios simply because everybody was on the same playing field. They couldn't run two radio systems. Everybody had to be on the new 800. We provided those. We borrowed millions of dollars to provide those. And everybody knew 10 years ago that The county ended it and it was a one-time deal. Some of you that I know, I see out there that could have been here 10 years ago, you weren't happy about it then. Why don't you keep buying them? Well, because we can't afford it. And my job as a county commissioner is to help the county provide county services that everyone expects, appreciates, and needs, and provide the best services we can at the most cost-effective price, thus through taxes. I don't advocate tax increases because I'm not doing my job. My job is to keep taxes low, provide good service. I don't advocate for raising the phone taxes. I won't name names. I've talked to people sitting out there. I won't name names. But I've had some people admit, say, yeah, I know it. We know it. We're not going to remember it. It was a great windfall pickup for us. You guys go ahead and we tax the people and turn around and let you get the windfall because you already have it in your budget, some of you, to buy radios in case this doesn't go through. But you're going to sit back and go ahead and let the county tax the people additionally so you get a windfall. It's a political game, I'm told. This is how it's done. It's not done in my book. Thank you.

Commissioner Williams, or Commissioner Pileski, I apologize.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll be in support of the ballot initiative today. I want to draw a few points, though. Simply because we may be authorized to add the $1.50 fee per month doesn't mean we need to assess the entire thing. Commissioner Walz made that point. We've been given some options on what could be done with these dollars to spend them entirely. But I think I'll draw the attention of my fellow commissioners to the fact that we will be deciding how to spend these dollars. We, the County Commission. If it's for radios, if it's to relieve our general fund, if it's contribution toward 911, if it's to hire additional people, whatever is done with respect to these monies, this board will decide how and whether to spend those funds. I'm a little disappointed in my friends at the townships that several of the comments today have been an admission that the There's a certain amount of fragmentation that goes on between townships and other entities. I'm a little disappointed in that. We, the County Commission, can help to solve that by putting this fee in place and by making sure we do have uniformity around the county in how we communicate. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Commissioner Williams.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So most of my comments have already been stated today, and I stand by my comments from the previous meeting. But I do have a couple of additional questions, if I may. I know it's only been a few days since our last meeting, but I'm curious if there's been any other conversations of a Plan B. If this motion today were to pass and it goes to voters, voters say no, has there been any conversations of any additional

ideas or plans moving forward that you're aware the on the only Organization that I can answer for is the county and the plan is to use our capital fund dollars to supply radios to our sheriff and and we will continue to work in that direction as we come across different monies that are available.

Thank you.

One, and then on the other side of it, just like with 911 and dealing with the actual infrastructure within 911, again, we will have to use our capital funds, so that means we'll be prioritizing 911 over other needs within the county.

Thank you. So with that being said, since then, have you heard, and you don't have to name names, but have you heard of any, or from any other township supervisors, anyone from city of Jackson coming up with any ideas moving forward?

No, my conversations with the three supervisors that I spoke with since last Monday directly is, yeah, they will fund the radios that they need to fund. But other things won't be done or they'll be put in advance for the other item to be done. So they won't be able to do other things within their township or have to figure out other ways to fund those projects. Just like the same priorities at the city. they will have to choose to buy radios instead of going in this direction. And some may operate with obsolete radios for a while. And as long as an obsolete radio works and can communicate, that's fine. But I don't want an emergency responder, a first responder, in a situation where the radio dies when they're in the middle of an incident. I could not literally live with myself if we had made that decision to not let the voters decide and something happens to somebody. We all have had first responders in our townships get caught in situations where the radio worked and saved them and where the radio didn't work and they've ended up with an injury. Personally, the mutual aid and double response saved my wife's life. I'm very proud to say Liberty Township showed up at an incident where there was a car accident and saved her. Summit got there, but it took both teams and both sets of equipment to deal with it. And they were able to communicate and get that done. And that was during COVID. So I really find it hard to not be willing to let the voters vote on this.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Moving forward, I have maybe one or two more questions. How long will it take, in the event this passes at this desk and then also with constituents on the ballot, how long does it take to receive dollars? To receive what? To receive, for the administrations to receive the dollars. I would print the ballots. To buy the radios.

Oh, to buy the radios? Probably as we go forward through the normal process. We would involve our IT and our sheriff's department and management.

