Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Say hello. Hello.

The mics are not on. Not yet. Hello. Hello.

Hello. Hello.

This is sick. All right. So will you guys think All right. There you go. I'm irritated. Yeah.

Well, if anybody gets a chance to sit in one of the cool chairs, take that opportunity now. Oh, look at that. See, now you're on camera.

Thanks for coming.

Yes, we're here.

Well, I think we can call. yeah. yeah. yeah. We wouldn't.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Actually, if you could appreciate.

I know we have some of the youth commission members and youth will sometimes chat and talk with one another. And that sort of socializing is generally frowned upon in this room, but we're going to make a special exception tonight because we're really happy to have you here. And I desperately want to look cool. So we'll do that.

Let's start with the roll call. Commissioner Beeman.

Present.

Commissioner Hodge. Here. Commissioner LeBar. Here. Commissioner Light. Commissioner Maciejewski. Commissioner Robby. Commissioner Sanders. Commissioner Scott. Commissioner Somerville.

Here.

Great, thank you. I did hear from Commissioners Maschieski and Robby that they are tied up via traffic. We'll go now to public participation. This is your opportunity to provide public participation at the working session. After this meeting at 7 p.m. at our full board meeting, you have three minutes to provide public comment. At this meeting, we allow for one minute. If there's anyone who wishes to give public comment, please come forward at this time. Anyone who wishes to give public comment? Great. Ashley, do we have anybody online?

We do not, Chair.

Wonderful. Well, move then to the report from the County Administrator. Chair, no report. Great. And back to the Director of Board Operations for a new report.

No report tonight, Chair.

Wonderful. It's 5.32 and we have three items tonight as we're sliding into summer season here. So we will try and get through them as expeditiously as possible while still affording our presenters the time and courtesy to give us the full context of their presentation. I'd ask for Brittany Barron now, who is the program manager at Neutral Zone to come on forward and share a little bit with us. Do you have a preference for any Q&A during your presentation or would you like to get through it first? Wonderful. And can I ask you please to use the mic just so we can pick you up online? Thanks so much.

Oh, that's a perfect press the button. My name is Brittany Barron. I am a program manager at the Neutral Zone. I am also one of the adult advisors for the Washtenaw County Youth Commission, and they are ready to present all the things they've been working on on the 25-26 school year. So I will turn it over, I believe, to our chair, Tova Wise.

Hello, my name is Tova Weiss and I'm the current chair of the Washtenaw County Youth Commission. I'm from District 9 and this year was a really successful year for our Youth Commission. We had 17 members this year representing all nine of the districts across Washtenaw County. And we were able to build a really intentional and beautiful community where we all work together really productively. To help kind of establish that community, we had a day-long county tour followed by an all-night overnight retreat up at the Howell Nature Center where we were really able to kind of build our leadership skills and make plans for the year while also just really building those friendships that make our commission so productive and United. We had some highlights during that county tour. We were able to visit the Whitmer Lake Area Human Services Food Pantry, which was really relevant to a lot of the work we're doing because we do have a food and security task force this year. We also participated in some trainings that we led ourselves to kind of direct everyone in how to proceed in our work, including a county government 101 training, which is kind of about you guys and everyone involved in county government here in Washtenaw County to kind of explain how that structure works and how we fit into that framework. And then we also did an equality, equity, and justice training to just discuss those pillars that really embody all the work that we're doing. We have three task forces this year, which were teen mental health, transportation access, and food insecurity. And throughout the course of this year, we were able to also create and distribute some surveys researching how community youth are feeling about a variety of issues related to our task forces. And so we were able to review those results and really get a better idea of how youth across Washington County are feeling.

Hello, I'm Isaiah Clifton. Oh my gosh, I'm Isaiah Clifton of District 5 and I'm a member of the Teen Mental Health Task Force. So this year, our goal was to raise awareness about mental health for students in the area via social media. Some of our actions were creating targeted social media posts where we provided statistics on how many people suffer from anxiety, where to get resources to deal with things like that. Another one of our actions is going to be a yoga and dog therapy event tomorrow, where we're going to host a lot of students after school to do some yoga, to work on some mindfulness, and just have some time to decompress with therapy dogs.

Hi, I'm, oh, hi, I'm Alif Saglik. I represent district four. Some of our future work involves, so increasing awareness. We hope to do this by, you know, there might be like programming at certain schools that students aren't aware of. I know my school has like something known as a reset room that I feel like isn't really talked about. And it's a good opportunity if a student, you know, is maybe feeling really stressed between classes, needs a place to go. So, you know, advocating for things like that and making sure students know about that. We also want to continue to grow our social media presence. So maybe, you know, going beyond our current platform, which is just Instagram, maybe other platforms also, you know, more views and followers, making sure that students are aware of that since social media is a pretty effective way to share our information and just spreading information about other resources in general.

My name is Tahai and I'm in District 5 and some recommendations that we have for you guys is maybe like a lot of people know like people know that there's a lot of mental health problems and that people face, but they don't know like a lot of like places or things that could help them. So maybe like being more, like, active and, like, talking about the places that people could go and the resources that we have. And then also creating supportive communities and allowing people to know, like, that there are more, like, people who care about you and that will, like, actually like be there for you and then also like for example getting social workers into schools that's very good to like have people at schools to be able to talk to their students and also um spend putting more of your money into mental health programs and help with mental health would be very good for us so yes

Hi, my name's Elliott Lee, and I'm part of District, excuse me, District 3, and I'm part of the Transportation Task Force here at the Youth Commission. And our goal here is to increase transportation access, particularly public transit, in Washtenaw County. So our course of action include an interview with Ryan Rao from the Washtenaw Intermediate School District, WISD. We surveyed youth on how they experienced transportation in the community, as well as create a community workshop on riding the bus, which helps youth in Washtenaw County feel more confident using public transportation. This workshop had 23 attendees and we instructed students for public transportation options and safety precautions.

Hello, my name is Sylvia Irwin and I live in District 7. Some of our next steps at our interview with Ryan Rowe from the WISD, we came up with the idea of hosting a roundtable with a lot of important actors in public transportation. For example, like you guys, the ride people, the WISD people. and more to talk about public transportation in the county and to find options that are viable for improvement. Additionally, we would really like to increase survey and research into outlier regions in the county because we found that a lot of the survey responses that we got from our survey were mainly focused in the Ann Arbor-Ipsy area. So we'd really like to get that out to places like Whitmore Lake so that we can get a more full idea of how youth in our community are experiencing transportation access.

Hello again. Like I said, I'm Tova from District 9. We'd also, for you, we'd love to recommend that you implement more free busing options for Washtenaw County residents who are under the age of 18. It's really important for getting students to school, to their jobs, to their houses, and just really helping them navigate the town. And we'd love to recommend that you use Detroit as kind of a precedent for that, where they've been able to implement more free public transportation options for students.

Thank you. Hi, I'm Connie Kamara. I'm part of District 9, and I'm in the Food and Security Task Force. Our goal this year was to spread awareness about accessibility of food pantries in the Washtenaw County.

Hello, my name is will be no more and I'm a part of district 5 and our actions or contacting different food pantries and food access sites across Washington County if I'm correct we had a more than three, which was very good. We also interviewed these food pantries and resources to make videos that we posted online. The social media platform that we chose was Instagram because we felt like most people were active on Instagram and it was a simple way to get a simple video or a simple post out very quickly. And within the post, we posted information and statistics about food insecurity and we gained a little bit of likes and a little bit of traction and some reposts, which was very good.

MY NAME IS DISTRICT 7. SOME OF OUR FUTURE WORK AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR YOU GUYS IS LIKE WE'RE GOING TO HAVE MORE INCREASED COLLABORATION WITH ALL THESE SCHOOLS, FOOD PANTRIES AND THESE FOOD PANTRIES OUT IN THE COMMUNITY AND ALSO HAVE MORE DIRECT WORK WITH COMMUNITY MEMBERS AND OTHER PEOPLE IN THE COMMUNITY.

Hello, my name is Jihoon and I am from District 6. So on March 13th, On March 13th, our youth commission had an open meeting and we were trying to make sure that our county commissions is representative of all youth voices. And so we invited students outside of our commission and talked about concerns about the state of the county and also looked for some research exchanges. We had 27 youth attend across the county and we had some small group discussions on various topics regarding obstacles and issues. in the county, so we talked about school safety, things about absenteeism. We also had a space to exchange resources and some bonding and getting to know activities.

Hi, everyone. My name is Lakshay Jaganesh. I'm from District 2, and I'll be serving as the chair of the Youth Commission next year. Why the Youth Commission matters, I think, I know this sounds really cliche, but it really is just a space for youth voices to be heard. I think we're in the midst of a lot of political and social change right now, and making sure that youth voices are heard along with adult voices is super important. For me specifically, the Youth Commission, I've been here for three years. The next year will be my fourth. I've been here for my entire high school year so far and I think I've definitely grown as a person and it's allowed me to be a better leader and just kind of a better member in the community overall.

Hi again, my name is Obi. being a member of the WCYC was something that stood out for me for my year that I did because it was a way that I was able to advocate for something that some others are struggling inside of. So being a part of a teenage demographic, being a part of teenagers who may not be able to get their voice across, being a part of the WCYC allows for all of us, all of these teens to be able to help others who may not be getting the help that they need. which is something that people shouldn't be afraid to speak up on. They should be able to get the help that they want, to be able to get any needs or any accessibilities that they need. And doing this isn't just for us to get the information out, it's to also help those, which is why I think that the youth commission matters.

Hello, my name is Tanner Bean. I'm part of District 5. I'm an incoming member of the Washington County Youth Commission. So I don't know too much about it yet, but based off of what everyone else, I met a lot of new people today, and it seems like it really makes a difference. And that's why I wanted to join this commission, so I could help make a difference in our community.

So hi, Sylvia Irwin. Again, these are the recommended commissioners for the 2026 to 2027 year. We could have a lot of new and returning commissioners. So if you guys could flip those over individually. And then we'd also like to say a big thank you all and everybody for supporting the Youth Commission. So a special thanks to Crystal Light, who has been our County Commission liaison to the Youth Commissioners, as well as our partners, Corner Health, MSU Extension 4-H, and Neutral Zone.

Thank you.

That was a wonderful presentation. Thank you. I suspect there'll be some commissioners that want to share a comment or two. And even though we do have a busy schedule, we would, at the end of the commissioner comment, like to take a brief picture with the youth and the non-youth. So any commissioner comments for us? Commissioner Hodge.

I'll be really quick. Thank you, Chair. Thank you all for coming out. I'm glad you came early enough for us to do a little tour of the space. I have a lot of youth commissioners from my district. Raise your hand if you're District 5. Oh, okay. I think I might have the most. It doesn't look like that for the next round, though. But hey, thank you all for coming out. Please stay engaged in government. County government, I think, is the level of government in Michigan that really can change people's lives the most. So I'm glad. I'm grateful for your service to Washtenaw County and for your engagement here. Thanks, Jeff.

Commissioner Light.

I just want to say thank you to the Youth Commission for all of the hard work that you've done and that you continue to do. You all put in the work and your work does not go unrecognized. And I just want to encourage you to continue what you're doing. Draw more youth so that they are informed and they know that You are the future, you're next. And we need for you to continue to advocate and push that out there so we can draw more. So thank you and we appreciate you.

Commissioner Beaman.

Thank you, chair. I just want to say thank you to all of you youth. You have so many things that you can be doing and involved in from sports to curricular activities, to applying to college, to grades, to all kinds of things that you're exploring. And so that you took the time and dedication to join our commission and really take the most out of it. It just, it means so much. So thank you so much.

Any other commissioners at this time? I would just briefly say thank you as well. I'm always impressed by the presentation that the commission gives. It's clear you've thought a lot about it. You've done the work and you've taken this seriously and invested of yourselves. I'd also say, unfortunately, you are young people who are just about to hit sort of legal adulthood with a full plethora of consequences in the world of adults before you that did not make great decisions. And so I hope you will use this experience to organize your own civic engagement and advocacy and grab some agency for yourself in this world that you're getting ready to inherit to try and make a better place. So thank you for being participants with the Youth Commission. And Ashley, let me throw it to you. Is there a place where it would be neat or neatest to take the picture?

Yes, Chair. So I just talked to Brittany about that. We're going to do it in Sykes. It's very sunny on the steps outside, which is where we usually do it. So we'll meet right over here and try to get everyone together and take a quick picture.

Okay.

Thank you. Yes, please. Okay.

Right. Well, we've started at one end of the age spectrum. We're going to move on up here. Move to item B, which is a presentation from Shannon Effler, our director of aging services. And Shannon, thank you for being here with us. I'm going to turn it over to you. But again, same question. Do you have a preference in terms of getting through your presentation or should we ask questions as they come up?

I think it through the presentation and then hopefully we'll have a good amount of time for discussion. So go for it.

Yes, please. It's the youth that are rowdy in the hall. Sorry.

