County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Pledge of 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.

Roll call, please. Wolson here. Spencer here. Russo. Approval of the agenda. Before we approve the agenda, um I would like to add a MS update by Noel Martin under new business. And I would also like to add B um the resignation of the county prosecutor. So move with with amendments, Madam Chair.

Any discussion? Roll call, please. Spencer, yes. Wolson, yes. Milbert, yes. Motion carried.

Approval of the consent agenda. The items within the consent agenda are a meeting minutes from January 28th, 2026 board meeting. Class A's in the amount of $893,466.88 claims and accounts in the amount of $836,941.32. are correspondences from Iron County Northwest Michigan Community Action Agency, Lion Township Park and Recreation Master Plan for 2026 through 2030, the MAC legislative updates, Marquy Township Planning Commission letter, Northern Lakes Community Mental Health Letter, Washington County letter regarding the Central Michigan District Health Department and GIS information. Um, monthly department reports from the sheriff. Do I have a motion to accept the consent agenda?

So move, Madam Chair. Second. Roll call, please. Wolson, yes. Milbour, yes. Spencer, yes. Motion carried.

Public comment for agenda items only. Is there any public comment for agenda items? Come on up and state your name. Craig Cone hold target lake levels. Uh this is from the operations manual. uh it gives you a a range of uh elevations you could keep the lake at. You should be this you should be following this. This is a court order and I guess when you bank water uh the courts uh previous court cases uh it's a criminal offense to bank water. Uh again, uh I got my uh elevation points on this. Uh since the court trial or since the court hearing, uh I don't believe you've been in compliance at all with the operations manual. I don't know how I'd go about uh citing a criminal offense for what you've been doing, but uh I don't think you even tried to come close. I think all along you intended to bank far more water, but the operations manual gave you a way to confuse people. Uh again, uh I believe your benchmarks were tampered with. Uh, I know you took East Bay uh reporting gauge offline. Uh, me and Mr. Bisby had both datams for that.

And, uh, we knew there was an error. You went to one reporting site at uh, the dam at the control structure. Uh, quarter mile upstream, we had the USGS control structure. Uh, I would read that. It was a manual gauge. Uh, the stick. I would read that and, uh, it would be the exact same as what was coming out of the, uh, Wi-Fi data, hi-fi data. Uh, USGS was, of course, an 88. And for some reason you thought you should use the 29 datam at the uh dam site at the control structure even though the court order said that uh from now on out all all dimensions are all measurements will be in 88 that you kept the 29 datam on the control structure. I believe you did that as a means so you could bank more water. If you didn't know you were banking water, then I guess who would be to blame? Uh I'm pretty sure Prince and Newuhof set the elevations for both structures. I know when I got the data for the East Bay, Chase stated that uh uh once you wait, they're going to redo the datams at the uh at the East Bay site. Newuhoff I believe said that it wasn't it wasn't the high-fi people or Ariel. Uh if you're covering stuff up uh this is not a way to gain the trust of the people. Uh

trust is important thing and you just keep eroding it away. Uh thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. I hand you more stuff.

Any other public comment and agenda items? Am I up?

Dave Bisby, Denton Township, Alton Lake. Uh the discussion about a new dam and the size making more gates which would run expense up because you're going to have to acquire and uh domain, more land. Want to add some more gates to control the water better. said last meeting that all the gates were open, but it wasn't being very successful due to the ice dams downstream, and you further informed us that you have no control over the downstream flow that belongs to the DNR. Well, seems to me there's no reason to spend the extra money for more gates and you can't get rid of the water downstream anyway. And the reason we did have ice dams is because you cut the trickle flow from the dam by having all the gates almost closed to just a small trickle. It' be like a pond. Pond froze over. You had to open the gates because the water was getting high. Lifted the ice up and created the ice dams. Not rocket science, but it does point to the fact that we don't need a larger dam. We need a structure that's controlled more in line with the requirements that were put in place in the court order.

Thank you. Thank you. Any other public comment on agenda items?

Okay. Do we have any visitors? Unfinished business. We have the lake level control structure updates um on H Hotton Lake. Um the land swap with the DNR has to have the survey reiven to Denton Township and there's a and the check has to be reissued to them. Um I guess the question is how and do we move forward and So, and just to to back up a little so that the public is very clearly aware that um the request for the the split to then do the swap was actually done over a year ago, processed over a year ago to Denton Township. Um right, literally like two days before Christmas, they contacted me and said, so now the check is over a year old. Um they'd never cashed a check and they needed some different things filed. Um, obviously heading into year end with W2s, 1099s, that has not been my highest priority, unfortunately. Um, but they now, um, have responded and basically what they need is the actual deed, the new the new surveys filed with the register of deeds um, office so that they can put those on there and create. Um, I have contacted Jamie Howerman, our equalization director. This is vastly different than any other landsplitter combination at a township level I've seen happen before. Um, so I'm going to have her kind of help me navigate exactly what they need to get that process finished. So it was approved. It just needs to be now put into the books.

Okay. Thank you.

Um, Prime new Hoff the engineers gave an update that the outlet design is going as planned. The schemic design is done. They are working on the structural design and the hydraulics and are preparing drawings. That is all I have for H Hotton Lake and all gates remain open. Um unless Commissioner Wolson, do you have anything additional for H Hotton Lake Higgins Lake? The advisory meeting is scheduled for February 20th at 1:00. Anyone from the advisory committee who's unable to attend will be able to do so via Zoom. The link will be sent out to them that day. The water budget results are supposed to be sent out to the advisory committee yet this week. I've asked Chase when that might take place, but I have not heard. I'm still waiting for a reply. Commissioner Wolson, do you have anything additional for there? Madam Chair,

um I know we're meeting here um in front of the doors and then Chase will Chase Chase is supposed to get the room wherever we're going to be. Yep. Um Lake St. Helen um Commissioner Wolson um letters about removing level haven't already and then we'll proceed from there on removing the winter level on Lake St. Helen. Okay.