Yeah, you're talking.

You're talking probably six months.

It'd be, well, wait a minute. Even if the voters approved it, we can't levy the fee until it's like July. And then it'd be within six months, we'd have the radios probably. Yeah, we have the radios ready or the RPs and all that sort of thing.

We were 20. It would be a year out. We were a year doing what we did before. Right, Deborah?

Yes, it was quite expensive.

Yeah.

Okay. And then there's also this question that was asked or was mentioned earlier. If townships or city, whoever, were to buy their own radios and they weren't the same, would that cause additional problems with the infrastructure that we currently have?

I can't answer that either way as I'm understand it 800 radios or 800 radios, but it's just like a Chevy and a Cadillac. They may both get you there just on what bells and whistles you have available to you.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. chair. So, as I mentioned. last week. Again, I stand by my comments that were made then. I guess my only concern, the thought behind this, I guess, is I just, I don't know if, understanding the severity of the ask and certainly not wanting to put those that have taking this oath and those who are literally going into the line of fire, I think it's our responsibility to make sure that they have everything that they need to do their jobs. But my frustration with this continues to be that we've had 10 years to come up with a solution to take care of this. And I don't know if I feel comfortable with putting a measure on a ballot that we need to prepare today to put on a ballot tomorrow so that constituents can vote on, where we haven't even truly had enough time to even educate them on it. And so those are the types of things that continue from my perspective of talking with constituents, where they're feeling like government is not making decisions on their best behalf or doing things without keeping them informed. And so I have my own reservations, and I won't go on and on with it. It certainly is a difficult ask, as I understand why we need to do it, and I understand the severity of doing it, but I also have constituents in mind who have voiced to me time and time again, they're taxed out, they're millaged out, when is government going to do what government can do? And so I think if we were to have taken the proper steps at the right time, maybe we wouldn't have been here. I understand things change, budgets change. I understand all of that. All of those that have served in any capacity, you understand and I'm sure you've seen how the budget restraints can be. We certainly have a task in front of us today, and I don't want it to make it seem as if there are individuals who don't care about the community, because that's certainly not the case. We all love our communities. We are here today because of the love that we have, but I just want to be sure that we're doing the best for our communities and by our communities. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think that's it.

Commissioner Chanel.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, and I have a few comments. First, about the election. I would imagine if we vote to put this on the ballot that all the fire chiefs and the police chiefs and the supervisors will get behind it and promote this. That's what my conversations have been with several of you over the last couple of years. And I have no problem voting to put it on the ballot. uh but i think that our our first choice should be the first one that's listed on our sheet something that doesn't commit a future board in 10 years from now or 20 years or not to buy more radios i'm not saying that they couldn't but the couple of the ballot languages here that as i read them would would compel future boards to continue to buy radios. And I've heard from several people, a couple in the audience, where they confirmed that, yeah, the supervisors knew or whoever knew that they were going to have to pay for radios. And we've talked about this, but I would have liked to have seen at least some effort. And I understand how hard it is to put money away. And I think it needs to be very unambiguous that in the future that if there's no more money, because it's going to be diminishing returns on that $3, or actually $1.50, it'll be eaten up by inflation over 10 years. So the buying power will be less than what it is today. So what do we do now? If we pass measure number two or three, that may require us to take out of our general fund. Maybe not, but I think we should have it very, very distinct that we're not gonna be on the hook for the next round of radios after this one, but we'll consider it. And we just don't know what the future systems are gonna look like. We can't know today, in 10 years, what kind of system it's going to be. And I don't want to be on the hook. I don't want the county on the hook for these things if we don't need to be. So if it is our first listed ballot initiative, I certainly will vote yes for it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Go ahead.

Pretty sure I know the answer, but I just want it to be clear. If this were not to make the ballot or if it were voted down by the citizens, if it did make the ballot, the county has already planned and we would have radios for all of our deputies. Am I correct in that? Yes.

Yeah, we will.

Yes, the county will move forward with radios at the appropriate time. We do have capital set aside for such. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, if it's an order, I would move the adoption of the revised ballot language, which is at the bottom of the page we were provided in our ballot or in our packet today. Thank you.

I have a motion in support. Are there questions to the motion? Commissioner Snell.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Again, I bring up the fact that this looks like it will commit the county to buying radials for much longer than this.

I will let the administrator answer.

