County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Roll call of board members, please Russo Morley here Wolfson here Milburn here sensor

I'd like to mention that our chairperson is not here because she got tied up at where she works today with an audit, so she won't be here today. Approval of the agenda will move Mr. Vice. Have a second.

Roll call Morley yes Wolfson yes Milburn yes. Was carried.

Approval of consent agenda, which includes the minutes from June 10th and also the minutes from the June 10th Lake level control structure course correspondence A through B and the monthly reports from the animal shelter. The sheriff's report in the administrator controller report.

Vice.

Looking for a second. Roll call please.

Wolfson yes, Morley yes, Milburn yes, motion carried.

We're open for public comment for agenda items only. Anybody have comment for agenda items? Seeing none will move on. Do we have any visitors? Seeing none will move on. On fish on a finished business or V ordinance. I attended a meeting last week, I believe it was, over the ORAV ordinance with the Law Enforcement Association. We did not get all the way through it. I mean, a lot of discussion, and we're going to have another meeting to go over it, and then all the information, what they feel needs to be in or out, will be compiled and presented to the board. I'd like to mention this is about an ORV ordinance for ORVs on the roads. This has nothing to do with ORVs on the trails, and it has nothing to do with golf carts. Yes, Mark.

I still feel uncomfortable with the restriction from 11 to 5. I just want to make that known that I think it impedes personal freedoms.

So noted. But this is about road use, not...

I just wanted to throw it out there.

Okay.

Thank you, Mr. Vice.

Vice Chair, as I looked at a little bit of the updates, it looks like some of that... The time frame was on the roads. They can't be on the main roads during that time. It looks like some of that language, at least for right now, for saying you have a curfew to get off the trails or if your camping has been removed, if I read the update correctly.

Also, there was discussion, some of the township police wanted to coincide with their township noise ordinances.

Okay.

It's liable to be changed the times anyway because you know they have noise or events when you can and can't start making noise and Residential it's not like a curfew you got to be in your tent and gone and not out So that's the way I see that the new revision right the second question is I know in the process that you presented townships law enforcement prosecuting attorney and the DNR and Are all those groups been discussed or just with the law enforcement right now?

They were all there.

All of there, DNR and prosecuting attorney. Okay. Just wanted to check.

Thank you. And one person from the DNR had a lot of input about what the laws are, and then we got into a half-hour discussion about golf carts, and this is not about golf carts.

I do agree that the conversation needs to continue to finish. We're not in a rush to make this happen, but to make sure that we do it properly.

Plain and simple, we didn't cover everything in that.

So more meetings are needed.

Yes. Sounds good.

I just wanted to make sure, Mr. Vice, that my comments are listened to. I did say that. Because if I was in law enforcement, I would probably feel differently. If I was a township supervisor, I'd probably feel differently. But I'm always worried that it will pass some kind of artificial rule, and then we won't be able to enforce it. and we'll look back historically and go, maybe it wasn't such a good idea. But I appreciate the discussion. Thank you, sir.

OK, opioid fund coordinator job description. We presented that last meeting. I incorporated what Commissioner Morley had, and I incorporated what Commissioner Milburn wanted in it. I heard no other response on that, so I assume we're pretty good on this.

I do like the name change, that it's an opioid response steering committee. You know, I thought that was, seems a little bit more appropriate than what we originally had. Changed it to steering committee and her administrator added on to that so it was cooperation between the two of us I still have a little bit of a concern about I understand that the minimum experience in education is a high school diploma or a GED I Don't know how to explain and I don't know how to make it any better to be honest, but let's say You have three candidates The minimum is that, and none of those three people really are the right fit for the job. But by this description, you need to pick one of them.

No. No, we're not required. If we don't find somebody we like, We continue on with the search.

And that's how I understood it, too.

That's always the case.

I appreciate you implementing the GED requirement that we talked about last time. The kicker is that if we get three candidates but none of them meet the bill, we're not forced to select, as I understand it. I just wanted to make sure I was clear on that.

We're going to have somebody doing the interview. We haven't decided yet, but somebody's going to be doing the interviews. And if they're not happy with the candidates, We put it out there again, plain and simple.

I do. I believe this is a very unique skill set that somebody's going to have to have to do that type of collaborative work, pull together that program, and manage it. It's not just, hey, this is interesting to me, and I've got a GED. I don't think that candidate's going to fly, in my mind, if I was in the hiring committee.

It's going to take a little bit of passion.

Yeah. A couple questions on the steering committee, which I do like that there's a broad range.

We haven't got done with the first part yet.

All right. I'll save that then.

So if we have a consensus to let this move on, we'll send it to wage and salary, and they'll come up with a wage and salary, and then we'll present it for a motion to be approved at the next meeting, if we have a consensus with the board on that.

Vice Chair, I'm not comfortable moving forward trying to find a salary and find a hiring job at this point. Without knowing what is needed from the stakeholder group that is going to be pulled together and what it needs to be, what they can fulfill, I think we're putting the cart before the horse. Don't disagree with the job description, but I think putting that out right now is a little too early. And that is feedback that I've heard from other people that might be on that steering committee. The other piece that concerns me is we put this into whether, I know it doesn't come out of general fund today, but when that money goes away, because it will eventually be dried up, that position will be eliminated. And if it's great for this county, we're going to have to find time in the general budget to fulfill it. That's a concern. And I don't know if we've addressed what we're going to do in that when that happens.

We have enough money to fill that position for until I think it was 2031.

depending on how much other money you use for the program. The money's not just, let me rephrase.

Well, that would not be a responsible way to do it if you used it upon something else, correct?

OK, let me clarify. And I'm not trying to be difficult. It's just that it's a concern from a budgetary perspective for me. Whatever money is in the coffers today from the opioid money, If that money is used for a coordinator, and we have until that time to use up whatever salary you pick and benefits, there also needs to be money in there for the execution of the program, whatever we decide that program needs to be and where the gaps are. And I don't know if we know what that budget's going to look like. If we don't know what the program's going to be and how we're going to wrap it around, I don't want to use all the opioid money just for a coordinator and not have any money for the services. That's my question, and I don't know that answer today.

I appreciate your initiative to move quickly, but I totally agree with Kim in this regard We have to move slowly we have to make sure all those the boxes are checked if we move too quickly We'll make some mistakes. We don't move so slowly that we don't get done, but I agree with Kim Let's move slowly. Let's make sure we get the box checked correctly, but I do appreciate your initiative and By leading it's so it was hardly to front, but let's just take our time make sure that we get this thing to work

I 100% agree with the initiative, 100%. I'm just not ready to try to put that into a budget for 2027 and not know exactly what that program is going to need and how much money we're going to need to reserve going forward. And I think that steering committee with a really good leader and a collaborator can be able to get a guide on that before we go, hey, we're going to use all that money.

That's just my take. My goal, though, would be to make sure that we have something in place by December of this year. It might be an artificial date, but I'd rather throw an artificial date out there.

I'm good with putting a date out there. I think we should, because I agree with Vice Chair that this is a project that we have been wanting to move on.

And we march forward. So if we look at artificial date, maybe December. We can always make some adjustments of the date, but at least we have something to work with.

I have a suggestion. Sorry. So and we're not at this point to talk about your steering committee But I think it would behoove us to at least start that conversation with the steering committee first They know their resources. They know where the gaps are They might have people that can fulfill one of these roles. I don't know that because we've not met with them and I would like to get a sense for that steering committee on what is this job description? Does this fit? Do you have anybody who can do this? What are your ideas? And at least have a baseline from that stakeholder group before we move forward and try to put it into a budget. I don't mind starting that stakeholder group and doing that collaborative exercise with them. You do say you need one county board member to do that, but that's just my take, that we should start with them, at least get the initial conversation started, and then identify what we need to go out and find. But that's one of five people.

I put the horse in front of the cart. The committee is second, in my opinion. coordinator is the one that's going to compile all the information we can gather about what we have available for resources, going to gather all the information about where their shortcomings are. Then they would present it to a steering committee and say, where do you think we need to go? This is what I found. So I put the coordinator first in this process.

So why don't we make it a point to put this on the next agenda? We can vote it up or vote it down. I mean, just move it forward, and we'll have the discussion. Hopefully our chair will be here too, and at least out of four of us, we can vote on it either up or down. I'm good with that.

Very good.

Yeah.

I guess the key word is collaborative. I know that is used a lot. We don't want things to die, but collaborative effort is key.

Now we're down to new business. They don't see anything. Committee reports.

I'm sorry, Vice Chair. Did you want to talk about who you suggested on the steering committee? You said we weren't talking about that until number C.

Well, that list is incomplete, but that's what I've come up with at this point.

Right. So I do have a question about it, and you wanted me to wait till then. So we do have law enforcement. I'm wondering if you've discussed maybe somebody that works in the jail services, like the presentation we had last meeting, who's already starting on a wrap, has some wraparound issues and work with opioid. And then somebody from our human services groups that interact with people, as well as Northern Lakes Community Mental Health, which has said that they'd be very willing to be a part of that. Those might be three other options that I would suggest to put on there.

OK. I see nothing for new business, unless somebody else has something. We're down to motions and resolutions. Motion number one.