Any any more information anybody wants to share regarding the lake level control structures? New business MS update from Noel.

Good morning.

Good morning. Okay. So, um as you uh remember um in just also keeping um everything um up to date when um we when you guys um approved the central dispatch um uh union agreement um within that agreement um was the uh transfer of the 911 central dispatch employees into um the retirement um the uh mer hybrid plan. Um, and so in order to do that, um, I actually there's a couple pieces, um, a couple documents that have to be signed and approved by you guys. Um, and so in order to do that, um, we had to wait for MS to get all of that stuff around for us. Um, yesterday afternoon, I received all that paperwork. There's three different documents. Um, one document, um, essentially freezes those participants in the current plan that they are in right now, which is the DCon plan. Um so all of their contributions, everything that they've earned is frozen in that particular plan. The second document um essentially um it amends the current um hybrid plan to include central dispatch employees. And then the third um document will then also transfers them. Sorry, I should forgot that part. And then the third document um essentially amends the current DC uh agreement to exclude 911 employees. Um so that way it effectively will move all of them into the new plan. And so um essentially I know it's kind of a um a time crunch unfortunately um for us and this is obvious just bad timing um and bad luck. MS is um going to be blacked out from any changes from February 23rd through March 23rd as they switch to a new third third party

administrator who handles all of their money. And in fact, they're going to start handling a lot more things. They're going to handle employee accounts, employee requests, and such. Um but I will not be able to do any changes um after February 23rd. So, my hope was that um I could present you um with these um documents and um have you guys authorize um chair versus Darlene to sign them. Um and just a reminder that this is just the logistic part of um moving forward with the agreement that we had in the contract. Any questions for Noel?

Thank you. I'm okay with um so do you need something today Noel from the board if possible. Um okay appreciate that. I I realize that the timing is kind of um of a crunch. Um and I can get you those documents if you want to look them over. Um they are mostly blank um at the moment. Um but uh it will it will mimic um the current agreements. It's just essentially taking off central dispatch employees from one and adding them to another is really you need that as a motion. I do and I will um I have actually three of them started and prepped for you so I can print those out and get them.

Yeah, if you can do that that way we can we could take a short break to Yep. to look at those. Sure. Okay.

Okay. I'll make sure I get that to you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Um, next we have the discussion with the county prosecutor's resignation. Um, I've spoken with the commissioners um, regarding this to gather their thoughts about what has happened. After doing so, I've had additional conversations trying to decide how we as a commission could address this. I prepared a statement. Um, I also have a statement that has been requested by Commissioner Mley to be put into the record. And per our board rule 7.4, request for remarks to be included. Any commissioner may only have his or her comments printed as part of the official record by requesting and recon and receiving consent of the board. Comments to be included in the record shall be provided in writing by the member prior to the meeting. Um, I did give those to both Commissioner um, Wolson and Commissioner Milbour. Um, I did provide a copy to the clerk in case um, they are to be added to the record. I do not have any objections. Um, unless Commissioner Milbour or Commissioner Wolson has an objection. No

objection, ma'am.

No objection. Um, I will read my statement first and then I will give Commissioner Wilson and Commissioner Milbour an opportunity before reading Commissioner Mley's statement. Following the recent resignation of the county prosecutor Mike Edwards, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the serious concerns that have been raised regarding the events leading to his decision. It has come to my attention that there are troubling reports about the internal culture, particularly about instances of bullying. Such behaviors are unacceptable and must not be tolerated within our county. As we investigate the seriousness of the allegations, we encourage anyone with relevant information or potential involvement to come forward and connect with either our HR department or one of the commissioners. We are currently facing ongoing challenges related to employee recruitment and retention. And it is crucial to recognize that if these negative behaviors persist, we risk losing those who wish to serve Westcoming County. And my fellow commissioners, as we are preparing to review our strategic plan later this month, I strongly recommend that one of our primary goals under increasing trust with our employees and residents be to prioritize the drafting of a policy aimed at addressing and eliminating these types of behaviors. Together, we can develop a supportive and respectful environment for our employees.

Commissioner Wolson, do you have anything that you would like to say? Yeah, I think it's important to our employees that we continue on this path and probably do at least develop a policy on such a matter. I don't know whether it goes into our personnel manual or where, but we need to take a stand on this as a board. Commissioner Melbourne,

bullying or intimidation will not be tolerated. Commissioner Morley's um statement was due to travel. She is not in attendance at the February 11th board of commissioning meeting. She is aware of the resignation of the county prosecutor and as a board discusses this. She would like to read the statement and have it placed into file. After hearing about the resignation of Mike Edwards, county prosecutor, I'm sincerely concerned about what we have heard regarding what transpired leading up to this. Since the beginning of my term, meaning her term, I have heard repeatedly about the culture in our building. Retribution when people come forward with concerns and now appears as bullying. Neither of these actions should be the culture we strive for and shouldn't be tolerated. We struggle like any other business or county with recruitment and retention of employees. As we decide on the action plan for 2026, I would highly recommend under goal increase trust with our employees and residents that we start now with promptly preparing a policy that addresses these behaviors. We must all board of commissioner, department heads, elected and appointed and and employees be aligned and accountable to the culture needed to be the county of choice. Kim Moley. Um, do we want to take a fiveinut recess for the before we get into motions to give Noel time to get us?

Is that time enough? Is that time enough, Noel? Okay. Okay. So, we will take a five minute recess and be back here at 9:26. Okay. Motion number one, move to appoint Aaron West Coat to the Roscomin County Brownfield Redevelopment Authority Board for a partial term beginning February 11th, 2026 through October 31st, 2027. Madam Chair, second. Any discussion? Roll call, please.

