Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Aliance 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.

Dear heavenly father, please be with us tonight. Please watch over us. Please watch over our nation. I fear for our nation. We've gotten so far away from your godly principles. Uh you are heavily involved in the formation of this country. You're God. You're listed in all our founding documents. You're in our pledge of allegiance. You're on our money. Um please, we need a revival this year, the 250th anniversary of this country. We need a religious revival that more people will come back to you, Lord, and have a personal relationship with you. Please watch over this meeting tonight and h have help us conduct a business in a fashion that would please you, Lord. All God's people say, "Amen."

Amen. Amen. Madam clerk, could you please call the role? Yes. Commissioner Bear present. Commissioner Walls here. Commissioner Kennedy. Happy St. Patrick's Day. Commissioner Duckham. Commissioner Pleski here. Commissioner Willis here. Commissioner Williams present. Commissioner Snell here. Chairman Chhatwell here. We have a quorum. Thank you. Entertain a motion to approve the agenda.

I have a motion in support to approve the agenda. Any additions or subtractions? Commissioner Bear. Thank you, Chairman. Under item 17, new business, I would like to add uh Fair Trackside Bathroom site improvements. Make that 17B, please.

Thank you. any other items for addition. Seeing nor hearing none, all in favor, please say I. I.

Those opposed. Duly carried. We have no awards and recognition. We have no communications or petitions. Is there any to be presented to the clerk? None from the audience. We have no special orders nor public hearings. We've arrived at the first opportunity for public comment. Public comment guidelines. Each individual will state their name and have three minutes to address the board to subject matter must be pertinent to the items on the agenda. 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. The first chance for public comment.

Good evening board and good evening citizens. My name is Tom Malletic. I live in Napoleon Township and I've been hearing uh formerly Phil Guckham and just this last uh Tuesday Corey Kennedy mentioned openings on advisory committees and such and he mentioned the department on aging advisory council on Tuesday and I finally decided to put my name in. So going back before that, I've actually been in Napoleon Township uh close to 20 years. But when we moved there in 2013 full-time, I had to do something. I retired from Fizer and I had a neighbor Doug Lamers was a trustee in Napoleon and he said, "Uh, we need an ordinance enforcement officer here in Napoleon Township." And I thought I had a pretty good first question, which was what's an ordinance enforcement officer do? So, uh, I learned and I also got to see I got to work with Dan Wymer and John Warden and I worked with assessing and zoning and of course ordinance enforcement and got a taste of what it takes to make decisions. Do what you can with the budget. You have make priorities and that's that's why I decided to throw my hat in the ring for this uh, council, this advisory council. So, thank you very much. Any other public comment? Any other public comment? Public comment is now closed. We have no special meetings of standing committees. We've arrived at item 11A, minutes from the previous meeting. Entertain a motion for the February.

I have a motion in support. Questions, comments, or corrections? Seeing nor hearing none. All in favor of the minutes. I I I. Those opposed? Duly carried. We've arrived at the consent agenda. Move to adopt the consent agenda. Support. Thank you. Any subtractions from the consent agenda? Seeing nor hearing none, Madam Clerk, could you call the role? Mr. Chairman. is Commissioner Walls. Yes. Commissioner Kemp. Yes. Commissioner Pleski. Yes. Commissioner Willis.

Yes. Commissioner Williams. Yes. Commissioner Snow. Yes. Commissioner Bear. Yes. Chairman Chwell. Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. We've arrived at standing committee report. Public safety transportation chaired by Vice Chairman Corey Kennedy. Commissioner Kennedy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Tonight, we have one item of business. It is the 911 central dispatch community radio project resolution that we spoke about in the last public safety and transportation committee. It will be our 911 director applying for a grant to potentially get funds to purchase radios for local fire and police departments. I would please force the motion to approve the resolution. We have a motion and support on a resolution for 911 uh dispatch. Any questions to the resolution? Commissioner Williams. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just very quickly,

can you hear me? Um, so I noticed that there's I believe 272 radios that are that we can apply for in this grant. Is that correct? And how many do we need total? We do we know that it's more than that to be honest, but it would definitely be a start. Is there a a plan to come up with the dollars for the remaining balances? That would be on the town. Well, I'll let the I'll let the uh uh No, there currently isn't a plan. Okay. But the townships themselves would have to. Yes, we've made that clear what uh eight years ago when we purchased the initial radios.