Repeat the question, Ray. The question is whether or not this ballot language would require future boards to pay the cost of radios, and then if it does, at any price?

No, no. Anything, your actions today, you can't encumber a future board as to what they will or will not do. It doesn't, it says we will in this revised ballot language that we would buy radios for the townships, but it doesn't say we would continue to buy radios for the townships. It doesn't say the number of radios we would buy or any of those things or what kind of radios. It just says we would. It's that last revised ballot language.

I would prefer some stronger language to that effect. But if you're confident that when I'm 84 years old coming in to vote on it again, I don't know if I'll vote yes.

So we have a motion in support. Further questions? Commissioner Duckham.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. How will this new purchase, whether we do it or they do it on their own, if you do it on their own, the answer is pretty clear. But we have school districts that have bought into the system. They bought their own radios.

Correct.

Do they have to change them out?

They will have to update their technology, but you have to remember that we have other abilities on these radios that is what we're really interested in. Correct, Deborah? The encryption system for law enforcement... The communication system for emergency responders is different and separate from the school districts, correct?

The school districts have certified police officers, and so they would have the similar access to regular channels as normal, regular police officers, if you will. They're just assigned to the schools. And so they would have access to the same radio information. Does that answer the question?

No, not really. I mean, really, this whole radio thing hinges, if you want to get down to the brass tacks the way I see it, it hinges on a federal mandate to have the radios encrypted for in use within, I think it's two years. And everybody wants to get their radios encrypted. And that's why they want them now. I don't know of any radial failure rate we've been having with what we have. After a couple of years, there may not be new parts to fix them.

The encryption is a separate issue for the police. Fire doesn't have access to the same channels as the police do. Lean information and see just information, things of that nature. And so they don't have all of the same channels. So the encryption is a whole separate issue than the purchase of the radios.

I see them connected, but I understand where the mandate is. You know, I haven't heard, and maybe it's happening all the time, and I just haven't heard it, but I haven't heard of any failures we're having with the current radios. So what is the hurry? I value every person that goes up for the first response.

The concern is that we do it for the November ballot this year. Is it? So we have two years to plan and work through it. You just heard it's going to take a year to get everything purchased. So that would mean if you waited until 28, you wouldn't get anything done until 29. you'd be three years from now instead of one year. Okay, so there's your first debate. That's the reason why part of planning ahead, Phil, is doing it now.

I understand that, but put it this year. We're not having radio failures. Why do we have to do it this year?

Because they go obsolete in two years. We've already we've already had that discussion. Alright, thank you. Further questions to the motion.

One last question. Congressman Wahlberg was looking into what you spoke of the federal mandate on the encryption. There was talk he was looking into some form of funding. Has anyone gotten any form of a answer more than we heard at the study session?

after I talked to his staff on Friday of last week, no. Thanks. Commissioner Behr.

Thank you, Chairman. I've heard comments about maybe this, what if that, maybe this other thing happens. It's not time. I don't have the time to worry about maybe this or maybe that. It's time to take action. According to this motion, This additional surcharge doesn't even get applied until July 1, 2027. And it's going to take months of these additional surcharges being collected before we have the money to purchase radios. You don't do this today if you don't ask your citizens today, what do they want? You're putting this whole thing off multiple years. There's no need for that. And I don't go with theoreticals. Maybe this, what happens if that? Golly, I don't have time for that discussion. It's nonproductive.

Okay, on that note, we'll call the vote. Madam Clerk, could you call the roll?

Yes, Mr. Chair. Commissioner Behr.

Yes.

Commissioner Walz? Yes. Commissioner Kennedy?

No.

Commissioner Duckham?

No.

Commissioner Pilecki?

Yes.

Commissioner Williams?

No.

Commissioner Snell?

Yes.

Chair Shotwell?

Yes.

Motion carries.

5-3. We've arrived at the second public comment. Public comment is now available. You have three minutes to openly address the board. You may only address the board once under this public comment opportunity and may not yield your time to others. Board members will not debate nor answer questions at this time.