Spencer, yes. Wolson, yes. Milurn, yes. Motion carried. S number two, motion to support February 26th as American health, excuse me, American heart month. Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Milbour, yes. Wilson, yes. Sensor, yes. Motion carried.

Okay. Number three, move to author authorize chairperson Darlene Spencer to sign the MRS addendum for plan closures, freezes, and conversions form for the transfer of central dispatch employees to the Mers hybrid retirement plan in accordance with the approved agreement between the Roscommen County Board of Commissioners, Ross Common County 911 and Police Officers Labor Council effective January 1, 2026. Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Wolson, yes. Spencer, yes. Milurn, yes. Motion carried.

Number four, move to authorize chairperson Darlene Spenser to sign the MS hybrid plan adoption agreement form for the transfer of central dispatch employees to the MS hybrid retirement plan in accordance with the approved agreement between the Roscom County Board of Commissioners, Ross Common County 911 and police officers labor council effective January 1, 2026. So move, madam chair. Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Spencer, yes. Yes. Wolson, yes. Motion carried.

Number five. Move to authorize chairperson Darlene Spencer to sign the MS defined contribution DC adoption agreement form for the transfer of central dispatch employees the MS hybrid retirement plan in accordance with the approved agreement between the Roscomin County Board of Commissioners, Ross Common County 911 and police officers, labor council effective January 1, 2026. Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Milbour, yes. Lifson, yes. Sensor, yes. Car committee reports. Um, Commissioner Milbour.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Steve's Steve Hall is here today, so I'm not gonna steal his thunder, but we did attend the uh commission on aging meeting and we talked about the VA program, which is the volunteer income tax assistance program. I talked to Deborah Looney last night and they still they're ready to roll it out here getting the board here very soon. Uh they're trying to get hold of the guy that's running the program right now over in Trevor City, but he unfortunately he's been sick last few days, but it will be rolled out very soon. I'll be getting with the the resort or somebody from the CO will give the resorter it will put in the paper. All I have madam chair. Thank you.

Commissioner Wolson process. Um I'm going to get brochures and set them on the table so that people can you know, sign up for trees if they wish. Um, materials management. We just got an email the other day that sounds like um funding for round two has been approved and I'll have the consulting firm tag all the money we can for that phase of it and go from there on that. Saturday, May 30th is the hazardous household waste pickup from 9 to 1 at the Ross Common County Road Commission. And that's it.

Okay. We had our agenda meeting on February 4th. Um lake level committee. Several conversations with Commissioner Wolson and Chase regarding lake levels on all on all three lakes. Currently, all lakes are or all gates are open on H Hotton Lake. Um the gates remain closed on Higgins Lake and I believe um Chase stated that he opened gates on Lake St. Helen if I'm correct. Correct, Mr. Wilson? Yes.

Okay. And he stated something about Lake St. Helen center gate is completely iced. Um, but I'm assuming that coming the upcoming week that's going to change some. Um, that's all I had. Do we have any public comment, Mr. Bisby? as has in this meeting been brought to the attention of board and the people about bullying and fully support the non-bullying process. Unfortunately, your process of your 309 and 307 SADs is nothing more than a massive bullying of the taxpayers. They have no say in it. Shove it down their throat. And if you try to appeal it, you threaten them with legal expenses for the opposing side in the thousands of dollars. I thought in our constitution we had the right to, you know, oppose such things without being abused and bullied. This bullying is ridiculous, but it seems to be all from one side. Nobody brought this to the voters. You just shoved it down their throats. That's shameful. That's absolutely shameful. And everything that is taking place under the 307 should have been taking place under our 309. We shouldn't have two of them stacked on top of it choking us to death because the funds were in place

under the 309 to take care of every issue that was brought up under our the 307 that you shoved down our throat. We're already paying for it once. Now you got us paying for it twice and you still haven't accomplished anything efficiently as you've overrun your budget and you're just going to throw that on the next 307 SAD when it comes to the construction of the dam. You just throw over your extra costs into it. Doesn't matter. The people won't know. You know this bullying has got to stop. you want to do something, you come to the voters and you get their approval. Otherwise, it's just outright bullying. Thank you.

Thank you.

Up. Uh Craig Ciderman, Holton Lake. Thanks Mr. Bisby. Uh bully uh boy growing up in inner city Flint that was common in our school come to H Hotton Lake and of course uh banking water uh uh conducting uh illegally uh kind of bullying. We live in fear of people that don't follow the law. Uh banking water. Uh we're in a low-lying area. We got 7 miles of fetch. Of course, you covered up a map that showed my shoreline is red. Uh pretty new did a fetch thing and then all of a sudden it come up missing. Uh uh we get flooded out frequently and uh special assessment. You're going to make my life better by raising the lake level and you're still banking water. Mark Melbourne says you're not going to tolerate any bullying, but we live in fear of uh what people like you are doing. again two special assessments 307 and 309 and I think both of them are designed to do harm to me and my family. Uh feels like it's a terror terrorist terrorism. Uh it's a threat. Uh I've tried to hand you uh data that you keep covering up. I handed you a a

100red-year flood plane elevations that we had. Uh, President Newuhof said there wasn't a 100red-year flood plane elevation. Uh, we reached this flood elevation every 2 to 3 years. Uh, we were at flood stage last year. Uh, but you covered that up. Uh, we we're good chance we'll be at flood stage this year as well. We're lake levels above what we were at this time last year. And if we have average precipitation from here on out, uh, we'll be at flood stage. And if the wind blows the right way, I'll be flooded. If the wind blows towards Iracoy, they got another 7 8 miles of fetch. They could be flooded. Uh, again, Mark Melbourne, uh, quite a few meetings back, he said public safety was job one, not going to tolerate any bullying. Public safety is job one. I live on the lake. I have a pieshaped piece of bottomland property that is heavily polluted. Uh governments now, the improvement board, they've been chemically treating our lake for over 80 years. My land is so contaminated that I don't believe there's any value there. uh if I went to sell my home uh and gave the buyers uh where my house is at the the status or the the data, they wouldn't buy my home. The vacationers knew how polluted the lake is, they would come here. Our last study was the watershed management study. They stated in there that the lake may not be even safe for waiting or swimming.

