County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

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.

No, you didn't turn it on.

I'll just make this one. No, that's the one that doesn't echo back there for Oh, this one doesn't echo. That's That's the one that Darling said would work best. Okay. Before we approve the agenda, I'd like to add one thing. First, we're going to do roll call. Okay. Russo Marley here. Wolson here. Milbour here. Sir, you may proceed.

Thank you. Um, before we approve the agenda, I'd like to add one thing under new business and that's discussion. We have a letter of resignation from the drain commissioner. So, we put that under C. So, move so move, Mr. Chair. I'll second. Any discussion? You want to do a roll call again?

Wolson? Yes. Moley? Yes. Milburn? Yes. Motion carried. We need an approval of the consent agenda, which is last meeting's minutes, correspondence A through E, monthly department reports from the sheriff's department, animal control and administrators report, and the clerk register of deeds had no report this time. So moved. I'll second.

Any discussion? Just briefly, vice chair, the correspondence, A through F. Um, two of those were um letters regarding Commissioner Russo. Uh, one of them was around Mont Morreny's County wanting um they're doing some on a house bill on foreclosures and then there were uh there was one for the from the women league of voter that spoke to us. Um and then the last one was around lake level. So those were the correspondents that were in our packet. Thank you. Roll call vote, please. Milurn, yes. Moley, yes. Wolson, yes.

Motion carried. Public comment. Is there anybody has a comment for agenda items only? Yes, sir. Mr. Chairman,

is this this is already turned on here? Correct. Okay, start my timer. You probably started your timer, too, right? Five minutes. Uh, first before I forget, uh, Mr. Mr. Wolson, um, your work on, uh, in my the district that I once represented, uh, the drain district, the Johnson subdivision. Have you been over there? No, I haven't.

Dry as a bone. All the places around the Johnson subdivision are flooded. They're pumping water out. Johnson sub I unbelievable. Dry as a bone. And the same thing up at Pine Bluffs. That big swamp out back all into Higgins just like it should you. So kudos to you. That was a good job you did on finishing those drains in uh Garage Township. Now on to uh the Higgins Lake level. I this week uh happened to stop at the Cut River to to look at it at by the Cut River Grill and there were some people across the street in the Surfside subdivision. They had three pumps running out of their basement and I started talking with them and they said, "Oh, our mother's lived here 35 years. She's never seen anything like this." And my comment to them was, if the dam and the Higgins Lake level was still being run the way it was when I was a commissioner for 14 years, when I did that job for nothing extra, as part of my salary and part of my duty, it fell on me. And after a point, I didn't want to do it anymore. And I'd ask any of the other board members if they wanted to take care of the dam. They all refused. and they all voted to put me in charge of the dam and gave me instructions on what to do. They said, "Follow the court order." Now, when I saw this train wreck coming, I called Jodie and she told me that, "Oh, there's some fancy manual and there's it's been approved and and now we don't think we have to take the lake down to winter level like I did every year." I was conscientious and the court order said there's a winter lake level. It's 6 in lower than the summer level. I took

that dam down 6 in and I left it there for the winter until ice out this year. Higgins Lake was above summer level at ice out. I saw this train wreck coming. I I you know Jody said, "Well, you know, this manual, you know, we've approved it. There's excuse me you can go back I will offer my services for free as a consultant because for 14 years it never h we had a rain event when I was commissioner in charge of that dam and I had that lake down 6 in like it was supposed to be in the springtime and we had a 7in rain event and Higgins Lake only went one inch above summer level and of of course with a culture of high water. There's a culture of high water everywhere. Every day, all these dams, all these hydroelectric plants, all this Charlavoid Dam, all this stuff. These people had been operating in a drought for so long that they had this culture. They had to hold back all the water. Forget about, oh, we're never going to see a spring rain event again. Well, excuse me. It happened once when I was a commissioner. Now it's happened again. It will lead you to believe it'll happen again after this. If you don't follow that, take the lake down 6 in before the springtime rains again come again because it's normal. This is normal rainfall. Yes, it's been a drought. Yes, the lakes have been low. Yes, they think they have to try and get the lake level up to in the summertime. And what don't people understand? These the high water people that I know of on Higgins Lake, they have an imagined harm, self-inflicted. They can't wear their patent leather shoes and walk out their dock and get on their triple haul Bennington with a

motor the size of a Volkswagen and and drive it out in low water because it's too shallow. Their boat is too big. And then they say, "Well, oh, and then at the end of the season, we can't get our boat on the hoist or off the hoist." You have a poorly designed hoist. My grandfather, my first experience, my grandfather had a place up here. He had, you know, back in those days, you didn't have triple hole benningtons. He had a little wooden boat and he had a couple of he had made his own boat hoist and he had a couple of uh fire hoses, canvas fire hoses that flatten out flat and they sat on the bottom and he could get his boat up on there no matter what. and lift it up out of the water. Now you've got people with poorly improperly designed boat hoists, too big a boats, and you're driving the lake level to try and satisfy those people with an imagined loss. Now you're going to run up against people that have a real loss, and it could cost the county money. And that's my taxpayer dollars. I don't want to see that happen. I've I've exceeded my five minutes. Is anyone No one was timing me. You want to let me go as long as I want? No, I think I've said about enough.

I'm offering my services for free. But the guy you've got doing it now, he hasn't reached out to me once. Never did. I reached out to all the people I knew when I first started because I knew nothing about running a dam. I reached out to people like, you know, that are gone like Bill Casease and and Dick Weedock and uh Herb Weatherly. Where's Herb? He's not here today. He's usually here. He's so conscientious. He kept rainfall records forever. Um, other people, you know, there other people have gone and died. Mr. Pelton circulated a petition, got 500 signatures on it, and brought it to the commissioners in the 1980s, and we were following a policy that was adopted. Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other public comment? Come forward, please. I'll try to compose myself. It's quite an emotional time for us at H Hotton Lake right now. Flooded crawl spaces. both my home and cabin. I checked on a neighbor and he come walking up uh with his boots on. Uh you could see see his footprints in his carpet. Anyway, this is about correspondences. Uh I got some communication with Chase Shepki here. Uh if I can get my phone phone up. Uh this is uh the East Bay reporting site. Uh it's down by my house. It's uh probably less than a mile away. Uh USGS is probably 9 10 miles uh to the west. This is just by my house. Uh it's a this was Saturday, April 11th, 2026. 6:00 p.m. 1140.9. It's well over the 100year flood elevation. See if I can uh uh I sent this to to Chase. East Bay is reporting 1140.9. I assume this is 29 datam. at this height. It actually doesn't make any

damn difference what uh that that date was. It quit reporting that date I said uh it was uh this was the last reporting on that gauge uh Saturday, April 11th. Uh there was already people being flooded. Uh but this is was the last report. It ended here. It ended. Okay. Oh, shucks. I have trouble with these phones. Anyway, I sent that. He said, uh, Chase responded, "It's been removed for a couple days now. I don't know what the reading is. Uh, USGS will now give you the best idea where the lake level is." This is right by the one. I responded, "Chase, I wouldn't expect anything. The floods are coming and you took take out the gauge." Uh, I'm not the delegated authority. I, as Chase said, this I am not the de delegated authority. I make zero decisions. I just do what the commissioners tell me to do. We have a drain commissioner taking out the East Gay Bridge. And the flood is here and rain's coming. This is where I live. Being subordinate Chase Shepki, drain commissioner being subordinate to this board. conflict of interest. You know that you're paying him by the hour. He's doing his job.

Taking that gauge out is putting me and my family at an increased risk. I want to know what the lake level is. Getting angry and I apologize again. I said communication. I sent this to uh Jody some time back. I'm requesting information information regarding the surveying that printed New Hoff did on my property. Printed Newuhof measured my flood wall, first floor elevation, and lowest adjacent grade. I believe this info is listed using my property numbers and I I I put it there. This is dated uh Wednesday 3:25. Uh Jody, I haven't got anything about that. Uh these elevations now that the uh now that the water levels to the top of my flood wall, if I had the elevation the top of my flood wall, it give me some information uh is what I can do. Uh, already stacked up my dock sections and I put a a row of cement blocks and I got a It's not right now. I don't give a It's not about me. People are suffering out there. I've pumped crawl spaces. I I got the stuff. I got great I can get through this. Uh, is that the time?

If you got more to say, you can make more public comments. I think you should ask for Chase's resignation from what he did here.

Yes, Mr. Bisby. Chase is a Bisby Hton Lake Old Trail Drive. Uh I went to Bay View where the monitor that was removed was. Uh Chase gave us a dimension to the top where it's marked on the concrete culvert. I measured down to the water there was 35 inches. I think you ought to ask Chase what that adds up to. That's over 40 inches over summer level. Now, when we started this season, we had this manual, this Marvel comic book that's supposed to give you ability to use foresight from the weather service to predict actions required through this comic book to the water retention system. It wasn't followed. In January, we're already 3 in above summer legal level. If you would have taken the 6 in of winter legal low water and the 3 in that you banked, which you didn't bank, it's called freeboarding. That's an old Indian word for flooding. And you got 9 in. If the water would have been nine inches lower when we had ice out in these rains, we would have avoided a tremendous amount of damage on this lake. You people have been man um managing the lake against low water or high water for as the gentleman previous claimed for the patent leather shoe people trying to get their boats on and off the

lift with one hand while they're holding the wine glass in their other hand. Now we got people with damage. High water destroys. low water a noise. You're managing the lake to bank water for the summer. That's all this whole thing was. We spent all this money so you could go to court, sell Judge Bennett a comic book that had no statistical process control backing it. There was no action A, produce result B. You had no test results, no scientific data showing that. But yet you sold it as a save all for the control of the lake. That's shameful. That's absolutely shameful. And now we have tremendous amount of people with damage. I got water in my crawl space. I got pumps. Should never have had it. you would have had the water down the 9 in at the start of this ice out, 90% of these people wouldn't have had this issue. Then we can get back to removing the monitor off of the Bay View unit. Everyone says, "Well, you know, the USGS gives you the correct data." Well, it does if you're on the northwest corner of the lake, but you get a 20 mph wind. We're 10 inches higher. You got to understand with that windshare sesh, it's a heck of a tide. And now with this high water, you had several days of 20 mph winds. I tell you what, we had flooding. All of us along there had to go to Home Depot to buy cement blocks and bags of soil and stuff to use as a protection to keep our houses from getting slammed. by the

waves. We had waves coming halfway up our yard. Waves. We had pumps pumping the water out trying to keep everyone in a safe scenario. It's shameful and you did this because you mismanaged the water level and you know it and you're going to claim it. Oh, this is all because of mother nature. Well, that's bull said by piece. Thank you. Thank you. Any other public comment? Yes. Well said. Well said.

I initially came to speak to something else I'll do later on in the general comments, but just to build on these gentlemen's, I live on the Cut River. My name is Jeff Zable. I live on Marquy Road, just down from the Marquy Fire Station. And my backyard's about knee deep by the river because I'm literally on the river. my house and garage. I'm fine because I'm far enough away from the river and uphill enough on that, but and I think I've mentioned this in the past with the council is the we we have too many cooks in the pot controlling the northern part of the Moskegan River wershed. You got the county controlling the H Hotton Lake Dam and Higgins Lake Dam. You got the DNR who has two brand new shiny dams on Bakus Creek that they have no boards in. Then someone else is controlling Reedsburg Dam. They all need to be controlled and coordinated together. So if you guys get a chance, if you haven't already, it's been about three or four years since the DNR they took out that little mud lake dam off 18 and put in two brand new shiny dams on Bakis Creek flooding and Bakis Lake. Those are well right now they're fairly full but they're empty. They never put DNR never put boards in. Can the county coordinate with the DNR so that times like this those damps should be as high as they can to hold as much water that could have probably alleviated some of the stuff going to H Hotton Lake and use those to bank. So come August when we are well below summer level they can release it back down the backest of the cut into the lake. So, we need to coordinate all these different dams and have one entity or at least a common operating thing between all the entities on how to coordinate them together. You operate this one, this affects that one. They need to be coordinated together and

we, you know, you guys can't control the DNR. I know that, but has anyone reached out to say we need to work on coordination how we operate these dams together? Because the DNR probably could have helped out some of this if they would have put all their boards in and then held and filled up Bakus Lake and Bakis Creek flooding. That's why it's called Backis Creek flooding. It's supposed to flood during times on purpose to keep other places from flooding that shouldn't be flooding. And then that would also help us in the summertime when we have low levels to release that and cycle goes year in year out. So thank you. We just want to add that as well.

Thank you. Any other public comment? Okay. Um, we're down to visitors. I believe Mark has a visitor to introduce. Rob's here today. Thanks, Rob, for being here. You want to come up, Rob? With Senator Michelinga. Thank you, Rob. You're welcome. Did you want to come up and make comment, Rob? I can do now or Yeah, do it now. Okay. That way you can skip out early if you want. No, we're going to make him stay.

I'm going to stay. I'm going to stay. Um, good morning everybody. Uh, just give you a little update. What's going on in Lancing? Uh, budget's been a budget push trying to get the budget done before the end of June. If everybody remembers, last year was kind of uh pushing a state shutdown in October. Um plus this is an election year, so everybody wants to be in district and and meeting with their constituents. So, um I anticipate that they'll get everything done before the end of June. So, that's a positive. Uh there are some housing bills. There's eight housing bills. Um, and I think uh the the senator's made her um her opinion known on those that she's opposing. Um, several of the bills take zoning privileges away from local entities and gives it to the state much like the wind and solar bills uh did that uh that a lot of uh locals are fighting now. So, just want to put that on your radar. Uh it's a bipartisan support. Um there are or you know like Meno Center supporting it. Um but it does take zoning rights away from local entities, local municipalities. So uh septicota as well is on the move again, a statewide septic code. Um and it's been I think generally I Michigan Association of Counties has been pretty much against them. Uh the the meeting that meets here the Northern Michigan counties organization as well the makeup of all northern Michigan county commissioners uh and your local health departments. Uh these are I think we can all agree we want clean

water, but some of some of the regulations that this would impose uh and the cost to to homeowners to pump their septic have in pay for inspections support their local health departments are are pretty big. So um please be aware that that's on the move right now in Lancing. Uh, and then Commissioner Milbourne and I are are working together uh for your July 4th celebration. The senator is going to do a uh a nice uh tribute uh help celebrate their 250th uh birthday that of our nation and uh the July 4th and our veterans uh that make this country so great. So, um, we have all that in the works right now and and if you had any questions, I can answer.

Thank you, Rob. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other visitors? Okay, now we're down to unfinished business. We have the Northern Michigan Child Assessment Center millage to discuss Um it's been presented to the board. I don't think you know the last my idea from the board was it needs to be done structured different before we could put it on for millillage. I want to hear what the other board members have to say on that.