Move to authorize employee Joshua Burmeister to purchase five years of service credit in division 7201-20 of Roscommon County's MERS defined benefit plan in the amount of $101,566. Employee will fund the MERS calculated assumption purchase at 100%, including any monetary difference between MERS assumption and actuarial experience billed to the county for the purchase. So moved, Mr. Vice.

Second. Roll call.

Morley? Yes. Milburn? Yes. Wolfson? Yes. Motion carried.

Motion 2.

Move to adopt the attached letter of memorandum with the Roscommon County Commission on Aging to formally clarify section 6 of the existing agreement.

Second. Roll call.

Mr. Vice, just to acknowledge we have the COA here today in the audience.

Wolfson. Yes.

Morley. Yes. Milburn. Yes. Motion carried.

Number three.

Move to adopt resolution number 20 260601 resolution of acknowledgement for Roscoe rescues recognition as a nonprofit organization. Resolution of acknowledgement for Roscoe rescues recognition as a nonprofit organization whereas Roscoe rescue is a nonprofit organization located within Roscommon County and whereas Roscoe rescue is seeking alternative sources of fundraising by conducting a qualifying raffle bingo or charity raffle or event and Whereas the state of Michigan charitable gaming division requires that any nonprofit organization seeking small or large lottery licensure receive a local governing body resolution for charitable gaming license and Whereas Roscoe rescue has requested the Roscommon County Board of Commissioners to support their application Now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Commissioners for the county of Roscommon officially recognized Roscoe rescue as a nonprofit organization Operating in the community for the purpose of obtaining a charitable gaming license the move mr. Vice a second

Any discussion? Roll call.

Wolfson?

Yes.

Coburn? Yes. Morley? Yes. Resolution adopted.

Committee reports. Commissioner Morley?

All right. On June 12th, Supervisor Hill and our new Drain Commissioner, Rebecca, we turned over the issue for one of the residents on Pine Bluffs over to our Drain Commissioner to work on their concerns, and apparently that is already in the works. People are coming out to look at that and to make sure that if it's a county thing that we can help, great. If not, then they may need to do another special assessment. Done? Okay. Very nice.

I visited the site with her, showed her what the problem was, and she had a work crew go out and take care of it.

Pretty nice. It sounds like they're pleased with at least that people were on it and it got taken care of. On the 15th, the DDA met. Obviously, the Spruce Lodge area downtown, if anybody's seen, it's finally getting started for the cleanup. That's been a long time coming. They're hiring a blight officer to help with the blight issues that are going on in the village. The MSHDA grant was filed for that Redstone housing project that is in the works as well, so they got those deadlines met. Farm-market Marcy's around averaging like 45 vendors a week So they're on July 25th a little plug Christmas in July at the market. So it'll be a good day there The economic director is preparing the recertification because Roscommon County is a rural readiness certificate County which to keep that going they just have to research and make sure that helps them with grants as well So A quick note that came up for you, Commissioner Milburn, is that your plans for the 250th, they wanted to make sure that the parade starts at 10 and the streets get closed down pretty early. So whatever event you're having up here, if roads are closed, you may need to know about that.

12 o'clock.

All right. You're good.

You're working with the sheriff.

Perfect. Thank you. They asked me to tell you, so I wanted to make sure I did. June 17th, Roscommon County Human Services Collaborative, I joined their meeting as well. I know that's not a statutory rule for us, but... There has been concerns that sometimes we don't know what's going on with our human services groups. Many people, Children's Assessment Center, St. Vincent's, Catholic Human Services, the Oasis of Hope Shelters, all these groups meet to try to share. So the themes are really around they all need volunteers and they all need money. to continue to do their services. So I found there's like four groups who are actually working on grants and get money for diapers. So there's four groups trying to vie for that. Through that, a lot of discussion about the Medicaid changes that are beginning to come down the pike, which will impact a lot of what happens in our communities. that people will have to have a work waiver or a volunteer waiver to stay on Medicaid, and that they're very concerned that a lot of their people who are on those services do not know how to work, have never had a job, don't know how to interview, and it was a big concern. And so I did offer up a suggestion that instead of an hour and a half of talking about the services every month, that that could be a great collaborative project for them to try to bring their people who they serve, match where their needs are, and see if they could help them through that process. But they said they need grant money to do that, so I don't know if that's something they'll embark on. June 18th, Roscommon Township Association met. Six townships were there. Kudos to our 9-11, our sheriff's row patrol, and our row commission. They were there to talk about the millage. And so that township supervisors were able to answer questions to their constituents as well. The wildfire protection plan, leaders were there and shared that with the township supervisors and allowed them to there's a survey that they get to do to provide input and so they explain that it was a great presentation same day northern lakes community mental health uh... there's a intellectual and developmental disabilities services that go with IDD services so we really learned about Everything that Northern Lakes does for the IDD groups of people. And it's pretty impressive that they take care and they're probably the highest cost expenses that they have to deal with. And kind of shared how that works within the budget. We heard a little bit about that from the CEO, Linda Zeller, when she was here too. So September 10th, there is a public hearing that must go on with Northern Lakes. We will host one. Both Al and I will be there at the Houghton Lake site. We are asked to bring key stakeholders from our county, like county board commissioners, law enforcement, anybody who's dealing with things in that agency. I'm reaching out to that group to see who will get those invites to come. And then we get public comments as well. So more of that to come. Just the other night, June 23, pleased to attend the Fire 1 and 2 graduation ceremony. It was held at Garish Township. There were actually nine people who completed Those exams and course and apparently the state has a 50% fail rate right now So pretty impressive that nine of our group that went through passed So they did a little graduation ceremony for them first time they've ever done it. So it's pretty cool. Other than that.

It's all I got Mr. Miller, thank you, sir At the COA we had a new convection oven. It was purchased and a sidewalk was Built over there at the shore drive at the annex and northern northern michigan community action dc we took tish staves weatherization person gave a great discussion about what they're doing they're going to be doing a lot of stuff over here in our county i actually talked to kelly bachman the director they're going to have tish or grant card who does veterans or justin who does tax prep and we'll be here next month to be able to give us a an update on what's going on. Other than that, I'm good. Thanks, Mr.

Chair. I had a meeting with my eagle man for materials management and also a meeting with our consultant on this. And we scheduled another meeting on Monday to see where we're going to go with this program. Thank you. I've got it in my head that maybe we're going to target recycling metals, steel, aluminum, whatever, because it seems to be somewhat of a shortfall in some areas of the county. Recycling, we're pretty well covered in the county. One program or another are a place to have it recycled. We some townships take cans, but they don't take Metal heavy metal and so I've got an idea to see if I can work out and make that happen on that program Public comment want to state your name and address Hey everybody good to see you all again Name and address?

Eric Ostergren, Midland, Michigan, former commissioner of Roscommon County. Thought I'd throw that in there too. I'm here to ask why this commission has discontinued the practice of keeping records of when the gates on our three lakes are open and closed and posting when the gates are open or closed like you used to do on your website. Reporting logs have been a standard practice for years, and apparently the commission has decided to eliminate this practice. I hope you start reporting again. The last time the dam openings or closing were reported was in 2023, as currently shown on your website. It appears that you don't want us to know how you're managing our lakes. The information I received after I filed a Freedom of Information request was shocking. I only received a couple of months of logs this year, and those were only parts of May and parts of June, and nothing for 2024 or 2025. If the public doesn't know when you open or close the gates, we are limited in our ability to understand how our lakes are managed. My FOIA request revealed that transparency regarding lake management has been a big problem with this Commission Since the day you promised to be more transparent on your first day meeting as a new commission in 2025 and then shortly thereafter, you eliminated allowing us to attend meetings via Zoom. Transparency is important. Look, it's not that hard. You don't even have to keep a daily log like you used to. All you have to do is log the dates you open or close the gates. There have been some years that might only be one or two entries a year. It's not like it would take a lot of work. I could show you how to do it if you want. Starting to keep records of your actions would certainly go a long way in building the trust you say you want with the public. Here's another problem. Yesterday, the USGS reported that the lake levels on Higgins were 1.8 inches above the legal level, and the levels on Houghton were 9.12 inches above the legal level. That begs the question, as to why all the gates on Higgins are wide open, including the uncontrolled 4.75 foot spillway sending billions of gallons of water down to Houghton Lake, which is sometimes flooding, and Higgins is barely over its legal level and is in line with managing our lakes, similar to the management scheme you have for Houghton. The intelligent thing would be to close the gates on Higgins immediately and save a little water for later this summer, which would have the additional benefit of lowering the water on Houghton, which is way out of compliance. This should be done immediately. You do have options. The Cut River Dam is the only control you have in controlling water on Houghton. I'm puzzled why the commission hasn't developed a water level management plan that takes the entire watershed into account. recent in a recent Commissioners meeting our chairwoman made the absurd statement that only a portion of the water leaving Higgins goes downstream to Houghton through the Cut River That may be true during drought conditions But it's not when the aquifer is saturated as it has been this spring almost 100% of the water leaving Higgins Bacchus Creek Denton Creek Cap'n Creek and Springbrook enter Houghton when the aquifer is saturated. Someone needs to learn a little bit about hydrology before making such uninformed statements. Higgins is the only portion of the watershed that the commissioners can control, and you have chosen to leave the gates wide open when Houghton is flooding. I'm surprised the folks from Houghton haven't sued you guys yet on that, about the mismanagement. Holding water up on Higgins when it's just a couple of inches over its legal level would mitigate damage on Houghton. Finally, I was in the audience during the last Higgins Lake Advisory Board meeting, and one of the board members made a recommendation to obtain a temporary permit from EGLE to temporarily close the permanent opening of the LLCS on Higgins and use the existing gates to control the outflow of water down the Cut River to better meet the water requirements EGLE and the DNR require, which would help you maintain the legal levels. Wouldn't it make sense to try it so you can get a little more useful engineering information for the future replacement of the current LLCS? I hope the advisory board isn't just a pretend entity that you formed to make it look like you're having local stakeholders involved and then not do anything they suggest. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other public comment? Yes, sir.