Perfect. I just want to make sure we put that on the record again. And then finally, if I remember correctly also, there's no match dollars that we have to pay for this. Correct. This match or this grant does not require a match. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chair. All my questions doesn't end. Yes, sir. Further comments or questions? Commissioner Bear, if I heard properly, we got somebody said 270 some radios could could get them with this grant.

Okay. The letter that came from Director Hammond said it was 641 portable radios. That's how many we totally need. Okay. I thought this implied that the grant was applying for 641. So we're not the grant is not going to be looking for 641 radios. Michael Yes. As I understand it, not all radios are eligible for this grant.

Okay. When did that change? Since um March 9 when Jason Hammond provided this information because it clearly says in his document 641 radios.

Yeah. I'm not sure when it changed. Commissioner Barrett, 641 radios identifies all the radios we would need if we replaced every radio. The amount of money that's available within this grant is for the 240 amount or 270 amount. So, what we're doing is we're looking to get this partially paid for with the grant to support radios if we can. We don't know if we're going to get this grant. What we're doing is we're applying for it. Can't apply for the total grant because the total grant, the total number of radios needed is not what this grant would cover. So, we're applying for 272 radios with this resolution and grant.

Okay. I just want to point out that that number doesn't exist in cover letter and it doesn't exist in the resolution. Okay. Thank you, sir. So, how do we know how many We don't know how much money they're going to give us. They could give us less. We just we just know that the max would be 272 radios. Okay. Not consistent with further questions.

Madame clerk, would you please tally the vote? You can do it either way. Commissioner Kennedy, yes. Commissioner Pleski, yes. Commissioner Willis, yes. Commissioner Williams, yes. Commissioner Snell, yes. Commissioner Bear, yes. Commissioner Walls, yes. Chairman Chwell, yes. Motion passes.

Thank you, Commissioner Kennedy. Thank you, Mr. Chair. That concludes business for public safety and transportation tonight. Standing Go Standing Committee General Government chaired by Vice Chairman Walls of the committee. Vice Chairman Walls of the committee.

Thank you, Chairman Chhatwell. Today our business includes appointments. Um we have openings on materials management planning committee. That's a vacant position. We have no applicants. I'll ask that that be posted. Again, the Economic Development Corporation, the current member is Connor Wood. He did not reapply, so we have no one to uh fill that position, and I'd like to have that posted as well. Again, and then the JCBR city council representative, a new term that expires on March 2029. Connor Wood is the current applicant. R. John O' Conor or is the current member. R. John O' Conor is the applicant. Committee recommends Mr. Okconor.

Any nominations? Excuse me. This is a concurrence with the city appointment. So, all we can do is say yay or nay. Can I get a second, please? We have a second in support of Mr. Okconor. All in favor, please say I. I. I. Those opposed, duly carried. Commissioner Walls. Thank you. Again, for the JCB, Township Supervisor Representative, a term ending in March of 2029. The current member is Pete Jansik. The applicant is Pete Jansik, and the K committee recommends Mr. Jansik. Any nominations from the floor? Hearing none. All in favor, please say I. I.

I. Commissioner Walls. Thank you. Uh, public utility, a consumer's energy. Again, a new term that expires on three of 2029. The current member is Brad Wrl. The applicant is Brad Wrl and the committee recommended appointment is Mr. Wrl. Any nominations from the floor? Hearing none. All in favor? I I. Those opposed? Duly carried. Commissioner Walls. Uh, that concludes our business for this month. Thank you, sir.

Thank you very much, Commissioner. Standing Committee Human Services, chaired by Commissioner Earl Pleski. Commissioner Pleski.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have appointments tonight. We have two openings on the Department on Aging Advisory Council for terms expiring in December of 2026. The current members as to one of those vacancies is open. The other member is Mary Joe Chow as she has chosen not to reapply. It may be that there are commissioners who have an interest in nominating from the forum. Sure. I'd like to nominate Tom Mletic if I could please. We have one nomination from the floor. Are there others?

Hearing none. Tom Malletic. M A L E T I C. All in favor of Mr. Mletic. I. Those opposed. Welcome Mr. Mletic. Commissioner

Pleski next 2029 incumbent is he als nominations from the floor hearing none. All in favor of Commissioner Snell. I. Those opposed. Congratulations, Ray. Commissioner Pleski.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The final appointment is for a seat on the Veterans Affairs Committee for a veteran for a term expiring in March of 2030. The incumbent is Bill Trip, but we've had no applicants for that opening, Mr. Chair. So, we will repo we will repost that and move forward. And that concludes our work for this evening. Mr. Chair, thank you. Thank you, sir. We have no unfinished business. We arrive at new business. We have a foyer appeal. I will ask the administrator controller to speak to this issue and then look for a motion.