Well, I don't know Commissioner LaBar if you plan that or not, but I think that's a pretty beautiful thing going from a presentation from the youth to now a focus on older adults. And I think what you'll see in my presentation tonight is that there are a lot of parallels to what the youth are asking for that definitely apply to older adults. And I often say what's good for older adults is good for everyone. So I think they kind of echoed that today. So thanks for having me, Shannon Effler. I'm the Director of Aging Services, a social worker by trade specializing in gerontology. And what I want to present to you today is a true working session. This is a flavor of where we're at regarding the full implementation of the older person's millage and the direction that we're also headed. There is a resolution on your agenda in the next meeting regarding the approval of a position to support the Office of Aging Services. So I definitely want there to be discussion, feedback, questions following the presentation. So I wanna take a moment and just say thank you. I've been here a little over five months in Washtenaw County and my time here has largely been spent collaborating. And so I just wanna take a moment and really thank the Commission on Aging, the Older Persons Knowledge Planning and Review Committee, Commissioner Sanders serves on that. All of the county departments that I've met with and collaborated with, the aging network providers across the county and older adults themselves. So I do feel strongly that what I'm presenting to you today is a synthesis of opinions and thoughts from all of those different people. This is not what Shannon Effler thinks. This is what I think in addition to the communities. Okay, so the goals for this presentation is to present the preliminary Office of Aging Services vision, operations, funding structure, and progress for our discussion. I'd like to provide the rationale for hiring an Office of Aging Services administrator, and then I wanna share a few items to have on your radar as we move forward. So I could spend this whole time detailing what aging in America looks like and what aging in Washtenaw County looks like. Happy to meet with you if you don't know that, but I think your constituents update you regularly on what that looks like for them. But I can summarize it with these three bullets. So we have a rapidly growing older population that requires integrated, accessible, and equitable systems to support aging. Older adults are very diverse in their identities, their contributions, skills, leadership, civic contributions, the economy, and what they provide to cultural continuity in our society. There is a great need for a paradigm shift in what our society values and what value they place on older adults. Ageism is very real and it definitely impacts resources that are allocated to older adults. Okay, so this is a draft vision statement and it is again to give you a flavor of where we're at. My hope is that once I have a team that they will provide input in the finalization of this and also collaborating strongly with the commission on aging and others to finalize. So what do we want to do? In Washtenaw County, we envision an age-friendly and age-ready community where all people can age well through equitable access to services, supports and infrastructure. And that is a tall order given the fragmented care systems and healthcare system that we have in our nation. So the older person's millage is a way to move us towards that vision. And I want to thank Sue Ann Sauvez who's in the audience. She originally drafted this model and presented it to you, I think probably a year ago. And I've done some refinements and Sue Ann and I have worked on it, but this summarizes the framework of the millage. So what is the policy guiding the work of the Office of Aging Services? So the inputs are that it is for county residents who are 60 years and older. It is a significant millage of 0.5 mils for a period of eight years. The leadership consists of the director, myself, the Commission on Aging, and the BOC does retain authority over all priorities of the Office of Aging Services. The role of the OAS is to oversee and supervise the senior nutrition program that will be transitioning over by October 1st from OCED to OAS and the newly stood up aging resource center, which you can think of as a one-stop shop for older adults, care partners, family, friends, providers to understand the full aging service network in the county. We are charged with conducting outreach, information, referral. We are charged with coordinating to address older adult homelessness with providing administrative support for the Commission on Aging. An annual report is due to you by June 30th of each year. We are charged with conducting a county-wide needs assessment every three years, and then conducting an RFP process with oversight from the older person's millage planning and review committee. And then we are also charged with what I call quality control, the contract management, reporting, and auditing management. Our menu of services are that we both have a charge of serving all older adults 60 plus, but also specific targeted populations like the unhoused, like those that are underserved. So that is a balance of providing money that can be accessible to all, but also targeting those that are in most need. What we provide should be accessible, equitable, and inclusive, nutritional programs, an allocation of 200,000 for the framework identified senior centers, transportation, services to end homelessness, and then support for emergency capital needs of senior centers or community-based organizations that serve older adults. And then there is an extensive list of funding service areas in the framework as well, which I'll put a pin in and come back to. And then what do we expect to become from all of this? We expect that there is an enhancement of existing resources for older adults. We are addressing unmet needs. We are supporting sustainability in services. We are avoiding duplication of effort and delivery. And then we are improving coordination and capacity amongst service providers. So that is what is in the framework of the older person's millage. Okay, so coming back to that extensive list that is in the framework. So I did a bit of recategorization of what is in there and I put these into each of these boxes. I want this slide to convey to you a major point of that each of these rectangles deserve their own strategic planning process, their own mindful intention, their own community engagement, because while they are very interconnected, you can't have housing without help. You can't have care partner support without community living programs. They also are very distinct worlds. And the framework has charged the Office of Aging Services with delivering on all these rectangles. That is a tall order to do, especially as a one-woman team at the moment. So I say I want to do that. I intend to do that. Help give me the resources to do that moving forward. And when we think about overarching what are the responsibilities of OAS, I think about it in four quadrants. We provide leadership across the county on subject matter expertise of aging. People are looking to the office, to myself, to lead them through these conversations of what are we, how are we addressing the increase in the number of older adults who are unhoused in our community. Shannon, what are we doing? And so there's a large role of leadership. We are also a funder. We're going to be, and you'll see very soon, we're going to be putting out a lot of money into the community. And that is a whole world in itself, being a funder, right? And then quality control is necessary to ensure that the funds we are releasing are being steward well and appropriately, and that we're actually seeing good outcomes from that. And then finally, we're also delivering program and services through senior nutrition and then the Aging Resource Center. So there are, call me crazy, but in addition to everything I just described, I also have a few additions, some dreams of mine that I really want to see the Office of Aging Services do, which are very intentional community engagement and strategic planning. making sure we have strong communications through website, through our logo, media. I would love for OAS in the county to have an aging dashboard, which is a one-stop shop where anyone can go online and see this is what aging looks like in Washtenaw County, and this is what the county is doing to address that well. I've spoke about how I operationalized the review committee that was charged in the framework. There were roles that were identified of folks that should be appointed. I'm operationing that as a planning and review committee. So we are meeting, we're actively meeting and defining, and you'll see in the funding structure proposal, what we want that to be like. So instead of just bringing them in at the end and saying, okay, review these proposals, we're doing it from the beginning together. I would love for there to be an annual aging summit in our county where we are coming back to what is our vision? How are we getting there? Are we doing it? If we're not, we need to pivot and we need to do something different. I would love for the county to have an echo and I can share more about that a later time what that model looks like, but you can think about it as a very efficient way of elevating the skillset of the workforce who is serving older adults in the county. And then finally, there was a resolution passed around Washtenaw County becoming age friendly, but I would also like to just become dementia friendly. And that was outside, there's a charge of, it's now a charge of OAS, but that was outside of the millage framework. Okay, so I've kind of told you about what is OAS, what do we need to do? And then this is what I am proposing of how we do it. So a couple caveats here, the positions in pink are current OCED positions of senior nutrition that will transition over by October 1st. So the other five positions are the new ones. So myself as a director, my proposed program administrator, and then a finance manager, and two community partnership and engagement analysts. So now I'm gonna talk through what I envisioned those positions doing. HR has only reviewed and vetted and approved the program administrator. I would like for that individual to be hired and then we can move through the other three positions and get them on board. So I'm just saying that as it could potentially be a different title than finance manager, for example. But I wanted you to have the full context. Okay, so in the interest of time, I won't talk through what my role is, but I do wanna just say, I want to have the capacity to remain in a strategic and visionary position. And I would like the administrator to have oversight of the operations of the Office of Aging Services. This is a very critical position and will really make or break the success of the Office of Aging Services. So one, it provides backup to me if I'm sick, if I'm on vacation, but it also manages the strategic planning and vision setting. So the actual process of getting to those things, managing the operations, RFPs, programming policies and procedures for our department, the team culture. It will manage, have oversight of the millage contracts. I would not be surprised if once we go through this RFP process, we are hitting around at least 75 contracts that are going out for this. And then we also will be managing the federal grant Age Ways, the senior nutrition program. So also management of the five OAS team members, marketing and communications, development of the annual report, development of the community needs assessment, and then the summit and ECHO. So these are the two analysts positions and in a way I wanted them to compliment each other but also have distinct responsibilities. So one on the left is really focused on the Aging Resource Center, developing materials, conducting outreach, responding to inquiries we have. being the housing trust coordinator, senior center coordinator, a dream of mine is that we'll be able to convene all of the senior centers on a regular basis so they can learn from each other, best practices, and we can set a unified vision moving forward. The transportation stakeholder group, the summit coordinator, community engagement, and then participating. I want the whole team to be participating in strategic planning and vision setting. The second analyst is more focused on marketing, communications. They'll be the Commission on Aging coordinator, coordinate the older person's millage planning and review committee, age-friendly and dementia-friendly, ECHO, and then provide backup to the Aging Resource Center when that other individual is out for any reason, and also community engagement and strategic planning. finance manager another they're all critical positions but another critical position when we are going we are overseeing millions of dollars these are going out into the community and into internal county operations we need to really have a great pulse on that at any given moment what is the status of that so really ensuring fiscal control and accountability for the millage Okay, so I know some of you have been eagerly awaiting this of what does the budget of the Office of Aging Services look like? This is preliminary, open for discussion, want your feedback and questions on it. And you are receiving a physical copy of it right now. So I will walk through this. In 2026, we have a total operating budget of 12.24 million. There are 10 budgeted programs. That means the county's programmatic budget. It's not about the amount of programs that we're delivering or that's going out. is just saying the categories of the budget we have 10 you can see those in the right starting with rfp management and down i am proposing four new positions from this so when we look at the overall pie you'll see that 40% is in RFP management. That means that 40% of our annual budget is going out outside of what's already previously been allocated like transportation, senior nutrition, senior centers. So those are things that you also see as part of the pie. The housing trust, the capital emergency fund. So I definitely want you to take away that a lot, a significant amount is going to be going out. I also want you to take away that regarding administration, that's at 8% of an overall budget. So even with those four new positions, we are attempting to do this in a very lean fashion. This is my best advice. projection as to what we need. We have to do it until we know whether that's what we truly need. So I'd like to try it in this way and see how it goes. And then I also want to highlight the pie that 7% emergency needs. That is separate from allocations going to skip or anything of that sort. What that is is about is like you know, God forbid we go through a major recession and the millage dollars decrease on an annual basis or that there is some sort of emergency where we need to access some reserves. Additionally, what we have allocated in that bucket is It's still in development. I have to figure this out, how to operationalize it. Interested in your thoughts. But what I would like the OAS office to have is an emergency needs bucket for older adults. So this is outside of things like utility assistance or rent support. This is for an older adult who's a victim of elder abuse. They have been hospitalized. They can't go to their home because actually the person who's abused them lives in that home. This would be funds that we could provide to them for temporary housing until the legal process acted out. So this could also be a victim of a hate crime. Their home has been vandalized. We could provide some support in addressing that. So again, very preliminary, very working session, but this is my dream to be able to provide that. because there really aren't easy resources for older adults to access funds for those sort of things. Again, on the right, you see all of the 10 budgeted programs. Down in the left, service program budget. What this is is the amount that is going, that is like we are newly allocating, that is going out. So on an annual basis, 9.6 million, is going out into either internal county operations that serve older adults or out into community-based organizations. The other two rectangles at the bottom, I will put a pin in, I'll walk you through, but high impact RFP. So these are two RFPs that will come out in 2026 allocating 5.48 million. That is largely coming from what was left on the table in 2025. Then the home and community aging RFP is 10.19 million. You may be saying, Shannon, that doesn't add up. How are you getting that? That's for over three years. So starting in 2026 and ending in 2029, we'll have a total of a little bit over 10 million to distribute. Again, I will walk you through the definitions of those two items. Okay, so we know our budget. Now, what are we really trying to do with it? So together through the strategic use of millage funds, we will support older adults living safely in the home or community for as long as possible. We will ensure that all older adults, regardless of income, race, ethnicity, language, ability, geography, gender identity, or other factors have equitable access to high quality services and supports. we will enhance older adults' quality of life, connections, and well-being. So if we did those three things, what would we see, right? We would be able to prevent the number of unhoused older adults. We'd be able to reduce hospitalizations, emergency room visits. We'd be able to reduce care partner burden and increase care partner support. We'd be able to improve cultural responsiveness of services. We'd be able to increase the participation and utilization of programs and services among those underserved. We would reduce disparities in the trust and satisfaction across diverse populations in our services. We'd be able to increase participation in meaningful activities such as recreation and volunteering, cultural activities, reduce social isolation. And finally, what I would argue is really the most important in all this is that we focus on what matters most to the older adult themselves, to the individual, because that is so different from one person to the next. Okay, so this is the proposed funding structure. So to achieve all of that, this is what I'm proposing we do, how we operationalize getting it out. So we've on the left are the high priority allocations. So senior nutrition and transportation services, I talked about the last BOC meeting, the outcomes from that thus far, right? And the allocations that were made. Additionally, some high priority allocations around that were made were senior centers and skip. Today, I will walk through some data on outcomes tied to that. So then on the right is what is newer, which is an upcoming 2026 RFI request for information and request for proposals. And then also additionally, we're getting money out through what I'm proposing emergency assistance for older adults, the housing trust, and then capital emergency fund. So let's talk about senior centers. We have a couple in the audience tonight. So I wanna acknowledge their work. So there was a total between 2025 to current 2026, the 11 identified senior centers have access to over $4 million. The total that has been accessed by senior centers to date is around 2.7 million. So roughly 64% of the total available. That is largely because in 2025, they all received the 200K or Milan receives 128,000 based on the population of county residents they serve. So they all received that. But for some of them, they are still figuring out how to spend that down. You have to put yourself in their shoes. $200,000 is a lot of money. And for some of them, this was... a lot more than they were operating with before 2025, and that's great, but they need support and collaboration around how to spend the rest of the money that they have from 2025 to thus be able to access for 2026. What I'm asking of them is to, when they do spend down the 2025, is to provide me with a report of how they used it, brief report, then identify, and then once that's approved, identify how you plan to use the 2026 money. Once that's approved, then invoice us and you receive the money. So we're keeping it simple, but we're also able to see how they're using it. Some outcomes thus far, staff salaries, benefits, program and service expansion, facility and outdoor improvements. Some highlights, a senior center has hired a summer intergenerational program coordinator, seat belts installed on a senior center bus, ability to host holiday gatherings that they weren't able to before, purchasing audio and visual equipment. Again, that's just a flavor. Skip, so Senior Crisis Intervention Program. So the recent allocation, there's been two. So the recent allocation was in December 2025 to present. They have $100,000. They have not spent the full $100,000 yet, but they are getting close to that. They've served, so within that portion, they've served 50 unique individuals. The highest amount that's been distributed is 3,000. The lowest, around $200. Average dollar amount, around 1,500. What are they addressing with this money? The largest is rent. 39% is going towards rent for older adults. 27% towards utility assistance. 19% security deposit, 5% moving expenses, and then 3% home repair. Okay, so those were the high priority allocations. Now let's talk about, define exactly what the funding structure. So the home and community aging impact is funding for up to three years. So this is really, we know the reality. Funding has been cut on the federal level. Funding has been cut on the state level. Organizations are, in crisis mode, there's a lot of putting out fires, just trying to keep afloat. So let's get the money to them so that they can keep the services going. If not, hopefully also expand, given the population growing, expand the services for the next three years. Then we can have some breathing space where we can really focus on leveling up so that when the next round of funding happens, we, Washtenaw County, are moving to the next level. So what do I mean by that? So an example is moving from care partner support groups to comprehensive care partner programs. So an example would be family care partners receive individualized coaching and relief from services, not just emotional support and education. Another example is activities moving from providing, and this is not to say that this leveling up isn't already happening in the county. There are many providers doing this, but how can we be unified in leveling up? So another example is activities at a senior center moving towards more personalized engagement. So developing out individualized activity plans based on interests of the individual and their life history. So this could look like a center helps retired engineers mentor robotics teams at the school. Another example is aging in place, which is very common right now to how do we level up to thriving in place. So instead of a resident receiving grab bars, virtual wellness check-ins, transportation access, and social engagement opportunities as part of one coordinated plan versus having to receive them from different care managers at different organizations, that this is coordinated for them and is comprehensive. So those are some examples. Purpose of home and community aging impact, it's gap filling as we talked about, expansion to reduce wait lists, increase access. And it will also can fund if there are organizations who are ready and they wanna do new programs, evidence-based programs, then this is ready for them to do that. The high impact when I've had been out and chatting and learning from everyone, there is this need to kind of infiltrate some significant resources into the community. So this would be a one-time distribution. We'll start with the dollar amount this year. And then if that's not exhausted, then we could open it up next year again, right? And that it would be continued to be available, but this would not address ongoing operational funding. So its purpose is to focus on stabilization, improvement, expansion, and discovery of physical space, programs, or services. So an example of this would be, I need funds to develop a planning grant. i need funds to for space development to increase community connections i need i want to pilot a program that i've done a lot of research on i think will really work but i want to start really small and i just want some funds to do that i want to focus on moving my senior center from a focus only on older adults to an intergenerational community hub these would be funds that they could use to do that Okay, so the RFI is something that our millage committee feels strongly about executing prior to the RFP. And the reason for doing, the RFI and the RFP, why are we doing this? They're transparent, they're equitable, they're clear. And so we want to do that for this. But the RFI also gives us the opportunity to formally receive information from organizations that want to apply for funds of who are you, what do you do, what are you planning to do with the millage funds, and how much do you need? It also gives us an opportunity to survey and learn more from them. So that funding structure here is what will be in the RFI. What do you think of this? If you don't like it, what would you prefer? And then be able to collect that feedback for the committee to digest and then make decisions about the ultimate structure of the RFP. timeline for this. The hope is to release the RFI in mid-June. We already have a draft of it that we're working on. And so we are working with purchasing and we've been assured that it can be released pretty quickly. We would like to keep it open for at least six weeks. so that everyone can hear about it, that we can have conversations and we can bring people together who are all considering, hey, five different entities wanna do community living programs. Let's get together and talk about it. How can you collaborate versus compete for money? So that would mean it would close in July and then we would review, the committee would review in August and then make decisions on the RFP, open that in September, have that open for a month, review the proposals and make determinations and then provide recommendations to you on awards. And then the hope would be that contracts get initiated very shortly thereafter. Okay, so that is in summary everything regarding operations, vision, and the funding structure. A few items that I want you to have on your radar. We will be doing a commission on aging town hall on June 16th at 1 p.m. at the Ipsy Township Community Center. The Office of Aging Services Space, the Facilities Department of the county is working on identifying an appropriate space for us. The Aging Resource Center does need to be accessible to older adults, a place where they physically can I don't think my door is gonna be pounded on every day because we have amazing partners and we have amazing senior centers in our community, but we need to have the ability to welcome them and be able to share resources physically with them. And then the next item, an annual report. So you will receive that by the end of the month. And then that would be on July's agenda for, it'll be on it as a resolution for approval. And then the second is we are working together to identify some possible resolutions to allocate additional money to skip and also possibly allocating some money to barrier busters. So those are just to keep on your radar that they may be coming. I'm interested now to hear your thoughts on that as we move forward. Then finally, so I keep emphasizing, hey, I need this position because we are gonna be putting out a lot of money and having a lot of contract management, but that also is gonna fall on you guys as the BOC, right? That when I come to you and say, this is the recommendation of the committee on the awards that should go out, how do we make sure, how can we collaborate on the efficiency of that to make sure that we are not sitting on another eight and a half million um, like we are from 2025. Right. And so I'm just interested in your thoughts and, um, appreciate insights on that. So was this session successful? A reminder, I wanted to just present out. This is where we are. This is where we're headed. Provide the rationale for hiring an administrator and then share a few things to have on your radar. Okay. Love to hear from you.