Uh, I get you a copy of that, Mr. Morbornne, if you'd like. And the fish weren't safe to eat. Uh, we have a pollution problem in Holton Lake. We have a special assessment district that's supposed to take care of that, but instead they cover up how polluted the lake is so they can continue to put more toxins in. Uh they're not concerned about public safety. You folks don't seem to be too concerned about bullying. If you intend to harm me by raising the lake level up, if you cover up the numerous drownings in the lake that were attributed to these flood waters or this wind-driven tides, um again, I just don't know where you're headed. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other public comment? Come on up. I just wanted to say thank you for um your motions today and um stuff for the central dispatch employees. Um I know they will appreciate being able to see all of their contributions that they've had thus far into their new account. So I just wanted to pre um thank you for um your uh quick Thank you. Thank you. Any other public comment? Come on up. State your name.

My apologies. I understood the meeting start at 10.

Good morning. My name is John Barta and I'm a Ross Common County resident. I'm here today to protest a $17,000 fee quoted to the Central Michigan District Health Department, also known as the CMDHD, for data. The fee was assessed by Ross Common County with the approval of board members and a county financial employee. I'm here to present arguments as to why this fee is detrimental to the residents of Ross County and why the data should be provided to the CMDHD at no cost. The CMDHD is a governmental partner, not a commercial user. The CMDHD is a public health governmental entity created under Michigan law to serve Roscom County and neighboring counties. It's not a private business data reseller or commercial enterprise. The property data requested by the CMDHD is used exclusively for public health purposes. Charging the CMDHD for public data is effectively charging Roscommen County residents twice. Once through county taxes that support the property data creation and again by reducing the CMDHD resources available for public health services in Roscommen County. Two, the CMDHD delivers essential services that Roscommen County is legally and ethically obliged to provide its residents. If the CMDHD did not exist, Roscommen County would be required to fund, staff, and operate these services independently at far greater cost. Waving this fee is not a favor. It's a recognition of a shared governmental mission.

Three, Ross Common County is an outlier among CMDHD member counties. Other counties served by the CMDHD provide the same data at no cost. They do so because they understand the CMDHD directly benefits their residents. That data sharing improves service delivery efficiency and the marginal cost of providing digital data is negligible. Being the only county to monetize public data against a public health partner raises serious policy and governance concerns. Four, the fee undermines public health outcomes in Ros Common County. CMDHD operates with finite funding, much of it restricted or grant-based. Every dollar paid by the CMDHD to Ross Common County for data is a dollar not spent on wellwater testing, septic failure inspections, disease prevention, and emergency preparedness. This fee directly reduces the quality and reach of public health services within Ross Common County. In effect, the fee penalizes Roscommen County residents, not the CMDHD. Five, the cost is disproportionate and not costbased. The requested data, number one, already exists, is already maintained using public funds, and is already classified as public information. A charge of $17,000 cannot reasonably be justified as a data produc reproduction cost, a staff labor cost, or an infrastructure cost. This fee appears punitive or revenuedriven rather than cost recoverybased,

which conflicts with the spirit of Michigan's public records and public service laws. Six, public health is a core government responsibility. Charging a partner public health agency for data sends the wrong message. By charging this fee, Roscomin County's message is one that revenue is prioritized over health that government that intergovernmental cooperation is optional that public health is a transactional service rather than a shared responsibility. This is inconsistent with the values of effective local governance. Who in the world decided to charge the CMDHD4 data? And who in the world agreed that this was a wise idea? My conclusion, Roscom County residents rely on the CMDHD for essential legally mandated health services. Charging the CMDHD for publicly available data harms Roscom County residents. It weakens public health capacity and is consistent with regional practice and is unjustifiable as a cost recovery measure. Waiting this fee is fiscally responsible, ethically sound, and squarely in the public interest. Roscommen County should act accordingly. I have hard copy for this discussion if anyone is interested. You

like one, sir? I'm sorry. Could I have one? Yes, you may. Thank you. Appreciate your time. Sir, J. I have one.

Any other public comment?

Excuse me, Mr. Carterman. Would you like to say something? I was just waiting to see what you're commenter Melbourne Tip Uptown was wonderful. Jay Jacobs and his team should be commended for such an outstanding job. Thank you, Commissioner Wolson.

Yes. Um I see that we got information about Lion Township's parks and recreational plan. Um, I think parks and recreation sites are important to our people. I think it it helps build a healthy community and I see they did a lot of work on that and I'd like to applaud them for all their efforts in that respect. Also, in the sheriff's report, I see some things were down and I'm sure they appreciate the little bit of break that they got in January on that. Um, I received a request from Tammy Frisbee from Mid Michigan Community Health Center. She is their outreach manager and health educator. She requested um and wondered if a commissioner could attend their monthly meetings, which take place the third Wednesday of every month at 9:00 a.m. I let her know that due to my job that 9:00 a.m. on some Wednesdays might be difficult to make. However, she st I asked if I could do it via Zoom. She stated that she would send a link and if there is any commissioner that would be interested, just let me know and I can pass on that information to her. I received an email regarding the MDHHS request for letters of interest from organizations interested in developing recovery community centers. This looks like a possible grant available from the state of Michigan from their portion of the opioid settlement. This may be something that we want to keep up with and kind of communicate with them regar services. And last week um somebody had stated that I had called

Mr. Bisby a liar. And I want to clarify, I never said that he was a liar. What I said was that his calculations were incorrect and therefore the information he provided was inaccurate. I also have documentation to support my statement. If Mr. Bisby interpreted that as me calling him a liar, that's unfortunate. There is a difference between calling someone a liar and correcting a statement that's been made. A liar is someone who deliberately provides false information with malicious intent. I would sincerely sincerely hope that neither Mr. Bismi Bisby nor Mr. Cartman would do that. But as this board has stated many times, if information is given and it is untrue or appears to be false, we will address it with a statement with the correct information and will provide proof to support the that type of information. All I did was correct misinformation that was shared and at no point did I ever say Mr. Bisby was a liar. reading on my tape measure to the point. Is it correct?