Good afternoon, Dwayne Pittman, Napoleon Township Police Chief. Thank you for what you did today, at least giving the citizens a chance to make those decisions. One thing I'm a little frustrated about is some of the comments that make it sound like we did not plan or did not try to purchase radios. We actually have purchased some radios and a couple of them that we purchased aren't going to be the ones that are gonna be needed as we go forward. Also, the purchase price of the radios that we got originally were around 4,000 to 6,000, depending on what model you bought. Those radios are now $8,000 and going up. As we all know, when you purchase a new phone or a computer or technology for that, the cost is going to go up. And so to make it sound like we haven't made any efforts or we didn't do our due diligence in trying to do that, I'll be honest with you, is somewhat offensive. because we have done that and we are trying to do that. But as we all know, this is going to continue. And even in five years or 10 years from now, they may they may be drones. There may be other things that all this kind of stuff, but it all goes up in cost. So I appreciate what you did. I hope the voters do the right thing. And but I just that part bothers me that it makes it sound like we weren't making efforts or we weren't trying. So I appreciate that. Thank you.

any other public comment any other public comment public comment is now closed commissioner comments commissioner bear we just passed the same motion that i attempted to make at our study session i was in the middle of making this very motion when i got interrupted again and cut off and uh If you just let me make my motion, we could have had this accomplished last week. The clerk would have had a lot more time to get this into the November ballot. All we did by waiting a week was complicate the clerk's problem or the clerk's responsibility. Thanks.

Any other commissioner comments? Commissioner Kennedy, then Commissioner Duckham. And Commissioner Schnell.

To Commissioner Behr's point, I'm happy that it came today. It gave it a chance to be in the public light rather than at a study session. I wish it could have been at a later time and gave them the public more time to have input. But with the ballot deadline being tomorrow, this was pretty much the last time to do it. So I'm glad we did it. We put a notice up to the public. The media got a hold of it. Everybody that wanted to have a chance to chime in, got that chance so i'm happy that happened and your motion didn't garner any support secondly to chief pittman's point i'm sorry you feel that way um but that's not how it was presented to us it was literally presented to us that some of the townships didn't recall that that was told to them therefore they never planned i'm sorry but that's literally how it was pitched to us so i know napoleon township and leone township has planned because i've seen you both purchased radios but i found it disingenuous that some supervisors said that they didn't know and hopefully understand where i'm coming from on that point but definitely support the police it's just the funding mechanism that i disagree with going back to the voters and asking for more thank you

Thank you. I'd like to address the same thing Commissioner Kennedy just did to Mr. Pittman. I've known you for a long time. I've always supported the police, supported the community. But I do know that when everybody got their free radios, they were told, That's all we could do, is just the first one, because we want everybody on the same radio at the same time. We couldn't run two systems and everybody understood, and you all got new radios. Because out in Norval Township, the radios were crap. You might better use your cell phone. I know the officers when they were working out there. But on a different note, and this really bothers me, was your presenter, for your idea, before he left here, told us, We need the radios. You need the help passing the millage. It's a failed threat. I mean, you won't help us pass the jail millage if we don't get you the radios? That's what Mr. Weimer told us. Go back and look at the video. Thank you.

Commissioner Williams.

Well, Commissioner Snell, then Commissioner Williams.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Well, we're 90 days or so away from that election. You got your work cut out for you. I know it's my preference and many board members' preferences that we do millages in November when the governorships are up and when the presidential election is up. And if that were to hold true, that would be two more years from now if this doesn't pass this time. I wish you luck, give you all the support I can, and talk soon.

Commissioner Williams.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Again, this board has voted and this ballot measure will be presented to the residents of Jackson County. And so we will move forward from there. But nonetheless, although I may disagree with the funding mechanism of this or the potential funding mechanism of this, I do stand by and support all of those who are going out and doing this great work and this task, and it's certainly not an easy job, whether you are in police safety or fire safety, whatever the case might be, yet you're moving forward and doing such a great and monumental job for our constituents. proud of that, but nonetheless, if there is anything that I can do to help spread the word, to educate our constituents on this measure, I'm more than happy to help with that. Thank you, Mr. Chair, nothing further.

I want to thank everyone for coming here and speaking on behalf or against the measure. I want to make everyone aware that we did this in a public forum and as transparent as possible and allowed as much communication as possible to be shared upon the times that we received it. I want to thank the gentlemen who are our first responders and our law enforcement for the hard work that you do. And for everything that can or cannot be done, the Board of Commissioners will continue to have the discussion and work towards the solutions. With that, I entertain a motion to adjourn. I have a motion in support. All in favor, please say aye.