Oh, Shannon, that was a well done. Thank you. Um, I have Commissioner Somerville, then Machieski, and anybody else, please let me know.

Thank you, Chair. Thanks, Shannon. Great presentation. I'm really sad that I can't come to the town hall since I'm the liaison, so hopefully everybody else can go. I've got a couple chunks of questions, so I'll maybe just say all of them, or would you rather me stop and issue?

How many do you have? A couple.

Full chunks. Okay. So I'll start with housing. So I appreciate that we should be anticipating something because I am aware of how close we are to not having anything left in the skip bucket. Yes. One of the things I noticed on this graph, so I don't see like a carve out. I see a carve out for senior nutrition. I see a carve out for transportation and senior centers. And then the big one for like the big bucket for RFP funding, but like, where's the, is the housing trust is different than the response to preventing and eliminating homelessness. And so where's the bucket for that?

So it is in the service program budget. So the one that says the $9.6 million, it is in that. And so it's also listed in all of the programs. It should be as well, yeah.

Okay. I guess when I'm looking at this one, which one is it? In the pie chart?

Yeah. It's like the housing trust is in the middle. It's the one... No, I see where the housing trust is, but I guess...

I think, and maybe this is, like, worth having, like, a future, like, working session on. I thought the intention with the housing trust was to start setting aside money so that we could match it with, like, housing commissions or nonprofits. We could actually build more senior housing. And then I'm, when we identified, like, the basic, like, the kind of, like, buckets of areas we want to focus on nutrition transportation preventing homelessness and so i guess i'm just curious how we can make sure that it's clear that we're setting aside money for that because yeah like skip's great but like what if we took it a step further and when we get an older adult who does end up on the streets? What if we could guarantee that we're going to try to get them rapidly rehoused?

And I'm thinking about this with the anticipation that we're going to lose rapid rehousing dollars from the feds.

And so I just wanted to flag that. And then I guess I had a question about barrier busters. How do you see that different than skip in the terms of older adults? Is there something that I'm missing

i'm learning actually had a meeting today um regarding that and i'm learning that barrier busters does provide support to older adults outside of scare so i think that there and i think that there's room where they could be providing even more Okay. And so Tony and I have been collaborating on that and identifying where we go from here with it.

Okay. That's helpful. Cause I was like, I think, yeah, I know that there's a smaller cohort for skip, but yes, I'm just like wondering like, would that free up money? If we start using some funds for barrier busters, will that free up money that we're already giving to barrier busters for people who are under 60? I'm only asking questions around this because one of the things that I find somewhat problematic is that like, and it's not our fault, it's like federal requirements. And I keep thinking like if we could put more GF dollars into barrier busters, we could really get like prevent evictions later. So if somebody gets eviction prevention in January, they can't use it again. Yeah. And so then we end up still with a situation where a family might become homeless or an older adult might become homeless. And so with skip, I think it's a little more flexible and millage dollars are way more flexible. So I just kind of throw it out. Like, I know that the goal of skip is to stabilize and sometimes it's not always possible. And so sometimes people request will get denied. I'm just wondering how we can figure out the, like the, the missing piece or what else we can use the millage for to really prevent that actual person from becoming homeless. Because as we all know, it's more expensive when somebody becomes homeless. And maybe that's like a separate, I know that you have it laid out that there needs to be all this other work done to facilitate better outcomes. But I'm just like, can we prevent the homelessness now since we have money now? Yes. It's only going to get worse with changes to HUD funding. Yeah.

And not to interrupt you, but that is one of the reasons that I want to consider getting money to barrier busters in the near future is so that it's there versus waiting towards the end of the year when the rest of the money is going out.

yeah agreed I'm just wondering if there's a way for us to make sure that like it is absolutely clear that this funding for barrier busters is way more flexible than the federal dollars that we get that way like we're not denying older adults who are trying to it's been like a long journey I'm like how can we get more gf dollars in the net bucket so we don't have to say no to people if they come to us seven months later after they got eviction prevention once and then end up homeless still before the end of the year yeah um So, and then the other questions I had, so when we were working on the framework around this time last year, I think the general idea is eventually to have like, kind of like what CMH does, where we have chunks of funding that we put out so that when people have like two programs that are two years or three years, That way there's like stability and you're not applying for an RFP every year. So is the goal once we do this big request for proposal and then put the RFP out and then we select people, is the idea to do like a short term, like, or is that going to be two year or three year?

It would be as it's on the table today, it would be for three years. Okay. And then, but we will pivot, right? Like again, call me crazy. I know that there is this great need, but I'm also a little concerned. We won't have enough proposals to put out all the money. And so I want to be prepared to have another RFP next year to make sure we're getting the money out, not waiting three years.

Yeah.

So we will pivot if needed.

Okay. That's great to hear. And I've obviously been part of some of the conversations with the commission on aging. And so The other thing that I just want to kind of wrap my comments up with, I think it's really great how you're including the Commission on Aging. I don't think we would really have a senior millage without some of their advocacy and some of the external partners that work with folks on the senior millage. And so keeping them included and using their expertise, a lot of them either worked in the older adult space before they retire or they're active users of the older adult system. And so I do think it's a really important way to integrate their role and give them as much involvement that they can have without being an employee of the county. Yeah, they're great. Yeah, thank you. I will end my comments now.

Thank you, Commissioner Somerville. Go to Commissioner Maschieski, then Hodge. Thank you, Chair.

Ashley, can we bring up slide 15 again in the presentation? I apologize. Shannon, thank you. Fantastic presentation.

Wow, thank you.

I appreciate that you mentioned there's a lot in the framework. We intentionally did that. But you certainly demonstrated you've been able to get your hands around this and really conceptualize what's possible here. I wanted to make one point with the skip slide that you showed that the impact already that we've had, right? I want to tie it back to this particular slide. and the importance of just beginning to show that data point alone. And when you tie all the impact that we will eventually have with this millage back to these things that you listed here. And the ability to, as we go through this, the ability for you and your team to capture the data around these points to be able to say how we've reduced the 30-day readmission rate. for people. How we have reduced homelessness amongst the older adult population and put numbers behind these things. The number of people that we've been able to connect with who are isolated will be an incredible amount of data to reflect back to our community that gave us this opportunity by approving the millage. But also, the other stakeholders in these areas, health care maybe specifically, to see the value of what we've invested in as a community. So hopefully, they will invest in it as well and go even further. So just another example of why the data is so important for us going forward. I want to double down on what you were talking about in the emergency needs section of your pie chart. And I'm going to give one example right now. There's a program that the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services started about a year and a half ago called MyOptions. It is a options counseling program combined with Medicare enrollment counseling. MDHHS put a lot of effort into creating this program. It's a $12 million program statewide, and it's not in the budget for next year. It won't be in the budget for next year at this point. And this is an example of an incredible... service that we've been able to deliver for the past about 10 months in the aging world that's going away. Free, unbiased, independent information about what your choices are in Medicare and what your choices are in long-term care. And that resource is going away, it looks like. This is an example of something that could step in, right? Fund this conflict-free options counseling service for people. All backgrounds can understand what the choices they're trying to make when it comes to prescription drugs and Medicare coverage and options counseling. And that's just one example, right? You've noted some of the more kind of urgent immediate situations that get experienced, but there's something like that as well that we could step in and fill a gap that just appears out of nowhere. So again, I want to, I'm incredibly, if you can't tell, I'm incredibly excited about this. And I'm excited to have you in Dexter on July 27th at the Senior Center to talk more about this in my area. I'm just really excited about the work, really excited what's going to happen with nutrition. I don't think we're going to have too much of an issue putting these dollars to incredible impact here in Washtenaw County. And I very much appreciate the leadership that you brought to this. We are well on our way to having some incredible renewal. So thank you.

Thank you.

It is probably one of the top five most times I've ever seen Jason excited. So I do want to verify. It's a big deal. Commissioner Hodge.

Thank you, Chair. I can't match Jason's excitement. But I thought the presentation was excellent. I think it was a more modified version of the one that you gave to Board of Health Net that long ago. So it was great to see the dream, maybe not dream, the goal for the built-out office, which I think was great, to circle back on some of Commissioner Somerville's comments, and we have talked about this before too, about the resolution that will come to allocate dollars to barrier busters and skip. I would be interested in figuring out what would be the dollar amount. that we would have to allocate to barrier busters to serve all individuals 60 years and older. So we could use, I mean, we have the funding available. So if there's a way for us to figure that out and then to have that working with the resolution, I mean, I think we can go big on that.

Yeah, we're working on it, figuring out that number.

Okay. That is the goal is to figure out what that number is.

Yeah.

There goes my one suggestion.

Yeah.

So, well, thank you again. You've done a tremendous amount of work and have been incredibly accessible to the community since joining the team. So I'm very grateful for that. I hear a lot from constituents about that as well. So thank you for your, hopefully, start to a long, many years of service to Washtenaw County.

Definitely.

And I'll give a shout out to Sue Ann. Thank you, Sue Ann, for your work on the, I'm trying to point the camera down the screen. Thank you, Sue Ann, for your work on the logic model.

Yes, and she's done a lot more than that, too. She's on the millage committee, and she's been a great resource to me as well. All right. Go, Sue Ann.

That's it, sir. Thank you.

Thanks. I've got Commissioners Beeman, then Scott, then Robbie, then Sanders. So, Commissioner Beeman.

Thank you, Jeff. Thank you, Shannon, for pulling this together. It's amazing to see all the work that has been done and still all the work to do and your thought processes behind it. There's it's. Very intense and I can see your dedication through everything that you've brought forward. So I want, I want to thank you for that. Um, I am concerned about timelines. So, uh, wondering like you've sort of walked us through the timeline in terms of the RFI and RFP process, which would be June to November. Yes, about, and we're in June. So, yeah, so we're getting there. Yeah. But, you know, that that does seem lengthy I understand it a bit more, knowing that it's going to be a three year term. Yeah, for those funds. I guess what I'm trying to wonder, what I'm wrapping my brain around is, so that's about, you know, in your pie chart, that's 40%. What is the timing on the rest of it? I know some of it's already being implemented. Some of it will be renewed, those sorts of things. Do you have like an estimate in terms of like that other 60%? How quickly that's getting into the community?

Well, so the timeline for the transportation, so we expect to continue to operate a transportation program, right? That's going to be an RFP at the end of the year as well. Then the senior center allocations will continue as they are, right? And then senior nutrition, we're going to be implementing a new model. So it could be a different dollar amount than we've allocated now. We could be allocating too much. We could be allocating too little. We don't know yet. So we're in the midst of a strategic planning process. So we would implement that October 1st. And that would come before you guys as a resolution as well. So you would see that. And then the skip and barrier buster. So are there other pieces of the timeline that...