You can come and talk to me after the meeting. Thank you. Commissioner Wolson or Commissioner Melbourne, do you have any additional statements? Okay. With I support your stand on that last issue. Thank you. Ajournment. With no further comments, this meeting will be adjourned. All in favor say I. I. Our next meeting is at 10

uh my grandparents lived at H Hotton Lake. Even though I grew up in another state, I uh spent a lot of summers up at H Hotton Lake. So, and then I actually uh h this is dating me, but I think it was 1998 I actually did an internship uh for the health department here at the Roscom County office. So, when I came back to be health officer, it was kind of like a full circle moment for me. So, I do appreciate the opportunity to um spend some time and talk to you a little bit about the health department and what we do for Roscommen County. Got to remember to do both of these. So our uh in terms of the health department, our mission is to promote health and physical well-being by providing preventive health care, education, and environmental safety to members of the community. Our vision is to become recognized by the public as a local advocate in promoting, assessing, and safeguarding public health and the environment. A little bit about the legal basis for health departments. um everything regarding uh local public health departments is based on the public health code which uh is act 368 which was written in 1978. So part 23 of that health code uh describes basic health services. So there are what we call eight mandated health uh basically eight mandated programs that every health department in the state has to do. So no matter where you go in the state, if you go to a health department, those eight services are always provided. And uh one interesting note there is that the health code actually uh and I'll probably get to this in another slide, but it also says that the state's supposed to pay 50% of what it costs to do those eight mandated programs. And until recently, since 1978, the state had only done that once. Um postcoid, they actually did add about $24 million to what we call essential local public health services, and that was the first time we had gotten to the 50/50 cost

share since. But I think we're on year three now of actually the 5050, but based on inflation, we're kind of a little bit below again. So I think uh I think Michigan Association Local Public Health is going to be asking for about $6.5 million more for that to get it back to the 5050. Uh part 24 of the public health code is what lays out um the uh basically saying that board of commissioners and all counties have to establish a local health department. That local health department can be either a city, a county, or a district health department. There is only one city health department in the state of Michigan, and that is the city of Detroit. And it also lays out what the staffing levels must be for health departments. So, we were established in 1970 under bylaws that were approved by Erin, Claire, Gladwin, Isabella, Oyola, and Ross Common counties. and we have remained uh with those six counties uh ever since that and again that is authorized in section 2415 of the public health code. Uh part of that uh when you form what is known as a district health department which is what we are uh two uh commissioners from each county have to make up the board of health for the health department. So as such we have a 12 member board. I do want to uh thank Commissioners Morley and Milbour for uh being on our board and I know Commissioner Sensor was previously on our board. So appreciate all of your service and and I will say Commissioner Milbour has been on our board the entire time that I've uh been here. So appreciate your service. This is a a map of health departments uh in the state. So there are 83 counties in the state of Michigan. Uh there are 45 health departments and a little breakdown of that. Uh as I said one city health department, there

are 30 single county health departments and 14 district health departments. So everything you see on that map in color is a district health department. Typically what you'll see is the district health departments are in more rural uh counties. Uh really I think the the one that's an outlier and always has been is Ionia County. they are still a single uh county health department. Every time they have a health officer change, the state usually talks to them about are you sure you don't want to join a district? Um really, and just to throw it out there, the advantages of a district health department, especially in rural areas, is are it are its cost savings for the counties. um you would you know with the six county health department in in terms of our jurisdiction you are just contributing to that versus having to have a health officer. You you would have to have a full-time health officer with a single county. We also share a medical director. So our medical director actually works for two other health departments as well. So she covers 19 uh counties and you would have all that administrative cost for a single county health department. So that's why you see so many district health departments in in rural areas. You look at our board of health and again as I said we have a 12 member board of health. Uh we want our board to advocate for public health. Uh they also approve our budget and expenditures. They adopt our fees and compensation. They are responsible for for hiring the health officer position position. And we really just want them to be actively participate, have a knowledge base of of uh public health and like I say, advocate for us. When you look at our health department, we basically have four uh divisions. We have a community health division, our personal and family health, environmental health, and our administration.

Our environmental health services uh do a lot of important work uh especially in this county. Uh they uh with all of the lakes here they we have a bathing beach and water quality uh testing program primarily in the summer. We we employ uh interns that go around and uh take uh beach samples from all of our uh public beaches in our six counties. We do on-site sewage inspections, well inspections. We actually have our own uh water lab that is in our Gladwin office. So, we're able to not only test the surface water samples from beach monitoring, but also our drinking water. U couple years ago, we added nitrate testing as well. Uh so, that way people are able to get their sampling right here locally versus having to mail it to uh Lancing or any other private labs. Do swimming pool inspections. Our food service, we are inspecting restaurants. um have do temporary food inspections at events, provide food safety training, body inspections, campground inspections, and also do some with a licensed DHS child and adult care facility inspections. Just to give you a little uh Ross common county statistics for the last year, uh issued 262 well permits, 182 septic permits. We currently monitor 241 active type two wells and those are in essence like a public water supply. Um, think of like your gas stations or places that see I want to say it's been a long time since I've been here over 25 people a day. Sorry. So basically anything where you expect more than 25 people to be in a day if they're on a on-site well that's considered a public water supply. they undergo a little bit more scrutiny in terms of sampling. So out of those