Dave Denboer, Denton Township supervisor. I know I'm repetitive when I say this, but I can't help it because I don't get to see everybody in the county as much as I'd like to. I want to thank everybody for your service, from commissioners all the way down through to law enforcement. Commissioner Morley already mentioned about the visitation we had in regards to all the millages going on at our Roscommon Township Association meeting, and it was awesome. And I really appreciate them allowing the different people to come to that meeting to explain what the millages are about and what they mean. So it was very much appreciated. So thank you again. A couple things that we have going on in Denton Township, just so everybody knows, the concert series starts up tomorrow night for Friends of Trestle Park. So for those of you that like to break out a lawn chair and enjoy music, it starts tomorrow the 25th at 7 p.m. All their concerts start at 7 p.m. They then have concerts on July 9th. July 23rd, and August 6th. So that's their four concert dates that they have scheduled for this year. So I don't have the bands memorized at this point, but everybody seems to have a great time. So keep it in mind if you happen to be around, come on down and pay a visit. The other big thing we have going on is the 4th of July fireworks. The chamber is hosting that event. It will also be at Trestle Park that Saturday. They also have a concert going on beforehand. So it's going to be really packed, I'm sure, and really busy, but that's okay. I will reference and thank again all law enforcement and fire departments and EMS that were there last year We had more people in that little square two blocks than you can possibly imagine, and everything went without a hitch. They did an awesome job. So hopefully we can repeat the same thing this year. So again, let me just finish by saying thank you for the jobs that you all do. And I don't mean just the commissioners. I'm talking about staff here at the county. I'm talking EMS. I'm talking the Sheriff's Department. Again, we don't get to visit and see each other a lot because everyone's busy with their lives and their jobs, but From our perspective, we truly appreciate it very much. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Any other comments? Yes.

Good morning. Marcie Dankert, Roscommon County Treasurer. Just a couple of points to bring to the board's attention. Tomorrow we are having a Brownfield Redevelopment Authority meeting, and we have in presented with another on act three eighty one housing tiff plan this is being uh... presented to us by lakeview apartments in denton township the former sandbar so they are requesting for tax increment financing to help cover uh... Startup costs and infrastructure of that development So just to let you know that that will be coming down the pike again similar to the creekside meadows in the village here So we do have that that we're working on Yesterday the US Supreme Court did issue its decision in the Pung versus Isabella County case I'm not overly prepared to speak on that at this point. We are going to have a county treasurer's meeting on Zoom meeting on Friday to discuss what the ramifications are from that decision. They did say that fair market value is not the tool to use to determine just compensation, but they have remanded parts of that back down to the Sixth Circuit. So I will have more information on that in the coming weeks as those things develop. Just wanted to bring the board up to speed on those things.

Thank you Any other public comment Seeing none we'll move on to board comment Commissioner Morley Just have a quick question two small things.

I know Jody had sent us the house bill 6105 and Is there anything you can just share? Because it was just the attachment. I've read some of it, but what is the impact of that, and what should we take away from that?

So 6105, I'm going to look it up. They've been very busy since last year. But essentially, that's the one where we're looking to have The money for special assessment districts put into the money for the special assessment districts that the state owes given directly to us. So that's where that bill is. which is great for us because then it guarantees payment for state properties that are in lake special assessment districts.

And not having us take that out of the PILT. That is correct. That's what I thought. So they can't say just take it out of PILT and use whatever's left. Correct. This would be a direct pay. That's kind of how I thought, but this is still up for final. It's not done yet, right? It is.

It's not done yet, but it sounds like from the information I've gotten from MAC that it is on a faster track.

And part of the conversation I had at the RTA was each of the townships would like a little brief Summary or bullet points about each of the county millages so that when their people ask them about that that they would just have a here's the key points and so I'm going to try to pull some of that together from each of them. I've got a little bit from a couple of them already, and it's like an index card. I mean, just something simple that they would be, and they might even put that out on their website so that people understand it. So that was one of the requests, and I'll try to give them some key bullet points, not a whole page, because they won't remember that. I wouldn't remember that, so that's it.

Commissioner Milburn?

Dave, thanks for being here today. I'll be at Trussell Park tomorrow night at 7 o'clock. It's always a good time. I'd like to thank Deborah, Tracy, Kim, Al, and Emil for being here to support the COA and the 250th anniversary next Saturday at noon. I'll get with law enforcement to make sure that thing goes off without a hitch. It's only going to be about a 20-minute presentation. It should be quick. That's all I got. Thanks.

Thank you. I'd like to comment about closing the gates on Higgins Lake. Seems like we had a chill lawsuit against us that said you can't do that. And if now someone wants us to do that, maybe they should go back to the courts and say, oops, we made a mistake. We can't be doing that because that lawsuit says no. We cannot intentionally close the gates when the lake is over lake level. With that being said, we'll adjourn until 10 o'clock for the work session.

Use your pencil.

Thank you for joining us, Mark.

First, we have MSU Extension Julie Darton.

Good morning. As Rex said, I am Julie Darton. I'm the District Director for MSU Extension District 4. And for a moment I thought I'm the only thing on the agenda, but I'm not going to luxuriate in the freedom of being able to speak for as long as I want. I know you want to keep these meetings tight, And it's a luxury to have fewer things on your agenda than more. So with that, I'm here today to offer the annual report for 2025 and our work here in Roscommon County. I'm not going to read the report to you. I don't think that's a good use of our time. But I'll just highlight some things. On the initial page, it's sort of an opportunity for me to frame the work that MSU Extension does. For more than 100 years, Extension has been active in bringing information created at the university into communities with the hope that that information and education can help change people's lives for the better. And we've continued to live that mission and deliver on that goal as we've worked in Roscommon County and other counties. I know that Roscommon County is very much focused on water resources. And we, across the state, continue to try to positively impact stewardship of water resources making sure that not only do we have adequate water supply, but that we have great water quality. Because we know that that matters to people who live here and who choose to live here. We're fortunate to be surrounded by 20% of the world's fresh water. And we're very keen to make sure that everyone in the state understands that we are stewards of that resource as we move into the future. In addition to that, Since the beginning of not only Extension, but also Michigan State University, we've been working in the food and agriculture industry. And the number in your annual report shows that our impact in food and agriculture is $244.2 billion. That's a really key industry for our state. And that's not only what we produce, but what we do when we value add to that production. So value added essentially is anything that we're processing that is coming out of that. So we have a long tradition. And you can think of exemplary businesses that have existed in the state of Michigan that that we see in that space and in that vision. But in addition, because we're the second most diverse agricultural state, that means that Extension has to have professionals who are doing research and conveying information to agriculture producers and food businesses at every level and across very diverse platforms. So we have horticulture educators that help people understand what they can grow in a greenhouse. We grow a lot of poinsettias in the state of Michigan. We grow a lot of bedding plants in the state of Michigan. If you've driven around West Michigan, you've seen what we call high tunnel production for those commodities in the marketplace. Christmas trees is another one that people don't always think about until it's the season, but we are an exporter of that. But we also have all of the agriculture industry that deals with animal production. beef, dairy, pork, chickens, turkeys, eggs, all of those things that we enjoy seeing on our table, Michigan State University is producing. And then we're fortunate because of the lakes to have a beautiful fruit industry in West Michigan that produces world class things like apples, peaches, pears, blueberries. And we're really proud of the way, and cherries, let me not forget to mention cherries. It's just early in the season. But it's important for us to understand that every year production is different. Every year the challenges are different. The pressure is different. And so that's why I highlight that. And our work really does impact producers across the state. in every category. We're very proud of our 4-H program, often our better known, the better known offspring of Extension because it impacts so many youth across the state. Indeed, we're really fortunate to have over 170,000 youth statewide that are engaged with 4-H programs. And sometimes that's one day. Sometimes that's a camp. Sometimes that's an ongoing club or a special interest opportunity. Sometimes that's things like exploration days, which is happening right now on our campus. We have more than 1,000 youth at Michigan State University engaging in educational programs designed for them with the opportunity for them to discover maybe a career pathway and maybe just a future passion that they'll take into their life moving forward. But through all that, encouraging them to be curious, to be engaged as learners, and to confront the future with an optimism and a spirit of what can I do, rather than what is happening. We're going to be educating more and more about artificial intelligence, not only the challenges of it, but the opportunities of it. How do youth become good consumers in this new world, in this new environment? And it really speaks to our motto for 4-H nationwide, which is, We're trying to make youth beyond ready. So moving beyond readiness into careers like Pathways. We're also really proud of the work that we do to help youth understand what it means to be a citizen and engaged in things like government. So we have 4-H Capital Experience, where youth get to go to Lansing. We have Citizenship Washington Focus, where youth get to go to Washington, DC. And through that process, they get to learn about government at every level. They start learning about what happens in their local community with either a township or a city government or a county government. And all of those things are very, very important. The other thing to keep in mind as we go through the report on the interior page, we're highlighting some of our health programming, which is very important. Health education is something that we are delivering in communities. Hospitals used to deliver a lot of that information. But increasingly, they're looking at partnerships to handle that. And we are stepping into that space. We have been in that space for a long time. So we're teaching people how to maintain themselves in their homes safely through programs like Matter of Balance or Tai Chi for balance and falls prevention. We are engaged with delivering that education in a way that is accessible and that helps people to overcome challenges. We're proud that in 2025, we had 94 youth engaged in clubs in Roscommon County. That is a number that you will not see reported in 2026. There are no more 4-H clubs that exist solely for Roscommon County. They've been migrated to other counties. Those numbers will be reported in Crawford County going forward, and that's a result of choices made about whether we can invest in our program and how we as Extension are responding to counties that can't invest. And really, it was not born out of the situation with Roscommon. We continue to value the partnership we have here. It is really born out of a sense of when we have multiple counties across the state that are doing this, we needed to come up with some sort of way of not punishing youth, but creating some kind of consequence for a community. And unfortunately that consequence is that those clubs that still exist in Roscommon County will not be reported as belonging to Roscommon County another result of Unforeseen cuts is that we lost more than 90 staff across the state that delivered nutrition and health education through our snap education program That's a federal cut, but it does impact us here We are very sad that we've had to say goodbye to very talented and energetic and dynamic staff through that program. We are hopeful that we'll learn more about what is to come from the federal government, possibly in response to that, but We can't see around that corner yet, so we're not sure what's going to happen. And then our own Julie Crick works very hard to encourage conservation, as I mentioned, stewardship of natural resources through programs like the Conservation Stewards Program and the Master Naturalist Program. Those are two programs that both encourage people to learn about their natural environment and how they can work to enhance that. Conservation Stewards works at a higher level in a global sense, in a community level, with perhaps things like enhancing a prairie environment in a region or removing invasive species in a larger area, where Master Naturalist Program helps people understand how they can enhance the environment that they control, their own home or their own land, and what kinds of things they can do to make that better. So they might do things like plant-specific trees to encourage birds and insects, using conservation practices to make sure that they're reducing the amount of runoff from their own home or things like that. And so in addition to all of those things, you know that we had the tourism program here in 2023-24. That program won a national award for extension in 2025, so we're putting the spotlight on that. But also, we're seeing that that program is creating change in communities. We know, for example, that St. Helen and other communities are choosing projects based on what they've learned through that process. And we'll continue to report on those outcomes and the ways in which the partnership that we've had with Roscommon County as a whole is bearing fruit coming down the road. Some people may not know about the freshwater trail system. or the markers, the large carved fish that exist. But each of those comes with a QR code that people who are visiting your community can use to find out more about where should I go next? Where should I have lunch as long as I'm here? Or what should I plan for the future? Maybe I can get a camping site on Higgins Lake if I plan ahead. So those are all things that we're really proud are outcomes of our long-term work. I'm happy to take any questions that you may have for me, and I'll do my best to answer.