Thank you. First, uh, do we have the person on the Zoom? Do we know the person who filed the appeal has to zoom in? Um, so trying to see if is she here? He's checking. Okay. Uh, with that said though, Deborah, if you want to give them the overview of this.

Yes. This this request um is for a court record and per the FOYA statute MCL 16.232H 232 HV or IV. Um, the judiciary is not considered a public body and therefore is totally exempt from FOYA. Any records that do come from the court have to come directly from the court. Any public records that are available, um, this specific request is regarding a transcript. Transcripts have several court rules and statutes that dictate how those are done. because it is official train it is an official transcript of a court record. Um that can only be made by the court recorder. Um and so we do not have authority to release this. It has to be specifically obtained from the court. Um there's MCL's and Michigan court rules that um dictate that because um it is an official transcript. If a transcript was made for this court record for this file, it can only be obtained from the courthouse. not transcripts are not made for every file but if there was a transcript made it has to be obtained from the court because it is an official court record. Um I did check with the court both circuit and district and they do not have a public record regarding this file which means that um chances are this case was public at some point and has now become a non record. There's opportunities in statute for individuals to be successful there's to testify statute of there's many opportunities for people's records to become public and there's no public record for this individual or this so there's no record

No, it's not necessary. Um, at Thank you, Deborah. At this point, we would be asking the board to uphold the the appeal. Commissioner Snell. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move to deny the We have We have a motion. We have support. Further questions? Commissioner Pleski?

Ju just a question to make sure uh that I understand the motion. It is to uphold the administration's denial of the appeal. Is that correct? Okay. Very good. Thank you. Further questions. Hearing none. Madame clerk. Sure. Can I post the vote? You may do it. Yes.

The vote has been posted. The votes are in and the motion passes. Carried eight zero.

We've now arrived at item 17B, fair track side improvements. Commissioner Baird.

Thank you, Chairman. Everyone may not be familiar with this. Um, I have a document for everybody. If you could take one, pass it on. the uh the parks and the fair board uh have identified certain hazards at the fairgrounds particularly around what is known as the the track restroom. Uh there's multiple restrooms in the in Cley Park. Uh this one's identified as the track restroom. It has this has been bad for several years. I see

uh serious trip hazards uh making this bathroom dangerous for persons with wheelchairs, walkers, or mobility limitations. Um they identified a there's a narrative on what they think needs to be done. There's a drawing that shows where the existing hazards are and the proposed exterior layout of where the renovations would be. Um, I think this needs to be done. I'd like to take a u a quote from our uh drive Jackson strategic plan. One of the comments made by citizens was uh landlords should be held liable for dilapidated properties. The landlord of this property is Jackson County. Portions of this property is dilapidated. You got photos of it. So because this is a county owned property, this portion is dilapidated. taking care of it would comply with our strategic plan. And you're all probably also familiar with the uh with the statement or the theory of uh of the broken windows theory. If you got broken windows in your neighborhood and you fail to fix them, you'll have more crime in your neighborhood. Well, I look at this the same way. If the community sees dilapidated con conditions in our park, sees that the landlord doesn't respect their own property, then why should the community respect our property? So, there is multiple

motivations for me to bring this question to you. In the finance report that we just approved during the consent agenda, our finance director states relative to the 2026 capital improvement plan carryover budget amendments. uh states in her letter in the back paragraph background uh that these budget re uh movements are to make sure that there's a number of capital projects that are already underway. They're not finished, but the money needs to be carried over so those projects can be finished. And she also says in addition there are amounts that have been set up as contingency that are available for future projects. So we have over 3 million in contingency not allocated to any single project whatsoever. So, what I am asking is that we take some of that contingency money and we put it towards the repair of this site. Get it done quickly so it can be done before the county fair opens. And if I can separate my papers here, here is a motion. I printed a copy for everybody so you can have a copy. My motion reads, "I move that the board of commissioners approves the track renovation facility site improvements as described by the Jackson County Fair Board's project scope- track restroom improvements

document uh per the exterior improvements description and exterior site plan concept drawings. Funding amount $25,000 to come from the 2025 capital plan carryover public improvement fund administrative account 254-2000 decimal 0000 decimal 98 9998 decimal 0 contingency of 1,432,397 $7. So our per our finance director, these monies are sat there waiting for a project to come along. They are not earmarked for any project. And so I'm asking that we take 25,000 out of this over $1.4 million contingency and get these repairs done at the park. That's my request, my motion. Commissioner Bear, you're aware that the park has the parks department has applied for a grant, a DNR trust fund grant to pay for this very same project. They just can't get it done in 2026. It would be done in 2027 and cost the county zero dollars. So, you're aware of that, correct?