collected 286 water samples in terms of food facilities did 194 routine inspections, 22 follow-up inspections, inspected 13 public swimming pools, eight body art facilities, and seven campground inspections. our community health uh services program. Um they are responsible for hearing and v vision testing in schools. Uh we also have a overdose prevention and harm uh basically harm reduction program. Our community connections program that is where we employ community health workers and they try to address address social determinance of of need of our uh clients. Reproductive health is basically our family planning services. So birth control, things like that. Uh they do prep uh which is a u preventative for HIV. We also recently started treating hepatitis C uh which in all six of our counties. Uh so that's a new program that we've done. They also provide STI testing and treatment, HIV partner services program and DIS syphilis investigation program. So we have a couple employees that do that. They actually cover 53 counties in the state for that particular service. Um, basically from our lower like Isabella County all the way north through the UP. Um, also do STI positive case investigation. We also have a Ryan White HIV treatment and case management program. Uh, we actually provide um, we have a nurse practitioner that sees those clients as well as a doctor that handles their primary care. So some Ross common statistics there. Our reproduct reproductive health services saw 71 clients. Our community health worker addressed one or served

194 people. They met 581 identified needs. And I looked up uh that information. I thought you might be interested. The top needs in Roscommen County number one was food insecurity. Two utility help. Three housing concerns. four transportation and five employment. Um they also do STI case investigation, chlamydian gorrhea case investigation and then link those positive cases for care. Um 1,265 children in RC common county were provided hearing and vision screenings personal and family health services. Um the family health sides provides uh children's special health care services. Our wick program they also do dental fluoride and oral screenings and lead testing uh in the wick program. Our maternal and benefit health program which is a a home visiting program. Then we also do childhood lead poisoning prevention program and a program called healthy futures which again is for um moms and and babies. On the personal health side, uh we have the communicable disease program. We take a look at emerging diseases, tuberculosis, our immunizations program. We have a child, we only operate one child in adolescent health center. We just recently did that and that is uh through the sheepard schools. And then we had a program called healthy families which was Ross common county only. So across common statistics in this program we gave 773 vaccines. Uh there were 184 communicable disease investigations. The healthy families program had 20 enrolled families did 440 inhome visits and 114 virtual visits. I will say unfortunately that program just ended. Uh actually last week was the official

date. We had a contract with Health Department of Northwest Michigan to operate that program here in Rascommon County and they uh recently ended the program. I believe they it's a long story but I think they had a they dealt with a couple of different health departments and one of the other health departments was really having trouble getting the visits in and the state basically said you need to use that money elsewhere. Um, I do plan on at least kind of having some conversations with the state to see if that's anything they would, you know, basically directly give us the money and let us do the program and it would ideally even do it in more than just Ross Common County. It's a really good program, really intensive though, a lot of training and a lot of intensive visits. Um, but it would be nice to see that come back. Our maternal in infant health program had a has an average monthly case load of 30 uh children to special health care services. We had 95 clients in Roscommen County, 98 enrollments in healthy futures. Uh 480 clients was our monthly average for the wick program. Uh we provided 39 fluoride varnish applications and 72 or oral screenings for kids. And we also did 185 lead tests. Uh we also employ an emergency preparedness coordinator. And one of the downsides of being a sixcount uh jurisdiction is when you look at emergency preparedness, we're actually in three different state regions. So uh Ross common county is in region seven, but basically our one emergency preparedness coordinator has to go to meetings in three different regions. In terms of her Roscom County um experience, she participated participates in the local emergency planning team meetings here in Rascommon County. She participated in a 2025

hazmat exercise. She participated in the uh food and security meetings, region 7 exercise, uh integrated preparedness planning workshop. He does sit on the region 7 healthcare coalition executive board hazard mitigation group and also attended a training here in Rascom County on public information basics uh that was hosted by Roscom County Emergency Management. Little bit about our revenue and expenses. Uh when you look at our um revenue, the bulk of our revenue comes from state and federal funding. That's 5 56% uh 33% comes from fees and collections and 7% is local revenue. So that is where your county appropriations come in. Uh so again as being a district health department, each county contributes to uh appropriations to run the health department and that's where that 7% number comes from. Our biggest expense is salary infringe benefits. That's at 74%. When you look at our uh finances, our total fiscal year 26 budget is a little over 17 million. Uh Roscom County's appropriation share is $226,325. We have a total right now of 10.9 FTEEs assigned to Roscom County and those personnel costs uh equate to a little over $1 million. And our annual building costs are just less than $60,000. And I always say this, our best strength in terms of a department are our staff. And these are pictures of our Roscom County staff.

Any questions? Yes. Okay. Testing or is that the same day testing, same day notice?

We have the and Taylor, can you correct me if I'm wrong? We have the We have the qPCR testing now. So, it gives us more immediate reactions. Uh where it used to be multiple days, but we we do do QPCR and all of it now, right? And how many beaches in this county do you test?

It was more than one lake. Yeah. Yeah, primarily throughout the district it's public beaches, so I guess state park, things like that. Right. Thank you. Yep. Any other questions? Thanks, Mr. Roll for being here today. I appreciate what you've done for our county and our state. If I can helping healthy families, please let me know. I'll be happy. And Would you please introduce your staff? Sure. Yeah, I should have done that. So, uh, our environmental health supervisor from Roscom County is here, Mark Jarski. Our environmental health director is here, Taylor Irwin. And our personal health supervisor is here, Kim Shervin. She's from Roscom County.

Thanks again. Thank you, sir. Thank you for coming and sharing this information. I think it was important for people to understand where the funds and what services are actually out there for the people for West Common County. Yep. I appreciate it.