Thank you for the time Any questions from the board?

Just like to comment sorry vice chair yeah, um so many times we get an annual report, and they're just like oh They're huge, right? And I just applaud the fact that it's the key bullet points. It's key information. It's easy to read. It doesn't go stuck in a folder somewhere because it's so much info. So I just wanted to say, just a great report. Very concise, especially when it talks about our county-specific, not just all of MSU Extension.

So thanks.

Thank you.

I just wanted to thank you. I know the public doesn't know, don't know how much the board knows. But MSU Extension has always been, in the decade I've been here, a wonderful resource, free resource of knowledgeable experts when it comes to a variety of the things that come through our offices. And I'm glad that you found me a replacement for John. So thank you. I appreciate that.

Yeah. So Jody's referring to John Amrine, who for years coordinated the Northern Michigan Association of Counties, who is now retired. It is taking more than one person to fill those shoes, but we do have resources that counties can call upon, and we can make connection to find out about legislation that's coming or what's an example from another county that we might follow to solve X, Y, or Z problem. And certainly... There's information that Ross Common could share out through those resources as well. I know you want me to conclude, but I just want to end this by sharing some news with you. My colleague that serves the Saginaw, Midland Bay, Genesee, and Shiawassee area resigned. And that is where I live. That is where I started my service with Extension. I have been appointed as the new director for those five counties. And I'm currently covering these seven counties in Northeast Michigan as well as those four until an interim person for this area can be named. So I will be transitioning out of this role. But I just want to share that it has honestly been a great learning experience. It's been my honor to serve these communities. I've learned so much working with all of you. I've really valued the opportunity to serve and understand what it means to work across a very varied landscape of counties and understand the concerns of a specific community. I'm sad to leave the dynamic and powerful staff that I have and some of the partners and friends that I've made. But I just want to share with you That will be coming but until such time I will still be around you'll still see me I'll still be coming up to help staff with issues and making sure that things are running as smoothly as possible So that may be the end of July, but I don't know we're in a huge bureaucracy and the wheels turn exceedingly slowly, so We'll let you know when when the actual new person is named, but I just want to I Thank you sincerely from the bottom of my heart.

Will you bring them and introduce them?

I will come and introduce them, yes. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

I should say done. Continue to do. You're not gone.

I'm sorry. It's a lateral move. It's just different geography. It's the same job, but yeah, I'll be closer to home. It's good for me. I'm very passionate, obviously, about my job, but specifically about the Flint community where I grew up and the Saginaw community where I currently live. And honestly, Shiawassee Bay and Midland as well. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you. Now we have a report from the Veterans Office that Heath would like to present.

Good morning. Heath Nemeth, Director for Veterans Affairs. Commissioner Morley stopped by the office this morning and she had some questions with upcoming millages and whatnot. So to start off, our board is out there and they are actively educating community, their animal groups, their service organizations, sportsmen's clubs, anyone they're attached to. Throughout the year, I do a lot of listen and learns and I take that opportunity to reinforce what this millage means to the public. And when I think of a millage, I think of it as an investment. I say yes to something, I want a return from that. And the reports we give show that there is a large return on their investment having this office in the county. And what you see in front of you, and these are the latest numbers, and every year the federal government puts out, it's called a GDX report, Global Distribution of Expenditures. And it tells the public, every county in the United States, how many veterans and how many federal dollars those veterans bring into that county. And you kind of get blown away. And this is, I like this report. And so we've, I've modified it so we can look at it and it's a little simpler to understand. So in front of you, you're going to see, and these are the current numbers, 2024, Roscommon County had 2,380 veterans that call the county their home. Now that number probably doubles in the summer with the snowbirds. And by all means, we see those veterans too. But as far as monetary amounts, these are the numbers that are counted. And off to the right below that, you'll see total expenditures, $19,328,000. That is a monetary amount assigned to all their benefits as far as healthcare, compensation, pension, and education. Right below that, this is the one we like to focus on because these two benefits are our main benefits Veterans come into our office when they when they show up at our door They're there because they expect a monetary award and they get that by filing a compensation claim disability or a pension claim Now all of those take specific things And we do that very well, but in the county of Roscommon Those awards bring in $17,970,000. That's federal cash coming from the federal government going into the pockets of our veterans where it's been studied that that money gets regurgitated into our community 10 times through different entities. Veterans aren't savers, they're spenders. They're out there buying weed whippers, grills, pontoons, all that stuff that we all want. And here's the interesting thing. As you go down this report, you can see our largest demographic of veterans. Out of all of our veterans in this county, we have 798 that are service connected, that are receiving that monetary amount. And you go down and you see the total age group of those veterans, and it says 17 to 44. We have 114 of them. And 45 to 65, 176. And then here's the big number, 65 years and older, 432 veterans, 65 years and older, are receiving a monetary amount. Now, I always like to look at this, and you can't outrun statistics. The average lifespan of a male is 72 to 76 years old, and that affects that total population up there. So as our veterans decide to move away to a warmer area or maybe go into assisted living somewhere, it's our job to kind of reconfigure how we operate to attach to our younger population. Because it's a very different business talking to a Mark Milburn, commissioned officer from the Vietnam era, to talking to an 18-year-old who just served in Iraq. That discussion is very different in how we capture them and how we work with them. And so that's what we're constantly changing and adapting in the office. But when we're out there in the public and we're talking about value and what the public likes to see is that their vote of yes and their monetary support, there is a return on that. And $17 million a year from the work we do in that office is a huge return. if there's any questions about that. And those are just two of the benefits out of a sheet. And Commissioner Morley saw the sheet of actions. We perform that. It's too wordy to put out there to the population. It's long, what we do there. But those are the two main benefits. It's kind of like social security disability. A person coming in, applying for that, It's the process pretty much mirrors it for VA compensation disability. So hopefully if this helps out as far as when we're out there talking to people and everyone would love to know how many veterans we have in Roscommon County. And great, we know that they all belong to service organizations and they're helpful and they're amazing, but when you take that number and you apply well, what you support brings in $17 million, it kind of has a different feel to it. Is there any questions on this at all? Yes, Mark. Yes, sir.