I'm aware I am aware of that. I spoke with the parks director before the committee meetings started last week

and I told him what I wanted. I think there's no reason to delay this and I asked him if I brought this up as a separate motion and it was successful. Did he think there was any way that this would muck up or cause a problem with his grant request? and he told me, "No, they can still get the grant request." I, for one, based on the new strategic plan of getting things of moving things forward instead of sitting on them. Um, that I want to do this now and not wait. And there's no reason from parks that they have told me because I asked them they have no problem with this. And um we are subjecting oursel to

you can't listen to two at the same time. Um this has been a hazard for a long time. If someone trips and falls, somebody in a walker, someone in a wheelchair, somebody with mobility deficiencies or challenges, if they trip and fall, uh, we can certainly be sued. Um, this has been known for years. I brought it up a month ago. I'm bringing it up now. So, if somebody falls and gets hurt, we're going to have no legal recourse and a potential lawsuit is going to be far more than $25,000. So, in the long term for the county finances, um, let's pay for this, get this hazard out of the way, and not take the risk of a much higher lawsuit.

Well, it is my understanding from the parks director that the money can't be used for anything else. that we cannot reprogram this grant. We either put it for this project because that's what we're applying for. And according to the parks director and what he said last Monday was that that this money by appropriating it for this has a very good chance of scoring high enough for us to get this paid for. and then we can use this our money for something that the state will not pay for and that we could then do something else in the county that would be much more appropriate to do with this money. So, in my mind, we follow the plan of our professionals, the parks director, and we go forward with the way he'd like to do it and follow the timeliness of that. And that was the motion that came out of the parks committee also. So now you're superseding the parks committee also. So my recommendation would be either we send this back to the parks for further study and come back again follow the normal pathways or we send it to the administrator controllers's office to get it taken care of that way. Or we can vote this down and follow the park's current recommendation of using the trust fund money and moving forward. Yes, we certainly can kick this can down the road and we can avoid we can save $25,000 when we've got over $3 million in undesated contingencies. So, yep, you all can choose to kick this can down the road and not make the park safe. Um, I'm not going to retract my motion. I'm going to sleep well at night knowing

I did what I could for the residents of this county that may have some mobility issues. Okay. Then I'm looking for support. Your motion dies from lack of support, sir. Kind of what I expected. Thank you.

We reached second public comment. individual state their name and you have three minutes to speak to openly address the board address or answer question at this time Rosemary Tanner um I'm presented last month the information related to the Charlie Kirk sign and I want to thank Commissioner Bear and Commissioner Kennedy for helping me. Um I'm just wanting to know what the status is of that. Um and the funding I just want to let you know if it was not made clear that the funding is private. All I need is help with the materials and getting it printed. the placement as Commissioner Kennedy said in my idea was um anyways where we're going to put it is um up to conjecture and he suggested maybe some private um property. So we'll do some asking and see if we can find somebody in the county willing to put it on private property someplace where it is going to be well noted. So, that's I just want to let you know that the it's not going to cost you anything. I just need assistance with materials and um getting it placed. So, that's it. Thank you. I'm John King from the city of Jackson. In the last board meeting, the board of commissioners meeting, I made a portion

of my comment clearly tongue and cheek, as evidenced by laughs here, about it would be nice if the lady who stole and destroyed Commissioner Bearer's sign a few months before could have had some sense knocked into her with her head being hit up against the windas. also qualifying that by questioning its legality. Commissioner Corey Kennedy cowed to the crazies by interrupting me and suggesting I was calling for violence right then and there and later misstated what I said. The line leftist from Pleasant Lake then said afterwards that I called for the lady to have her head crushed in and essentially suggested I wanted her to be killed. I expect political progressive scum to lie. However, there is a problem when Commissioner Kennedy and or others coward to the crazies that have been showing up here in big numbers with censorship and the added barriers. It encourages violence. We only need to look at the violence committed in Minnesota against ICE officers with all the whistles and other methods to prevent criminal foreigners from being captured and deported. We have the crazies here like the lady that mentioned seven illegals that were captured in the Jackson area by ICE when she I guess she would rather they be able to roam free in the Jackson area unabated rather than be brought to justice. I thought about mentioning acts of terrorism and by many allowed into Europe by the crazies there with crazy border enforcement, but just the acts of