Thank you. Next we have public accommodations of service animals. This is a discussion of the whole, but I know that Dan and Lily are here as well. Good morning. And I want to thank the commissioners for allowing me to come here today. And what I'm going to talk about is um about 3% of the community is the problem. And um I have something that I'm going to read. And this is what happened to me on uh January 25th. and it will not involve any names or name of any businesses. On Sunday, January 25th at 2:30 in the afternoon, we went to have dinner, an early dinner with my girlfriend Lori, myself, and my service dog. When we walked into the door, we were almost at our table and the waitress came by and said that we're not allowed to have dogs um in the restaurant because people were

had allergics to allergies to animals. As they as they were serving as they were serving foods, dog were were not allowed there. Also, I told the young lady that Lily was a service dog, had a vest on and had an identification card. My dog uh does not have to have a service vest, does not have to I do not have to show anybody my ID for her. I do it as a courtesy and it's always worked out. Um, she stated that she did not care. There were no dogs allowed. We were not welcome there and we were told to leave. She said in an extreme loud voice that she was the only waitress working and she refused to serve us. She said we could we were going to sit there and look like fools because they were not going to wait on us. Then she said then she she said that she had seen me there before with without without my service dog. I'm having a difficult time. Um which is a lie because anywhere I go I do not take Lily always goes with me wherever. And if anybody's seen me in the last seven years, my dog has been with me. And the only time I leave my dog home is when she wears me out. Um, I asked her to go to look up the ADA rules for service dogs and she laughed at me. Then a fellow from another table over in the corner

was drinking came over and said he was the owner of the bar and that told us that to get the hell out of his his uh bar. Then he then he had the right to refuse service to anyone he wants. So I called the other owner which I knew and was talking to him on the phone and this gentleman came back over and started hollering at me and then I turned the phone to the other owner. Just lost it. turned the phone to the other owner and he was hollering in the phone and I went back to talk to the other owner and he um uh he had hung up on me. I'm I'm sorry I I lost my place. Um and and while I was was talking uh to him, I went back to talk to him. the phone. Um the other owner called and he the fellow went back over to answer the phone and on his way back he flipped us off. I went back to talk to uh Scott, sorry. And um he had hung up on me. Then the gentleman over in the corner, he hollered back over and said he the other owner agreed with him and to get out of his bar. While all this was taking place, my girlfriend had called the police informing them what was going on

and asked if they would send a deputy out. The other owner said, "I I don't it didn't it doesn't matter. I know most of the deputies and they're not going to do anything about it." And that's sad that he had the audacity to throw the sheriff's department under the bus because I know that's not right. We waited 20 minutes and he did did not come and they called my girlfriend back and said they couldn't make it. He was on another call, but he would come there later on and educate them about the laws of a service dog. As I am a combat veteran, did two tours in Vietnam, I have paid price. I've never been intimidated, humiliated, and disrespected as bad as what had happened on that Sunday. I've been coming to Ross Common since 1970. When I retired, I moved up here in 2017 to be with my son, grandson, and daughter-in-law. Ross common. Although ever since I have had my service dog here has been four or five issues with people having attacked me with allowing my service dog Lily into their establishments. The general manager of the bar said that they would look over the tape and they would contact us back and let us know what they could they could resolve the issue. As of today, I've not heard from anyone and I have been going to this establishment ever since I've had Lily and never had any issues. I go

there once or twice a week to have lunch or dinner. So it so I I want to make sure that this the community and I hope that the the commissioners will go back to their their townships and mention this to them so they can pass the word along to people to get educated not to address the service dog to leave them alone. I know there's a lot of fake dogs running around and this is what happens when you have a dog that is certified and trained and then these people have dogs that they carry under their arms and they go into stores and they go here and there. That even makes it worse on somebody with a dog. And um so anyway, I'm um thank you very much for for allowing me to sit here and talk about this, but I hope that somewhere down along the line that even if there's if one person learns it, they can tell somebody else and that other person will tell somebody else because it's very simple. The ADA rules, you can Google it. It takes like not even a minute and you can get everything about them. And uh one final thing um I have not heard from them which I just stated. Uh I've contacted Michigan Department of Civil Rights. Um they are going to um uh I had to give them all the information and it's in their hands now. And if it doesn't get resolved, it's going to go to the federal government. And I'm sorry that all this stuff has gone on, but it has to stop. Especially, I guess the one guy was pretty well drunk that came over and was verbally attacking us for no reason.

And they then they started on my girlfriend. So there's there's no reason for this whatsoever. So anyway, thank you again. You have any questions? I don't know if I can answer them or not. I'm ready to jump out of my skin. Um, the only thing that I really have to say is when Dan had told me about this, the first thing that I did was actually go and look up the actual laws related to service dogs. I think it comes down a lot to education of the public. And um a couple things that I found quite interesting when I looked it up is that a miniature horse can be yes

a service animal. Yes.

Um a public accommodation shall not ask a person with a disability to remove a service animal from the premises because of allergies or fear of an animal. That is right in the MCL section 750.502 502 subsection C. Um, and there are only two questions that are allowed to be asked. Whether the service animal is required because of a disability and what work or task the service animal has been trained to perform. So, and of the violation of it is a misdemeanor violation with this MCL. I haven't really got into the disabilities and all of that section of it, but I think it's about educating the public and it's unfortunate that it happened and I'm sorry.

Yes. As a retired Marine Corps officer, I thank you for your courage and testimony, sir. Thank you for your service for our country. Combat tours. Admirable. Thank you, Mark. Anything else? Thank you. Thank you.

Number three, Rascom County policy review discussion of the whole. Commissioner Wolson actually three of them

and one may be not really in our policy book, but maybe in the courts. Um, one policy was about how things are handled with um internet and so forth in the circuit court. I took a copy of that over to the circuit court and asked them to review that and get back. Um the other two is information technology policy from 2010 and we have a Russ common acceptable use policy from 20 thou 2023. I far as looking it over it looks to me like the earlier one we can probably eliminate or anything in it that needs to be put in the the 2023 policy we can incorporate it. I did notice one thing. The policy for information technology from 2010, there's a signature play page for employees to sign and acknowledge the policy. And the 2023 one, there's not one a signature page there. Also on the 23 23 policy it says management information systems. Do we really have such a department or is it a different name now?