I think just, you know, again, knowing that we're still sort of sitting on 40% for the next five months or so if you work through the process. The other 60%, from what I'm understanding, and correct me, is it's either...

out in the community or will be yeah shortly out in the community in terms of like transportation senior center support nutrition etc yes so like the so the other 60 like capital emergency fund that's something that's just available sure okay then we talked about senior nutrition emergency needs that is a reserve basically right now until we figure out what exactly how we want to do it Administration is part of that. So that's operating the programs and services of the Office of Aging Services. That's really dependent on the staff and capacity that I have to execute those things well. Transportation is active. senior center the housing trust is a big we're figuring that out so housing bureau of senior for seniors has been very helpful i just had a meeting yesterday with the state and a couple other counties who have housing trust to understand how can we operationalize this um and then we also so we're having ongoing meetings about how to do that well but so i don't have a timeline um directly for that at this time okay

um also and this might be getting too in the weeds as we've yet to have the rfps but i appreciate having a long timeline to ensure continuation of services and supporting some of these organizations out in the community um i do get a little concerned on a couple of things in terms of like number one reporting to ensure that they're meeting goals and using the funds that they wish but the other unfortunately given the climate is if they go under you know how are the funds tranche how is it going to be dispersed that those are just some things that I don't want to envision that right especially with some smaller organizations and the current climate it could happen and again you don't have to have an answer right now right but just kind of wondering how we would either just write the funds from the go the word go and or what we would do if they couldn't meet those goals.

Yeah, that's good. Yeah, I will figure that out. Thank you. Thank you. Move to Commissioner Scott.

I'm really quick. I just want to tell you thank you. I think that we gave you a really big job as a new director and asked you to come up and create a framework and a plan. And I think you've done this very thoughtfully and I appreciate the way you're bringing the plan to us now to get our feedback and go forward. So I just want to tell you, I really appreciate your work and your presentation. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You move to Commissioner Robbie.

Thanks, sure. Thanks for the presentation. You know, appreciate your time in putting this together. I had a question and then I have some thoughts for you. Yes, RFP management 40%. Can you explain again what that means?

So that is the money that is going out to so people will apply through RFPs to receive funds to serve older adults. So that is the pot of money for that.

Then what's the transportation one? Is that different from RFP?

It will have an RFP, but it is different because it was already decisions were made on allocations prior to my time. And so it's now... Okay, so now we're treating it as a categorizing it as a high priority allocation. So we will have an RFP, but a decision, the way I interpret it is that the BOC and the county is saying we will operate a transportation program moving forward, and it will have its own separate RFP process.

Okay, and then senior emergency needs, same thing?

No, that is the reserve right now that I am still trying to figure out how do we operationalize it.

OK. OK, my thoughts on it are that, as I have stated consistently from day one voting for this millage to be on the ballot, I do not agree with the approach that you've outlined. I think that, first of all, I'm concerned that the administrative structure that you're proposing is very heavy towards administrative staff. And you basically have very few people in your model that are actually delivering care. and services to our seniors. And I, as I stated from day one, I would like to see this millage fund actual direct care services for our community that are county workers that are delivering those services. And so I am hesitant to support administrative positions that do not correspond with actual staff boots on the ground that are actually doing the work. So that's my first concern.

Can I respond? Well, so the money, the RFP management is both for internal county operations that are serving older adults and community-based partners. So for example, a public health department, we've been having several conversations and discussions about how can we expand their community health worker for workforce so that they can better serve older adults? And additionally, how do we get them really well trained and become experts in the older community? So this can be across the board. This money can go to Parks and Rec. This money can go to OCED. This can go to many different departments that serve older adults. But I would still like for them to walk through the RFP process so that it is transparent and equitable.

So you don't envision, though, I think that's all fine, and I appreciate that, but you don't envision the Office of Aging actually delivering senior-specific services that maybe are different from what each of our departments provide?

I envision them, I envision the Office of Aging Services delivering the Aging Resource Center, senior nutrition, the ECHO model, and a few other items that I outlined. But outside of that, no, I don't. The vision would be to lean on the partners who are already doing it, whether those partners are internal to the county or external.

OK, that's a little disappointing to me. I do think that it would make more sense for us to hire staff to do that work directly, direct service delivery on your end. I think there's room for partnering with external organizations too. This is a big budget. And there's a lot of money that you're going to be sending out in RFPs. I think there's plenty of wiggle room to hire more staff to do direct service delivery. The advantage that that brings is that there's continuity of people there's you know continuity of services and you don't have that when you're doing an rfp that's you know shifting even on a two or three year basis. And so I would really encourage you to expand the amount of positions that you're creating within your department. not for more administrators, but for more service deliverers that can go out in the community and work face to face with our seniors. So that I am not super happy with this model. This is consistent with what I've said since day one. And I hope that you will reconsider the smallness of your department and look at ways that you can expand the service delivery that you and the county, and the board is delivering directly to the residents of our community.

Yeah, let's definitely talk more.

Go to Commissioner Sanders.

So your last experience with this, Shannon, was not maybe as nice as it could have been. So I'll own the fact that what you may have gotten from me in terms of questions had nothing to do with you. it was something that occurred prior and there were some, uh, lack of a better word promises made, um, that, that, um, are we running for office?

It came from behind me.

Yeah. Um, So I just wanted to let you know that that had nothing to do with you as the person or the director in that role. It was assertions that were made prior to you assuming office. So yeah, it happened to you publicly. And so I'm offering you my public apology if it came off in any way different than that. Thank you. Related to your presentation, I thought it was, I enjoyed it. It was... I think what I would love to see moving forward for any and all presentations. So you might get in trouble again. Now you're setting a bar that even we as the board don't follow in terms of transparency. So I appreciate this. I do have a question about the administrative roles. So the ones that are being transferred over to you from OCED, they come off of OCED's budget and now they roll onto the millage, is that correct?

They are currently being funded by the millage.

Right now? Right now. Wait, before the millage?

Before the millage, OCED paid for it. And I don't know the exact budget lineup for that.

I do have a concern. So that's a total of seven positions.

total yeah besides myself yes okay no the new ones are what five five plus what's your what will be the total the total would be 7.5 one of the positions for senior nutrition is a part-time position okay um i'm just gonna say what i said during the conversations related to the millage that i

wanted to make sure that this was not more that we were pushing out as much money as possible. Yeah. And not utilizing that money for more positions than service related. So I'm just going to stick to that because I do think this looks a little heavy. But I The work needs to be done. I guess I'm just wondering out loud if there's not a way for, I think that you've been very innovative, but I do wonder out loud if there's not a way for us to work even more smarter and not harder and be able to not have, I don't want us to be top-heavy.

Right.

Now, my one wine that I might need some cheese to go with is that I My own personal thing, I wanted you to have an attorney on staff. I think it's been clear since my first mention of it that there did seem to be the support for it. But I'm still going to keep saying that I think that it would be helpful because some of the things in your presentation talk specifically about exploitation of our seniors. And there's nothing more powerful for any individual than knowing that they've got an attorney in their back pocket not somebody that they call your office for and then get ferreted off to somebody else or some other agency and then where is the follow up there you know what I mean and so the only thing that would make me probably less concerned about you being top heaviest of one of those.

Well, let's talk more. Let's talk, yeah.

But I do appreciate your thoughtfulness about the processes. I really like the request for information because one of the things that I think that we've tried to do, at least since I've been on the board, is to be more transparent and to give those entities in our community that may have been doing the work for a long time, unrecognized, unacknowledged, an opportunity to bid and not have the DACs stacked against them. Because we do do that. And it's not okay. Everyone should have a seat at the table. And then if they choose to push away from the table, or what the table is not serving is not something that will be digestible by them, then people have options. But I'm over us cherry picking who we want to do whatever it is that we've got our own little piece of this board. So I hope that your presentation can be a model moving forward. So that is a backwards way of saying thank you.

Thank you.

Any other commissioner comments at this time? Okay. Shannon, thank you for your time and your presentation, and we'll look forward to hearing more and seeing more from you soon.

How'd I do? Too long?

Sorry, Commissioner LaVar.

Catherine, please come on up. We'll turn it over to our interim CFO here. And I don't think it's reasonable to expect you to present and handle any questions in five minutes. But if we can just be cognizant of time, we'll do the best we can. So Catherine, I'll turn it over to you.

When I was a kid, my parents did say I talked really fast. So we could attempt this, but I'll probably keep it more understandable.

Just getting screened off.

Okay. So yeah, we're doing the Q1 budget update tonight. This is actuals through March 31st with some updates of things we learned in April, like the equalization report. And then some of the things that will be incorporated in the Q1 technical adjustments before you all later tonight, but things aren't budgeted, but the costs that we know about are incorporated where we can. So, In general, right now the original budget and revised budget currently match each other. So that's nice for $166.2 million. We are projecting $167.6 million in revenues and expenditures at 165.5 for a net projected surplus of $2.15 million. Included in the budget is a planned use of fund balance of just over a million dollars. So that really means we're looking at a net surplus of about $3.2 million compared to the plan. So that has a lot to do. We'll go through all the variables there, but it's a good place to start out in the fiscal year. Not a lot to be worried about yet. We are still looking through lots of things. So On the expenditure front, this again, I feel like every time I'm up here, I'm telling you this looks exactly like we expect it to look. But it is again, we know public safety and justice service areas, our biggest expenditure at $92.5 million. Support services comes in next at 19.8. And then the contract policing portion of public safety and justice is another $19.8 million. Health and human services, 13.7. We go down from there. These are proportions we've been seeing year over year. So again, what we expect in alignment with our budget. Put this up here. I never quite know exactly what to say. Here's every single department, every single service area for the general fund. Happy to answer any questions about it, but this is what it all looks like in case we have something we need to discuss on that front. But variances is where we usually tend to focus. So we have a few surpluses, a few shortfalls. So overall expenditures are projecting about a $700,000 surplus. The largest source of that surplus is general fund personal services. So this is vacant positions, unpaid leaves, those kinds of items. It does not include the courts or the sheriff's office vacancy savings. Those are rolled up within the departments and offices. The district court has about a $419,000 surplus that is due primarily to vacancy savings. They are in the process of filling a position. They have a couple of folks on unpaid leave who will be returning. So we expect that to come down throughout the year. But right now it's looking like a decent amount of vacancy savings. There was a planned contribution to fund balance as well as a planned use of fund balance, which we're cleaning up in the budget later tonight. But that plan contribution to fund balance was $289,000. And then on the shortfalls, the largest shortfall is the 2026 elections expenses that is in the clerk's office that is expected. It is part of the Q1 technical adjustments you'll see later tonight. There's revenue also that offsets that. The animal control contract, we talk about this every time, but The contract cost is about $540,000 above the allocated budget for it. So this is just in alignment with those contract terms. County admin is exceeding its budget by 420,000. This is due to board directed spending and is partially covered by projected vacancy savings from vacant position. And then banking fees is one of those we keep monitoring. It's projected to be above budget by about $250,000. Again, this is we pay credit card fees to accept revenue via credit cards. We do not pass that fee along to members of the community who are paying those fees. So the general fund has to pay them. Plan use of fund balance, this looks more complicated than it has in the past, but overall we're talking about use of $7.5 million. The first section is what is already budgeted. So that's the 26, 27 winter sheltering dollars. The remaining allocation for bridge loans for affordability, we've used about half of that, so we continue to slowly spend it down. Up to $250,000 is allocated for the county bicentennial. There's a small amount for supporting young women. And then the youth assessment center, we use fund balance each year for the first three years for that pilot study until we can get structural funding set up for that program. Before you tonight, Q1 technical adjustments is the 2025 general fund surplus for non-structural lump sums in the amount of $2.8 million. So that's in that pending category. And then this past year, when we passed the reaffirmation, we budgeted use of fund balance in future years in 27 through 29. So we have another 3 million for winter, future winter sheltering, another 108,000 for future youth assessment center. So I'm just going to keep that in front of you all so that We don't accidentally allocate that fund balance when we know we've already allocated it. So it's not getting spent this year, but I want to keep it in front of you. Our fund balance can more than absorb all of these costs currently. Moving on to attrition. So we budgeted attrition for 2026 at $3.2 million. Currently we're projecting about $4.6 million. Again, this is one we are watching because it is higher than I had expected. So that likely will come down throughout the year, but that's where we're at. That does give us a small or not a small, a larger attrition surplus of $1.4 million and a variance of 144%. Last year we had about 104% is where we landed. We did take a slightly more conservative approach when we budgeted this year. So that could be part of what's playing into this, but a thing that we are monitoring, making sure we are getting that number right. This is the second year we've done it. So it's always art more than a science. So we're working through that. I'm looking at all of the different departments. Most of the departments are exceeding their projected attrition. Sorry, the projected attrition is exceeding their attrition budget. This is shown as a percent of the total personnel budget. So it smooths amounts when the sheriff's office has a much higher budget than other budgets in here. But again, everything is looking good. It's averaging out well. Even the sheriff's office is much closer to that budget than what we saw last year. So good news on this front, slightly better news than I expected, but we're in a good place on there. For revenues, again, this is looking like we expect. There's one change I did to this slide, and this is just to kind of bring a little bit more light. We call out the general operating millage, but we have another source of property taxes in the general fund, which is the sheriff's portion of the mental health and public safety millage, which was kind of getting grouped up into that public safety and justice revenue. So it's just categorizing those three appropriately. But again, these would are in alignment with everything we've seen year over year. Nothing that stands out to us. The general government revenues, as a reminder, are those revenues from the state reimbursements like personal property tax, revenue sharing, marijuana, liquor tax dollars, all of those items. Revenue variances. So again, Q1, we have not yet adjusted the budget for the equalization report that we received in April. So right now, property taxes are showing a $3.4 million surplus that will be addressed once we go through Q1 technical. General fund interest earnings are the next largest source of surplus, 1.8 million. Tried to take a conservative approach because I don't know what's happening with interest rates this year. I don't think any of us can project it. So assumed a little bit less than last year, but again, it's another item that we're continuing to monitor. Contract policing and then other sheriff revenues net out to about $2.5 million shortfall. This is in alignment with trends year over year that we've been seeing. So again, something we're tracking, but it's not unexpected. The clerk and register of deeds, this is what I was talking about with the election expenses. This is primarily election-related revenues. Again, it will be before you in the Q1 technical adjustments later tonight. The shortfalls, district court and trial court are projecting shortfalls based on year-to-date trends. State revenue, this is marijuana dollars. What the state announced is $200,000 below our budgeted amount for this year. Last year, we had about $40,000 less. This year, we're seeing about $200,000. It's one that we knew we were estimating, and so we overestimated. It's one that we're going to structurally have to adjust in the future. And then we have a $1.25 million use of fund balance. That is for those winter sheltering dollars and then the county bicentennial. Non-general funds is good news. Every one of our non-general funds that we monitor are projecting either a surplus or are neutral, meaning revenues are meeting expenditures. So nothing that we're worried about. But again, we look at it at least every quarter, continue to make sure that there's nothing unexpected, especially the 930 funds. We have to really make sure we have a good look at during the summer because Q3 technical comes to you in November, which is after their fiscal year. So if we see anything, we'll highlight it for Q2, but things are looking good right now. Q1 budget adjustments, we had nothing that was within admin authority greater than 25,000. Admin authority ends at 100,000. So nothing to report on that front. Quick preview of tonight's technical budget adjustment. So we have a structural portion. This is using the property tax dollars based on the equalization report. The first portion goes to a half of a percent wage increase in PDQs. Because of the timing of things, only 50% of it will hit in 2026 because the raise happens in July, and then we get the full cost, 27 through 29. Also in this item, we'll be allocating funding for the bond payment for the Eastern Washtenaw Community Recreation Center beginning in 2027 of $1.3 million. Once those bonds are issued and we know what that payment is, we will adjust that. We wanted to get the base appropriation out there that should be enough based on our financial scenarios. There's a structural allocation for the CVI ecosystem support of $334,250. This is getting some community violence intervention support. funding for summer programming, especially when violence is likely to pick up. And we can talk about that more later tonight, also given the time, but that is in there. And then originally when we were, when you got a presentation about the bonding and the financing for the EWCRC, we talked about allocating structural money for contingency and an operational reserve, especially as we're financing through bond Through bonding, we want to make sure we have that dollars. It puts us in a better situation for a better bond rating, more favorable terms. Given the CVI allocation, which wasn't part of that original conversation, we were trying to front load that contingency in 2026 and then spreading the remainder up 27 through 29. That does leave about $1.2 million in the undesignated allocation for you all to allocate before the end of the fiscal year. Non-structural elections, it's not, I should have changed this. It's not just early voting reimbursement. I'm used to thinking about it as early voting, but general reimbursements for elections, $850,000 of increased revenue, increased expenditures that will bring the clerk's office in a line, their budget in alignment with their expected revenues and expenditures. We have the non-structural lump sums on the non-general fund. Every year we have to allocate out from the accommodation ordinance tax. We keep some back to make sure we have enough to cover the administrative costs. And then the remainder goes out to destination Ann Arbor. This is covering that. And then when we did the ARPA pole barn allocation, which is the large vehicle storage for the MSSI and water resources equipment facilities committed $441,000, but we never got it budgeted. So just cleaning up the budget, it's not new money. It's not unexpected. Just need to make sure we have that budget authority in the project. So next steps, we're continuing to monitor. Oops. Sorry, I got too ambitious there. Continuing to monitor different revenues, ongoing state revenue declines. Like I mentioned, the marijuana revenue being $200,000 below budget, definitely a thing that we are looking at. We know the changes at the state law are likely to impact that even more. Court revenues, federal changes. I did reach out and update. We have nothing really new. So given the timing of this presentation, I wasn't going to walk you through the five different slides, but nothing major has changed on that front. So anticipate more thorough update for Q2. And then expenditures, we continue to monitor inflation, personnel cost growth. And then budget work, hoping to be back for Q2 August. Sometimes that moves to September, depending on timing of things, but aiming for August, Q3 November, year-end report, March and April. And then the budget reaffirmation, this is what we call a budget prep year. We're trying to get everything in place because January of 2027 launches another quadrennial budget process. And we were doing some capital improvement planning as part of that, and then working toward that priority-based budgeting. So not five minutes, but I did try to get it in as quick as possible.