I'm ready to move forward. I have no problem having the discussion, but if I recall correctly, we asked for a much more clear explanation as to if another county does not pass a millillage, how are they going to make sure that the money if this millillage passes will only support Ross Common? And I I haven't seen any updates. Has anybody else? No, I haven't either. My my concern was I think we need an agreement with the other counties. I remember how this is going to work before we put it on for millage. Y

to assure that funds are expended where they need to be. Yeah. We need we need anou memor of understanding. It needs to be it needs to be explicit so there's no there's no catchalls at the end. So I agree I agree with Commissioner Mley. My question is when do we need to make this decision because we have other millages that are coming before us people wanting to be have a millillage at this point I think it's to the point where unless further information comes forth it's a dead issue at this point with us

it would be but if we have not given them a deadline to provide that to us I think that's only fair like when do we need to have that at a meeting where we're going to vote when do they need to give give us that information before that. Looking for a drop date, am I correct? I don't know what that number is. Clerk can chime in on that.

Uh so the filing deadline for it to appear on August, there's not enough time. So because we're already at the second meeting in April, um the filing deadline for that, I believe, is May 12th. Um for it to appear on the November ballot, the filing deadline for that, I believe, is August 11th. So you would want it to you first meeting of July at the latest vote on 1 of July. Well, at least have your answer before then. So then you can vote on it either the first or the second meeting of July.

I would just propose us reaching back out to them and saying we're still waiting for information. we will need to have you on the docket to prepare this so that we can make a vote in a timely manner for you by the first or second meeting in August on our behalf. So, we should reach out to them and with the information we have at this point, we're not moving forward. It was on the agenda. So, I think because it was still on our agenda, I think we should give them a deadline. Yes, sir. We should we should give them a letter in writing with explicit instructions of what we want. Okay. So there's no ambigu we should there should be no ambiguity ambiguity. They should know exactly what we're asking.

So in our chair's absence, would that be as a vice chair, would you be able to get that drafted and emailed over to them so that they have that? I'm not sure when she'll be available again. Well, there's a number of things we need to address with it, but yeah, the draft they need they need to bring a better plan forward to the board before the board can go forward. And I'm I'm hearing from Commissioner Milbourne that that should be in the letter. What are we needing by when? So that would probably be up to either our vice chair or our chair to draft that and get that out to them. The specifics. Yeah, that's what we just said. Okay. Thank you. Good.

Next thing in unfinished business is the lake level control structure bidding process. Um, they typed that up this morning so everybody have a copy of it. Um, you want you want me to go through it? I would since I haven't had a chance to read it yet. Thank you.

First thing is the design is done by the engineer and approved by the board of commissioners. In other words, they draw it up. We have to approve the design. That's will accept it or not. Once the design is approved, the engineer will compile the bid documents. Things to consider to be in the bid documents should be the right of the board to accept or reject any or all bids. Also, who is to be the project manager? That'd be who's going to oversee the daily activities on that project. Normally you would hire the engineering firm to do that since they made the specs and any change orders that come through they need to sign off on them and approve them. So normally it would be the engineering firm. We can hire any bid manager project manager we want or we can not not to have one but normally in this case you would hire the engineer to do that.

Mr. Sure. Just does the public have this document in front of them? Do we make copies for the public? Do we make public do we make copies for the public for this document? We can get those between meetings if somebody and also put a date on it. If I'm understand correct and have discussion.

Yeah. Because we have to approve a process or have an outline. Yeah. A consensus by the board. This is the outline we're going to follow. Um, also we need to consider if we hire a project manager, how are they to be paid? Sometimes the contractor has to list it in his contract price because he's going to list how many days he needs to have the project manager on site and he can include it in his bid price or we can have a separate price for that. It can go either way. Um, but that's for us to decide. Any questions on the pros or cons of that?

Not yet. I'm good.

Okay. Um, we need we'll need to decide on a project the start and the end date. The engineer will usually recommend that. Um but we have we have control over that. Also we'll need to consider do we have daily fines for the contractor for any days the project goes past the deadline date. And the reason for that is if we in his contract he has a set amount for the engineer to do the project management that's going to be a daily charge by them. If he goes over and it's not in the contract that we find then we're stuck paying that. Usually there's a daily fine for anything past the end date. for the contractor. That's normal.

Stand standard standard language. Nothing new there. Then once all those things are decided, the engineer will send the project out for bids. We have the choice of whether it's invitational bids or statewide bidding. In this case, it will probably be statewide because invitational bids is going to really narrow down. The bigger than that, the better.

Okay. Then the board of commissioners can choose a contractor once the bids are open and reviewed after the deadline. and you review them with the engineer because sometimes a contractor will have conditions that are not spelled directly out in the con in the bid documents and the engineer will have input to whether that's acceptable or not sometimes or they may want to substitute some material other than what's spec and the engineer would you know guide us in that respect. ect. When we look at the bids, standard bonding, insurance, and payment schedule should be in the bid documents. These will be standard things that go into a project like this. Um the amount of bonding, the amount of assurance required and also the payment schedule. biggest catch in all this is one of our biggest concern is we need to put together the money before we award the contract and in these cases it's probably bonding. So scheduling that could be a little tricky. We don't want to be awarding a contract that we don't have money in place to take care of. But we'll we'll get guidance from our attorney and bond because they deal with the bond attorneys and so forth on how we proceed with that.

Any questions on that? Just get this out to the public and please put a date on the document. I'm in favor of having the engineer be the project manager because they're there daily. They sign off on everything. It's not our responsibility to make sure the project's done the way they expect. They are responsible to make sure of that done.

I'd have to think through that. I I'm not saying I'm against that. I I don't see a problem. I think one of the issues we're facing with anything going forward is conflict of interest with the people that are involved. And the more we can separate that conflict of interest, I think the better. Uh that's been my stance for a long time. Um so if I understand you correctly so far, the contract that we want to create is with the engineering firm to do the following task. Put a bid out for a project manager. And is that Well, I think we've already contracted to get it through the bid cycle, but there's options of what we can have or not have. This is about what we want in the bid when they go out.

Correct. Okay, I got you. Right. I do like the statewide. I I mean, initially, off the top of my head, I think that's a smart move to I think because of the nature of the project, you know, yeah, we're going to be limited in finding contractors to begin with. I I think we're going to be very limited based upon what I'm hearing around this county and the state. There's not a lot of people who want to touch this. Yeah. Because of everything that we hear and all the lawsuits. So, that's going to be a challenge. And if we don't open up that door wide, we probably won't get somebody who wants to bid on the project. So, I'm pretty There's a limited number of contractors that do this kind of work.

Engineering firms. Yeah. That would put that out. So, it's it's something I think that's why the statewide would be my preference to see pass that net wider. When do we want this approved and the right information from what you presented? Well, I to the not putting some of them out for bids the end of this summer yet. Okay. So, you know, we need to give this some thought and

and finalize when when you do bid opening with the engineer. It doesn't have to involve the whole board. It can or it can be a representatives of the board dealing with it. However, the board decides to handle that. Mhm. If we do it with a whole board, then it's going to be an opens meeting act. Well, that was one of my next questions because many times this how does this process fall with our county bid process? Do we open up bids in public? Do we do we have a rule that says take the top? We probably have it somewhere written and I just don't have it off the top of my head. But I think whatever we do here should follow how we do bid process for anything in the county.

Yes, we do. Yeah, they post they post when bid we need to post when the bid opening is going to be which of course would be in the bid documentation anyhow. Um and it is a a public you can attend the bid opening. Got it. Okay. Y you know it doesn't hurt to have the whole board there anyway. Then you just call a special meeting, right? The minimum would be our two lake level commissioners both you and the chair. I mean, at minimum, I think that's proper, but the rest of us who could, since it is open to the public, I I don't have a problem with that. In the past, in most cases, the public doesn't show up, but we need to afford that opportunity.

I would think we should. Yep. Absolutely. Okay. As long as we follow our traditional bid process, I think that that's good, too. M always award the the public that opportunity. My recommendation, Mr. chair would be to put this on for two weeks from today. Discuss some more further. Will that be sufficient time for everybody to review this stuff? Yes. Okay. Absolutely. We'll put that back on then for approval. Let me know if you have any questions on any of this or want to talk about changing some of it.

I think that is our duty to give you any more feedback so that that first paragraph can be a lot more definitive. Like is it all of this? Is it parts of this? Is it not? So, it's up to us to give that back to you in time for it to get This is basically an outline of how things normally go or what our rights are as a board. Thank you for putting that together. All right. Okay. Thank you.

Um, we're down to C. During Commissioner, I just want to mention No, we're on a new business a Okay, new business equalization report by Jamie Howerman.

Am I correct? This has to be signed today. We'll get

Thank you, ma'am. A copy of the report is on our county website. Um if anybody would like that, you can go and pull that um by end of business today. Good morning, honorable members of the board of commission for Ross Common County. As you know, I am Jamie Howerman, your equalization director. In front of you today is your annual equalization report. I hereby certify that the assessment rules of the townships and village have been examined and that we find the rules to be relatively equal as equalized. We are recommending that the values be equalized on taxable property by class in Roscommon County for the year 2026 in compliance with section 209.5 and 211.34 of Michigan compiled law and in con in accordance with the assessment rule equalization certifications. I'll go through the report with you page by page. Um, at any point you have questions, please stop um and and let me um answer those questions for you. Uh, we'll start with the very beginning of of your uh material. The first handful of pages four, five, and six are the required state report. It's the actual document that's required to be filed. That document will be filed by end of business today on your behalf. Pages 7 through 11 are an interesting

breakdown of each of the types of property by class in each of the townships and what those aggregate values are. You'll note, for example, there are many townships in our county that do not have agricultural property. This is also true of industrial property. ages um 12 and 13. Let's see. So, this is a breakdown by class, by unit of each of the changes, and it's that change from the last year to the this year. What you're going to notice there is is it also gives you a percentage of each of the types of property within our county. 92% of all property within our county is residential. And so that encompasses homes, um, not businesses, not not agriculture. Um, so that's where you're getting 92% of our value, the vast majority being that. Let's see. You'll also see that we've grown by approximately 9.82%. 82%. Let's see where that is at. Oh, that let's flip the page on that and we'll talk about that growth here in in the next pages. Page the next set of pages will will start to show you the growth from the prior year to the current year. And this is where you're going to see the assessed value growth of 10.04%. That's significantly higher than the inflation rate which as you know last year was 2.7%. Nationwide we saw 2.8% for social security. Um so we're we're growing at

substantially higher um faster of a pace than the inflation process. What's that due to? Well that's due to year overyear sale sale prices. So, and the homes that are already constructed in what those are selling for from prior years, we're seeing huge jumps in that still today. Um, you'll hear your real estate market tell you that things are starting to slow. What does that mean? That does not mean at all that prices are declining. In fact, in most cases, they're not. They are slowing. Um so that means in the last five years you saw um equivalent of these 10% growths in three of those five years you saw 20% growths in two of those five. So we we are still continuing to grow at a very substantial pace much like all of the other counties in our area. I've researched that amongst amongst counties in our area and find that to be pretty standard. uh you're really looking at that 10% growth. If you flip the pages there, you can kind of start to see where where those values are at by township specifically. Um and there's that chart there that's going to show you that big growths overall. Um the largest growth we saw is in one of our middlesize townships in the county and that's Richfield at 14 a.5% um above the growth average. They had some new home um construction that added to and helped with that. Uh you're also seeing some of the largest townships in our county. They drive that number. They always have and they will um the largest um um producers of the number. Uh Denton Township um and Garish Township, your two largest um one on each of the lakes. Um and they're right at about that that average. Denton slightly lower and Gish

slightly higher. What does that say? that says that your Garish townships or I'm sorry, your Higgins Lake townships, the ones that are in the Higgins Lake area are growing at a faster pace slightly than the ones in the H Hotton Lake area. Um, nothing of concern of or substitutants, but there is that phenomenon at this moment. Yeah, go ahead. While you're on that subject, just to make sure I understand it, especially did some of this start to happen, especially during that COVID time frame when people were coming and buying homes unseen, tearing down, building up big that there paying for things exorbitantly that normally would not have been purchased. Is that am I understanding that?

You are absolutely understanding that. I really hate jumping around in the report, but if you look at the second page from the end, you're really going to see where you're hitting that 2020 mark. And so what you see is in 2020, um, prior to 2020, we had 3% growth. Then 2020, 5%, 2021, 5%. That's after that is when we're seeing those 10% 20% numbers. Um, I would absolutely say that that that was part of that COVID movement, the working from home movement where a lot of people decided we we didn't need to live in cities. Um, there was also, if you remember, in that time frame, um, our neighbors to the south Gladwin County had that dam break, um, multiple dam break and they lost significant water. They still have not gotten that back. My understanding is it's coming back nowish, like literally as we're speaking, they're filling water. um where we have too much. I'm hearing they don't have enough yet. Um so they're getting it coming towards them. So So um hopefully they'll get those water or those waterways filled up and then I don't know if then that means people will sell. Um I've I've been asked that. I'm not an economist in the aspect that I that I can perceive what happens in the future foresee what happens in the future. I'm more so we follow the market. So we we report what occurs in the market. Um, with that thinking though, I do see a lot of trends. Um, is it possible that that we start to see once once Gladwin's lakes replenish, is it possible we see some movement back that way? I would say it is possible. Um, I don't know what that likelihood looks like, but I'd say it is possible.

And I agree, not you're not I'm not asking you to project the future, but just thinking about the history of how these numbers became when people are like, "Oh, the it's a lot of prices." Yeah, it is. It is. and you're very spot on with some of those with some of those thinkings. Thank you.