terrorism by radical Islamic terrorists last few weeks in the United States, including here in Michigan, shows being a coward to the crazy should not be done. when I was coming here. Also, the Black Lives Matter sign that faces the sheriff's office is really, you know, in poor shape. It never should have been there. Thank you.

Uh, good evening. My name is Can you hear me? Uh, my name is Nicholas Thirstston. I live in Jackson, Michigan. 410 Van Beern Street, apartment B. Um, John and I are neighbors and uh we live in an area, we live in the uh district 8 and um there is a significant trend of government uh using force I think to censor people and um there is definitely a growing left-wing extremist uh culture uh mostly among government funded nonprofits and charities uh schools, libraries, churches, things like this. you see it. Um, but yeah, he is right. Uh, the Black Lives Matter sign definitely should have never been there. It's a business sign and logo of a company that has, uh, committed atrocious crimes in the United States. Uh, they've done billions of dollars of damage to mostly private property. They burned down people's houses, apartment complexes, their businesses. They rioted and looted. They stole everything out of the buildings that wasn't bolted to the floor. And sometimes you see different trends like DEI or other things. nonprofits that have a cute zombie name, but uh the real underlying ulterior motives are pretty sinister in many cases. Uh they end up doing more harm than good. And um a lot of these leftwing policies do. And you look at the county districts 1 2 3 4 5 6 and nine have uh been able to avoid a lot of the pitfalls that district 7 and 8 have fallen into. And you hear a lot of complaints about how poor the quality of life is from the district 7 and district 8 county commissioners who think all this stuff is a good idea and think that these terrorists are their friends. They think we should have no laws and no borders. We should have no standards for anything. Um I agree with uh some of the things that Commissioner Bear stated uh when you don't take care of properties they become dilapidated and sometimes they do invite crime and this is evidenced by the city of Jackson Housing Commission. uh the city housing uh is

always there's always some sort of a drama going on with that and the left-wing activists capitalize on the death and the crime and the destruction uh the fires, the overdoses, the murders and to do fundraisers and protests and complain about things how they should get more funding. And uh we already have a significant amount of money burning through the city of Jackson. Uh there's about in the Jackson area, the metro area, I would say there's about 900 nonprofits, over a billion dollars of cash revenue per year. They own about $3 billion of assets. They do little to nothing good for the people that live in our city. And it would be wise for everybody here to learn from the mistakes of district 7 and 8. Not fall down those same paths because once you destroy it, you can't undo it. You have one home. It's in our best interest to take care of it. I think our home is beautiful. It's worth taking care of. Right. Thanks for your time. Good evening. My name is William Hastings. I live in the city of Jackson. I'm back here again to uh to discuss the uh the Drive Jackson um strategic report that was recently published for the county. And I'm going to kind of start with my conclusion and maybe work our way back. So, what I'd like to ask um of the five equally equally ask of the five members who voted uh to fund this report and to the to the four members who voted to oppose this report, I'd ask that you take um there's four subsections of the report. The entire report's only 67 pages and it's really just bullet points, a lot of empty space, a lot of graphics, uh very very kind of lightweight in nature. So I would just challenge you when you have a little bit of free time and you don't need a lot of free time, just pick any one of those four sections and read read through them and just ask yourself how