About a year ago, we had a man write a letter to the commissioners, about nine months ago or so, and he said that the office really changes the life of the veterans. I think it's important for people to realize that the veterans that are affected by this

Thank you, well, thank you for the opportunity to operate. It's hard to walk into any organization, any room filled with just people and look and say, hey, is there a veteran in here that we received or did work for and received a monetary award? It's very hard. And that's because we've been allowed to operate the way we operate. And it's always in the best interest of the veteran in front of us and the spouse and the family. All those programs that we have going on in the office, those came from veterans that we did work for that want to come and give us money. And we can't take money, but what we can do is set up a 701 account, a donation fund to where we operate those programs and the families get to come together. And so it's, we appreciate the way we've been allowed to operate.

Okay. Yes, sir. Thank you. Any other questions? Well, first off, thank you. I know I stopped you this morning because part of my task was to help the

township supervisors have key bullet points about each of the county millages because we agree to put those on a ballot so they want our input so this has been very very helpful i will come back and get that one page that's longer so i can kind of draft something else too and i'll run that by you guys but i think this is it's helpful um Refresh my memory, this is kind of like a Headley rollback type millage as well? It's the same? It's no change, is that correct?

No change.

OK. That little bit, I'll get that from you as well to put in there for him. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, guys.

With that, I think we'll adjourn until 11 o'clock.

...of the United States of America and to the Republic from which it stands,

Roll call please.

Who so? Morley here Wilson here Milburn here sensor.

And if you weren't at the last meeting, I'd like to announce that the chairperson is not here because she had things to deal with it business. Approval of the agenda so move Mr. Chair. I'll second that. Any discussion?

Morley yes Wilson yes Melbourne yes motion carried public comment.

Anybody got a public comment? I don't see anybody from the public so. Move on. New business we have none. Other than what we're here for today. And we have the county 2026 budget review.

I was feeling free. So 2026 budget considerations to date, this report falls through May 31st of 2026. We are currently at 41.37% through the fiscal year. We actually have a pretty stable county budget line at the 41.37. And so as you're looking through, that's always what we're looking for is where are we tracking year to date based on that percentage. We have only 6.5% of the general ad valorem tax revenue collected, but that actually matches with our historical collection because it is a summer tax. We also have 11 of 26 pay periods that have been completed to date as a 531. Here to date, our benefit and retirement payments are fully recognized at that five month in this budget. There are times when they are off. But at this time, they line up nicely. And then our emergency service budgets actually will increase over time. Just thinking of their expenses, summer is our busy months. So you're looking at 9-1-1. You're looking at our sheriff's office, your jails. Busy season all across the county. So therefore, you'll see over time expenses increases. You will also see more equipment and things being purchased as that goes on as well. So our total fund revenues, May 31, 2026. I broke this into three slides to try to make it a little bit bigger this time. So as you go through by funds, the main thing that to me that we always notice is your funds that have those special millages, they are either at or near 100% funding. And that is, again, because of the timing of when that money comes in. So that money comes to them through the winter collection. So at the beginning of every year, they're getting that dump of that special tax revenue through the millage, voted millage in there. So overall everyone sits pretty well general fund. We're about where we always are this time of year Your specialty courts are tracking fairly well towards their expenses that is all grant reimbursed as it rolls through for that The next slide Going through that same next kind of the second tiers of these, we are looking again at obviously our EDC special projects. We're not going to be seeing any more money coming into that one. So that one will remain low. That would have been if they were pursuing grants and such as they were hoping for. Automation fund is actually quite high for this time of year. Your 911 central dispatch has already received most of their revenues. Incident defense, that is at a 50%, which is actually what we want to see, because that means the state is reimbursing us in a timely manner for the things that we expend. So that's one that I always try to keep a good watch of. Our county housing program income fund, that is slightly higher than what we actually had initially budgeted. That is just money that is coming in to us for payments of the properties that are owed to us. We have had some payoffs come in through that. So that has been a kind of very positive. And then Commission on Aging, they are at 100%. That's just to remember that as that money comes in, it is paid out to the Commission on Aging for those contracted services. Yes, ma'am.

What's the biggest difference between the County Housing Program Income Fund and Administrative Fund?

The administrative fund is the money that we get when we are doing certain types of programs that are MSHDA. So that's money that we're allowed to keep specifically for administrative purposes. Yep.

And it's a portion of that income fund. Yes. It just has to go into a different fund.

Yes, ma'am. Yep. And could you be so kind as to restate the Roscommon Commission on Aging, which you just said, for the public?

So the Roscommon Commission on Aging we we as the county collect a millage for specific services and then that money once it is collected is Distributed to the Roscommon County Commission on agency per our contract with thank you So your final slide of fund revenues through May 31 2026 our childcare fund 14.27%. This is another reimbursement fund where it is either money that is allocated through us or it is reimbursement through the state of Michigan. They are notoriously slow, and that is one of the reasons that the child care fund tends to lag when we're looking at revenues versus expenditures, but it does come. Overall, to their percentage of expenditures, though, we are on track, so that works. Spongy Moth Veterans Affairs, those are both those special millage funds. Materials Management Plan, those are reimbursements that have come to us, being processed pretty quickly through the state, which is nice to see. Airport sits extremely low, but that is because the large figures that are in there are based on capitalization of those programs for the grants through the state and the federal government. And we won't recognize any of that until after the projects are actually completed and the contract signed off. So you will see that stay low because odds are those won't be finished until next year, unfortunately. Our SADs for the purpose of revenue collections, just a couple things to note on that. The budgets that were set for those are just kind of crapshoots at that point in time based on our collections as they come in. So obviously, your Lake St. Helen and your Holton Lake had final collections that were coming through. Thank you very much to the treasurer's department. Higgins Lake, which is where I'm going to kind of point out to you, the revenue that you see in Higgins Lake, if you remember, I had to ask the board to do $160,000 allocation to Higgins Lake to offset the fact that we did not yet have money as of December 31st. to cover expenses. So that portion will be, now that we have that last of everything that has come in through the tax collections, I will have our treasurer's department do a journal entry for us to reimburse the general fund for transferring that money over. So you'll see that decrease again because we get our money back. That was essentially a loan so that for accounting purposes, we don't have to write the state of plan.

So make sure I understand that, too. So at that point, because we're going through audit, everything has to balance. Yes, ma'am. There was a loan from the tax payment fund? General fund. General fund. General fund. Took it out of general fund to put it into this SAD.

Yes, specifically the 839 fund, yes. Okay, all right. And then we pay that back? Yes. when we get the rest of the money? We will pay that back ASAP to the general fund. So traditionally, once all the cash outs and the payouts have done, and I'll kind of preface on all of these special assessment districts, our treasurer has been going parcel by parcel in each special assessment district right now. She's come to my office a couple times to bang her head on the wall, just looking at some errors and omissions that have happened throughout the course of this. Nothing huge, but trying to get that information finalized so we can have that meeting that we had discussed and making sure the next time the roll goes out that the roll is correct. So I was kind of letting her finish that process before I asked her to do one more thing for me with the special assessment districts. But yes, so that money is to be returned to the general fund.

That so no I think that's that's the way I understood it too And I think that that grid that you gave all of us from the beginning of here's what's in here's what we're waiting on and Here's what we're not going to have. I think updating that with all that information, because I think the county did $10,000 for each of those three years. Yep.

We annually have to. Yep. We annually have to appropriate $10,000 to each. Yes. All right.

Question on that page. Yes. Gypsy Moth did not spray this year. That is correct. So there's surplus of funds.