Yep. You're welcome. Um page 17 is my favorite page in the book and I I tab this page every year. Um it is your county um equalized value and then the taxable value. So the first time um that you'll see taxable value in this reporting. So taxable value is not something that we do in equalization. We equalize based on assessed value. However, starting in 1994 with proposal A, taxable value became a number that we need to um track and um publish for you. So, we're publishing this taxable value number. It is um a mathematical formula is how how it becomes. With that said, our taxable value is the number that is used to then um multiply times millillage rates to get revenue for each of the of the um collecting u municipalities within our county. Um of which there are lots. Um one of the ones that you're talking about earlier, the um um the child's the children assessment center that that'll be multi-county, multi-jurisdictional. Um, but we will we will collect that for them if that becomes a thing. Um, anyways, in that in that aspect, you're going to get a 6.42% taxable value increase. That's still three timesish higher or I'm sorry, at least more than double time higher than what you're getting in your inflation rate, pushing three times higher. Um, what does that mean? Well, that means you had a lot of buying and selling um uncapping of values and you also had some substantial new construction um that aided. Uh you'll see in that commercial um p on the commercial page there, the commercial properties that you had some commercial growth um which was very good to see this year. Uh the next page is uh page 18. That's

last year's taxable value compared to this year's taxable value. So you can see where those taxable value numbers grew. And then you can see where some of that um where that construction activity was at. Ross Common Township had some pretty pretty good um projects this year in in the commercial class. Um as as you also saw a little bit in Denton um and in Garish. Uh those were some pretty good movements there. The chart um of that information is on page 19. Um of interest in that chart, what you're seeing is hills and valleys leading up to what I'm calling this phenomenon of this driving force of market that does not seem to slow down. Um I've sat in front of you for years now, several you could probably go back and look and would tell you that I believe that at any point now this market has to slow down just based on history. um in that in that graph alone you're seeing what I'm seeing which is at some point this is going to taper off and it will start to slow back down and then it'll come back down again. Um it that has not happened and I and I truly believed it would have by now. Um so when that does happen I do not know. Um I don't see any end in sight on that in our current um federal climate. Um so um I'm going to say we're going to see some substantial growth going forward. Uh I can I track for you the consumer price index. It is a 24month rolling process that creates what becomes your inflation rate multiplier. So I can see what that kind of is is trending and looking like. There's about six months left in that process and we're pushing it about the 3% mark again. um that is substantially driven by gasoline prices. And so when

you see high gasoline prices at the pump, you can normally then say you'll probably have a pretty decent jump in in that inflation rate multiplier. Um so that's very tricky right now. as I personally have noticed in the last month um driving through town in any given day you're up or down 25 to 50 cents. Um so I'm having a really hard time targeting that for you when normally I don't have that issue and I could pretty well sit here and tell you I think it's going to be 2.7 and it ends up being 2.7. Um so we're really not going to be able to do that at this point. Um you'll definitely be over 2.5. how much over I don't know to give you an idea. Um and then when we get to those last two charts, the ones that I kind of referred to a little bit earlier, that's that is a uh um a really nice look at at about 50 years of information from 1975 going forward of every increase or decrease in the market. And and I know that um property tax is not something that people love. Um, and then there's lots of he he funny things that people say about property tax. One of the things I often hear is it never goes down. And so you'll see in this chart, actually there are a handful of years it does go down. Um, uh, I do feel that pain of it never goes down. I understand why people say that. Um, but there are a handful of years where you did see those declines. That those years don't make people happy. Um, it would seem like it might. It absolutely does not. um as you were looking at that those were the those were the years when we were in a a recession. Um 2008 910 being the last of them. Um and those are not positive years for people um in the investment of real estate. Um that last page is that chart again where you're going to see those hills and valleys and you're going to see exactly what I'm

seeing which is at some point this is going to slow down. Um, that's all I have for you. Uh, do you have other questions for me? Any questions for Very interesting report. Thank you. So at this time then I would just ask that you would um adopt the report as it is presented um and that you would allow for it to be signed yet today. Um and then published and and as I said that that will be on my um the the draft of it I believe is already up there on my on my uh website page for the for the taxpayers. Jamie, I have a question. Absolutely.

Personal property tax. How does that work? I mean, you give us a number that's a total number that was reported for what is the percentage rate of tax on that?

Oh, I see what you're saying. That's interesting. And so, personal property, as Rex is alluding to, is um got a couple of different tax caveats that have been built into it over the years. So, commercial personal property pays at a different tax rate than industrial personal property does. That's because our legislature in years past um wanted to increase the um uh manufacturing in Michigan. In doing that, they reduced the burden that a manufacturer would pay versus that of say a retailer. Um to give you some type of an idea there, I can't tell you the exact um what that exact number would be. I can also in in speaking to the property to personal property tax, you're going to see if you go back and look historically that um in 2008 uh Governor Snyder um vowed to eliminate personal property tax in Michigan. um he he um went on a campaign trail of saying that he wanted the small businesses to not no longer have to have that burden and that was successful and and through the course of time and the latest being uh 2015. So there was a course of changes there up through 2015 where personal property has changed pretty substantially and who pays what. Um the first round of that was anybody under $80,000 in value didn't pay anything. Now it's up to $180,000 in value. Doesn't pay at all. So you saw those um small businesses all come off of the books completely. So the numbers you're really looking at right now for the very vast majority are your very large retailers um like a Home Depot or Walmart um those types of retailers. And then also um in in that the vast majority even then is utility. So that

would be your oil um um that type of of a utility, gas and oil. Where does that tax money go? To the township or the county?

Yeah, it is bucketed the exact same way the real property tax is bucketed in that each piece of it goes to that individual um portion. So oftent times people look at their tax bill as a whole rather than looking at each individual line item. And I always say, do do you even know um how much you pay for fire protection as an example or police protection. Um each of those line items gets bucketed out, commercial um personal and and industrial personnel included. Um and those get bucketed out. And so each of those is paying a portion for a library and and for for fire and police. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other questions for Jamie?

No, just a comment. I I'm so glad to see so many people probably didn't come here for this report obviously, but I think hearing this report is quite um very impressive number one and it sheds a a huge light on how we budget, how we have to be prepared in the next three to 10 years as a county. So, um, thank you for the work that your office does because this is very helpful when we have to think ahead of how much money we're going to have in a general fund.

You're absolutely welcome. And as you know, and and as your controller knows over the years, when we do see these increases like we're talking about today, that's directly then related to the 1974 Headley amendment in which those those millage rate numbers then get rolled back. So as we have a larger taxable value multiplier, the millage rate numbers are being rolled down. So the taxpayers as a whole are not paying on anything other than that new construction numbers. Well stated because that question is circulating through the townships like crazy when it comes to the millages and they don't understand the headley roll back and how that works. So

each time I get in front of you, I say please use caution when you see that. Yes, we had a substantial um increase in value. Absolutely we did. And yes, we absolutely had that 6% increase in taxable value. Um what does that really equate to in dollars? Um your costs went up too, you didn't get any money, if that makes sense. Correct. Thank you. You're welcome. You have anything else for me? Um when the headley roll back as your taxable value goes up the percentage that each individual property pays reduces. Correct.

The total dollar amount over the county is reduced.

So much of the wording that's on a ballot sounds like it's an increase when it's really trying to just keep it at the same level because of Headley roll back. And that's that's the trick that a lot of people don't understand. Cor correct. So, so there's a whole lot of of laws that of course go into each of those ballot questions and a substantial one of those is is the requirement that you tell your tax base that it is increasing their tax because at the end of the day, if it was a tax they're already paying and they do not approve it again, it does reduce their tax. So, clearly it would be an increase which is difficult for most. Um, I would say that when you see those that say increase, it really is a renewal almost always.

Any more questions for Jamie? Thank you, Jamie. Thank you. You're welcome. Have a good day. Thanks for get having the report early, too. With that, I think we're going to put this on for motions to approve because of the deadline.

Yep. Next thing is local state of emergency declarations on April 15th. Vanessa, can you present this please emergency management director? So unlike with the ice storm uh we are still uh in I would say um recovery uh pretty substantially as many of our residents are aware. Uh the water levels are still pretty high in many of the areas that have been impacted by this. Uh on April 15th, uh Chairperson Sensor signed a local declaration for state of emergency uh with the uh reason being uh that the area had sustained uh heavy rainfall and uh the remaining snow uh that was in the area had rapidly melted. Uh as a result the uh following conditions existed that there was uh rising water levels in the local lakes and river systems uh with H Hotton Lake being uh 22 in above level. Uh Lake St. Helen being 16 in above level and Higgins Lake being 8 in above level. Uh significant flooding to public and private properties including residential and businesses. uh closing of multiple roadways due to flooding, failure of multiple culverts and infrastructure impacts uh were certain if conditions did not approve. Uh at that time that uh local state of emergency declaration was submitted to the state of Michigan. Uh we were then included in the governor's uh declaration for state of emergency uh

executive order number uh 26 or 20267 uh for declaration of state of emergency uh where we were included with 32 other counties for a state declaration uh which opened us up to uh state resources. That declaration goes through May 13th of 2026 unless it's extended by the Emergency Management Act. Uh what this does is allows for the emergency operations plan to be implemented by the county uh and resources to be utilized uh for uh public uh resources or public uh infrastructure if needed. Uh we currently in talking with our uh road commission have um roads closed at Deckers with water over the road um Michigan Central Park Boulevard due to a culvert failure. Uh there's still water over the road uh but it's open at Ted Muma Haidider and Lakewood. Uh areas that they continue to watch are in the village of Ross Common, although most of those the water has receded now, uh Lake James Drive, uh County Road 300 by Mickelson Road, uh Old 27 south of Snowball, Wolf Creek Culver on Canoe Camp Road, uh M18 uh Long Crossing, uh County Road 100 by Gish Hall, although most of that water has receded now, and County Road 301 at the stream crossing. things again uh over the past weekend due to um the weather kind of getting a little bit better finally. Um a lot of that uh water has receded but we are still um you know on alert because we are looking at potentially getting some more rains

coming in. Uh we have gotten uh a hundred uh flood cleanup kits from a volunteer organization called Draw. Uh it's disaster relief at work. Uh we have another hundred coming in in two days. Uh those are for any uh community residents that need assistance with cleanup. uh and those are uh at various uh township uh fire departments or township halls. I've done a post on social media. We're also asking residents to do the self assessment for damage assessment uh if they need assistance with that to let us know. I've communicated with the newspaper for uh getting that information out there as well. Uh and residents can also call 211 and they will assist them with doing that over the phone uh to get that information uploaded. Uh we're working on uh being able to go out and do uh damage assessment for individuals that don't have the capability to uh do the damage assessment on their own. Uh I think that's all I've got at this point in time. uh individuals who have had their wells submerged. Uh I would strongly recommend they do water testing on the on their wells to make sure that there's not been any bacteria contamination. Uh we're working right now with the health department and with MDHHS to see if we can get uh testing done at no cost. I know in talking with our local health department yesterday, they have uh 80 kits on hand right now. uh in testing is $25. Uh but again, we're working right now to see if we can get that at no cost.

Any questions? Good job, Chair. Sorry. Um I think for the public too, if I hear you correctly, the two ways to get this is one to contact you guys in our emergency management. We need help whether we need a flood kit or or 211. to contact 211 and they can direct it because they're available 247 and then that way it helps you guys get the resources so that you can ask for it reimbursement. Yes. Is this information published on our website? Vanessa, it's posted on Facebook and I can work with Jod on getting it posted on our website. Yes, be a great idea. Be a good idea.

Y also some point do you foresee the state because of emergency statewide financial help for people. Tell me. So, the only way that there would be financial assistance for an individual resident is if a federal declaration is done for individual assistance and individual assistance is for primary residents. It's not for secondary residents. So, if you have a second home in the area and it's not your primary residence, that would not be eligible for individual assistance. Individual assistance is only for a primary residence.

So if a citizen needs help, you can help through that process. Is that correct? If a federal declaration is done, the state of the federal Michigan does not have an individual assistance program. That's kind of

correct. due to the magnitude of this event with how many counties I think we're now up to 40 counties that have been uh included in this state declaration now. Uh the governor just added two more counties yesterday if if my math is correct. I think we're up to 40 now. Uh I would be very surprised if she didn't request a federal declaration, but again uh there's no guarantee that the federal government is going to approve individual and public assistance. They may just do public assistance. They may just do individual assistance. Public assistance is for that public infrastructure like the roadways that have and bridges that have collapsed. Individual assistance is for those individual residents. So that's why that survey that I talked about for reporting the damage to your structures and to your your houses is so important because that's how we get that documented that there the need exists. Uh you know so if if we don't have the documentation that shows why the residents of Roscom County need individual assistance, we're not supporting our our argument for for why it's necessary. So, if people need help getting that survey completed and getting that information documented, then we, you know, uh they need to let us know or they just need to get that survey completed so that we can we can get that information in.

You'll help them through that process. Absolutely. Yep. In reality, we're waiting quite a while for the federal government to do.

Truly. I mean, there and again, there's there's no guarantee. uh you know, if if you have insurance, I strongly recommend you go through your insurance. I know a lot of residents that I've talked to, they don't have flood insurance. Uh either when it was offered, it it was incredibly expensive or it just it wasn't an option for them. So, uh a lot of it's going to be just rallying with community support. uh you know there there may be an opportunity for um or for funding in other avenues like sometimes when when declarations like this come out um SBA uh offers low interest rate loans uh when a declaration like this is issued. So, uh, I just strongly recommend that people continue to follow, uh, both our, um, our website and our social media so that they can keep track of, you know, what is posted out there. And again, I've been in touch with Christ at the newspaper to make sure that they're aware of what's going on, too, and and letting our our constituents know what's out there and available to them.

Any other questions? Like to thank you for all the work you've done to help us through this process. Yeah, I again I I wish I could do more. Unfortunately, when it's this sort of situation and we don't have those immediate life safety risks, uh we're really limited on how we can impact the individuals with with regards to how emergency management can help. So, thank you.

Thank you. Now, we're down to discuss about the drain commissioner. I think we all got a copy of his resignation letter by email. I didn't see it, but No, I it was sent directly to the clerk's office since her office is No, they haven't seen it. Have a copy of it.

I don't have it with me. Could I could I ask for for for a fivem minute break then, Mr. Chair? Okay, take a five minute break and we'll figure get the date of when this takes effect and it's May 1st. It's May 1st. The letter is I know what date is. Yeah, you need a break, Mark. No, I'd like to see the letter. It is in an email format. I heard about it, but I I Yeah, it's an email format that was sent directly. Yeah. Okay. The clerk's office. Right. You want a copy of it? We'll take a five minute. I'd like a copy of it. We'll return at 10:20.

Judge appoints a new drain commissioner. My guess is they put it out for resumes for about two weeks before they do it. How about if I just tell you what we're doing? But they're going to decide what they do on it. we really have no control over it. It's getting to that point, but if the clerk would like to enlighten us and we'll be happy to listen to it.

Okay, I'll be brief. So, the statutory appointment committee is meeting tomorrow at 10:30 here to discuss the process. So, we're going to have to get a copy of the responsibilities for the drain commission. We will be posting it. What that timeline is has yet to be determined. We will determine that tomorrow at our meeting at 10:30. The job will be posted or the position will be posted. We will conduct interviews have as we have done in the past for this position when it has been vacated. So that's where we're at.

Along with that, sometime in the near future, we need to discuss restructuring how we pay a train commissioner. Um believe with salary is that 6,000 right now. Is that correct, Jay? Maybe around there. I'm not 100% sure what the salary is, but it's certainly not more than 9,000. So, I think it was closer to six, but yeah, I don't know what it is. Anyway, it was when I did it was a little bit less than that. So, well says 7,000 7500. It's at 75 for the base salary um plus benefits because he's elected official.

Hi, chair. So, if what I'm hearing you say for today, we need to find a time before you post a job. If you're going to change the salary structure, it might be helpful to get more because it's in the middle of the term. Yeah. Okay. And change it right now. We can't. Okay. So, there's going to be no rush on that. Sounds good. So, we're just waiting. We will see. Does this term once you pick pick when you're going to do it, how long does this appointed person get to fulfill the remainder of a drain commissioner's term or do they have to run in November?

Because of the timeline of when the resignation was submitted and when it takes effect, it will not be on the ballot this year. So, it's for the remainder of the term. Remainder of the term. Yep. Which will expire the end of 2028. Thank you.