meaningful is this language? Is there any specificity? Is it is it applicable or do we see a lot of redundancy? So just um I have barely two minutes here. Uh I took a look at one of the subsections uh which has the heading foster safe and healthy community and just a few things I saw. I'll have to go very fast of course. Um so section D1 talks about improving infrastructure to improve public safety mainly talking about how do we set up roads? Do we have adequate lighting? are there adequate signs and all those things of that nature. And you read through that and you read read through all the language in the actual report and and it's impossible for me not to say what does this what what is this recommending that the county hasn't been doing for 100 years. This is what your department of transportation does every single day every single day of the week year in year in and year out. Um they go on they there's a under another heading there's a call that we have to take all the various social uh service groups operating in Jackson County and we sort of have to conglomerate them in such a way that we have one-stop what they call one-stop shop with the 211 system for social services. So I simply did a Google search under Jackson County social services. What popped right up? Well actually a couple things uh concerning the county. The first is something called that you have on your page called the A Toz um county services list um which is very very comprehensive in nature and there's another one that's actually more specific in nature to social services uh has the heading of community and family support um again this is on your page it goes everything from a alcohol and drug dependence resources to why uh youth center treatment programs um it calls for inpatient drug treatment in Jackson County and It's almost as if whoever the the the AI engine that spit out this this report that really kind of reads like baby food. It's it's it's very bland, very non-specific and very forgettable. But the who whoever prepared this report or whatever prepared this report has not apparently is not aware of Henry Ford's substance abuse services. They're apparently not aware of Lifeway and Jackson are not

they're not aware of Victory Clinical Services on Lancing A or of Andy's Andy's Place. Um 10 seconds, sir. Yeah. Well, I'll just I'll just have to drop it there, but I just ask that you take your time, read this on your own and see see if this really has any any mirror at all or is applicable and or is main thing look for redundancy. It's already been done.

Good evening. My name is Gina Hastings. I also want to talk about Drive Jackson. Um, I sent you all emails about what I about this subject. Um, I appreciate the effort to create a long-term vision for Jackson County. One that addresses population trends, quality of life, education, housing, and community safety, but there are several ways in which this report falls short. First, the plan seems to have been generated with a heavy use of AI writing um with only superficial local references added to give it the appearance of authenticity. The structure is highly repetitive, formulaic, bullet points starting with action verbs, parallel phrasing, hierarchical numbering of strategies, generic in um inspirational language such as blueprint for transformation or shared community vision. These are classic hallmarks of AI generated content from tools like chat GPT and others. and the data points um and resident quotes that are in there, they feel like they're sprinkled in to give it an authentic feel. More troubling though is the complete absence of any meaningful discussion about the condition of our streets and roads. As residents all know too well and as expressed repeatedly in everyday conversations, roads, potholes, crumbling pavement in in infrastructure maintenance is one of the most common and pressing grievances here in Jackson County. This issue affects everyone. Yet in this 67page uh report, there is virtually no mention of roads. The only mention I found of the with the word street in it is of something called streetscapes, which no one ever talks to me about street scapes. They talk about potholes. So that sounded sort of like a a government buzzword. Um, I think if real community concerns had been prioritized,

such as the the road conditions, something everyone cares about, they could have put that into the quality of place section. So, um, I took the time to actually submit this report to an AI detection engine. Yes, there's such a thing as an AI detection engine. And um unfortunately the result was that this report showed a high degree of hallmarks of AI generation. So I ask that you um ask the consultants who wrote this um the people from Columbus, Ohio, ask about how they wrote it. Was AI used? And also ask how 1300 citizen comments somehow did not mention streets or roads. Thank you. Any other public comment? Hi there, Phil Tokco from Michigan State University Extension. I just wanted to uh thank the commissioners for your continued support of Michigan State University Extension in this community and in this county. We actually use that money al uh to partner with state money and federal money to do some pretty significant things here in in the community. And I just wanted to say thank you. One of the ways that we impact Jackson County residents, one of my programs in particular is to work with fresh fruit and vegetable growers in Michigan and around the region at improving their onfarmm produce safety. And so where you might go into your local grocery store and see North Bay Produce or River Ridge Apples or um another organization I've worked with is uh uh Teddy Bear Farms and we've worked with them and you see them when you

purchase your food and it's a little bit safer on on because of the work that we do on their farms even though they're not in Jackson County. the residents of Jackson County eat that produce. So, thank you. I appreciate you guys' support.