Yes, so they will actually, because Gypsy Moth did not have a suppression this year, we budgeted, I wanted to say, like $150,000 just kind of as more of a placeholder in case we did. But yeah, so their fund balance will increase by that much for next year. And that is traditionally with Spongy Moth for everybody, it is very secular in When you spray if you take the data over the last 20 plus years that it's been in place. You'll see a Decrease for several years, and then you'll see a huge uptick and then it'll decrease again. It's a very You can graph it and it's very obvious how it looks So as we're collecting Saving that money and putting it aside we had one year where we wiped out the entire fund balance I want to say it was either 2020 or 2019 it was a million dollars to spray and We could have sprayed more if we would have had more money But then you'll have these years where you spray minimal or nothing and so that's where we save instead of going Oh now we need a mill now we need a mill to spray you know to recover those But yes that will go immediately into their fund balance to recoup. Oh my favorite. I love a good graph Mostly I do these because sheriff likes graphs, but We'll see if the new undersheriff will like graphs, too. So obviously, your purple line is our totals to date, and your other is the 2026 budget. Your large increase that you see in that difference for actual revenues to budget at the very beginning, that is fund 201. Fund 201 is actually the road commission. fund, and that is another we collect and then send them their money fund. It is not the special road millage fund. That is 202. But 201, essentially, the intake of that money comes into the county per statute through the treasurer's office and then is distributed out as well. So more fun things that Marcy does that people may not know. So just a few of the highlights for those. We did talk about the fact already. Our overall county-wide revenue collections across all 40 of those funds stands at 47.43%. So when you're looking at having completed 41% of the budget season to date, we're doing pretty well. Our interest earnings and our tax-related interest are above budget across all of our funds. So that is always, having those years where we had very low investment earnings and tax-related investment earnings, it is nice to see and it does really make a huge difference overall in those investments and how that is managed. All of those special millage funds are near that 100% of budget revenues. That includes your special road fund, which is on the ballot, 911, which is on the ballot, Sheriff Road Patrol, which is on the ballot, Veterans Services, which is on the ballot, Spongy Moth, and Commission on Aging. So fund expenses through May 31, 2026. Again using that 41% as your benchmark as things roll forward Your low areas the special road millage fund they will start spending all that money now If you haven't seen them on your way to work in the last week, they are out and about doing those local projects That are moving forward. This one is also on the ballot again. So how this how this in general works is They spend the money, and then they send the bills over for what they've spent and essentially are getting reimbursed through their special road millage fund through the treasurer's office by township. So their township allocation that they have to spend every year is actually calculated through the treasurer's office using a spreadsheet that Marcy loves. But I know. I'm sorry. It wasn't easy to make that. So you will see that pretty much so if the townships have chosen to do special projects with the money for the local roads this year, you will see that money expended out by township as that goes. So by the end of the summer, beginning of fall, you will see that percent to date drastically increase for that. Overall, we only have a couple departments as we go through that are slightly above that 41%. Emergency management is trending slightly higher, but we had a nice storm. So to be expected that there was some time and some money that was spent in a portion of that. The great news is that a lot of those things will be able to be reimbursed, and they do have a fund balance to carry over for that. Our next group of funds as we move through the EDC special project funds through Roscommon County Commission on Aging Fund 283. Expenses on Commission on Aging match where we are for the money that we have transferred to them at this part. It is slightly lower because they do pay a small portion to us. through cost allocation for money management, oversight, and the things that the board does as far as oversight for that as well. And that's normally paid out more towards the fall of the year for that. So corrections training fund, total to date actually exceeds what the budget was. They're on hold for corrections training fund expenditures right now until they actually get more money that comes in. So you have an idea of where they get revenue for corrections training. It is a part of the booking fees There's a certain part of the booking fees that come in To the county and that can only be used specifically for jail trainings Fun facts, so we are overall looking pretty well you have nothing out of m. Cole's training fund yet and But that is simply because you have to have somebody that you need to send through training first to do that portion. So that is that kind of contracted training that we do that rolls through the sheriff's office for that. On our next slide, we start with my favorite, the child care fund. Again, as we talked about when we were looking at their revenues, their expenses year to date are lower than anticipated as well. So that's actually always a very positive thing. And a large trend of that is really trying to, the state's motives to really try to keep adjudicated youth in home settings and out of institutional type settings. Here's your spongy moss suppression. We've spent 3.62% this year, and that is from not spraying. So that is where that low amount comes into there as well. SADs, again, we kind of took a crapshoot of what we would spend, but obviously, We have exerted those and that is mostly on all of the engineering that has happened in preparation for Holton Lake and Lake st. Helen Higgins Lake a large majority of those expenditures have come we've done some studies smaller studies that have come through but then just that basic basic lawsuits for people that are fighting the SADS and Personally, I look at that and I think the amount of money they have spent they have spent just more putting into lawsuits to combat it than they ever will spend into that in their lifetimes. But that's just my outside opinion. Your expenses for the debt service for funds 860 and 861, that is us paying those bonds. So that is what those are for specifically. So we have paid in full for the bonds this year.

Jody, quick question on capital improvement. So we didn't plan on any expenses for this year. We do know that with the fund balance at a certain 18, we have money that goes in there, and we have boiler issues that we're going to be using. Is that coming out of this year, or is it going to be next year?

It should come out of this year. And so what I think the best course of action, in my opinion, When we get an idea when Justin presents those quotes on that, I think at that point in time, I'll have to ask for a budget adjustment, because we'll have to set both an expenditure and a revenue for that budget. And because it's so large, that is something the board is going to have to OK to. But yes, I'm really hoping we get to spend that money this year.

At that point, you'll be able to make an educated assessment? Correct.

Yes, that is correct. Again, you see that vast difference where you have the funds 201, 202 that come into there with 2026 being budgeted and the purple being the total to date for that. 283, you'll see where that one peaks out, and they're actually at a meet even on that as well. So just kind of another graph to help you see exactly what is going on. Just a few, if I can make my clicker work. Just a few highlights for the funds for expenses. Overall, the county expenditure rate is 37.54. So we are slightly under budget for that. That is pretty much a traditional trend that we see annually this time of year, and then just continue to monitor. Our Sheriff Road Patrol Fund, which is one of our largest funds, they are at 36.26%, so still slightly under. 911 Central Dispatch, their budget is almost exact on expenses at 40.72%. Our counseling, our MCOLs, police training, EDC revolving loans, and animal shelter special projects have spent nothing to date. And animal shelter special projects, that's where we have very nice people who leave portions of their estates to us, but put some caveats onto it about what the money can be spent for. So until there is an actual project, we traditionally don't move forward with anything in that zone. We were able to use some of that money in 2025 to offset the huge expenses from one person that did allow for upkeep with that HVAC over $350,000, $400,000 project, yes, which is a blessing because we wouldn't have been able to do it otherwise without a loan from the general fund or some sort of another special loan. Our general fund department revenues through May 31 of 2026. So this is just a breakdown of all those general fund departments. As you go through for revenues to date, your 000, your primary for that, a little over $6 million of those revenues is that general ad valorem. So again, we will see that peak. When we start getting those summer summer collections that come through for that some of the other areas That are a little bit over Andy's department mis it actually has revenue this year and And that is simply some work that's being done through NEMCAC to assist with them in their performances of that. And that wasn't anything planned. We can never really plan on them having. So anything that comes in in that revenue line item is extra. There is a portion of that that will actually be journal entry because it is a reimbursement for hardware purchases. So we'll do a journal entry for that to negate out the revenue and the expenditure since it's a true reimbursement. Some of the other areas, mailroom services. That is literally where we put money in. You're worth $1,600 for mailroom services. That is actually where we empty out the machines in the hallway, and then we count it through and put that in. So that is the vending machine revenue. And that actually has to come in because the general public purchases out of that. So it comes back into the general fund for that as well. Marcy, since you're in here, I'll caveat for you. Treasurer, there's a lot of transfers that happen in the treasurer to coming in. So you don't see those until Marcy's done with summer tax collections as well. Our next our third slide for general fund department revenues equalization actually for our GIS expenses and the equalization fees for services for carrying out certain services contracted services for the county Those have actually been coming in slightly higher. So that is a positive trend for that Buildings and grounds that is just basically based off the fact that we like to budget to have hopefully be awarded some of the smaller grants through MMRMA, through those RAP grants. I have one that is submitted, but we haven't received an answer to that yet in this cycle, but that's where that revenue comes into for that. Soil erosion will get busier during the summer months, just like everything else, so hopefully we'll see that increase a little bit as that goes. We weren't too extreme in what we budgeted for compared to the last few years, but it all depends on buildings as they go forward for that. Some of the positive things, it's not a lot, but Family Court for the collections that they're able to bring in is doing extremely well this year. And then Friend of the Court, their 290, which is the portion of their revenue collections that the county recoups. Is trending very high again this year and that is just good oversight and management of collections in in their office as well for us On the final general fund department revenues I Still moving forward, courthouse security is the one that I'm going to kind of zero in on for you. So one of the areas that we discovered maybe wasn't being tracked in a correct manner between Lieutenant Beck and myself was the money that we receive for federal inmates when we do transports. That's actually a separate payment that we receive through actual housing. And so what we noticed this year at the very beginning of this year is that money was not going into courthouse security It was going into a different fund actually, but because this is where people are paid out who do those transports We are now making sure that the money that is the people who are doing the transporting if they're paid out of the general fund that money is going back into the general fund through courthouse security and If we have a sheriff's road patrol officer that ends up doing it then the money reimbursed for that will go to the sheriff's road patrol fund So that is where that breakdown Kind of stands out as oh my gosh. We're 256 percent above what we budgeted. That's why So that's a positive area. Still staying on kind of that same line, looking at the corrections department and the jail, we are currently at 57.96% of our budgeted revenues for that. We're at a low point again, but we had a large portion of federal inmates come in and a very steady flow of Oscoda County inmates. And that's what really keeps those corrections revenues at a higher rate. Obviously, there's still that day-to-day work that happens, no matter whom your inmates are that are in there. But that's where we actually get a stream of revenue in, by keeping those beds filled with those other outside entities. I know in the last report, it was 18 or 19 feds for last month's report that we had in. But I think now we're back down to like three federal inmates. So it just depends on . And what is the max capacity? 97? 96, 97. We have not yet received allocations from Sting. That's a portion that is moved out in another area that our treasurer's office oversees. But that is just an allocation through Sting to us based on a grant that they receive, a portion of that as it goes into that as well. ORV is actually a state grant reimbursement that comes through. And we normally see that at the end of the year for the year before. It's kind of an odd little trend. Your dive team This is very morbid so we traditionally vote that donations once we're out on calls If we don't get any money that actually ends up being a positive thing in my opinion because that means there was no Tragedy that we had to respond to so but it is very grateful people donate for that Fund graphs, beginning of the summer is a bad time to look at revenues in the general fund. That is kind of the general gist of what I will say to that of where we're at versus what money is coming in. So department revenue highlights for the general fund. Again, that ad valorem tax is only at 6.5% of the 6.42 million that is budgeted for that. But that is because that tax is recognized after the summertime. So then we'll get that huge boost where you go, oh my gosh, all of a sudden we got that in. We have received our full marijuana excess tax for the year. Based on the sales, and I'll be curious to see next year, my guess is that we should be budgeting lower than what we've actually collected the last two years under some of the new costs that have gone into that. It'll be very curious to see how that works. But we have fully received that for the year. The cost allocation and the swamp tax those have not yet come into the budgets yet. So they said it's 0% collected Another timing issue. We already talked about our courthouse security Sting jury commission dive team have zero year-to-date revenues We talked a little bit about the equalization. GIS fees are actually total. The total percentage of them is they're 53% above budget. So that has been a huge help for that. And then our clerk register of these revenues are still showing a really stable growth where they just Their trend is wonderful. Kind of a fun fact, our clerk and register of deeds department for expenditures to revenues, they are actually their highest. They have the lowest gap of what's needed from the general fund. So throw that out there.