You're welcome. What I was getting at at the other end of it was the job of drain commissioner has greatly increased the workload over the last 10 years. And there is a method of all the work performed by the drain commissioner on a drain district is billable back to the drain district rather than coming out of the general fund. Um and we need to explore that because the job now requires more hours than it used to. And you know the pay is kind of minimal. So if you want more activity from the drain commissioner, it's a way to increase how much time they put into the job.

So we need to be looking budgetarily but at some point after 2028 because we can't change it yet that we start projecting what that's going to look like for a commissioner. But we can still change the billable time to the drain districts. We just won't be paying the drain commissioner for those hours. In other words, his hours on them would not be billable to the county. Right?

In other words, you can you can build his time on a drain district. The time he spends on one drain district, we can build back to the drain district as long as we do the process correctly. to keep us from a time perspective today. Since we don't have to make that decision, I say we put this on a work session so that we understand what's allowed, what's not, and when we're going to need to make that decision and plug that into our schedule of goals that we're supposed to accomplish by certain dates. But I think we should look at it for sure.

It's something we need to look at in the future. Also in this process, Shepsky Consulting was hired as lake manager under the drain commissioner's office. Should we decide to keep Shepke consulting as our lake manager, we're going to have to restructure how that's done. you can put him under soil erosion as opposed to drain commission office because he's not going to be drain commissioner anyway. Um, but we're going to have to make that decision fairly soon how we handle that. Let's put that as a discussion point for next meeting. Okay.

I think it should be a work session discussion. Roll it into the some of the other pieces. And if somebody has those options, what's the pro, what's the con, what can we do, what can we not do? I'd like to see that presented and talked about as we look at it. So, all right. Thank you.

Now, we're motions and resolutions. I was finishing my notes. Thank you. Motion number one, move to adopt the updated acceptable use policy as presented. Policy replaces all existing countywide policies referencing acceptable use of electronic information systems. So,

I'll support any discussion. Roll call, please. Wolson, yes. Milbour, yes. Mley, yes. Motion carried. Number two, move to authorize administrator controller Jod Schultz to allocate $25,000 from the economic development special projects fund to a newly established freshwater trails fund. Set aside money shall be utilized to finalize and maintain the Freshwater Trails project, including kiosks, brochures, and annual upkeep. So moved. I'll support. Any discussion? We do have some questions. Who's going to control that money or oversee it?

The board controls all the money. Um, so I'll oversee it. I did speak directly to our Holton Lake chamber person the other day and she is more than willing to take on um the brochure portion of that and um she was going to get some more information from the other chambers and see how they could maybe they meet anyhow they'll meet regardless of an economic development how that can be utilized for that. So then essentially requests would come through to my office to refund them for purchases. So

thank you. I now that you asked a good question. So with that, it sounds like maybe the chamber will be the funnel, the one person to come to you with any of the anything that needs to be paid for out of that 25,000 that we've already heard about because they gave that presentation. That was my request. I thought it would be easier after the last meeting discussion. If it all goes through you and then it comes for payment, then I'm good with that. Thank you. I guess we're ready for a vote on that one. Milbour, yes. Mley, yes. Wolson, yes. Motion carried.

Motion number three, move to authorize chair Darlene Spencer, director of equalization Jamie Howerman and county clerk Michelle M. Stevenson to sign the statements of acreage and valuations, all 4024s as equalized by the Ross common county board of commissioners and county board of commissioners assessment role certifications. L437/2691 countywide totals and individually for each municipality. So moved. I'll second

discussion. Yes. I have discussion. This is important to be signed today. Our chairperson is not here. So I will be signing in li of. Do we need to have that in it? Motion. Mhm. I recommend that we put in the motion, Mr. Chair.

So, I think technically you have to vote this motion down now and then offer a new motion. Well, our board rules state if the chairperson's not here, the chair, vice chair, correct, can act within their sign. So, I would say I don't know if that covered us in this case or I think it does. Yep. We're good with this one. Cool. Just because we discussed it in public, the rule should apply. Then we move ahead. Wolfson, yes. Milbour, yes. Moley, yes.

Motion carried. Number four, move to adopt the res the resolution number 2026-04-01, adoption of acreage and valuation as equalized by the Roscom County Board of Commissioners. Adoption of acreage and valuations as equalized by the Roscom County Board of Commissioners. Whereas the honorable members of the board of commissioners, County of Ross common, Michigan, hereby certify that the assessments the assessment roles of the townships and village have been examined and whereas we find the roles relatively equal as equalized. Therefore, be it resolved that the Roscom County Board of Commissioners hereby recommends that the valuations be equalized on taxable property by class in Roscommen County for the year 2026. in compliance with sections 209.5 and 211.34 MCL of 1948 as amended and in accordance with the equalization certificates

to move. I'll support. Any discussion? I'd like to publicly thank Jamie and her staff for an excellent report. Thank you. Mley, yes. Wolson, yes. Milburn, yes.

Resolution adopted. Number five, move to adopt resolution number 2026-04-02, resolution submitting to a vote of the electorate a special millage for continuing comprehensive emergency telephone service, E911. Resolution submitting to a vote of the electorate a special millage for continuing comprehensive emergency telephone services, E911. Whereas Ross Common County has established and maintained a countywide system of emergency telephone and central dispatch services for the benefit of the citizens of the county. And whereas the 911 emergency telephone and central dispatch services are of substantial benefit to the citizens of the county of Ross Common. And whereas the requested 1.0 mill of funding was approved by the electorate to operate countywide 911 emergency telephone and central dispatch services in August 2022. and that millillage authorization expired on December 31st, 2025. Therefore, be it resolved that the following question be submitted to a vote of the electorate of Ross Common County at the primary election to be held August 4th, 2026. Ross Common County E911 emergency telephone system and central dispatch operations while the expired previously voted increases in the tax limitation imposed under article 9 section 6 of the Michigan Constitution in the county of Ross Common of 1.0000 0000 mil, $1 per $1,000 of taxable value and reduced to.9689 MS.9689 cents of $1,000 of taxable value by the required millage rollbacks be increased to 1.0000 0000 mills, $1 per $1,000 of taxable value, and levied for a period of four years, 2026 through 2029 inclusive, for the purpose of continuing the operation of a comprehensive E911 emergency telephone system and central dispatch operations in Ross Common County, raising an estimated 1,884,93365

in the first year the millillage is levied. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Vote, please. Wolson. Yes. Morley. Yes. Milurn. Yes. Resolution adopted.

We're at committee reports. Commissioner Mley.

Yes. Um, unfortunately people will have to listen to a little bit of this because it was a somewhat of a busy week. I was unable to attend the village council meeting on April 13th and the Garish Township meeting on the 14th. They did get a written update of what's going on in the county as well. Um, April 15th, I listened to and participated in the collaborative body meeting. There is so much going on with every agency that provides human services in this county. I can't touch on all of them. Um, the transportation group has increased their um, drivers pay and I think that might help get some more drivers that they're in need of. There's preventative services for youth going on. Um, found out our elderly population is the number one opioid overdose group of people in this county. Just information for people to know. Um, I ended that meeting on my end saying we are finalizing what our goals are and I asked what the collaborative body is working on as a collaborative like what are they all pulling their resources to solve and there is not one but they told me to share with the board that they believe that we should start putting money towards helping repair houses that are not livable in our area to help the housing area. But at this point there is not a collective project that they are working on together. So that's that. April 16th, Northern Lakes Community Mental Health from um did a recipients rights training the history of what has gone on in mental health from labbotoies to spinning people and it's pretty crazy. But we reviewed all the rights that a recipient would have as well as any of their guardians and what are those terms

and what do those mean. Um they reviewed the process that it takes to get into those programs as well as the roles of each of the staff, the amount of training each of them have to have, the site visit work that they have to do and how they report back if the people who are housing those people aren't handling things properly. So, it was it was two hours of some really good training. It is a requirement if you're on that board to participate in that and some people haven't in the past. So, that was good. Um, there is a placement issue that many times people with mental health could be in our emergency rooms for 30 to 90 days because there's no place to take them. So, that's a struggle and a strain on our emergency hospital system as well as not having enough homes or places for these people to be placed. And that is a challenge across this whole state, probably maybe even the country. Um, then we had lunch at the Traverse City Clubhouse. That is where many of the mental health people in Traverse City come and they learn skills to be back into the comm community. They cook, they do meal planning. So, they served us lunch. We got to meet with a lot of the people that are um using those services, which was good. Noon to 1 was a normal board meeting. Um, I do know that the CEO does send a lot of reports to our controllers. So, you can look at those when she sends those to us. Um, we do need to get them on our calendar for them to come and present. Were the last ones to be on there, so she was wondering if she could get on that schedule. Um, I won't go into a lot more of those. Utilization in this county is pretty stable. So, we get those numbers every month as well. And so, that's pretty stable. We average about 300 people taking act, you know, advantage of those

services just from our county. Um, April 20th, I attended the EDA meeting. Um, they do have a new village manager. That is Jason Hailier that has been replaced. And Caitlyn Tyler has been um appointed to be their economic development director. Farmers Market kicks off May 16th. That's it. Thank you. Thank you, Mark.

If you haven't been to the COA lately, uh we the group met last Wednesday at the Roscom Center. The food is tremendous and the the COA offers so many different opportunities. They have penny bingo and mal matter balance classes and all kinds of activities. Matter of fact, my wife is going to go to to DC next week with her sister because they offer these these tours and travel travels. Uh Lori Sar from Nkco was was attended. The big takeaway was Telat. Deborah Looney is going to be coming forward to us or give me some information in regard to Telmat. Big takeaway at the action agency in Traverse City was Chuck Corwin. Many you know him. He was person of the year a couple years ago. He's going to be honored as volunteer person of the year for NKA May 20th. And I plan to attend that meeting down in Lansing. That's all I have. Thank you.

Thank you. Um, our materials management planning, I'd like to announce that we just got a reimbursement on 4726 of $10,697.14. Um, we put in for another couple thousand reimbursement, but we don't expect to see that for a couple months yet. Also, Jody and I had a Zoom meeting with Lexipole. Is that how you pronounce it? Yes.

On the company to do our policies. First around it was very costly and out of our price range. Our controller has been negotiating a new price with them for what services we need. Um, but I haven't heard the total outcome of that yet. Maybe Jody has an update on that. We are going to um have that follow-up meeting with them and when we have that follow-up meeting, they should have us closer to the $10,000 range that we originally anticipated.

So, at this point, continuing reviewing our policies, we're going to wait to see what that outcome is. I mean, some of these policies are so simple, we don't need to paid somebody else to do it, but some of them are. And so, you know, at this point, we're going to put on hold the rest of the policies and reviewing them and seeing what we're going to do until we get that settled. That's all I have. Now, we're down to public comment. Do we have any public comment? Yes, sir. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to continue my public comment if you does the timer work up there so I can see how much time I got. Yes,

it runs real fast. Before Before it starts, I'd like to apologize for my outburst in the hallway that interrupted this meeting. I'm sorry about that.

I'm ready. Okay. Uh I I can I can understand your reluctance when I said earlier that I would offer my services as consulting or whatever for for for operating the dam in the future. You know, I can just see your eyes spinning and your motors running. You know, oh that crazy lunatic low water Melbourne, which I was labeled for 14 years or so. You know, I was they they they they had to villainize the person that was maintaining the legal level according to the court order. They had to villainize me so they could justify their their little thing that they got going now. This the the the uh culture of high water. So, I want to say I'm not Low Water Melvin. I was follow the court order Melvin. I never took an action contrary to the court order. Never. That's why I was never successfully sued in 14 years. Yes, a lawsuit was presented to the judge and he denied it. Uh a and you know, the only reason I'd come back on and do something is if you did a contract with me uh for a dollar with a stipulation that I was be ordered to follow the court order as it was before all of this comic book manual came out. When I was first elected as commissioner, there was a temporary court order and it lasted for five years and they tried to take the lake down 9 in because there was ice damage and there was high water damage in the springtime and if you didn't get that lake down that 6 or nine in back then there was problems and people people were concerned about that and and and a a petition was uh in the 1980s was was filed with the commissioners to

start following the court order because there was this culture of high water. And um the judge called me in for a temporary hearing halfway through this temporary court order and and his question to me was, "Can you get the water level back up? If if you take it down 9 in, can you get the water back up to seven to the summer level?" I told him, "Well, the only two years that I done it, yes, judge, it got it got back up to summer level. No problem." Now, could we take it down 9 in? No. We took it in 5 years, we took the lake down 9 in for one day. In other words, leaving the gates wide open, doing everything you can to try and drain that lake. We could not take it down 9 in and hold it there. So there were years when you couldn't even get it down to the 6 in with the gates wide open, but at least the gates were wide open and there was an attempt made to get to the 6-in draw down. There's a reason for it. Now you got these new people come up here and they're driving this high water culture. So you could, you know, you can do with what you want to about that. So when the judge had this temporary court order, he ordered an environmental and ecological study. He wasn't going to make any drastic changes to the way the lake is operated, any of the lakes without an environmental and ecological impact study that was completed. It was a very expensive, very thorough study. They measured every dockend, every water level, every configuration of the dam and every amount of water. So, um, you've got that environmental impact. I don't think any environmental impact study was done when you presented this comic book manual. The H Hotton Lake level has gone up 3 in since that gauge was mysteriously

removed. This gentleman back here referred to. It's gone up now to 25 in over summer level. It's gone up another three inches because there because we're sending maximum amount of water downstream from from Higgins Lake. We're not Well, I don't know. Maybe we are holding some back. I don't know. There used to be a log book. When I first started, there was no log book. They started a log book that records the gate positions and the lake levels. What happened to the log book? Is it still in existence? We used to be able to go to the commissioner's website and see what the configuration of the gates were and what the lake level was. I don't know. So with the high water on Higgins, there's only certain amount of water that can go underneath those 38 foot culverts at the Cut River Bridge. You can only take an inch off a week at most under ideal conditions. But now you've got all this extra water coming in. So if you can only take an inch off a week and you're 8 inches over, there's eight weeks before you're even going to get back to summer low and normal precipitation is going to be 6 in during that time. So you're not going to gain anything. You're going to this problem is not going away. You're stuck with it.