That was excellent. So open it up for any Commissioner questions, comments, or feedback. Commissioner Beeman.

Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Catherine, for the presentation. I have some questions, and they're a little bit scattered, so apologies. I took them down as they came across.

That's fair.

Sorry. So in terms of the animal control, I know we're looking at Q1, and we have an overage about 550K. Is that what we are anticipating for the full year? Yes. So that's not, that's not a one quarter. Okay.

I try to annualize those variances. So it will remain that number for the whole year. Thank you. Cause if we were going to have one of those, we'd be sounding much larger alarms if it was that big. Thank you.

um the uh ewcrc the reserve projection it seemed to like bounce up and down a bit can you explain that a little so that i better understand yeah so um originally the plan was all structural dollars above the bond payment and above the raises we're going to go to that contingency operational reserve okay

When the need was identified for that CVI ecosystem funding that needed to be structural. And so if you look at the math, the four years of the three 34, $250 is what equals that 2026 allocation. Originally that whole amount had been, was going to be undesignated. So it's making the undesignated smaller and basically designating it, but making sure we keep that project full so that we have the committed funding that we can get that project across the. the finish line.

Okay.

So it is, it did move, but that's why.

Okay. I appreciate that. One final question in terms of the elections, the 850,000, do we know, do you know, is there this training included in that budget or is that separate? This is just to push.

I don't know entirely, but I can see what I can find out before the board meeting. I would appreciate that. Thank you.

Yeah, the questions or comments at this time. Commissioner Sanders.

Just a question about the CBI, what you call it, echo system. So there's no increase. Does that mean we think intervention is just going to stay level? We don't think that with the Orange People Leader, we're going to have any more additional stress on the community and I mean, we normally build for some sort of small increase.

I did ask this question of Derek and he had the answer. So I'm going to let him.

You can throw more money in if you want. I will say that in the first year, there's a big chunk that is about data agreements, about evaluation and assessments and screenings that will be figured out in year one. They can then flow into the future years. So to the providers, they will see an increase. But in that first year, a lot of that's going to be around evaluation and data systems to get set up that we hope then the data systems that are set up will be able to come back to this board and really show across the providers. Here's how we're measuring impact. uniformly.

So also to add on to that, when it's a structural allocation, this is the first stab and we have the reaffirmation processes as this is going that we can adjust things. So this is a create it and we can always tweak.

Okay. Cause it's, it's not really our responsibility. It would be the contracted providers, but I just wanted to kind of make sure that we are not holding their I'm gonna call them their employee consultants at a flat level. So we're not asking by our budgeting that they don't receive some level of an increase over the three-year period of time.

Correct.

Okay. Because this is very much a work of the heart. Okay.

And just one other quick piece, you know, it relates to the 14 point plan that you'll approved a couple of years ago. And it talks in there very specifically about investing in trusted advisors. So that's a theme throughout the 14 point plan, but also in the allocations. Okay.

And then Catherine, so it looks to me like if I, you know, cause my eyes start to cross over when you, your presentations are wonderful.

There's a lot, there's a lot of numbers and bars and things.

But my quick and dirty is, is that we're not Pope. and we have some money. So you don't have to, you can plead the fifth if you'd like.

I think we are in a good financial position. I think it's always prudent to at least have two quarters of financial data. Because things happen. So, again, this is based on through March. Okay. But, yes, I'm not here sounding an alarm and worrying, which is what I thought I might be doing at this presentation from that perspective.

Okay. And I hope you all saw me clap when you mentioned that the district court had a surplus.

Okay. Commissioner Light.

So I was looking at where we had the allocations for the young women's work. Initially, that was 75,000. And it says 45.

There was a it was when it was made, there was a one time allocation, and only a portion of it has been spent. So year over year, we've been carrying over the remaining amount until it's allocated to a purpose.

I have a purpose that I needed to go to, which was our youth assessment center. I need for that to be allocated because what's been allocated is not enough to get us going. I've made mention to that and I've said that. We can have that discussion, but it's not enough. We still need to utilize those funds for that young women, supporting young women, because I have had in the making to meet with tabitha to discuss curriculum and to get that going i just have not been able to to do so but we need to make sure that for the youth assessment we can kind of split that baby because there are going to be young ladies as well um and so we can allocate more of that funding there because there will be young ladies that need to be supported um with the assessment center yep it's just held in reserve until the board operationalizes it so um

Once we operationalize it, we can make those things work. Will do. Thank you. Yep.

Any other Commissioner comments or questions at this time? Catherine, well done. Thank you.

Thank you.

Appreciate it. We'll move then to any items for current or future discussion. Seeing none, Chair, what time would you like to reconvene for our full meeting?

I think 737.

737. Yep.

Thank you.

I would entertain a motion to adjourn.

So moved.

Moved and supported. All those in favor say aye. Opposed say nay. We are adjourned.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

Brendan, could you call the roll, please?

Commissioner Beeman.

Present.

Commissioner Hodge. Here. Commissioner LaBar. Here. Commissioner Light. Commissioner Maciejewski here. Commissioner Robbie. Commissioner Sanders. Resident Commissioner Scott here. Commissioner Somerville here.

Thank you, Commissioner Hodge. I think you have a special order of business for us to do first. Thank you very much.

all right come up come on get on the camera you see yeah see i like to wave the camera so that the viewers at home there we go all right someone's watching it on youtube right now Our 11 people are watching it right now. Excellent. And untold numbers on Zoom, possibly. Well, actually, I'm sorry. So I have the pleasure of going to Lansing with Ruby and Tony and the OCD team to the Michigan Community Action Annual Advocacy Day. And for the third year in a row, we've had a Washtenaw County foster grandparents receive Volunteer of the Year. So that's a really big deal for us to be able to. It's a statewide event. So three years in a row, we've had the honor of having someone from Washtenaw County win that award. So, yeah, applaud that. Peru was recognized at that event in Lansing, but I thought it'd be great as we have done the last two years. So for our repeat here that we honor our winner here at our board meeting. So a resolution that I'll read and then give it to you and hope you can say a few words to everyone. So resolution honoring Ruby Ogburn as Community Action Volunteer of the Year, whereas Ruby Ogburn has served as a dedicated member of the Washtenaw County Foster Grandparent Program since 2013, whereas Ruby was inspired by her mother's service as a foster grandma and joined the program as soon as she became eligible. And whereas Ruby has contributed approximately 14,400 hours of service.

Yeah.

Mentoring hundreds of students and providing consistent support, encouragement, and care. And whereas Ruby serves 24 hours each week at Carmetra Elementary School in Ann Arbor and also supports students during the summer through the Grizzly Learning Camp in Ypsilanti. And whereas in 2025 alone, Ruby volunteered approximately 1,200 hours in service to children and families in Washtenaw County. That was just in 2025 alone. Ruby is known throughout her school communities as Grandma Ruby, as a trusted, nurturing, and joyful presence who helps students feel safe, supported, confident, and loved. And whereas staff at Carpenter Elementary School and Grizzly Learning Camp describe Ruby as dependable, patient, kind, encouraging, and deeply committed to the success and well-being of every child she serves. And whereas Ruby's warmth, generosity, and steadfast dedication embody the heart of community service and reflect the very best of Washtenaw County. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners hereby honors and celebrates Ruby Ogburn as Community Action Volunteer of the Year, and be it further resolved that the board expresses its sincere gratitude to Ruby for her extraordinary service, her love for children, and her lasting impact on students, families, educators, and the broader Washtenaw County community. Thank you and congratulations.

I just want to thank everyone that's here for me. And I just want everyone to know that I love what I do and I will continue helping as many children as I can. Thank you all so much.

Thank you, Justin.

Congratulations, Ruby.

At this time in the meeting, we'll open the meeting up for public participation. If you wish to address the board, you can come to the podium. You have three minutes to address us. There is a series of lights that will guide you. Don't worry about timing yourself. Green means go. Yellow means start wrapping it up and red means your time is up. It will interrupt you in an attempt to make sure that the playing field remains fair for everybody. When you come forward, if you could introduce yourself with your name and the city or township within which you live. Thanks. Would anybody like to address the board at this time?

Good evening, commissioners, and thank you for the time. My name is Rebecca Calkins. I am a community nutrition instructor with Michigan State University Extension, serving Washtenaw County out of the office on Zeb Road. I'd like to express my sincere gratitude for your continued support and funding of MSU Extension. Your investment is making a meaningful and measurable difference. in lives of families across the county. So I want to briefly share a little bit of an impact statement. One of the programs I teach is in partnership with Trinity Health. And while Trinity is working with the middle school students, I take the parents and teach an adult nutrition class. This dual generation approach has really shown some incredible and powerful stories and reinforcing those healthy habits at home. One of the stories I like to share is that the mother and the student were excited about making the salad. And this is something that could be a chore, that could be very solo, but this was something fun and a bonding experience that they were able to continue in their own home. as well as they had another parent that brought it into their workplace as well, sharing the recipes, sharing some desk workouts with their coworkers. So not only is it impacting families and workplaces, but also the community. I also work with teenagers with a teen cuisine program. At both after school and summer programs, I noticed Girls Group was on the list of mini grants. I work with Girls Group, as well as Peace Neighborhood Center. And this curriculum, this teen cuisine curriculum is both nutrition and cooking skills. So these are lifelong lessons that they can use throughout their life. life to really build confidence in the kitchen and continue those healthy habits. I'm still continuing to look for new partnerships throughout Washtenaw County and continuing to broaden my impact and support in Washtenaw County. So I do want to thank you again on behalf of MSU Extension and the families we serve. Thank you for your commitment to improving community health and your continued investment in this work. So thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Billy Ray Cole. I'm the director of Supreme Felons and Corp. It's my pleasure to be here in front of all you distinguished people that allowed us the opportunity to serve our community with the opera funding. Under that funding, our umbrella with community violence intervention is community violence intervention and prevention. The thought of us was, what is a life worth in our county? Our group consisted of 18 employees, which we had four pillars of programming consisting of reentry, senior support, our youth mentorship, and also our neighborhood watch team. It's so much of a pleasure to be here. I don't want to talk too long, but what I would like you to do is refer to your community priority fund impact evaluation pages 64 paragraph two and also page 73 paragraph two. I can't sit here and express our sincere appreciation for being able to do this work within our community. those in which we serve on the Western side of the County, we feel didn't have the true access to the many resources that is allowed within our County are so rich County. I must say, I, um, other than giving you guys honors and respect, it's a couple of people that I got to touch on that actually promoted us and supported us and do this work. One is Mr. Great deal. Um, share Jerry Clayton, also Mr. Derek Jackson. It gave us an opportunity to bring collaboration within our community and law enforcement and bring, um, a bit of clarification and understanding with the work that our officers and our law enforcement is due in our command in our community. And also in our County, I tip my hat to him. and I've gained a great amount of respect for these people for doing the job that they do, but more so I respect the opportunity to collaborate with these and serve in our community. Gun violence is a serious problem within our county, more so within our city of Ypsilanti. We serve the 197, 198 community, but yet based on our success We've been asked to go to various cities within our county and serve them also. Saline, Manchester. And also, Ann Arbor.

That's time, I'm sorry.

I am so thankful for this opportunity. I won't take up too much time. Hopefully one day we can have the opportunity to express to you guys in person the work that Supreme Felon does. And like I said, it's an honor to be able to stand before you at this very moment and give you my sincere appreciation for this opportunity for you guys giving us the opportunity. And we hope.

Thank you, Mr. Cole. That's time when the, when the light is red, it's time. Sorry. Thank you. Thanks.