Yes we do. It is still management information systems because they manage our information systems emails telecom. So reference to that still stands. Yes, sir. I guess look over the policies. Let me know what you think.

Um, is this something that we believe that if in the earlier policies that we could possibly wrap some of that if there's stuff that needs to be into the Roscom County acceptable use policy to just have the one and do away with the other. And I would also say that it should probably take a look at some of those just because they're the ones I believe that oversee the emails and phones and all of that. Yes. I my opinion is since 2010 things have changed a lot. Yeah.

And so that's why we come up with a 2023 one. Um Okay. Yeah. And they do review that policy, the 2023 one online, an online test. We'll be getting a test again soon probably, I'm sure. Okay. So, basically take a look at these and this will come before us at our next meeting. Correct.

Okay. Any additional information? Any questions? So number four, critical infrastructure mapping grant, our emergency manager director, Vanessa Verer, and our sheriff, Mr. Ed Stern. Hey, there we go. All right. Thank you guys for letting us present in short notice. We just found out that there's an opportunity for the county to apply for three up to three $25,000 grants for uh critical incident mapping is what the grant is specified for. And what it is is to have our infrastructure mapped the way that our schools have been mapped. Uh so the critical response group uh back in 2018 began a school mapping project do with funding through uh MSP uh to do mapping for active violence incidents. And you'll see there's a little snippet of uh how they turned uh

just general floor plans and aerial maps into a tactical grided map. Uh what they do is is they derived this from military best practices. Uh these are maps that they've used um you'll see uh in the Osama bin Laden raid. Uh this company has been validated. uh they've come from special ops back who is the consultant that we're working with has an extensive military history.

Uh and they've adapted them for use for first responders. Uh we can print them out in large scales for when an incident occurs, but right now all we have is our schools that are mapped. Uh we rely solely upon our floor plans that we have that are definitely very difficult to read uh when it comes when you get used to looking at these really nice um gritted school maps versus uh the architecture floor plans that we have for all the other buildings. So, uh, when you do this project, you receive a micro map, which is on the left here, and you receive a macro, which is the, uh, surrounding area, all grided and to scale. It identifies rooms. They're numbered, and it also numbers the exterior, um, exits. It also identifies any surrounding areas that um may be notable, parking lots, uh exits, whatnot, and it's all coordinated and again to scale, which tends to be something that you lose when you're dealing with floor plans. If you look at prior floor plans that we have and and I'll reference the school systems that were provided to us for school safety response, they're old. They're antiquated. You can't tell what is what. Classroom numbers have changed over time and the floor plans haven't changed. The building's pretty much the same, but things have been moved around so much. I've been in schools for years. tells me to go to classroom 22 without a map that tells me where classroom 22 is. I have no idea where it's going to be, what hallway it's going to be. This simplifies it and we're looking at branching that out past the schools to our infrastructure, including the county building.

One perk of this, and you'll see, is they do uh step one is generating the quote, then they gather the floor plans, they do an on-site visit, and then they provide the proofs. So everything has an approval process and it's available in multiple different ways. So once we get these, there's a portal that we can access them from. So my office is able to print them and provide them to all the responders. Uh right now we have a database for all first responders that they can download them from. Uh they're also able to access them from CRG's uh mobile app if that's something that they wanted to subscribe to. These are also available at dispatch. So then they have real-time access to the again one nice thing about it is it does provide that common operating picture. There's just a little bit more information about the dissemination for command incident occurs and how it works. So the with this grant, as I said, it's for uh there's the possibility of applying for three grants for up to $75,000. It is zero match. So if we receive all $75,000, there's absolutely no cost to the county. If we don't receive the funding, we don't do the project. I've provided you all with a list of uh the infrastructure that we've identified. Uh we have to receive

approval from each organization to get their location mapped. It's not just we do it. Uh we are on a very short time frame. Uh the grant has to be submitted by noon on March 4th and we had our virtual meeting on Monday. So that's why we're here and there's a lot of empty uh spaces right now. Uh Zach has assured us that he's been working on on some of the language for the grant. So a lot of the narrative and stuff is done. I have no doubt that uh my writing ability is that we'll be able to get Madam Chair.

Yes. You've provided us with a list. Um, some of it has Are those ones that are already done? Those are ones that have said that they would that we could do. Um, and we had to prioritize the list is based on how much funding we get. We get 25,000. Okay. These are the most important. These are the the first to be done. Not that they're more important than others. Do we have anything for the private daycare centers in our county?

That is why uh so you'll see that we have the municipal building, Emanuel Baptist Church. Uh because they are actually a school that was not included in the initial school mapping project. Uh Little Bucks and Bobcats daycare center because they are the largest daycare center in the county. And then we have uh good sheeperd sundrop monastery in the gahhagen nature preserve daycare because again they're daycare. Uh if there's other daycare centers that we've not identified that are interested, then we need to know about them as soon as possible because those were the ones that were noted to us identified

and the commission on aging buildings and are reaching out to them to to get approval. We looked at it when we were when we started this list. Where do people congregate the most? Where is the most activity? where are people there all the time? Um that's why if you look there's nursing homes in there and and community centers and commission on aging and medical facilities because there's people in and out of there all the time and ultimately it's up to those that manage the facilities whether or not we're allowed to map them. Okay. Thank you. Y and so at our next meeting basically you just need approval.

Correct. We'll have the completed document ready to go with exactly who's agreed to allow us to map and everything will be done just ready to be signed, sealed, delivered. Thank you for your initiative. Keep us in the loop and safety is paramount. Anything we can do to support, we're there. Thank you both. Thank you for your team.

Thank you guys for doing this. Thank you. With nothing further on our work session, this meeting is adjourned.