Any other public comment has come forward. keeping trying to keep my thoughts in order here and I apologize. I'm still a bit rattled. I'll be this way for quite a while. Uh the flood water we have will be here for quite a while, perhaps a month. uh quite a long quite a while ago uh someone was concerned about misinformation and halftruths uh and coverups. Uh of course we had the hearing to raise a lake level and uh I testified as to the wide to the flooding around H Hotton Lake. Uh, a lot of it was snow, melt, and rain, but along Iricquoise, it was most certainly uh coming out of the lake and flooding people's yards. I had pictures uh and of course you had attorneys. Uh I testified. If you thought there was thought I was uh not speaking the truth, your attorneys could have cross-examined me if they wanted to. had pictures and dates and uh I still got them uh lots of pictures. Uh covering things up. Uh right now is a time we should be gathering as much information as we can. We have an epic flood. Uh we should have elevations. We should have dates. We should have

pictures. People should be going community doortodoor. Do you need help? Uh, now's the time to gather information so we can we can create a future based on the truth and not on coverups. Uh, of course we have flood elevations for our lakes. Uh, quick conversation. Uh, I guess you guys are already aware of that. Uh, we've adopted the National Flood Plane Insurance Program, which means FEMA can come in. There's a number you can call if you want to get aid. Uh, a quick conversation. She said it has to be done. The governor has to call in the federal assistance. I I didn't think so. I thought you could do it locally here. Um let's see the Holton Lake uh flood plane elevation. This these are 100redyear floods. Holton Lake is a 1139.6. We're probably above that by 210 and we've been there for probably about a week. So we're we're over a flood stage. Uh people should know this. It's a 100redyear flood. And again, uh, we can get federal assistance. This is this is the most important thing going on in H Hotton Lake right now. Again, it was covered up at the trial. Uh,

it makes no difference. If I got 3 in of freeboard, 10 in of freeboard, 12 in of it doesn't make any difference. I can be at legal lake level and if the wind comes up, my lot will get inundated with water. It comes over the seaw wall. I measured it the other day. I got 6 in of freeboard and it was a calm. There was some wind blowing the other way. Uh so I imagine uh anyway this is uh printed new hawk uh uh they mapped the s events on Holton Lake uh estimated data 30 mph wind event can cause 6 in or greater change in the lake. They saw a 9 in lake level increase with a 30 mph wind. It's plotted. We're going to have high lake levels for about a month. Anytime the wind blows my way, me and Mr. Bisby will be out there with the other neighbors. We'll have our pumps. We got our sandbags. We got our cement blocks. We'll probably be trying to save our homes. Why would you want to cover this up in a trial? And why are you covering it up right now? These people should know when the wind blows, they're going to get clobbered. I know why you don't want to talk about flood planes and flood insurance.

Thank you. People will lose a lot of value once they have to have flood insurance. I could lose $300,000, but I don't give a We need to have it. Any other public comment? Yes. Come up, please. I guess. Thank you very much. It's been good to be back in front of the board again. It's been a little while. Anyway, uh my uh Eric Ostren, announce your name and address, please.

Yes. Eric Austrren, Midland, Michigan, former resident and commissioner of this board. Uh I'm speaking in response to the email from Val Smith that was included in the agenda. Uh, it's clear to me and everyone on Higgins that Val Smith represents a small minority of lakefront owners on Higgins Lake, specifically those who recently lost a court case in advocating for a lower level. It's important to emphasize that this perspective does not reflect the views of the broader community. The low water level supporters are indeed the minority on Higgins. The arguments presented in Val Smith's email are both myopic and intellectually unsound. as we've heard and experienced has shown us that Michigan has experienced unprecedented rainfall. This excessive ex excessive rainfall cannot be viewed as just another ordinary experience. It's very rare to have this kind of rain. I commend the board on pursuing a permanent solution to our water management challenges. However, as you know, I oppose the funding mechanisms being considered, particularly regarding the special assessment district. While this is a separate issue, it's important to focus on the implications of Val Smith's recommendations. In her email, Miss Smith suggests that the rocks reinstalled last summer to restore the stream bed to its original condition should be removed again. It's essential to remember that these rocks were illegally removed in 2014, and her proposal to remove them again would be equally unlawful. Removing these rocks and the splash guards would undoubtedly reduce the water level on Higgins. But such an action would have devastating consequences downstream. As reported by the US Geological Survey this past Saturday, Higgins Lake was recorded at 7.8 in above the summer level at 5 point which is 5.37 gauge which is the highest

level I've ever documented. This is a serious concern, but it's crucial to consider where the excess water from Higgins ultimately flows. As a delegated authority, all of you, for our lakes, you must consider the impact on H Hotton Lake. Miss Smith's perspective fails to acknowledge that while Higgins was 7.8 in over the legal limit. H Hotton Lake was experiencing an alarming 24 inches above its summer level of 8.1 gauge almost three times the amount of water on H Hotton. This is a significant discrepancy means that her proposed solution would exasperate flooding on Holton where many homes are already taking on water as we've heard with some in knee deep conditions in their living rooms. Instead of advocating for measures that would send more water downstream during this critical time, I would urge this board urge this board to reconsider or consider retaining more water on Higgins Lake during heavy rainfall to prevent flooding on H Hotton. A more effective strategy would involve modifying the dam to provide greater flexibility in water control. This approach would allow you to hold back more water in the spring, similar to the practices currently implemented on H Hotton Lake with while gradually re restricting the spillway during the summer months as recommended by the Spicer Group back in 2010 where they recommend that a restrictor place restrictor plate be installed July the 1st. I I laughed when I heard Mr. Melvin volunteered to take over the management of the dam, but he has demonstrated a tremendous amount of incompetence in the past managing the dam and and on Higgins and that would be counterproductive. Apparently, Mr. Melvin can see into the future and would have anticipated the excessive rainfall we just experienced, which of course would mean even higher water levels on H Hotton. That is his solution. Lower Higgins and raise H Hotton. I was also surprised to hear that he wants to do what he constantly wanted to be removed from when he was on this board. He wanted to be taken off

that com off that responsibility managing the dam. Mr. Melvin stated that an environmental impact study was done. Not true. It was a hydraological study. I don't know what he's smoking, but what he said incoherently stated is lacking in fact and truth. No one on this board could have anticipated this massive water event. It wasn't the commissioner's fault. I know they're doing their best considering everything that has taken place. In conclusion, the importance of viewing our water management strategies through the lens of the entire watershed cannot be overstated. We must prioritize sustainable solutions, not only and not only address the immediate concerns of a select few, but also account for the broader ecological and community impacts. I strongly encourage the board to take these considerations into account as you move forward. Thank you for your attention to this critical matter and I hope you proceed accordingly. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other public comment? Yes.

Jody Shaw, Scarish Township. So, I will start very quickly by saying that as most of our county knows and certainly um commissioners, fellow employees, elected officials know, I have spent the last few years in recovery from Mr. Astrean's attacks um and swam as far away from our lakes as I possibly can. Um that being said, today I feel like somebody dragged me back in and is holding me underwater. So, I wanted to take a minute to just address a couple items um where my name was mentioned in public comments. So, the first thing that I want to address is um Mr. Cterman states that his foyer request that he sent on 327 that he hasn't heard anything yet. Um actually, he had an email response back to him on April 1st of 2026 in regards to that in which his foyer was approved for any relevant documents. Um the documents have not been provided yet because I have not been able to search for them. There is no law or court ruling that says that the documents must be responded and provided in a certain amount of day. Just a denial or granting or answer is provided. The second thing that I want to address um and I'll stick with Mr. Aadaman. I just want to address flood insurance because I was on the Gish Township board at that time. flood insurance must actually um be held if it is an NFIP community. An NFIP community in our county must be done at a township level. Um in order to do that, that local municipality has to adopt and enforce flood plane management regulations. A lot of those regulations, I will be very honest with you, at the time that I was in Garish, were argued strenuously against um not by the board, but by members that owned property abuing the lake because of lake level

concerns. Therefore, I would encourage the public that if they want to participate in that plan, you must go to your township and speak with them. The other portion I want to address is the continuous talk of gauge removals. Um, very publicly this board had discussions about hi-fi and USGS. We had plenty of public that complained frequently about hi-fi using confusion. Is it datim this? Is it datim that? Um, complaining about hi-fi. So, this board smartly chose to go back to USGS who records and maintains that da d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d da in perpetuity. So, there is no gauge removal hiding. It is a switch from Hi-Fi to USGS. Um the last thing that I want to say and I will start with saying I adore former commissioner Melvin. Um but I want to clarify it was a text communication from Mr. Melvin to me expressing his frustration on the management of Higgins Lake St. Helen and Holton Lake very much so how he has expressed that here today which is his right as a citizen. My only response was that Holton Lake is currently the most boisterous with their flooding and that Higgins Lake would probably not issue any formal complaints or verbal complaints. They would simply file a lawsuit. Um, which I think we all find to be true. And finally, with my last little bit of time that I have, um, I would just like to state that I have watched 11 years worth of lake level arguments come and go. Um, as much as this board is trying to be open and honest and make progress, um, the roadblocks being thrown at you are the same roadblocks that were thrown out on all two lakes. I'll say two of three for the last 100 years.

Historically, I think we all know that these are highly argumentative and litigacious issues. you will always have um high water people, lowwater people, and people that just want to live on the lake and enjoy it. Um we do our best as uh communities to to wrap around that. Um in the Higgins Lake area where I live, it is it is a constant battle. I can stand on one side of the lake one day and it's low, go to the other side and it's high. Um you are trying to do the best that you can. I believe that you want to do the best that you can for all of the people. So, I appreciate that and I appreciate you taking it on and I appreciate you helping me stay as far away from lake levels as possible. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other public comment? Yes.

Mine will be brief. Um maybe maybe not. I started. Okay. Michelle Stevenson. Um, I'm actually speaking as the county clerk, so I just wanted to give you a quick update because I didn't have time to prepare a clerk report for you. So, I just want to give you a quick update of what we've been working on. So, I've mentioned this before, but um earlier this month, we did a property property alert presentation at the COA in um St. Helen. We have one upcoming this Friday in Ross Common and then the one for Holton Lake is going to be in May where we presented information to the attendees or we're presenting information to the attendees regarding the property alert program that we offer through the register of deeds office and um helped people sign up and provided them with information if they wanted to sign up on their own. Um there was a few people in attendance. It was very wellreceived. They had great questions. So, um, we're looking forward to continuing that outreach. Um, recalls. So, I have one that's currently in process. Petitions are being circulated. Filing deadline or the petitions are only valid for that till June 21st, 20th, 21st. Um, we just recently had another recall clarity and factual hearing. That's in the appeal period currently. We had additional wording filed for another officer on Monday. So, we will be having the clarity and factual hearing on April 30th for that. Um, to throw in with all of that, we had the drain commissioner vacancy come up. So, now we've got to I've got to manage all of that and prepare that, post that, do that whole process. Um, I conducted two election inspector trainings this month before the election. So, election inspector training has to be offered before every election. And with this being the evenumbered year, this is when the bulk of everybody gets certified. So, I will be doing additional trainings in the summer. That's when the bulk of the inspectors are certified for elections. Um, we've been busy with our election preparation for the May

election, which is May 5th for the Ross Common Area Public Schools. In the meantime, we're also preparing for the August election because there's filing deadlines. Yesterday was the filing deadline for all partisan candidates for any of the positions that are open. Um, the precinct delegate filing deadline is coming up as well. The board of canvasers will be meeting on May 7th to certify um or to begin the canvas for the May 5th election. Whether or not they can certify that day will depend on whether or not we have any outstanding move ballots, any outstanding signature cure ballots, or any outstanding provisional ballots. Um they're also going to be certifying ballot containers, which is required to be done every four years. We will be sending out juror qualification questionnaires as soon as we get our envelopes. We ordered those early March from the MDOC printing company. And um apparently my response and approval got lost in his email till the end of March and so I'm still waiting on those envelopes and it's not really voting well that I will utilize them again. Sometimes saving money isn't always the best plan. So it's causing a delay for us. But we also have the jury board organizational meeting coming up in May as well. And then at that time they'll decide when they're going to meet to um review and qualify jurors. So, that's my quick update on what we've been working on. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other public comment? Yes.

Hey, Bisby Holden Lake again. Uh, I'm going to respond a little bit to the Wi-Fi removal. The USGS is down a channel on the northwest corner of H Hotton Lake. That's almost 8 miles from where the Wi-Fi that was removed was. It might be only seven miles, but it's in that range. The area of concern a lot is on the side that receives the sesh from the wind. If anyone really was considering the safety of the lake and the actual knowledge of what's taking place, that USGS that they just reinitiated should have been put where the Wi-Fi system that was removed should have been put there. That gives a truer picture of what the lake is doing. The one now is down on channel. Second of all, it was mentioned here a little bit ago that nobody could have predicted what took place. Well, I'm sorry, but what was presented to Judge Bennett was we have the ability now to forecast and look forward because we can gain information from the National Weather Service and know ahead of time. So using the manual comic book that we have, we could respond and adjust accordingly to do what is needed to protect the people in the lake. And that's what was presented to Judge Bennett, not Dave Bisby presenting that. That's what the attorney presented to Judge Bennett from the county. So it does look like there's a conflict there of your own interest and

information. You either can or you can't. And if you can't, you need to go back and re-evaluate and do what is necessary to give you the tools to do what people are expecting of you. That's my position and point of concern today. Thank you. Thank you. Any other public comment? Yes, please come forward. change the subject here. Hello, Jeff Zable. I'm in Marky Township and I am also now the newly elected uh Roscom County Republican Party Chairman. We held our election a couple weeks ago. My wife Bonnie had is vice chair and had been acting chair for the last three months since Mike Edwards resigned and resigned his position in the county as well. So, I've been helping her out. So, I'm up to speed. So, it's kind of a not really any drop off as far as getting started. That said, a quick update. We did hold a event on March 15th, the night of the Icetorm at the Killcare Inn for Republican Attorney General, Secretary of State candidates. We had a tremendous turnout, including delegates from 10 different counties showing up raving the weather. We had more of better weather. And weather aside, you kind of even said we were the best event with the best turnout in all of Northern Michigan. So, we're kind of on the map and we got a good relationship with uh Doug Lloyd and Anthony Pini who were endorsed at the convention last month. That said, we can we're now going to focus our thing on bringing in candidates that are going to be on the August ballot to Roscom County so people could uh get to know them and bring them up. So, we're hoping we could get, you know, congressional senator candidates, uh, governor candidates, anyone for

running for state or national office since there's not too many local races going on right now. So, I would say follow the Rosscom County Republican Facebook if you're interested. That's be the quickest updating when we get somebody that we know coming. We could update fast that faster than our website because some of these might come together last minute. Might be a quick meet and greet or might be a more formal thing depending on amount of time we have. On May 21st, which our normal meetings are the third Thursday of the month at the Marquy Township Hall. So next month, May 21st, we'll have Lance Griffin of 10X votes at our meeting. Technically, we'll have a short meeting, then adjourn it for Lance to talk because we want to live stream it. So, that way we can legally live stream and not interfere with our meeting. So, he is a get out to vote organizer. So, hopefully with no matter what your political persuasion is, hopefully everybody gets out and votes this year. Um, and just again, Republican Roscom County Republicans meet the third Thursday of the month at the Marquy Township Hall. And if you're on the Democrat persuasion, the Democrat Republican party meets the fourth Wednesday every month at the Denton Township Hall. Regardless of your party affiliation, I advise everybody, please get involved. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other public comment? Seeing none, we'll move on to board comment. Commissioner Mley, do you have any comments? I think the ones I have will flow nicely at the work session we talk about strategic planning. So, I'm good. Mr. Mayor,

as Rob pointed out, we're working on the 250th, but but I I I've been a commissioner now for 24 years, and I must make this comment. Uh I think I've always respected public comment. I've never responded, but I must vehemently and categorically deny there's any cover up in this commission. I vehemently and categorically deny any cover up of this commission. I think they need to go on record. Thank you. Thank you. Um, I'd like to mention the very people that are here today chastising us for taking Hi-I off the lake. A few months ago were the people saying it's no good. It don't work right. We shouldn't be using it. Also, yesterday I was fishing on Holton Lake area. I've talked to several residents and by phone also on the flooding issue. The comment was always in the tone of, "I've been here 45 years and I've never seen the water levels this high." If someone could have predicted this, their services would be invaluable by the millions to anybody in this state. Nobody could have predicted this. Not even your weather forecasters. It's just this is something that happened and it was beyond our control or anybody's control. That's it. Any other comment? With that, we'll adjourn and we'll return to our work session at 11:25. Thank you.