Good evening, Amy Hawkins, Plasky Township. Um, it's good to see all of you commissioners. Thank you for your hard work. A couple of quick things. one, I'd like to invite you to join me in celebrating um actually linking arms with the legacy of President JFK, who started police week in 1962. This year, if you will put it on your calendars, it is May 10 through 16. Um 2026 is police week. We're all over America. law enforcement. If you walk up to a law enforcement officer and say, "Happy police week," majority of law enforcement will be shocked to hear you say that because it is one of the heroic things that JFK did in 1962. He started a trend that the majority of America knows nothing about. So, I am doing my hardest to try and change that legacy. And what I'm hoping is that you as commissioners would consider passing a resolution for police week. But also, I just want to encourage you that you as commissioners, you mean a lot to law enforcement. And that week, and I'm happy to supply you with any of the details, there will be a special candlelight memorial at Lumen Christie that when a commissioner shows up, it really does it means a lot to the to the officers and to the community. There is a memorial downtown Jackson that many of you have participated in. But just to remind you that if you would encourage your school children and your your colleagues and businesses to be there and show up, it means a lot to the officers to see community showing up and supporting them. And then also if you have any of your businesses you would like to join me in sponsoring a meal for a local police department, that means a lot to them. Um notes from children in your church, that means a lot. So, I just wanted to put that extension out there to invite you to join me May 10th through 16th. I'm hoping Jackson County can put our spot on the map as starting to turn the tide um of hoping helping us build up more moral support for our law enforcement. Second of all, I just want to put this idea out there for your

consideration. Would you as a county consider starting an email list? Um, email is is is a commodity that is so crucial. It is even more important than social media. It is real estate. the more emails you build as a county, that's more people you can connect with and communicate. And I have seen that you guys have been doing some great stuff online where you're trying to um you're trying to expand your technology capabilities. And so I want to thank you for that. But I think there's a lot of like the opportunities, the openings on boards. I think the community would would thrive from knowing more of what you are doing as commissioners. Just to even get an email once a month saying, "Here's events that we're participating in. here's openings on our board. Um, and if that's something that I could help with in any way, please let me know. Thank you.

Any other public comment? Any other public comment? Hi, my name is Natalie Schroeder from District 8. Um, I have some words from David Cooper, a former police chief of Madison, Wisconsin. He said, "Many of you have asked, what can we do to resist ICE invasion in our community? I have a suggestion in this call to action. This is a dangerous moment for our great democratic experiment. An experiment that stands in stark contrast to most of human history where power has belonged to the strongest, the armed, and the ruthless. I have spent too many sleepless nights wrestling with a question that sits at the intersection of my two lives, more than three decades as a local police leader, and a second vocation as an ordained minister. What does a cop who became a theologian say at a time like this? Hear me out. Martin Luther King Jr. and Muandas Gandhi understood that resistance works through a coordinated train strategic and rooted in non-ooperation. It slows unjust systems, exposes their cruelty, and forces the nation to confront who it is becoming. In his counties of Madison and Dne County, they built models of such resistance.

What we must do is work with our police and our sheriffs and see that they agree with supporting our constitution and the amendments that we live by which are being violated. For example, the fifth amendment. No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury. I'm going to skip some. Nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb. I'm going to skip some more. Nor shall any person be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. Nor shall private poverty be taken for public use without just compensation. That's our fifth amendment. Also, the fourth amendment, the right of people to be secure

10 seconds, ma'am. in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated, and no warrant. Ma'am, your time is up. Thank you. Any other public comment? Any other public comment? Seeing none, we've arrived at commissioner comments. any Commissioner Bear.

Thank you, Chairman. We all get to look at our financial reports every month. One statistic I'd like everybody to be aware of is the circuit court. um for persons that were arrested and prosecuted for crimes committed in our jurisdiction here. The court paid 1,000 over $1,300 for interpreters. People are here that can't even speak English. I wonder how they got here. And and yet our tax dollars are going to provide them interpreters. Um the strategic plan, we have over 160,000 160,000 residents in this county. We had less than 1,300 participants in the surveys. That's less than 1% of our citizens uh had an opportunity to contribute to that uh strategic plan. So 99% of us are going to be in a plan under the plan that one less than 1% generated. Um strategic plan. I tried to look that up yesterday and today on our county website. Um I can't find it. I spent a long time looking. I can find two or three previous strategic plans, but the one that we just approved a few weeks ago, I can't find it. So, if it's on there, it needs to be put in a location where it's easier to find. And if it's not on there yet, it needs to hurry up and be done. So, can somebody tell me, is it there? and I'm just not very good at computers and can't find it. Where do I look for it?

That's all my comments. Commissioner Pleski. Thanks, Mr. Chair. We just draw commissioners attention to tomorrow afternoon at 3:00 is the groundbreaking at the interface shelter. uh down on Blackstone Street 3:00 on Blackstone Street interface shelter family building groundbreaking. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Any other commissioner comments? Seeing none, we have no closed session. May I have a motion to adjurnn? I

have a motion and support. All in favor, please say I. I. Those opposed? Duly carried.