Did you know that about yourself?

Now you can be proud of yourself. General fund expenses through May 31st of 2026. We are overall sitting pretty well in our expenses. I paid the BS&A bill for the year, and that always jumps my expenses up in the county controller budget, because it's $67,000 out of our budget that does that. IT, MIS, they have had all of their projects come through, so they're sitting higher at 60.88%. The mailroom, we just order supplies. It's just such a small budget that it boosts that up as well. We will see an increase in postal costs again this year. So we'll have to budget up for next year to cover for that. Buildings and grounds is a little bit over. But I don't worry about them until the end of the summer. for our expenses as far as our district municipal services through the Area Agency on Aging. I'm going to touch on 672, Department 672, Agency on Aging. This is one where we have three people from when we used to be the TRIO Agency on Aging with two other counties. And we have to pay in there too. MERS defined benefit every year. So there's an actuarial that happens for those three people, and then all three counties get a bill, and we pay our portion of it. Last year, it was a little under $4,000. I assume, made an assumption, educated assumption, that it'll increase this year. Based on the funding was at roughly 97%, and the goal is to have it 100% funded. So I'm assuming that we'll expend that full $4,500 for that portion of that. Your mental health, which is at 43.45%, that is the money that we pay out for those mental health services, the $68,883 that we will pay out for that. So we have paid two payments to them so far, basically, is how that looks. That's Northern Lakes. Yes, ma'am. All right. So a medical examiner investigator is right on key for that. Factors that can change that because, I mean, ideally you have a certain rate of pay that we pay to our on-call medical examiner investigators, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We have to have somebody on call 365 days. The number of calls that they go out on and then if we have to provide training will affect that budget as well. The other portion of this that is affecting this number and granted it's not over is when we have unclaimed bodies and This is always when I wish there were people of the public that attended these meetings Every time that there is a person who deceases that is a Roscommon County resident Has a Roscommon County final mailing address If nobody that is a family or member relative or is a neighbor steps forward to claim their bodies, they're ours. And oddly, through the statute, it runs through the medical examiner's office, carries down to me as the administrator controller statutorily, and then we pay to have them cremated. Then they go and they sit into the vault until such time that one of our funeral homes works with our townships to have them buried in kind of pauper's graves. That way there's a record, at least, of who's there and who's buried there. We have actually had five already this year at $1,700 a pop. So that tends to add up. And we're not halfway through the year. And these, again, are people that, I mean, sometimes they just, very rarely is it where they just don't have any family whatsoever. It is just simply nobody wants to step up to take care of them. because they either weren't very nice people or, you know, and we do our best. If there is money or an estate available, we can go through probate court for that. But these are not people that normally have money or estates to do that. Some facts that I throw out there for that as well. Highlight on the corrections department and jail, they are currently at 43.62% of their budget, which is a very positive for them to see in that area. So the final slide for our general fund department expenses. Again, everything trending really well. You will see that there is Department 922, which is the units workman's compensation insurance fund. We have expended $95,894.73. We don't budget for this. So we pay the bill out of one big line item, and then we go back through and we allocate it to fund by department. for what each of those is. When we get our audit, after our workroom's compensation audit every year, we actually get a total billing that tells us what percentage charge basically each job class by department is. So we do a Excel spreadsheet to figure that back out. And then we go through and do a journal entry to allocate those out. So actually at the end of the June budget, that'll have been completed because I taught my in-heart how to do that. And so that was completed this week. So one of his learning curves for that as well. But other than that, overall, everyone is doing pretty well for those expenses. Sitting at a total general fund department expense for 101 of 40.45%. So really right on track for that.

Question.

Yes, sir.

806. What is UCOA dues?

So I can't remember exactly what UCOA stands for, because I've never changed it from when I inherited the buzzet. But those are the dues that we pay to the Michigan Association of Counties. That's it. Thank you. Good thing you've been here for a while. So those are fancy those are those two and then the Michigan Township Association, but the Michigan Township Association We have like a limited do so that's only a couple thousand dollars Then soil erosion expenses exceed income by 7,000 at this point that is correct and That's not good. I know. We had to cash somebody out. We'll make up for it. Don't you worry. We got this.

Glad they didn't take that job.

Yeah, I know. So just again, just another trending chart for you to look at just to compare those general fund department expenses to budget as it rolls through to see where we're sitting. A couple of the highlights, if I haven't touched on them. So your total operational departments, it's anywhere between 31% to 46% used. So your operational departments obviously being your day-to-day departments, not necessarily specific to allocations for those. Prosecuting attorney's office is actually low for this time of year, 31.64% spent, but that's because We haven't had a lot of appointed people in that office yet this year. We have had one prosecuting attorney who has been working very hard the last several months. But we'll catch up a little bit more now that those positions are being filled. Management Information Systems, which is IT, is currently 60.88% of budget. All of those special projects and that network maintenance hits at the very beginning of the year with them So we will even out it that goes but we will keep an eye on their budget between Angie and I to make sure that we are seeing in line with the total amount or Looking at asking for an adjustment or not reallocation if there are other projects that are going to affect that as it comes the jail which is obviously our largest general fund expenditure and at forty three point sixty two percent the overtime costs are actually really high on that right now there at seventy point sixty five percent There have been some coverage that I've had to happen in those positions as you're doing training and you're sending people Off to become certified, but that's an area that we will have to keep a close eye on so buildings and grounds slightly high and A large factor of that is some of the unanticipated increases in our building maintenance and repairs. One of the areas is HVAC. So that's another reason that we really want to make sure that we are able to make that project happen. That will certainly help us in a long run in several areas of expenses. It is a long-term investment in savings. Don't worry, Justin. It's not you. You're doing great. So on the next slide, This is just your payroll crossed by fund. As of this, it is 11 total payrolls of 26 pay periods for the year. We really are doing quite well. Higgins Lake, Holton Lake, and Lake St. Helen, those were the finalized payouts to our previous lake manager that came through for that. As of right now, obviously, we don't have anything coming out for that as they sit to be in there, but overall, doing pretty well in all of those categories across the board. So 37.36% total by fund. And that gives you a better picture of where we are sitting for that. You can see at the end of that slide where we're flat, basically, for the special assessment districts as far as what that wage looked like as that rolled through and the amount of time and work that the lake manager actually ended up having to do compared to what we thought it was going to have to do with the budgets.

That was one of my, I was just checking because obviously Higgins was a little lower, but the other two were quite a bit more than what we anticipated. Yes.

So does that mean there's not money to pay for a lake manager for the rest of the year? What that means is we're going to have to do some budget adjustments. And that is, we have had the conversations at the lake meetings of needing to know what that plan is moving forward, how much more money the engineers think that they're going to spend. So that's the data that's needed to look into those budgets and decide. Um, the other portion of that is when we're bringing a new lakes manager in, um, really clarifying where they're going to be expected to go. Are they expected to go to every meeting, every online meeting? Um, because every time you're an hourly employee and you go to a meeting, you get paid. So those are the things that really have to be drilled down by the board moving forward.

So is there anything that comes to mind about why we didn't, What do we not think about when we created this budget, when we start thinking about a new budget? What did we miss in thinking about our estimates?

Specifically for this, looking at the lake manager position as it was before, that was simply based on operations of the gates and meetings coming to the boards of commissioners what was not considered in there was that the late the lake manager was going to be utilized to attend all of the Delegated Authority representatives were also attending as well.