Jessica Gilbert, director, E911. I'm Jim Fontaine, a resident of Nester Township.

So, I'm here to introduce Mr. James Fontaine and respectfully request your consideration in appointing him to the Roscommen County 911 Authority Board as the citizen at large representative. Mr. Fontaine submitted his letter of interest on February 24th, 2026. Following a review by the authority board, a motion was made to approve his appointment at our special meeting on April 6th. We believe Mr. Fontaine will be a valuable addition to the board given his extensive experience and qualifications. He spent 35 years in the nuclear power industry serving in an emergency management role where he built working relationships with FEMA, the Department of Homeland Security, and the FBI. He has been a year year-round resident of Ross Common County for more than 10 years and is now retired, allowing him the time and availability to fully commit to the board.

You have any comment, sir? Uh, no. I'm just very uh pleased at the opportunity that I'm given to uh to serve and uh I look forward to uh being very useful at some point. I do have a lot to learn but uh uh I'm I am looking forward to it. Any comment from the board? I sense that you're a quick learner. Uh, I professionally, believe it or not, I think some of the best jobs that I ever did was when I walked into something not knowing a lot and having to learn it and uh, I ended up doing better in those kind of situations and this may be one of those. Willing to serve. Vice Chair,

I'd like to mention I looked over your resume. It's quite impressive. Thank you. I was going to tag team on that as serving on the 911 board as well. I am new to that group and I'm learning a lot as well. But as I listen to the conversation and the information that you share being on cert teams, I mean I'm not biionucleionics. I mean, wow, that was just way over my head. So I may never learn that one. but to see what you've done and how you've been able to be connected, I think you'd be a great value to that board and help us do things even better. So, thank you for your willingness to serve. Appreciate it. Thank you.

So, we have consensus to move this to the next level at the next meeting and vote this in. I I agree. Thank you. But we might want to grab a good A in case he changes his mind. Thank you, sir.

Next next we'll have National Safe Voting Week. Good to see you fellas. Thanks for being here.

Well, good morning to all the members of the commission and the staff. Just first thank everybody for uh allow allowing us to be here and for your support for the National Safe Boating Week uh which we've done for the last several years. Uh I'm James Mer. Uh I'm currently a district captain uh for the Great Lakes Central District Sector North and Great Lakes. Uh as the district captain, I'm responsible for six flutellas that are in Michigan and then a couple more over in Wisconsin and Minnesota. With me today, uh to my left is Larry Williams, who's currently the vice commander uh for the Ross Common Flotilla. Every year in Michigan, thousands of people go to our area lakes for a variety of purposes, boating, fishing, sailing, paddling, etc. And National Save Boating Week um is an annual event obviously uh that the Coast Guard and a number of other similar organizations uh get together to encourage safe boating uh and that we go out on the water safely, responsibly. In Michigan annually we lose about a hundred people to groundings and most of them are on the Great Lakes uh but still um they are occurring in the state. The studies that the Coast Guard has done show that the vast majority of those incidences are due to human error a variety of times. And not only that, but 83% of those drowning incidents would have been prevented if they'd have been wearing a life jacket. And we encourage people to vote safely, wear the life jackets, uh, attend boating safety classes. I'll talk more about that in just a moment. Take advantage of the free safety voting

checks that the Coast Guard and the Coast Guard auxiliary does. Uh, stay sober. And with all of that working together, we can be come back the same way we left, safe and in one piece, as I say. As most of you know, last year we had two tragic incidences on our area lakes. Uh, one of which, um, had one fatality and several serious injuries. Uh, and then we had another one over on Higgins Lake that injured two people very seriously out there. So, they do happen. Uh the auxiliary just as some background information was formed by an act of Congress back in 1939 with the primary purpose mission of recreational boating safety. The auxiliary is a significant part of the overall coast guard organization. We are the voluntary side um but we are the unformed component. We train to the same standards. We work side by side with the active duty coasties almost on a daily basis in a variety of those. We are often referred to a force multiplier for them uh not only in their mission support uh but uh in a lot of other aspects that the Coast Guard active duty folks need. There's around 42,000 active duty coasties right now. probably 7,000 or so reserveists and kind of putting things in perspective number-wise is almost 20,000 auxiliarists. So there's about 50% of the force out there every day that are actually on the volunteer side with all that. There's actually a document out there called Force Design 2028 uh that was issued um in early uh 25 and they expect they hope they're working on

adding another 15,000 active duty coasties to the role by 2028. And of course that's going to mean that there's increased responsibilities and missions also for the auxiliarist to support them. So we work side by side with them in both air and surface missions. Uh the vessel exams that I mentioned, uninspected passenger vessels, which is kind of an oxymoron, uh radio operators, which Larry and myself both are. Some of our auxiliarists also serve as watch standers uh at small boat stations. We do marine safety uh of all types. And one of our other parts that uh really important is our culinary folks um that support the active duty folks the at small boat stations and sometimes out on the cutters. We verify navigational aids like boys, channel markers, things like that. And of course we also have a very active chaplain corps uh that supports not only auxiliary but the active duty uh coasties and all of the military across that. So we're looking at the Ross common flutility. It's been around since 1998. Um, and it's part of that central division. So, our fellow flotillas are in Marquette, uh, Alpena, Charavoy, Traverse City, and Shabboan. And we cover essentially 4500 miles of shoreline for the Great Lakes overall. Uh and of course the other part the auxiliary alpha comes into play is that we'll take care of the inland lakes that the active duty folks just can't get to. So there's a quite a number of us around. Just to put you perspective of what the local flotilla has done. Uh last year we did some 300 vessel exams. Uh we do um maintain a VHF marine radio

watch on a regular basis uh that covers both of the lakes. We've also had a presence in a number of other events. Uh National Night Out, Memorial Day parade, Michigan State Firefighters Festival, um the Osabo Canoe Race, which is really an interesting event that we do the inspections of the canoes prior to the race and also at the finish line, which is a real interesting day, so to speak. Um Larry has also been a big leader in our partnership program with local businesses uh in distributing boating safety information. Uh and I want to recognize him for one of the other things that he does and he came up with was to put together a package of boating safety information uh that were given to marine dealers that you can give to new people when they buy a new boat. Uh which is something we haven't done in the past which is really good. If you've been to any of the uh public launches in the last couple of years, you've noticed on every one of the DNR launches, there's a sign on those that says remember to wear it. Uh we put those up a couple of years ago and we still kind of keep an eye on those and replace them as necessary. Uh we've also partnered with another group uh with the life jacket loaner stations that are at a number of the marinas and the launches. We provided some life jackets for them at all of that. Last year, 2025, the 10 members of the Ross common flotillaa contributed over 6,000 mission hours volunteer service. And if you put that into perspective of what that saved the taxpayers, that's worth about $175,000 just in our little flotilla itself. Uh if we look at all of our flotillas in our district, um they had 17,000 hours, which is worth about a half a million bucks. And if I look at all of our district, which is all of Michigan, a little bit of Ohio, Indiana,

and whatever, that was over a 100,000 hours, which is worth $3 million volunteer services that the auxiliary has provided. The uh we do have four voting safety classes planned for this year. As Commissioner Morley knows, we talked about one of those the other day at Pioneer. The other three will be at our meeting room at Garish Township. U this year we're doing those a little bit differently. We're doing them as a joint project between the auxiliary, the marine division of the sheriff's office and DNR. Um so registration is through the DNR website this year. So if they anybody's interested, they can go to the DNR website, find the link, uh, and register for those classes. And we're also working with the members of the Traverse City Flotilla who have some auxiliarists that are qualified paddlecraft folks uh, to put on a paddlecraft class at a local the Morocco Marina, Good Days Marina, uh, later this year. They're working on the details right now. Uh our Facebook page is visited probably a thousand times a day the messages that we put out. Um so we stay pretty busy with up even though there's just 10 of us in this flotillaa and part of that again is supporting the national safe boating week uh as part of that to get that message across. And we just remind everybody, you know, that with the life jackets, which is a part of the mission of National Safe Boating Week, that the life jacket belongs on you, not on the boat. And kind of tag along with that is the life jacket floats, you don't. Uh, and as we show them in the boating safety class, the time between you realize something is going wrong and the time you need that jacket on is generally too short to get it out and get it on. Uh, you just need to get used to wearing it. It's kind of like going in the car and getting on a seat belt. When your when your behind

hits the boat seat, you put the life jacket on. My family drives me wets because they don't set foot on the boat unless they've got a life jacket on. Grand boss, sorry. Put a life jacket on. That's the way it is. All right. I've been glad to answer any questions that the board or staff has. We have any questions from the board? Yes, commissioner. I served for 23 years in the Marine Corps, so I think I've earned some credibility. I've worked with the Coast Guard in the in the in the past. You guys don't get the credit you deserve. You're often on the cutting edge. So, thank you for your willing to continue to serve. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Chair. Um, obviously being in that industry, we do understand the importance of it and um, thank you for allowing us and giving us packets to give to people. Every time they buy a boat, it goes into their voting packet. So, that that's good. But I also would like since hopefully this is recorded too, it is also we can educate all day long. People have to do it. They have to take some accountability and we can either write them tickets if the sheriff's department sees them and say, "Hey, not again." I mean, at some point we can educate all day long. And I truly believe it's got to be a person's accountability as well. And spend a lot putting up signs, but sometimes they just don't put that life jacket on, do they?

Yeah. It's really with that thing. One of the things that we've done for the last couple of years in that boating safety class is we've got a video clip of some fisherman out. Mhm.

And they realize they're getting they're are going to be run over by a larger boat. Okay. And we play that video clip just to play the clip. All right. To see it. Then we play it again and we say, "Now, I want you to count from the time those people on that fishing boat realize they're getting ready to get run over and the time that they actually get run over." One, two, three, four. Then we drag out a box just like it'd be a a boat seat that's got full of life jackets of all sizes. And we play that again, except this time we've got a we've picked up a couple of people out of the room and said, "Now, when you see that point, you got to get a life jacket out of that box and get it on." Nobody ever does. And we just have to bluntly look at them going, "You're dead." That's how quick it can happen. You know, you're dead. And we've seen we we've had some real big folks try to put on a kids life jacket. It's, you know, in a way that's funny, but it just drives that point home. You've got to wear it. If you don't wear it, it doesn't do any good to sit on it.

Absolutely. And thank I think we've already provided a copy of the proclamation for you. So, do you have any comments from your support person? Happy to be here. Happy to support safety. I get to come and see you. So, thank you all. Thank you for coming. Larry's been with the auxiliary for a couple of years now and I wish I could run him through the copy machine because he's fantastic. Wish I had a bunch more of him. We need some more. Yes, we do. Anybody's interested, you know, you can get us through our our Facebook page. We get you set up. All right, gentlemen. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you. Thank you, folks.

Do we have consensus of the board to move this on the a motion next meeting? Yes, sir. Yeah, I would. Thank you. Okay, we're up to the treasures report from Mercy.

This is for the first quarter of 2026. Yes. So, everyone should have received my quarterly report um outlining um all of the bank balances for January, February, and March on this handy dandy little spreadsheet. Um behind that spreadsheet is all the supporting documentation out of our general ledger system um that I use to balance what's physically in the bank to what we have in the general ledger. meaning checks that were cut, deposits that were made, any um transactions in and out of the general ledger to make sure that they coincide with what is left in the bank at the end of each of those months. And you'll see on the general ledger report, there's typically a little spreadsheet at the bottom with any reconciling items. I take the balance of the cash at the top and then um usually credit card transactions are typically our reconciling items money that a department has accounted for at the end of a month and we don't physically receive that money at the bank until the first of the next month. So that is a reconciling item in order to get our um general ledger balance then to match with what is physically in the bank. So you'll see that for both January, Febru or for all three months, January, February, March. Um, and I like to highlight that for you so that you can see that what is in the bank matches what is ultimately in the general ledger. Um, interest still continues to come in um, fairly well. uh we ended in March with a total of 98,79162 that we received in interest from the um various investments. So that's still going quite heavily. Um I'm watching kind of what the feds are doing. I

haven't seen any indication that that's going to change much um for the next quarter. So we should stay fairly consistent with that. um to tag on to the the financial part of it, just to give you a little update on what has been going on in the treasur's office besides just balancing bank statements and credit cards and that type of thing. Um in January, kind of a quiet month for the office, um which is great because February and March are absolute um chaos and hectic for us. So, um just took care of the monthly balancing. Um we also balance what we call our tax payment funds. So, those are all of the delinquent taxes for the various years. We balance those from our tax system software to what is physically in the general ledger. So, that is done on a quarterly basis per the auditor. Um so, we work on that. uh certified notices were mailed out to all of the property owners who had delinquent 2024 taxes notifying them that on March 1st those taxes would be going into forefeiter at that time additional fees about $235 worth of fees are added on to what's owing plus their interest is increased from 1% to 1 and a.5%. So by statute, we have to send them a certified notice informing them that if they don't pay prior to March 1st, those fees are going to get added on. So that um that happened in January. We also begin um accepting payment arrangements on their 2023 taxes that will potentially go to foreclosure March

31st. So those payment agreement in that process starts in January. Um, we also create a brand new PR denial database for any PR denials that are issued beginning in January of 2026 through the end of the year. They're all kept in a separate database by year um to follow delinquent rollovers and things like that. Um, so that was done also. In February, uh my chief deputy and I attended the Michigan Association of County Treasures winter conference in Mount Pleasant. Um we conducted our show cause hearing on the 2023 forfeited taxes and the judicial foreclosure hearing on that same tax year. Those are also required by statute to um a process that has to be done prior to foreclosure to give those um folks a chance to dispute their tax bill or state a reason as to why they are improperly taxed. Um so those hearings were held um in February. We also begin our settlement process with the local units um on the 2025 delinquent taxes. So, um, I send all of the local units, uh, spreadsheet showing what they have sent into the county so far in dispersements for our county millages. Um, we begin that process of just making sure we're in balance. Um, all of our adjustments match, those types of things. Um, a big item that happened in February were the oral arguments that were heard before the US Supreme Court on the Pong v. the Isabella County case on fair market value for um tax sale and we have not had a decision come down yet on that. They're anticipating that no later than