I started to say something to him, but I ain't gonna do it.

Yeah. Good evening, board of commissioners. Commissioner Somerville, Commissioner Hodge, Commissioner Light, Commissioner Sanders, Administrator Deal, as well as Derek Jackson. I always forget his title because I've been working with him for so long. But nevertheless, first of all, we want to thank you for given us opportunity in supporting us with some funding so that we could do the work in the community that the ARPA funds and the community priority set forth. And as Mr. Cole said, repeating from out of the evaluation, we did exactly what we said we were gonna do and more. And we're very impactful in reducing crime in the 48197 and 4819. There's many publications that have been written on that. Many studies have been written up to show that community violence intervention does work. However, with that funding, when the funds were expended, that left us out with no way to continue to do the services that we have so provided. And ironically, almost the fall, when the funds ran out, if you will, violence went out immediately, almost. I had the opportunity to talk with a member of our community who actually said, she said she noticed something was strange in our community. She couldn't quite touch it. And we were talking about a recent shooting that had took place. And she actually asked where we'll react. And I said that, unfortunately, we weren't able to continue the work in funding our foot soldiers. We have one right here with us today, a Mr. Paul Boone sitting behind me who has been continuing doing the work even though we aren't . And so one of the things they noticed that they said is that the orange shirts aren't on the block no more. But we still can try to do the work and we're doing as best we can on very limited funding on a shoestring budget. I don't know how we do it. But violence is on an uptick in Washtenaw County, regardless of what you're hearing. There's more shootings being taken place in 48197, 48198 that are being reported in the media. And if we don't get a handle on this and get a hold on it, we're actually going to have a lot more homicides that are taking place. We know this simply because we ear to the ground. We know what's going on. We're trusted servants in our community where people actually come and talk to us what's going on. before it happens, as it happens, and after it happens, so they don't go to the police, which actually causes more problems. So we actually consider funding us further, and we just want to thank you for what you have done with us past and continue to do it in the future. Have a nice day.

Can you state your name for the record?

I'm sorry.

That's okay.

Chairman. Chairperson. Thank you. Brian Foley.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Hello. I'm starting. I would like to say it's kind of, I want to go a little farther back. We had a COVID epidemic that hit our community. When COVID happened, I was working for Jerry Clayton. I remember the first responders, shout outs to the police, they took it upon themselves to help feed the seniors. Y'all were delivering food to us. We was masking up. I was going in with the responders as the lived experience ally. The CE staff was doing the same thing. And after a while, the cops were going back to do their work and we were the only ones doing the job. During COVID, while you still can get contaminated and die, CE was still delivering food to Chester Place and the senior centers in Ypsilanti, even working with the YMCA. I bring that up to say that in that time, we had a marginalized population. part of the community. They land in every one of y'all zip codes where you have a certain population set who doesn't get the information or doesn't want it the way we're giving it. Well, in the 9897 during that time, the health department, my homeboy Chuck, he retired. He had a void to get this supplies to a certain part of the community. And y'all could check my step. He wanted to get that food to a certain second community. And Billy Cole was the only one that can get him to that second community. And this predates supreme felons. I just want to bring that up about the individual who I'm speaking about, because when he didn't have to, he still supported that deep, that marginalized section of all of our communities, whether they're in Whitmore Lake, where I'm at, or where they're in Ipsy, they feel comfortable being able to be in the fold. For so long, we know it. Certain people don't feel accepted. We've accepted Supreme felons. The sheriff and them have done it. Other organizations has. The community has saw that. And I noticed that that community is more interested in what you guys are doing now. because they know you work for them when they see people that look like them supporting you guys in the community. So I don't know about to now work, but I can just bring that up from back in the day when everybody was high, it was not high. It was helping the community that our constituents. So I just wanted to bring that up. Thank you guys for your time. My name is Marvin Gundy. I know Whitmore Lake.

Thank you.

How's everybody going? My name is Seth Staples. Um, Thank you for your time and opportunity. I've never been in a situation like this, but I do want to speak on behalf of myself and for these guys. In the last nine months, I've seen a lot of gun violence, death, and even suicide. And I have a mentor who used to work with me since I was seven years old in the Ypsilanti community for the Ypsilanti Housing Commission. He recently retired a few years ago and with everything that's been happening. So back to back, I kind of reached out to him just to kind of see just for any guidance. At the time, that's when he told me he was retired and these guys would be the guys to go to. So I'm thankful for ever funding the resources you guys gave them because at the time of just reaching out to them, I was able to not only get some type of guidance and mentorship, but I was also given an opportunity to have a job as a mentor. So now I've been with kids from 14 to 25 and they are really active in a community. And I just hope that they can keep going just to be able to get more funding to be more active. These guys are a little bit older. So I want them to be more funded to get some guys like me to be more actively involved who's like around this time, you know, because it's a lot of like people of my age and, you know, some of my friends, kids, you know, things like that. So I just want to thank you for your time and thank you for whatever opportunity has been given to these guys. Thank you.

Thanks, Seth.

All right, good evening. My name is Jen Wilhurski. I'm a resident of Northville Township and a property owner and taxpayer in Salem Township, Washtenaw County. I actually don't have a whole lot to say today, but I wanted to make sure that I sustained that monthly advocacy on this topic, so I'm here tonight. So first thing, I wanted to thank Commissioner Light for her response to my comment at the last meeting and her invitation to connect with me and GFL to discuss GFL's continued release of PFAS into Johnson Creek. I did send an email to the email address I could find. I hadn't received a response back, so I'll leave my contact information tonight too. Second thing is I'm looking forward to hearing the Water Resources Commissioner Driscoll's update on her Office 2025 annual report. I did review that report and the presentation files in advance of tonight. And I just wanted to note that in the report, it indicates that the MMPC has quote, 12 members, including local elected officials, waste diversion industry representatives, and environmental groups. To me, it does feel like an oversight to not also note in the report that the MMPC also includes multiple waste management industry representatives, including those that would significantly benefit financially from a new landfill. I also noted that in her presentation, the material management division slide specifically includes a note that the programs are funded by quote, for $1.4 million in tipping fees and additional grants. I looked through the report and I couldn't find a mention of that or more details, but I would love to learn more about what those specific funds are and where they're coming from, including the agencies or organizations that are distributing them. And lastly, from that conversation, I hope to hear more about how Commissioner Driscoll and her team plan to move the MMP program forward in 2026, and if they plan to provide a definitive timeline on when a draft plan would be available. Since the county appointed the MMPC in September of 2024, with bylaws adopted in January of 2025, and now we're nearly 18 months later, and it appears that we're still very early in the process. So that's all I had. Thanks so much.

Thank you, Jen.

Hello, everyone. I'm Heather Martin, an Ypsilanti resident. And I'm here to express gratitude for a very exciting announcement and an invitation for you all. A coalition of organizations serving Ypsilanti and doing incredible and expansive work ranging from mentorship, transformative justice, arts, culture, intergenerational impact, literacy. I can't name everything or I'm going to go. So we've been working diligently and quietly for a number of years, and we will be beginning construction on a space in Ypsilanti at 326 East Michigan Street. If you know more specifically the psychic vision spot, that little brick building.

Well, I don't know if they saw us coming, but we're coming.

Okay, I gotta sneak in a joke. I'm here. Mostly to invite you on June 12, Friday, June 12, at noon, we're having a grounding ceremony. And I'll introduce you to the many, many people and 100-plus year community organization history who have been a part of making this possible. We're grateful for diverse streams of support, inclusive of the labor, economic, Office of the State of Michigan. And tonight, you'll be reviewing our recent designation and support by the Brownfield Authority to support us in initial site work at 326 East Michigan. You know, I feel like it's a strange position to be in to like sort of name blight and construct belonging. But that's a deep intention of this space. And I look forward to telling you all much more about it and not now. And thank you so much for your time.

Thank you.

Hello, I'm Gigi Jones from Ypsilanti Township. And I brag on our commissioners all the time, everywhere, even Wayne County. I think we don't have, nobody has a harder working group than you guys. I give you guys your kudos for all your hard work. I have a couple of questions, comments, and a couple of questions. My one comment about the millage is I am against it. Any millage is right now. As a senior, my house payment went up $100 a month this year. I'm gonna lose my own house if we give any more millages. So that's my take on millages right now, even though I am on the advisory committee for the current one, which is greatly needed for the sheriff and for the mental health. Two, I didn't wanna make sure you guys know that there is an area at Carpenter Road and Michigan Avenue that people have been coming to me, like business owners, that they're about to close their businesses due to the ice scare. Their customers and the people that come into their patrons, their businesses are scared to come in. And because I guess at Arbor Woods, there was a lot of people there and they're about to close two businesses there because of the ice and the fear and the people not coming out to use them and using the businesses in that area. Now I have a couple of questions, well, another comment. I found out we have 150 white South Africans that have moved here into our county. And I was really kind of upset because this all happened within six weeks from the people that have moved here has told me. And it just is really upsetting knowing that we have our citizens here that are working, have family members and children are being forced at gunpoint and forcibly out of our county And here we're bringing people that had jobs and houses that had no clue and had no desire to move until six weeks ago when they found out that all they had to do was fill out a piece of paper, they could move here. And I don't know what was promised to them, but we have 150 people in our county right now from South Africa. I have a couple of questions. My one question is, I don't know what the process is for the chair or how that goes or how it was done by history. And I don't know who gets to decide on who hires the employees. Is it all the commissioners? Do y'all kind of work together to hire? And that was one. Another thing, I wanted to make just a comment. I wasn't meaning to speak on Supreme Felons, but since I heard them speak here, and it is very important to me because I feel safer in our community with them here. I feel safer as a senior, right? But more importantly, I have a million kids. Well, that's a little exaggeration. I have a million, if you count my grandkids and kids. And I feel safer for my children and all my million grandchildren, knowing that they're in our community. Because I can't be in all the communities all over, all the different neighborhoods. But I feel better knowing that they're kind of like out there working with our kids. And again, I just want to say again, I really appreciate the job that each one of you guys do. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm just going to clarify on questions. We follow up at the end. So that's why you might not hear anything right now.

Jeremy Haley, Ipsy Township. The Arbor South boat still doesn't settle well with me. It just seemed it was done out of desperation. I mean, so desperate. I mean, would you go down to the crossroads and make that deal? That's what I kind of felt like it was. And Here's my challenge to the ones that voted for it in the Ann Arbor Housing Commission. Open up one of your rooms in your houses, and I'll do the same. Okay? Let's get this done. I'm willing to empty a room out if all y'all are ready to do it in the Ann Arbor Housing Commission. I'm so sure I won't have to do it because I know none of y'all will. That's how sad it is. So I just want to hear the excuses that y'all are going to start saying because of reasons why you can't do it. because you won't ever say the one true reason why. Because that development is going to take money away from the schools, WCC to raise their tuition, is going to take away from future needs of Washtenaw County. We all heard of the young lady who is no longer with us, fell onto I-94. I know as few people that know her and she needed services, obviously. The day before that day that happened, I'm helping out a recently homeless man I've known for a couple of years, just recently homeless. He wasn't homeless until recently. Picked him up. He tried to live in a cart and somehow made it to Brighton. We don't need to go there. Next day, he showed up at my house. He was really distraught later that afternoon. So distraught, when he left, I called his brother and said, you know, you need to call the police, sheriff. There's something going on with him. Later, I get all this brother within like 15 minutes, and his brother tells me that there's a man standing on the side of I-94 before here on road exit, here on street exit, right on the line, getting ready to walk in. There was numerous 911 phone calls. This was him. Later, he showed back up in my house, my driveway. I don't mind that. Problem was, the sheriff's found him in my driveway. Sheriff's talked to him. Sheriff's left him in my driveway. They did not make no contact with me. He needed services. When his brother called this dispatch, says, hey, what's going on? We know you made contact with my brother. His dispatch from the sheriff said, hey, he's been taken to a safe place. His bold face lie, I'm sitting there, sitting there talking to his brother. We got serious issues and giving it up for, I know we need housing, but that's not the way to do it because people in our community needs help. And now he's plus one and Ipsy smoking meth with a homeless all day. Thank you.

Anyone else in the room for public comment? Actually, we don't, is the Zoom still down?

Chair, so the Zoom and Facebook feeds have been working just fine. It's an issue with Civic Clerk, so it's a website issue. Zoom is working perfectly.

Do we have anybody on Zoom?

We have people on Zoom, but no one with their hand raised for public comment.

Okay. I'll look for Commissioner follow-up to public comment. Commissioner Somerville. Thanks, Chair.

I wanted to thank everyone who came out to speak in favor of CVI investments. And my other constituent, Heather, was here. I'm excited about the Youth Arts Alliance space in my district on Michigan Ave. Thank you, Nathan, by the way, for helping and working on that project. And I guess I'll just echo the concern that Gigi raised around the increase in ICE in our community. Things have been heavy in Ypsilanti for quite a while, but I think things have definitely, certainly in recent months, ramped up even more. And I think, I'm not an expert on this, but the commentary related to the new refugees that the Trump administration is allowing in our country

is very frustrating. I have heard that refugee agencies were basically required by the Trump administration to accept refugees from South Africa, otherwise they would not. be eligible for future funds to accept refugees from other places. And so this is just another one of those circumstances being shut down through the system that has been working on refugee entitlement for years. And so I don't really know what we can do about that other than electing a president. So it's frustrating. We're going to see the impact of this for a long time. There are a lot of people who were prepared.

Sorry, there were a lot of people who were prepared, had plane tickets from places where they're in deep danger and had resettlement agencies and they were turned away from airports or they were told not to get on the plane. you know, a little over a year ago. And so it's been really frustrating to watch. And I think about kids in other places in the world who were promised a safe place and are being withheld from coming to our country right now. It's really devastating. So thanks for raising that. That's all. Thanks.

Thank you. Commissioner Light.

Just want to thank everyone who came out for public comment and to join us for our meeting. Thank you to our CDI for all of our crime intervention. I really appreciate Spring Felons for all of the work that they do and others that participate in our community in crime intervention. I was not aware about the 150 South African refugees that arrived. I do know from former work that when refugees arrive for here in Washtenaw County, they go to JFS. And I was wondering if someone could find out if that is where they have sent the new refugees that came to Washtenaw County. I'm just curious to know, because there is an enormous amount of benefits. Each refugee comes in with a $10,000 price on their back. They are provided state benefits. They are provided health care and all of the things, and they are put into the PATH program to assist them to be able to manage and live in our county. So that's just something I'm curious to know and how we can... make sure the refugees that we have here, that they receive the services that they are supposed to receive as well, that is equitable, and that they receive services just as much as those that have just entered. That is just very concerning. Yes, there were reports of ICE in Superior Township. I do know of on, I believe it was Monday. And of course, I did my surfacing around. I don't interfere. Like, right in the fear, but my doors do swing open. And so I just want folks to know that if I'm around in my district, my doors fly open. I'm in that pickup that looks like ice, but it's not. It's Commissioner Light. And I'm always ready to just go. So if someone could get the information for me about our refugees, it's just something that I would like for myself. And that would be good to know. And I want to thank Ms. Jen for coming out and reminding me that she sent an email. I will look for that because I did not see it, and we will contact so that we can sit and talk with GFL and make sure that she has the information and data that she is looking for. Other than that, I believe that is all that I have.