So that helps. Thanks. I

So benefit cost by fund. Overall, representing a total of the five months that have been put in, we are sitting at 38.84% of that coming through. General fund, sheriff road patrol, friend of the court. I should do this the other way. The only two that are over are animal control program and emergency management. And that is simply based on Plan change in one of the smaller smaller cycles because those aren't huge budgets to start with so going from a individual to a family plan so In our actual benefit cost budgeted to date this is my favorite one because it shows that word we're trending pretty well for everything and Retirement costs are up to date as a 531 the only department we have that is slightly over is Well, actually there's a couple so emergency management is slightly over but there were some additional hours worked in that and for our part-time person and There is for a nine nine a nine one one central dispatch We are working right now to figure out exactly what that's going to look like because they did have that union change at the end of the year Where they went into a different type of retirement plan? So there is an adjustment that will need to be made for that, but we had to make a larger upfront payment and when everything was finalized in February. So Noel's doing some figuring for me on that as well to see if that's a true adjustment or if it's going to even out at the end. Actual retirement cost of budget. And then just an overall summary. So overall, when you're looking at the health of Roscommon County's 2026 budget, we are stable. Looking forward to what the busy summer months are going to bring as far as how that will impact our budget. Hopefully with us going in below average expenditures, traditionally it has evened itself back out to where we'll be right where we're supposed to be. But that is just... that good oversight by our department heads and our elected office holders in kind of toeing the line and in knowing those trends within their departments for expenses. Our needed boiler replacement should really assist in offsetting those HVAC and repair costs in buildings and ground as well. And it will also obviously change that budget as we have it set for the capital improvements funds. Most of our funds create minimal direct revenues, and they do depend on those property taxes. There obviously is going to be a potential change to property taxes if some of those bills that are proposed were to pass. They would greatly impact our ability to provide mandated services. Your largest hit will always be in your general fund if those lost revenues are not replaced at a state level, if there's not a plan to offset that change in property taxes. I had mentioned in my report to the board that was in the regular meeting, and I think it bears mentioning again, there is no model at the state level nor at the Michigan Association of Counties of how to predict what that looks like for us if specifically that uncapping changes. Yep. And that is, so I am working currently with our equalization director. It's a little bit of a project for her. She's going to have to dig through county by county and see what data she can find as far as properties that were uncapped and make some calculations based on that. She was going to look at a couple years back so we can get kind of a total overall percentage to make a best guess of how that will impact us by fund with those millages for there. So it'll take a little bit longer than I would like to have. It's just data not readily available. I had a really good conversation after the meeting the other day with Dena Bosworth. And I said, hey, what data do you have? And she said, it doesn't exist, which is why for them to say in their bills that it's cost neutral, absolutely insane because a we know there's going to be a cost difference and B You haven't actually done any research to see truly if it is cost neutral It's just silly if you drop a number then you drop revenue so that's in It's not quite how it always works, you're correct if you uncap a property and

And the taxable value goes up. On a millage that falls under Hadley, other people's tax go down in that issue, correct? Because it's the same dollar amount. Now we're spreading it out. Over more taxable value.

Well, and I think, too, the way they're going to backfill that with other taxes that go from a different fund to a different fund, I mean, it's just ever-moving. Yes. It's going to not just impact the property tax line items, it's going to impact other line items that come in from... Other pieces, education taxes and stuff like that.

Other people other than us are going to see the hurt if they want to use that money to offset it for us. So you're just doing that little game.

Somebody else will have their finger in the pie at that time, too.

So I do thank you for, I know it's, especially when we're looking to do the rest, at least the rest of this term, budget projection, I know there are going to be estimates. But to do that legwork in advance, I know it's a lot of extra work, and I do appreciate it.

It's probably more work on Jamie, but that's okay.

Anybody, I don't love to do extra work if it's not needed, but I really believe we need to have that idea before we even do a 2027 budget or commit to things that we want to say, we're giving full HSA, we're doing this. Before we make strong commitments, we're going to kind of have to have an idea of, What's going to hit on that with all those changes?

Well, and it is something to me. Once there's a model of how to calculate that, if you're able to have a breakdown by township, then it's information we can share with our townships as well. That's true. So it's a good thing. I think it'll be a good tool for everybody. to kind of have that. And if we can come up with something that provides data, and we can provide some data to MAC, then maybe that helps at a state level as well. But something else.

Well, and I think one of the things that I know I experienced on the school board, many times the decision was, well, we don't have a model. We'll just wait till they give it to us. Well, now it's too late to make any decisions, because we won't get that in time. So thank you for trying to Proactive at finding what that somewhat of a model might be because I think that's going to be helpful appreciate it We're on to okay now we're on to budget preparation calendar Did you work on this Kim I did not do this part I Probably came from some of our conversations, right? It did, yes. It came from most of our conversations.

I did not create this cool graphic. So this is something that I will share out with everybody. My favorite intern actually took this portion of it and did a little fun play in AI yesterday to see if he could make one that was a little less squished. So that's on his list of things that he's working on for me. So obviously, two weeks ago at the meeting, the goal is to have the budget fully adopted by November 30 of this year. Budget worksheets will use the preliminary assumptions of a 15% health insurance premium increase. Obviously, the full HSA funding, because that was a promise made across the board with the contracts. a 5% ancillary benefit increase and 3% cost of living plus step increases. I didn't add union contract ones on there, but obviously theirs are by contract anyhow. So I won't go fully through all of the dates because it might drive you crazy, but essentially we're in the process right now of me tasking IT with those department heads that don't currently have BS&A access. getting that onto their computers so that they'll be able to use that to do direct budget inputting. Sheriff, don't worry. Abby already has it, and she's been made aware. Then with the wage and benefit sheets being sent out to those department heads for review, On the 6th so that if there's any major changes or issues that they see or errors we made they can come back Looking at then having by the 13th those finalized worksheets Which would also include 27 or 28 and 29 information as well for predictions to go out wage and salary is Hopeful to have all of their data together and finalized by the end of July so that that could also work in there, too as well So the board would kind of have some ideas moving forward with this All of our department budgets would be due back into me by the 3rd of August The big portion of that is in order to give enough time to review anything we do have a couple department heads who because of How they're placed on the server with either being under the state or in their own special area will not be able to do BS&A for direct input. They can't get to it because of how they're blocked from everything else. So after that portion, we'll be looking at the weeks of the 17th and the 24th to have individual meetings with department heads with budget and finance, so two commissioners and myself. We're hopeful then that at the end of August, we'll have the review of the benefit premiums. The moving target could end up being the beginning of September, but we're hopeful to push for August on that. And since we know that we really are not looking to make any major benefit changes, it may just be a suck it up and rework these budgets at that point in time. That's why the largest part of September will be with continued review and adjustments, individual meetings with elected office holders for benefits if needed, and follow-ups with department heads, and then looking at that Board of Commissioners overall discussion on what that final wage and benefit package really does look like by the end of September. Moving forward with that, for October, there would be that final budget presentation. Hopefully, this is the budget that is presented. It's been worked on with the department heads, information given to the admin controller for the MCLs, that budget presentation to the board. To happen at that 14th meeting that way then if there are any changes that the overall board says look We're not really keen with our budget and finance department heads and the administrative controller have rolled with this We'd like to see you tweak it this way that gives us a couple weeks as a budget and finance committee to sit back and Digest that and make changes as necessary Public hearing to be set and scheduled on October 29th Ideally you are having your public hearing on on a day that is not when you're adopting the budget. That way, if there is input, we actually do have a committee of the whole meeting on the 11th that that public hearing, afterwards you take that public hearing information and we can dissect that and review the budget for any final board recommended changes. The budget would then need to be updated, hopefully prior to the 13th, so that it can be published, sent back out to the Board of Commissioners for final adoption under the General Appropriations Act on the 18th. Our meetings in November are the 11th and the 18th. So obviously, the 18th is well before the 30th. So if we can stick to this and get it done by the 18th, everybody can have a very nice Thanksgiving. If not, then I guess we'll have a special meeting after that, but hopeful that this will work. The largest moving piece is always benefits and wages, so hopefully we can get that hammered out in September so that October, if those things need to, you know, make those final adjustments as they move forward. Any questions?

Yes.

Thank you. Not really questions, just maybe a little extra. I do believe that that September is that review month. We talked about that. If we do our due diligence correctly at those week of August 17th and 24th with each department head, and then be able to, because I think in my brain, that is to go, where do you want to be? What do you need? Right. Then we go back and plug everything We all talk, and then we may need that October to say, or that September to go, all right, if this happens, what do we do? And we go back and have time to talk to them again before we pull it back all together and present it to the full board. I think having that month to really find an additional time frame.

Because that is when we're really going to get those final figures on insurance, and that's going to change everything. If it's not where we're projecting, if it's higher then, if it's lower then. Right. You know, so. Absolutely.

But I do like being able to, and I don't think we've done a second round with them before, at least with a board. Not at a board presence, no. And I think that that might help just give us that time to hear that, you know, like, okay, what do we do here? What are you willing to take or not take? How are we going to make it work? And just getting their input on that I think is helpful before we, full board presentation together.

Mark? I appreciate the highlights and I really appreciate the budget planning roadmap. It really sets the tone of what we're trying to achieve. Thank you.

We've already set kind of, we haven't sent that out yet, and I will work on that hopefully, but today, maybe sometime in the next few days. But just an email to each of the department heads. Here's a date we've picked. Here's a time. Yeah. A wait if you can't make that. You have a backup. Just explain that, because we've already picked some dates that work for the chair, myself, and you as well, and kind of back into that as a little bit of a plan. And then maybe we even do that similar thing for September, like pick a couple, pre-plug them in, and if by chance we don't need it, free time on your calendar. If we do need it, then it's already booked and it's not putting them in a scramble to try to find a time to meet. So maybe we can pull that together too.

OK.

When I shoot from the hip, we have a detailed plan of what we can do. Thank you. Anything else? And to the staff.

Thank you, Jody, and thank you, Matt.

We have no motions or resolutions. We're open to public comment again. I see nobody raising their hand, so we're going to adjourn. Thank you.