June 26th. Um we're we're hoping it'll be sometime in May. So, we're still waiting that decision. Um, also with the resignation of the county prosecutor, I have retained legal counsel outside of the prosecutor for our tax foreclosure process. Um, Mike was very gracious to um, help us through um, motions and stipulations, things like that. Um but with Susan coming on and um relatively short staffed in that office, I did not think that was fair to add something else to her plate. So we have retained outside legal counsel for tax foreclosures. And those fees are all covered through various charges and fees that are added to delinquent taxes. So that's not something that comes out of the general fund. It's all handled through the tax payment fund. Um March 1st is when the 2024 taxes that were unpaid went into forefeiter. And so we recorded over 700 forefeiter certificates with the register of deeds. So that tells you that's about normal. I didn't see any real big change in those numbers from the prior year. We do average between 7 and 800 um forfeiters in any one given year. Um so that process happened in March. Um the 2025 taxes that were unpaid at your local units were all turned over to our office for collection. They are now considered a delinquent tax. So those sit in our office for payment. Um the last township completed their settlement process on March 26th, which was a little bit later than normally. We like to have that done and wrapped up by usually the middle of March. Um we just had one local unit that um had some balancing issues that needed to be

resolved prior to them coming in and settling. Um but that process has finished. Um March 31st was the final day for residents to pay their 2023 delinquent taxes to avoid tax foreclosure. Um we have foreclosed on 31 parcels um this year which is relatively average. I think last year we were in the mid20s. Um we did issue 125 payment agreements to various um homeowners. Um we do allow payment agreements on principal residents and um part-time homes, second homes. So we don't differentiate between that. Um, we do allow anyone who has had a payment agreement in the past that has upheld that agreement to go ahead and enter into another one. Um, so we did issue 125 of those, but that could constitute more than that in parcel count. Some owners have multiple parcels that they enter into payment agreements on. Um, but we do that in order to help our residents. Um, we also are working on those prior year retroactive claims for properties that were foreclosed on 2020 and prior. Um, we have filed nine stipulation agreements on those that chose to follow that um, current process of what we call 78T for excess proceeds. and we have paid out over $53,000 in claims to those nine stipulated agreements. We have four that are slated to be heard um in circuit court. Um two in May and two in July that are not clear-cut cases. Um either more than one person is claiming the excess proceeds or there is a title

issue with who's claiming it not being clearly in the chain of title. So that is out of our purview to decide those types of cases. So they have to be heard before the circuit court judge. Um we let's see this th those figures don't include anyone that is going to choose to become part of the class action lawsuit. We have not paid out anything on those particular claims as of yet. There's kind of been a lull in that process. the um attorney that brought the class action suit um based on the wanting to hold off on that based on waiting for the decision by the US Supreme Court in the Pong vers Isabella County case um because if they can get fair market value to be agreed on that would change the whole retrospect of that class action lawsuit. However, the judge in that case has said it is to go forward because parties have all agreed on the the items in that class action. So, at this time, we're just kind of waiting to for certain deadlines to to come through on that. Um, and then that kind of leads me into the next part, which is the settlement data from the 2025 um, taxes that came in um, in March. So, that was another spreadsheet that I sent just giving you a comparison of what we paid out in 2024 to what we paid out in 2025. Um, so we did have an increase of just over $200,000 in our payout. We paid out $4,840,11.98 in delinquent taxes to all of the local units, which is 11 townships in a village. Um, and you can see the data

there as far as what townships increased. We had one township that actually decreased. Um, but the overall change was just over $200,000 um for that process. Part of that is I did have some notes there for you. Um we did have the new Higgins Lake SAD district for Garish and Lion Townships and that was um netted a $78,000 delinquency between those two townships just on the SAD district. The majority of which are those state of Michigan DNR parcels that remain unpaid. Um and that's across the board in all of the SAD districts. The DNR has not paid any of their assessments on those. Um, and that's all I have unless you have any questions.

No, they do not. They are exempt from foreclosure and forefisher. That is correct. Um, as we go on, the amount of money we have to make the townships whole on unpaid taxes keeps rising. Yes, it does. And the more millages you add, the more the more delinquency you generate. Are we going to get into a situation where we have financial problems covering that?

Not yet. That's always a potential. Yes, we have about um the last I checked about 7 million in the tax payment fund. And so we have a a formula in a a policy that this board passed that we calculate out and um we take the prior year's payout add 25% I do believe and so we I will report that back here to the board and let you know that we need to keep this much money set aside in that fund for next year's payout and then anything we have in there over and above that then can be earmarked marked for special projects or whatever the board

and that fund is where delinquent property taxes when we put it up for auction. That's where those proceeds go. And you have to keep in mind too with the law changing that folks can now petition for those excess proceeds. That money is not all staying at the county level anymore. A way to recoup what our losses are. Yep. We may get into a situation where we put it up for auction rather than offer a payment plan to the property owner.

Um I don't think that's necessarily um of necessary. Um the payment plans still allow interest to acrew and that interest stays stays with the stays with the county. Um, so I think at one and a half% per month, you know, you're still that's still a fairly decent return. And well, you were on here for two items. Now we're fully covered on both. Yep. Now we're fully covered. Any questions from board? All right. Very good. Thank you, Marc.

Thank you. We're down to strategic plan. We're going to let Commissioner Morley take over on that, I guess.

Well, it has been we are so far past our time. Um, I guess maybe I'll just have one question that we can maybe address today. And as I've said before, I think this needs to be on a work session where we have time. It seems like we continuously have agenda items that are longer than what we can fit in an hour. So I don't I don't want to belabor that all day. Plus we don't have our chair with us too. But so what we were supposed to come back to for this meeting is what were the one or two or whatever three things you felt we should focus on for this year? Not which goal, but what items do you want us to work on? And I just haven't heard anything. though.

We're all busy. Um, so we want to bring this to the next board session. I'd like to know if you even got what I sent you. Do you have any reactions to it? Suggestions I had.

Okay. Anything on your end, Rexet, you think? Um, we're already in the month going to be in month of May. So, I've seen it. I haven't had time to go over it much, right? Just this job seems to get busier and busier all the time and sometimes things take priorities. And I'll just end with I think that is my opinion only that it is critical we carve out enough time to figure out what we're going to focus on. And no offense to every resolution, every millillage, every would you do a motion, would you write a letter of support? Those are distractions. Yeah.

And if we can say we are not going to address anything other than until we accomplish X and Y, put it on a parking lot list. We're not forgetting you. I just believe that we will continue to be we're all busy. We're all trying to do this as a part-time role. What are we going to do so that another year doesn't go by and we go, I I don't know what we did? And then then there's things about like the flooding that come along that we can't put in the parking lot and wait. But I don't think that that is something that is really the issue. Well,

I think the issue as a whole, regardless of a an emergency, those things do take precedence. That happens in our personal lives. It happens in our business. It happens if you're a farmer. It is what are we going to do every day when we wake up? Because there is a ton of distractions. That's that is my opinion. And instead of having meetings if we're like, I don't know, are we working on this? Are we going to do this? Are we not? We haven't even finished what we said we were going to do. So, it's not I'm not blaming. I'm not saying we're bad because of it. It's just I feel like we don't have a focus in this case. I've been dealing with a lot of emails and phone calls on that issue.

So that limits the time I have left available for other issues. Do you believe that it would be helpful if you knew what things we had to focus on instead of reacting to everything that comes before us? Is that helpful or not at this point? because of time restraints on everybody's time. You know, it's a part-time job. Yeah, you you're visit busy with the business, we do definitely need to narrow down what we're going to focus on.

I appreciate your comments. I I think I I see where you're heading, but with all the stuff that's going on last couple couple weeks busy with us, you know, my I'm working the 250th. We're also going to be looking at the 911 ceremony possibly for the 25th. There's a couple things that I'm working on personally involved levels obviously distraction and other issues chair is not here today we got a lot of stuff going but I appreciate what you're going for in my own life I have a we need probably a more firm one for I I appreciate you

well I think we have a strategic plan at least we tried it's it's been for us. But what are what do we do? What actions are we doing to accomplish something in that plan? You're looking for more productivity.

I personally believe we need it. I mean, things just keep getting go. I mean, we're going to be in May. Like if it is lake level then in my mind every resource and energy and time we have spent right now is lake level on top of if we need to finish something specific for a millillage or an election. Those are critical statutory things we have to do. We get asked to do a lot of things that aren't statutory and we care about this county and we want to help. We want to be involved but there's only so much time, there's only so much money and only so much resource and I just think some focus would help us not get distracted on things that take us away from accomplishing the most critical things we need to solve for the rest of this year. I

I I hear your I hear your passion. That's up to I mean it's up to you. I would say we we run into the same problem countywide and I've often said it's hard to run a county part-time. I mean, basically, I don't know if we get paid or reimbured for being part-time even, let alone expecting somebody to come here eight hours a day, seven day, six days a week. You know, it's just a problem we run into countywide when you're trying to fill a position with part-time.

It goes back to your exact comment about a drain commissioner. All of a sudden, the drain commissioner has a lot of duties and we need to think about paying them more. Well, That goes for a lot of those positions that are doing more, not just that one. So, we need to think about what is it going to take for us to sustain being a strong county in the next 5 to 10 years way beyond the next two and a half years when I'm not sitting here. What's this going to look like and can we sustain infrastructure and the needs as a whole and not shotgun approach? That's just my take.

Yeah. If we can put it on an agenda that you guys want to spend some time and we're not five hours into a day when you guys are were all taxed out, that would be my support. If not, that's we are a group of five. So, you know, and I think when we started this process, we really didn't have an idea how busy we were going to become at the I think that's why I put it there because I did. I'll have to say I knew this was not going to be an easy year. There's too much going on with lake level lawsuits. Um potential not getting revenue from the tax payment fund of people. I mean there's so many things. There's legislative issues that will impact us in the next three to five years. How do we prepare?

But some of the things on the strategic plan was basically how we conduct ourselves. That doesn't take any extra time. So right. Yeah. I we we can review it see what we want to accomplish with Yeah. at this level. All right, we don't need to bel labor that one for much longer today. Thank you. Uhu.

Do we need to do any more discussion on the drain commissioner and the lake level manager or are we waiting for that?

I just just um I think that you guys had already decided to move it to the next four section so you had all of you here. Um just to add a couple things that um clerk Stevenson had mentioned and I had mentioned. So you do um two things kind of together. So in order to increase a salary for an elected official that would have to be done prior to November 1st to be effective January 1st. So that's just timetable information for you. Um, the second piece of that is, and we'll get that I'll get it provided to everybody, the MCL 280.33 actually talks specifically about what um, Vice Chair Wolson is talking about for reimbursements to the general fund for services performed, but it actually uses the word shall be reimbursed. So, it's a shall, not a may. So that is definitely something that we need to get squared away for next year I think.

So we need to implement that. Yes. So yes.

Is to be continued. I guess that's pretty much it for the work session at this point. We have another meeting. I'll let you guys all decide whether we come back in 10 minutes or so our 11 o'clock meeting starts at 12 break for a lunch or whatever. I'm sorry I can't hear both. What were what are you asking? Our 11 o'clock meeting starts at 12:20. Do we want a break for 10 minutes or do you want to take a lunch break? I'm good with 10. 10's good. Okay, we'll return in 10 minutes. Thank you. Atlanta.

Mr. Milbour, would you like to lead us 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 of members, please. Spencer Milbour, here. Wolson here. Mley here. Russo

approval of agenda. So move, Mr. Chair. Second that. All in favor? Any discussion? Any discussion? All in favor? All right. Marley, yes. Milford, yes. Wolson, yes. Motion carried. Public comment. Do we have any public comment on agenda items only? Jes. Man, didn't you think we were late anyway? Come forward or speak from there. Yes. Oh, he was just waving.

Oh, okay. Any other public comment? Seeing none. Seeing none, we're going to move on to new business. A Ross Common County 2025 year end approvals. Very good, Jody.

Okay. So, this is all in the same slideshow and I did present a hard copy to you as well because I know that the numbers can be hard to read. Um, our 2025 year-end budget review summary to date. This is of course all post approvals. Um our over overall fund revenues are 9% above budget. That's across all funds. Um this is largely impacted and honestly today couldn't be a better day for this presentation following Jamie and following Marcy. I mean just because that information is out there already. Um it is an upturn in those interest rates. And then we did have an increased collection of fees for services as well. Our general fund revenues are 880,000. Oops, I forgot a zero or a decimal. 808 $86 or 7% over budget. Same reasoning. The overall fund expenses are below budget by 3%. So, we ended 3% below um for funds overall. General fund expenses are approximately $1,82351 cents over budget, which is 02%. So, near damn perfect, pardon me. Um, two of our funds, the Michigan Incident Defense Fund and our Higgins Lake SAD do require transfers from the general fund to offset negative fund balances as of 1231 2025. Both of those funds will reimburse those transfers in the 2026 budget as soon as we have well, we have them now with receipt of offset revenues being collected after 3312026. We did not get our Michigan Indigent Defense um reimbursement until after the end of March. We got it at the beginning of April for that quarter that runs um October, November, December. So, we make it whole so we don't get in trouble and have to do one of those cute little things for the state and then the money moves back in. So,

can you help me understand a little bit better? So it'll go it's it was for 2025 but it will go it transfers in the 2026 budget. Correct. So we'll we'll be making us whole through a general fund transfers um effect of 123125 um and then in 2026 we'll move the money back. Then we'll put it back into the 2025. No, it'll it'll it won't it'll reimburse 2026. What we just Yep. So, it'll all come back into our general fund in 2026. Got it. It is an odd accounting shell game, but

some of that if we heard earlier too is our DNR. A lot of that from the SAD is DNR not payment. Okay. So on the next slide, um just just to show you what those acroals look like, we are really close to where we were last year from acrruals, which is actually a downtrend. Um when I first started a year or so ago, um tracking these as far as like looking at it, um I've noticed that this is this is a pretty par for course for us. Um the general fund is normally our largest acral function. Of course that has everybody across the board um that lays into that and these are all just simply bills and payroll um that occurred in 2025 but were paid in 2026. Um, so it could be as simple as my least favorite acrals to figure out, which is our consumer's bills, which will cover parts of December and January, and then you're literally acrewing by days. Um, to a fee for service for a contract that the bill the bill was for, you know, 121, but it didn't get turned in until January to be to be paid. Um, so that is simply where all those goes. Payroll is just done overall by days. Our first payroll of 2026 always includes some 2025 days of work in it and this year it was an 11day so it was a little bit larger. Um and then we'll eventually scope back around to where there's minimal days. The Higgins Lake SAD, Holton Lake SAD, and Lake St. Helen SAD all had um some bills from attorneys and the um mileage request reimbursements for our lakes manager and a couple bills from the um prine and newhoff that were acred

back that were services performed as well. So yeah absolutely just because I have you gave us that nice breakdown. Yes. of I'll use Higgins because that's the first one in front of me. So 1470773 we had to acrewue and that is of what we where is that coming from? Is this part of what we were going to have to No. So that is actually already on your this was in here. Yep. That is actually included in those expenses to date already. So Yep. Those were over 300 that list.