Thank you. Commissioner Sanders?

In response to Ms. Gigi's sharing about ICE, I actually saw them in my community a couple of days before I got a call. It was hard for me to tell if it was them, but the Dodge Charger kind of souped up and Cognigo gave me a heads up that they were in the community, and then I think A day later, I got a communication that they had actually picked up two or three people in my district and a couple of family members for someone that I know. So I did reach out related to the concern about the possible lodging of immigrants specifically from South Africa and any sort of enticements that may have been provided to them to come to this country. And so I just want to share that if people are concerned that maybe people are being housed or sheltered illegally, They have a right to contact the Fair Housing Commission in Washtenaw County and file a complaint. I actually used to do investigations for them, and they will send out people, I call them secret shoppers, that will check and take detailed reports back to determine whether or not they are in violation of fair housing laws. And also, foreigners that come to this country typically can be and are asked to provide a I-20 form, which is proof of income from their home country, especially if they're attending school or they're trying to secure housing without a visa or a green card. And any resident would have the right to inquire with the landlord, I'm not saying they have to answer you, but you can ask them whether or not they're following those guidelines if you believe that they are renting illegally. So I wanted to share that. And then I received a communication related to the Brownfield TIF. And I just wanted to, it's actually out on LinkedIn. And so one of the executives from Oxford and Company posted a rendering of the new building. And the question that was posed was, how do you eat an elephant? And so I'm just asking out loud, I'm wondering, is the elephant, the taxpayers that provided, are gonna be providing this Brownfield TIF relief? Was I the elephant? And then sort of laid over in graphic, it says one bite at a time with the emoji of clapping fingers. Now it could be me, maybe I'm salty because I lost. But to me, it's very disrespectful for the taxpayers that are going to be footing the bill for this private development. And then immediately after that, there was a communication that the same developer is planning a 2.0 project across I-94 that is going to further impact the traffic gridlock that we have on State Street in I-94 every day. And as I would say, uh, the Lord always puts me in places, especially when people are messing with me. I happen to be going to Costco on Sunday and I get off, I'm on the bridge 94 and there is a, I'm going to call it a horrendous accident traveling in the opposite direction, right where the 2.0 development is supposed to go. And that car, looks like they crossed over the medium on State Street and flipped several times. So if you are familiar with that area, you know that there's no easy way around to get back. So you literally have to go about four miles out of the way to come back to get around the back way. Now that's for somebody that knows how to get around. And two hours later, the road was still shut down, which just calls to my point that development may be good in the eyes of the developer, but we should be looking at the whole picture and how it affects all of the community and not just those that have the resources to benefit and to pull the strings. And I think the last thing that I want to add is that I asked a question, and got answers and then I got some feedback later that indicated that there are people who have received campaign donations and there are what appear to me to be conflicts of interest amongst our board and the developer. So not gonna call the people out, they know who they are, but I asked the question directly for a reason. And I've received information after the vote was approved that there are at least two, if not possibly three, commissioners that are entangled with this developer, and they did not provide that information prior to their vote. That's my public comment. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Sanders. Anyone else for public comment? Commissioner Robby, and then I'll come back to Somerville. Oh, I'll do, can I do Beeman before you two get, everybody have a, okay.

Thank you, Chair. There's two things I want to talk about first. I want to thank Ms. Gigi for coming and speaking. Always appreciate what you have to say. I did not know about those 150 Afrikaners as well. I think it's important to distinguish a few things. First off, what we are talking about is white South Africans in particular. And I want to emphasize, I think it's important in the context of this conversation, all of us already know much of the history, but I think it's important to remind ourselves and the community that the decisions that the Trump administration is making are rooted in the apartheid that existed in South Africa that resulted in the oppression of the people of South Africa, the brutality of the apartheid regime, the economic brutality, the physical brutality, the death and indignation that was exerted on the people of South Africa by the Afrikaner government for decades. And by the way, Trump is not the first to support apartheid and that notion. He is but the latest in a long line of United States presidents and diplomats who support that approach. And I would remind those that are watching and my colleagues, because we have been very supportive of the Cuban people in this moment that are experiencing economic devastation from our government, that part of why the Trump administration, all of this is connected. The Trump administration is going after the people of Cuba is because The people of Cuba fought for the liberation of South Africa and Namibia and Angola from the apartheid regime. They fought alongside the people of Africa to liberate themselves from the yoke of imperialism and colonialism that existed. And so I want to recognize and uplift that. I want to recognize and uplift the people of Cuba that are suffering right now because they stood on the right side of history. not the wrong side of history like our government did. And now we are in a moment where the Trump administration is picking and choosing those that he believes should come to this country and those that shouldn't when it is a something that we need to remind ourselves of that the white residents of South Africa, there is not violence or racial violence being exerted upon them in this time, despite the fact that Trump is asserting that it is a lie, and it is a lie based on racism. It is a lie based on racism of Trump and the Trump administration, and it is racist because one, it is not happening, and two, it is picking and choosing who gets to come to this country, even if one were to assume that there was violence happening against the Afrikaner population of South Africa. And on the same notion, you are denying access to people of color all across the world who are suffering from worse indignation in their home countries, and you are denying access to the United States of America for refuge. That means you are a complete and total racist. Everybody in this room knows that about the Trump administration. I think it's important to say it and to say it again, because that is the reality that we're facing. And so it is unfortunate now that we are having to, you know, frankly, accommodate that racist ideology, that racist approach towards racism. immigration in this country. And I just wanted to uplift those things and state those things for the record, because in times like this, it is important to say the obvious as obvious as it may seem. Also, I want to speak to the brownfield again and build off of what Commissioner Sanders said. I know that's annoying to some of my colleagues, apparently. but it was brought up during public comment and I feel it is certainly appropriate to discuss. I think that the comment that was made on social media was abhorrent and it speaks to the mentality and ideology of those that are coming towards us and asking for money that they do see us as just an elephant, frankly, and that we are here to... I mean, I've heard this narrative so many times, serving in Lansing from Republicans, that they view government just as this bloated pig, basically, that their goal is to deflate. And what that person indicated on social media, to me, is a continuation, a furtherance of that approach to say, now businesses are taking their cut, basically, of government and taking a bite out of us, the taxpayers, the elephant that they see. It is an abusive way to frame things. And part of why I think it is so disgusting is because this project was not the first or it was the first of what will be many. They will be coming back. They've already announced that they'll be coming back for more money from the taxpayers. And at this very moment, As we are at this meeting, Ann Arbor teachers by the thousands are gathered outside of the Ann Arbor school board meeting to protest the fact that they have not been treated fairly by the schools. They are protesting the fact that they are not getting paid. They are protesting the fact that our schools are falling apart. And unfortunately, if we keep approving projects like this that will cost our schools, that will cost WCC, that will cost us millions of dollars over the lifetime of these projects, it will result in more teachers not getting paid appropriately. It will result in more schools crumbling. It will result in worse services for our community. We cannot continue to do this. It is not sustainable. It cannot go on. And especially projects this big, three hundred and fifty million dollars thirty years of not paying taxes is obscene and offensive to all in our community and i can tell you so many people have come forward i have been walking down the street and people have come up to me and said how disgusted they are at what we did and how shameful it was that we allocated and appropriated because it is an allocation and an appropriation of money to that developer who is making 7.4% profits, $26 million for the developer of taxpayer money is going to profits. This is something that many people in our community are objecting to, objecting to loudly. I want to recognize them for speaking out. I want to recognize our teachers for speaking out. We as a community deserve better of our elected officials that our money that we vote for in millages, if we're going to be asked to vote for another millage, it is important to remind ourselves that we are allowing portions of these millages that the taxpayers are voting for for specific purposes to be captured by developers for private profits. That's a problem. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Commissioner Robby. Commissioner Beeman.

Thank you chair, I want to thank our MSU extension for coming out I love hearing these updates, I feel like we've gotten one a meeting and that's been really amazing to hear. What they're doing out in the Community also want to thank everyone who came forward to support their Community organizations that are helping. taking their neighborhood safe the mentorship all of those different pieces it's amazing to hear your stories and know that the impact that's happening within the Community. I'm gonna go back to the TIF, which is a tax increment financing tool. I'm a former economic development professional, and I know that this tool is often misunderstood. TIF does not take existing tax dollars. I want that to be very clear. The development has to pay the current taxes. What they are not paying is the growth. They are not paying the growth as this development is built so that those funds can be invested into the development. Is it the most perfect process? No, I will fully admit it's not a perfect process. But our team at OCD, as well as the City of Ann Arbor, has been working on this for two years. They have been weighing the pros and cons. They have been thinking about this project, the impact on the communities, the financial realities of what this will do. and creating something that balances the need for housing and supporting the community. So I just wanna be very clear because there's a lot of confusion that zero tax dollars are being paid, that is not true. I want people to know that this is a tool. It's a tool we're using in Manchester. And we're not hearing this much about that in Manchester or other areas. This is a large scale. It is a long period of time. And I understand the frustration around those pieces, but it, is used again to offset the rising costs of developing housing. My husband is in construction. I know this very well. I know how expensive it is to build right now and how very expensive it is to try to build affordable. So just want to set the record straight as there is some confusion around a TIF and I'm happy to answer any questions. Reach me via email, however you wish, about TIF and that structure. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Beeman.

Commissioner Somerville. Thank you. There was a comment earlier about Arbor South and then a follow-up comment by a colleague. And I just want to clear up anything that's being said in this room or in the public. I think it's really dangerous to suggest that votes we take have some sort of improper ethics violation or conflict of interest. A conflict of interest is when we make decisions at this table to benefit ourselves financially. So I will be publicly disclosing my salary and every single campaign finance contribution that I've received for this term. I work for the state of Michigan. I'm employed by a state senator. My public salary, which has been released and is public for all viewing, is around $95,000 a year. I have not been paid by the Irwin for State Senate campaign since September of 2018. That was a really long time ago, well before I was a county commissioner. And my campaign contributions from the last election cycle were from Don Keech. I received a total of $450. I received a campaign contribution from Shannon Beeman from Manchester for $50. I received a contribution from Royal Oak, from Alice Bell, a former customer when I waited tables at Sidetrack, $50. I received $100 once and then a cumulative total of $300 from Mary Delkamp, who lives in my district in the city of Ypsilanti. I received $175 from Elizabeth Thompson of Ypsilanti Township. She's retired. I received $400 total from Carrie Pepperman, who lives in the city of Ypsilanti. I received $100 from Miriam Meisler of Ann Arbor. I received $575 from Mitchell Seymour from Ypsilanti Township. Oh, another commissioner. I received $200 from Katie Scott. Thank you. I received $50 from a former professor who lives out of Washtenaw County, Barbara Patrick. I received $50 from Catherine Hayes of Ypsilanti City. I received... $100 from Rand Anderson-Wiemuth. I received money from Adam Gainsley, $250 total. I received money from Sarah Hobo, $100. I received $25 from Cherry Westerman, $50 from Chris Watson, $100 from John Graydon. $50 from Robert Burton Harris, $100 from Stephen Gulick, $50 from Ben Hanson, $200 from Katie Jones, $100 from Corrine Moore, $225 from Cassidy Creech, $100 from Caroline Taylor, $150 from Aisha Ghazi Edwin, $50 from Harvey Summers, $350 from Jessica Alexander, $250 from Marianne Udall Phillips. $200 from Ashley Hall, thank you. $100 from Dan Graydon. I received $50 from Cheryl Cebilski. I received $50 from Megan Masaryk. I received $50 from Leslie Cunningham. I received $50 from Hazelette Crosby, $25 from Crystal Dupree, $50 from Carolyn Madden, $325 from Lisa Disk, $87.50 from Eli Nathans, $200 from Audrey Anderson, $45 from Aiden Sova, $50 from Doug Scott, $50 from Laura Knitsberg, $250 from Josephine Rude, $175 from Theresa Reed, $50 from Deborah Shaw $250 from Amy C to $125 from Allison Ayrton $325 from Jimmy Wilson $575 from Lee Graydon $50 from Bob Krasinski $100 from john Weiss $500 from Adam Goodman $200 from Leslie body. $181 from Mary Hall Time. $1,000 from Janice Bobrin. $75 from Bill Lavery. Bill lives in Seattle. He used to be a former customer at Sidetrack. $100 from Claudia Petit. $25 from John from Ann Arbor. I can't say his last name. $25 from Alex Lowe. $100 from Brandon Dimchoff. $250 from Cormac Levinson, $1,000 from Lynn Song, $50 from Maria Schiller Edwards, $250 from Abdul Hakim. a constituent of mine, $100 from the Jason Morgan for State Representative Committee, $1,000 from Janpert, $150 from Shamar Heron, $200 from Mitch Irwin, $200 from Bernice Linkdy, $100 from MJ Dennison, also in my district. Another constituent, John Achesco, $75. Another constituent, Lisa Wozniak, for $50. $25 from Tad Weiser, another constituent. $150 from Mark Cerveas, a former classmate at Eastern Michigan. Oh, I donated $6 to myself to check my Act Blue link once. I got $100 from Jordan Ellis of Ann Arbor, $183 from Sarah Cederberg of Ypsilanti City in my district, $75 from Ruth Cassidy in my district, $50 from Greg Woodring in my district. Oh, $200 from Andy Labar, thank you. Let's see, $50 from Natalie Holbrook, also a constituent of my district. Let's see, $25 from another constituent in the city of Ypsilanti, Sarah Richards. I got $100 from the Stephanie Chang for State Senate campaign. I got $25 from Patricia Riley, $100 from Paul Schreiber, $25 from Susan Ashmore, just outside of the city in my district. I got $100 from Mark Cinco in Ypsilanti Township, $6 from Devin Leatherman, $200 from Rhonda McGill. $75 from Shoshana Wetcher. $50 from Eileen Spring. Oh, I already said Katie Jones. No, that was her mom. I got $150 from Katie Jones in Ypsilanti Township, also my district. Patricia Schreiber, former elected in Pittsfield, 450, great person. I got a $250 check from Stephanie's Changemaker Fund, $25 from Mary Jennings, another constituent, $500, sorry, $5,000 from the Pursuit of Justice PAC, 50 from Steven Brown, 25 from James Reeves III, 420 from Daryl Stavros, 200 from Cynthia Williams, 100 from Colin Kelly, 100 from Yvonne Cudney, also a constituent, 200 from Justin Hodge. Thank you. Let's see. Already said that one. 100 from Lee Gunn. We've got some old timers on here from the board. Let's see. 150 from Miles Guru. 100 from Perrystone Palmquist. 500 from David Blanchard. 100 from Andrea Perry. Skip. They've already been. Oh, 900 from Elio Stanti of Northville, a former colleague. 50 from Elizabeth Korans, a former professor from Eastern. $100 from Teresa Martinez-White in Superior Township. $100 from Anna Freshour. $100 from Barbara Niece-May.