Yes. Yeah. So that small amount of acrual Yep. That small amount of acurole is just to account for those funds in our 2025 balance. But the the presentation I gave to you guys at the last meeting include all of the expenses up until last week or that meeting date. So those are included. So of that if I hear you right 147 of this 308,000 is very small amount. We have more of this that's going to actually hit be build and hit in 2026. Yes. Yep. All right. Thank you.

So then, um, now that we have the acrruals in, it gives us, uh, a better idea of with those post approvals of where our fund balance will actually land. Um, the good news is it's still going to land in a very, um, very nice spot. Um, what I did was obviously we have our beginning fund balance for January 1 of 25, which was from our 2025, which was from our actual audit of 2024. Um we have our total year-end estimated revenues that we've collected today. The total expenditures um that number the 11309 94666 also includes those additional transfers that need to be made from the funds out of the general fund. Um so that number is included in there as well which leaves us with an estimated ended fund balance for 2025 of 2,87650842. Um what that means is we'd be looking at an estimated fund balance for 2025 year end which is of course our 2026 um beginning fund balance of roughly 24.10% which is 727,87338 um over our anticipated 18% fund balance goal

is amazing. It is wonderful and it's I mean we um we have been blessed and we've been very smart. We have not um there were some very hard cuts made four or five years ago um to services to bring us back to um the basics I guess and that has been stuck to continuing with the basics not trying to expand our services. Um Jamie made a extremely good point that we know that as things come up eventually they go down. So our goal is to be sustainable and not have to make um my my first year here. I was looking at her report as it comes down was the first budget um the budget that I inherited was after the five-year negative growth and nothing had been trimmed in services during that time period. Um, so our fund balance was used to offset it, expecting that that upturn would come much more quickly. And that was the year that we cut everything. And then five years later, we realized that we didn't cut enough and needed to cut more. Um, so being sustainable is I think the best goal. How do we continue to provide the services that we provide to the best of the ability of the county? Um, but we don't have room for growth. That is our, you know, we are we we are to provide the basics. And I think that most of our residents want us to provide the basics. You get a lot of guff when you start, you know, offering animal petting government loans or things like that for us. So our fund balances for post approvals for our other funds I guess would be the way that I would

would fraction that are posted. Um it is traditionally the goal of the general fund to maintain um roughly 3 months which is 18% of operating expenditures. our special funds, which are not all of the ones that are on here. They're not all special millage funds, um, are asked to maintain a year. We want them to try to have a year's worth of operating because if their millillage were to fail, that would still provide a year's worth of services. Um, just to let you know where most of those are at, road patrol, the road patrol special millage is actually 36.6% 6% of a year's worth of operating expenses. The animal control program um wiped out their fund balance with all of the reds that had to be done um in their facility for the mold and heating issues that were occurring over there. They will be at 1.4%. Um emergency management, which is of course newer, so they they haven't had a lot of time to build, is at 16.04%. Um, 911 is the closest. They are at 85.47%. Spongy Moth is at 79.23% and then Veterans Affairs is 51.28%. Audit starts in three weeks. Um, so we will have that report from him by the end of June hopefully. Um and then we'll have all the final numbers as well. 2026 just rolling right on. Um 2026 budget considerations we are roughly 25% of the fiscal year complete. It's like 24.47. Um the revenues do not reflect in this

report do not reflect the treasurer payments for those unpaid unc those unpaid taxes that make whole. That doesn't happen until actually the balancing and things that come off. Um, so you'll see that reflected um, in a lot of those special millage funds as well, not being quite at 100% or in the 90s. Our budget does represent six of the 26 pay periods. It does um, it does include the HSA fully funded. I always will throw that in until we balance out simply because a lot of our smaller budgets um, it has a big impact on the percentage to expenditures. So the general advalorum tax collection does occur within those summer tax billings as well. Cody.

Yes, ma'am. So on the the treasures pay, you're talking about what Marcy had presented that we gave back to all the townships. Yes. Because it's not just the townships, right? It's us as well. Right. So yes, that is what I'm talking about.

Yes. Okay. Y amazing what one day does, doesn't it? I mean, that's But yes, because you balance out on the 27th to Okay, so our fund revenues to date um across the board are within where we anticipate them to be. um they are slightly below last year and I did double check and we did have that last year we had it at the end of March it was dated 331 so you would have seen those taxes in the 331 so as I'm looking and then later on I talk about okay we're we're x percentage below um that is one of your main factors another portion of that is our seasonality this year is a little bit longer um these bad the bad ice storm, um the hard winter that that changes a lot of the things that people come in to do for fees for services. Um just like every other business. So government sees that as well. Um you'll see like the Special Road Millage, they are at 92.447%. Um traditionally they would have been at 100% by now because they are fully taxfunded. There is no other no other revenue that comes in for them. um sheriff road patrol 83.77 um it is lower than the traditional 90% that it is based on the timing of of when those things were put into the general ledger. The rest of them there really is no no total overall um one of the areas that I will I will bring out and you'll see this when we get into it for expenses. So Brownfield Redevelopment um they are special right Marcy?

So they actually have their own account that does not we keep track of it through our general ledger but they have their own checking savings account since they are a separate authority. Um so they actually their revenues and their expenditures run into the general ledger. Um, but when we were budgeting for this at the time, any of the grants or things, nothing had been heard from. So there is a difference with that as it comes through. This is just the rest of your remaining funds as they lay there. Um, our capital improvements fund, we actually um um will have hopefully more money coming into that. um the Holton Lake debit service and the Lake St. Helen debt service. Those will be transfers that come in once we get the bills. So, we'll take the money out of 840 and 841, the actual SAD districts and transfer those into the debt service funds in order to pay off those bonds. More fun graphs. We do love graphs, don't we? Um, and I think just it gives a pretty good idea of where we are as far as revenues to date for that to to move forward for that. So, you'll see those special millage funds are the ones that are pretty close to being fully funded. Fund expenses to date. Um, again, you're kind of looking looking at some of these. I'll go to 243 Brownfield Redevelopment Authority Fund. Um, you look and it says they are 437% over budget to date. Again, that budget was set before they knew what grants are coming in. Um, and those fundings are there. Yes, they have spent 65547,

but they are by far not in a negative cash balance. Um, they still retain 15 roughly $15,000 in their account as well. So, Yes.

January.

I don't I feel like January was when the expenses came in. But that right I don't think there was a budget in there. Correct. Yep. Which we can always come back for a budget adjustment once we This is kind of grant money that might come back to replenish this that has it actually funds already in our account. Yes. Okay. Yeah. We had in their this special they're kind of a special account because of their own authority. Okay. Yes.

But other than that, overall, I mean, obviously, we always have the the general fund um is traditionally our highest expenses to date, but that is because that is the most year- round activity comes that, but um aside from the brownfield, which is special, all of our other funds seem to be fairly well in line. Um there is one um on the second graph here. Actually, there's a couple you will see correction training fund is actually at 139.82. Um they actually so correction training fund is specific for um corrections officers training. It's collected through the booking fees and they actually utilized a lot of training very early on. So dipped into their fund balance and basically they won't be able to spend anything out of that money now um for the rest of the year unless we get a lot more booking fees in. So that's one that I will I will watch um as it comes. Additionally, we do have the law library which um they have already paid four bills as of this. Thompson Ruters likes to bill a little bit early. Um not my favorite company. Ros Common Commission on Aging that is that pass through for their funding. So essentially as it's collected by the treasurer's office, they are requesting it to be distributed so that they can have their cash in their accounts for that as well. Most of them are most of them are pretty easy um as they fall through. Obviously, our Higgins Lake SA all of our SADs are over. Um, but we didn't really have good budgets to to set um at the end of last year when we were working through this project. Um, so there are our fund expenses as of 331 2026. Just a lot of the same. Everybody is in a pretty good shape. The ones that you

see a little bit little bit higher are those ones where the money has come in and come out already. general fund department revenues. Um our general fund department revenues are a little low compared to last year. Again, that is just simply the timing um of when we were made whole, but it is in addition um just some seasonality issues. We do have some some departments that are doing um really well all things compared to where they traditionally are. Um the clerk register of deeds actually you guys are up from last year almost 5%. Well yes every time you walk by there's eight people standing in line. So that is one area. Um the courts actually are all trending upwards by about 3 to 4% um over last year as well. So that's a very good sign. we have um our courthouse security and I this is one I just want to touch on really quick to explain. So, it came to my attention in a conversation um that I had with Lieutenant Beck at the end of last year that we often utilize our um for transports for prisoner transports. Um we utilize our corrections officers and we utilize our security guards for that. And the revenues that were being given to us for that were actually coming into for the fed transport specifically were actually coming into the sheriff's road patrol fund which is not correct because the people that are incurring the expenses that we're getting reimbursed for our general fund employees. Um, so we made that correction on January 1st for the new budget that we're going to start taking those and putting there where they're supposed to

be so that they are getting um the revenue back for the expenses that are incurring. Um, but did not get it in time did not I didn't catch this in time to put it into the budget as we move forward. But that's why you will see those revenues increasing um significantly above where it is. So, um, speaking of the jail, their revenues are actually already trending pretty high in regards to, um, federal inmates and OSCOD inmates. So, those two contracts are, uh, monthly payments. So, they already well to well on track to recover um, their estimated revenues this year. So the green on this graph shows you exactly um exactly are our what revenues are looking to to be budgeted. Those represent your budgeted revenues. And then the funny orange yellow color shows you where they are year to date essentially in that um that really big V that looks like a cavern as it comes down that's MIS because they don't have any um so that is why you see that kind of cavern that sits in there as well. Um the general fund department revenues across the board. Um, overall this is a 33126 versus 33125 graph. So the dark red is actually representative of 2025 and the orange is representative of 2026. I did this just so you could see where that um where that effect of when things happen affect that picture of the budget. Um, so looking at 331, you're looking at it and you're thinking, "Oh my gosh, we're so much further down in our um, primary collections. Um, but again, that make whole hasn't happened until 41." So, it's kind of just the snapshot in time isn't fully representative of what we're

doing. Uh, general fund expenses to date, um, overall we are pretty trending pretty well. um a couple of the departments that are just slightly higher that I will point out. Um the county controller, we actually have already had all of our um we have already had our longevity paid out and since we're not a huge budget, this throws us over. We have our longevity paid out and we've already paid our BSNA. Um one of our BSNAs which paid 50% of our total service contract um but the expenses are online for year totals. um management information systems, it always at the beginning of the year spend all of their money on whatever that special project is. Um new computers, upgrades, printers, all of those things. So their expenses will trend higher until probably the middle of the year when it comes across as well. for the rest of our departments. Um you will look at just just overall some pretty healthy numbers as far as expenses. Um there are a few that um show what 25% those are our transfers out. So that was that first quarter transfers out to those departments um that we do allocations for as well. So you will see um under the units unemployment towards the end where your really long yellow is um our unemployment's payments I pay those in 50% increments. So we've already paid the first 50% this year um along with a credit from last year that goes into this year. So that is almost paid in full which is why those expenses um look a lot higher than the rest of them. payroll um by fund to date. So we are at

six of 26 total payrolls and are where we are expected to be. Um juvenile justice uh that actually already had a longevity payment that came with it as well. So it is looking slightly higher. Um budgeting as far as Higgins H Hotton and Lake St. Helen were kind of a crapshoot as how much how much time our lakes manager was going to put into those positions. Um, additionally, that is also inclusive of for for all three of those that is actually inclusive of the money that we are paying for to the treasur's department for their services of maintaining and collections of those special assessments assessment districts as well. So, obviously those will be budget adjustments that we'll need to make this summer as we roll into it. So more fun pictures, general fund expenses as they come across. This is the 33126 for expenses compared to the 33125 um where we were last year versus our time this year. Um obviously we are going to have much higher lake level control structure expenses this year than last year. there has been a lot more work that has been done as far as the engineering has gone. We do have our lakes manager in place that has been very active um in that portion of it as well. So for the payroll budget by fund um I just threw together where our payroll total payroll lands in our budget this year. So this isn't a picture in time. This is the entirety of our budget. Um overall your big green slice of pie, that's more than half of it. That is your general fund. Um so that is all our statutory departments and support departments um that are included in there as well. And then your next

largest slice of that is your sheriff's road patrol followed up by um your actual 261 which is the larger burgundy of that and that is 911 is where that falls as well. our benefits by fund to date. Um the benefits of course includes that HSA payment. They are percentage- wise lower than when we did this a month ago. Um so they are trending down seeing that kind of even out as the year runs forward for that. Um we do have um you'll notice with spongy mouth that percentage of that I'm going to have to get with Noel on um and figure out how we're doing that breakdown for the shared person. Um I just want to make sure I gave her the breakdown accurately. there is a portion of those benefits coming out of spongy moth, but I think that um maybe I didn't give Noel the correct percentage. So, I'll have to look back at that as well. So, just the same of where we are payroll, payroll by fund to date, retirement by fund to date. Now, our brand new system that we are all coming to love through MS where we're required to submit those payments through um Noel has got everything updated. That's because she knew I was going to talk about this. Um yes. So, so now we are we are whole with three months worth of three months worth of retirements um that have been placed in there. Um and then just kind of trending to that look again of where we are. Obviously our two biggest retirement areas are our um general fund and our sheriff's department.

So just kind of some overall notes for where we are in 2026 as of 331. Um our FEN revenues are trending slightly below the budget as compared to those previous years. Um, we I will do a monthly monitoring just to make sure that what we believe we're seeing um as far as seasonality, state reimbursement, the timing of the tax payments is correct. So, I'll give you guys a brief a brief update um at the end of April just to let you know that yes, that is correct. The expenditures for all of our friends are just slightly below budget um as compared to our previous years. So, that's our positive. Um payroll, benefits, retirement were all in line with our budget. Um and then the general fund, our departments are slightly below those budgeted expenses and the revenues are at pace with prior years. Um we do have the higher than average revenues for the courts also which is kind of a bonus at this time.

Questions from the board? My big takeaway is all are in line with budget. Everything's in line with the budget. That's that's what I want to hear. Thank you. Yes. Um the courts having higher than average revenues that because we're getting through some of those cases that have been pending or is this I don't think that the government or the state's giving us more funds to build

they are not um they are not I I think that there is a um I would say there are twofold. I think that there are cases are a little bit more frequent. Um so case loads are a little bit higher in two of our courts and I do think in um at least one area the collections portion um has been more active. Okay. Um in that there's a little bit newer oversight in that area that I think is is making making a difference in there as well. So good to know. We understand our budget is helpful.

Yes. Yes. As of right now. Yes. Appreciate all your hard work. Thank you. Beautiful presentation. Had to be Michelle. I'm done.

Any public comment? Anything else you want to say? It was open board comment. Was that work session style? No. Thank you. Thank you, Rex, for March says he's going home anyway. I got one o'clock with the plaque company trying to get our flag at 5:00. I'll see you at 4:00. Yeah, I will be there. They move with the sheep.