Is Barbara still in the audience? No.

50 from Elise Jacobson, also in my district. 58 from Alicia Cobo from Westland, Michigan. We're all over the place. $20 from Travis Taylor in Dalton, Georgia, former coworker from Sidetrack. $300 from Barb Fuller, our road commission chair. I don't know, is that a conflict? Might be. 250 from Al Newman. 25 from Angel Vanes. 100 from Chuck Warpowski. 25 from Adrian Meyer, 50 from, no, 100 from Margaret Shankler, 500 from Adam Tasselmeyer, 100 from Colleen Kennedy, 25 from Lauren Mazarin, 250 from Alexander Merz, 100 from Barbara Farrah, 75 from Jeremy Glick, 83 from Jill Radice. I can't say her last name. It's my neighbor, though. We live in the same building. 100 from Claire Small. Oh, I did get a $100 donation from Jeff Irwin. 50 from Miles. I think I already said Miles. Another $1 donation from myself, I believe, to test a link. Did that a lot. These, oh, $33 from Kelly Somerville, that's my aunt. 75 from Kevin Crockmoney, a former classmate's dad. And then Aisha Ghazi Edwin, current city council member in Ann Arbor. 58 from Frank Anderson, a former classmate. $10, excuse me, from Nicole Mackey of Schwartz Creek, a colleague in the Senate. And that's from my post campaign. Let's see. I know this is right before. I wanna make sure I get everything in that was given to me before this term. All right, $25 from Sarah Shillio of Lansing, 25 from Maria Pomo, $6 from Leanne Smith, $25 from Kim Hoppe, $250 from James Murray, and $50 from Scott Wolfell, also Ypsilanti. Let's see, post-election, nothing.

Nothing.

There's some more. All right. Oh, $50 from Evan Sweet. $50 from Ruby Snyder. $50 from Katten Aragon. $50 from Nikki Krakowski. Already got those. $50 from Daniel Jones, $6 from Leah Dotson, $50 from Karen Putsu, $50 from Cynthia Harrison, $50 from Allison Foreman, $25 from Rebecca Waldrop, $100 from Justin Hodge, $50 from Nicole Brown, $200 from Jen Iyer, $100 from Judy Kohlberg, and $50 from Jeanette Rook. Oh, these are actually from, yeah, these were from before. So these were in between the first election cycle and now. So these are all publicly available online for anybody around the table or in the audience or at home who would like to look at them. You can look at all the ones from the 2022 election too. But in the email that we got, I did indicate there were questions asked if we had received contributions from anybody at Oxford or on the board or the leadership team. And I responded to that email because I actually don't know anybody who's on the board or executive team. And I've asked my colleagues and nobody could tell me. So unless I'm missing something, nobody's been approaching me from Oxford to give me donations. There's not another election for two years, so I don't really know. But I want to be clear and maybe we could have a working session on what a conflict of interest is because that gets thrown out a lot. It was also suggested to me that somehow there's a conflict because I work for Jeff Irwin, but I do just want to be clear and I can provide receipts. I haven't been paid for by the Irwin for State Senate campaign since I worked on the campaign in 2018. So if anybody has any questions about my ethics, about any conflicts of interest, please ask. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you commissioner commissioner Sanders.

So clarity. No one has said that I want to make a correction about the brownfield tip what is being captured is all future increases in property taxes for the next 30 years. So somebody can correct me if I'm not correct about that. That doesn't mean, I never said that they won't pay property tax, but it is a capture of any increase for the next 30 years. And people that own property know that your property tax increases on a regular basis. That means that that privately held entity gets to capture their increases for the next 30 years to sort of reimburse them for the development. The concern that I had and have is that the majority of the Brownfield TIFs that we've approved or looked at have been specifically for housing. They have not included retail shops, hotels. They've not basically included profit driven entities. That is the issue that is a privately held that is asking for this break, basically saying to us, we're wonderful and we're going to create this development that you didn't ask for. We want to do this. But by the way, we don't want to pay taxes on the increase in the property value once this is built for 30 years. So I want to be clear about that because I never said they wouldn't pay. And I asked all of my colleagues the same question. And for the public, you have the right to pull any of our campaign finance reports. I don't have to read line by line, but you can welcome to pull mine. And if you see how impoverished I had to finance my own campaign, please send me donations if you feel so inclined. and the conflict of interest, it is specific related to our compensation being tied to anyone, but there's still always a murky place. I understand the letter of the law, but we all know from dealing with people in public office that you can skirt things. And so just because your compensation is not tied to it doesn't mean that you should not ethically reveal whether or not you even think that it's going to look as though there's a conflict of interest. That has been my concern and it remains my concern. And if you think that there is even the hint, you should reveal that. You should talk to our council and find out, should you even talk about it? Should you refuse yourself? What should you do? At least you would have some, level of protection or shield if you were forthright enough to recognize that if you have an executive sitting on a board that employs you, perhaps you should tell that. Maybe you just say it and say, it's not a conflict. I'm still going to vote on it. But just to be transparent, this person who is an executive for the company we just did the brownfield tip for sits on my employer's board. or I got a campaign donation from the executive from that company. I just think it's interesting that we pick and choose, we cherry pick who we go after and who we don't. And I'm confused about that because rightfully or wrongfully, my colleagues all sat around mute and said nothing when my fellow commissioner and I were accused of basically stealing from the county and they knew better. So when I asked the question, it's a problem. Whether it's a conflict or not, if it even looks like it is, you should be willing to share that information. I think the public would be, might think more highly of you if you did that. But that's not what happened. So, thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Robby? Thank you. Commissioner Somerville.

I would just like to request that either the chair of the board or the chair of working session, I think we should have a full working session and go down a deep look at what a conflict of interest is and how we can all be better aware of what ethical violations may exist when we vote on things as a board. And I do want to just like uplift the fact that our corporation council is is always sitting at this dais with us during our board meetings and would also proactively provide detail if there was ever a thought that something we were doing was a conflict of interest. Arguably, people from this table have recused themselves from votes that I don't even think they should have. Because if we're not voting on something that could lead to a direct financial benefit to you, it is not a conflict of interest. So I just think that there needs to be clarity, not just for us, but for the public, because now we have people who may believe that every vote we take could potentially be wrapped up in a prior or a future campaign. And that's a really dangerous way to run county government. So I would appreciate if we could have for the public and ourselves a very open and honest conversation from professionals who practice law to go deep down into what a conflict of interest is, and we can maybe review all of our ethics codes that we are supposed to be following. Because I do think that there have been times where I've disagreed, or I've later said, I just want people to know I'm on this board. It's a volunteer board. There's never been any financial benefit to me. All of us serve in volunteer capacities in numerous areas throughout the county, and we need to be honest with the public on what an actual conflict of interest is. Thank you.

Commissioner Hodge.

Thank you, Chair. I believe there are attorneys waiting for us, and I'd really like to go to closed session. Would now be the appropriate time?

Well, probably. I just...

I'd love to move that we go into closed session to discuss pending litigation, Department of Justice versus Washtenaw County.

Thank you. Is there a support? Voice? Roll call vote, please.

Commissioner Beeman?

Yes.

Commissioner Hodge? Yes. Commissioner LaBar? Yes. Commissioner Light? Commissioner Maciejewski? Yes. Commissioner Robby? Commissioner Sanders. Absolutely. Commissioner Scott.

Yes.

Commissioner Somerville. Yes. Motion carries.

Thank you. We'll see you soon. Closed session means we're going to the basement to talk about litigation. We'll be back. Thank you.

Yeah.

Agenda is liaison reports.

Are there any liaison reports this evening? Commissioner LeBar?

Thanks, Chair. I'll be brief with this and can send an email that I sent to the COC. We did get the updated NOFO announcement within the last week, and there is mixed news. The good news is The Trump administration tried to impose the cuts we've talked about at this table via basically some level of ineptitude in terms of legal and procedural process. Litigation and legislation have really helped us. And HUD did announce, surprisingly, that they would be honoring the funding agreements that they had previously agreed to. That's really good news because that was the roughly 4 million that was scheduled to hit starting in October. The bad news is they have their ducks in a row in terms of these structural cuts going forward and so we will have i think a real challenge here not just at the coc as it relates to homelessness funding but also all of the spillover into mental health public safety economic assistance education seniors all the things we've talked about here um so we we've been essentially graced a year in some way uh that we can use to to prepare And I will just say, Chair, I hope we'll consider this board in terms of some sort of structure or working group within it to try and tackle this because they are holistic challenges. They run the gamut of our human services spectrum. And while the tip of the spear is entering at homelessness services, it's going to bleed out, unfortunately, into others. So that's my liaison update.

Thank you. I mean, I don't want to say thank you. It's depressing news, but thank you. Commissioner Hodge and then Somerville?

Sanders after that?

I thought you said you had one.

I said, no, no.

Okay. That's great. I'm really hoping we can get to the business of brevity part of the meeting. I love that. Commissioner Somerville, then Sanders.

Yeah, I have a quick update from the Community Corrections Action Board. I know you guys forgot that existed, but I didn't because I'm the chair.

We submitted our grant proposal that we do annually.

And one of the conversations we had is that we continue to kind of pick the can down the road in terms of the cost associated with some of the community corrections programming like tether monitoring and so we passed a resolution calling on the chair of our board to call a CJCC meeting because we haven't had one and there were discussions about getting into the nitty-gritty about fixing and coming up with solutions and maybe like a sliding scale because right now it's not working and we keep kicking the can down the road and the projections again are or where we were at a couple years ago. And so I'm just letting you know that we talked about this extensively. There were fruitful conversations about the fact that we likely need to have conversations about a sliding scale because, for example, people who unfortunately choose to drive under the influence Right now the county just waives the fees for them. They're on electronic monitoring and we should come up with thoughtful ways to make sure there's equity, but also like people who can afford to pay need to pay. So that is the point. If we could try to do that, like in June, that would be great. But I understand that it's hard to get everybody in a room, but thanks.

Thank you very much. Commissioner Sanders.

Washtenaw County Rose Commission was Commissioner McCollum heard my cry on the last meeting, which was yesterday, about the information that they provided their meetings is so dense that it's hard for me to try and be more concise and provide that information. So she has offered to give me sort of a bullet point of their meetings, even though I attend them, if you've ever been on them, they can go an hour or they can go three hours or, but there's just a lot. So basically the report is that they are promoting the WCRC fix it, which allows residents to report non-emergency road issues online. And it is a mobile app that people can download on their Android or their iPhone. Again, it's WCRC Fix It, and it allows you to let them know if you're experiencing some non-emergency road issues. If you are experiencing an emergency or possible hazardous road issue, like I encountered the other day with some people, a whole dolly in the middle of the road is uh their phone number is area code 734-761-1500 again 734-761-1500 and that is for um emergency notification of uh road issues uh she also mentioned the um that the Board of County Road Commissioners for Washtenaw County requested a reimbursement, $10,000 for MDOT for having a licensed professional engineer employed at the road commission. Is this something that they can be reimbursed for per year? And then lastly, Commissioner McCollum suggested to the board that they review the tree policy and the community engagement policy. and suggested that the board look at the meeting times to see if it would be the best time for constituents to attend such, I'm gonna call them, she's saying board meetings, but I'm gonna say community conversations. That was the bullet point. And then she also shared with all of us that sit on the board of commissioners, a resolution or a memorandum of support related to our previous discussion at our last board meeting about those role commissioners not having received review or increase in their stipend for serving on the board for 23 years. So they have provided all of us with a copy of a memorandum of support from some of the Washtenaw County Road Commission commissioners. So as I said at the last meeting, they have not been additionally compensated or reviewed for any sort of cost of living increase anything in the last 23 years. And I am proposing that we as a board, consider an increase to those stipends for those commissioners. That's it.

Thank you, Commissioner. Any other liaison reports? Okay, we're going to move on to the report from the county administrator, Mr. Dill.

Thank you, Chair. I have four items that I'd like to share this evening. Beginning with, I am joined by our Water Resources Commissioner, Gretchen Driscoll, and she is going to provide an update on the 2025 annual report.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening and thanks for the opportunity to present tonight. I just told our deputy administrator to please give me a 10 minute warning. So, cause I, you know, there's a lot to cover. You know, you all have this annual report that this is on our website. So for anybody that wants to look at it, it doesn't have it in person. It's the washtenaw.org slash drains or slash water resources, whatever you want to put in there. But I just wanted to have a brief overview of the annual report and I have put our mission up here because I think it's, I've learned over the last year since I've been during Water Resources Commissioner that there's a lot of questions about how things work. And we've also been working at the state level to try to help explain to our legislators about what goes on in our shop. So I wanted to put the mission, the mission is we seek to inspire the residents and communities of Washtenaw County to protect surface water and the environment while maintaining necessary drainage. So fundamentally, the Drain Commission, which is what our office used to be called, is a state mandated law that deals with the drain infrastructure for the state. And that's because at one point, our state was underwater or swamp, and it wasn't viable for roads and other things. So we have a lot of drains that nobody knows about. So Within the authority granted to our office, we provide resources to reduce flooding, dispose of home toxics, and improve water quality. I wanted to share, I'm gonna give this to Andrew. As I mentioned earlier, we've been working, the Michigan Association of County Drain Commissioners has been working on educating the state legislators on what, this is actually the oldest infrastructure in the state of Michigan. and it's aging and it's funded by special assessments pretty much, which means it's by parcel. It does not come from the general fund taxes. So when the citizen says to us, well, why are you assessing us? I pay taxes. It's because that's the way we fund it. And so it's really hard for a lot of people to understand that. And as things continue to age, costs go up, as we all know, as electeds. So I'm going to share this with Andrew. I think we can go on to the next one. So within the mission, we're trying to keep our drains for infrastructure, minimize flooding, but also protect our surface water. So water resources commissioner, thank you, is specifically around surface water, not groundwater. So to do that, we work very closely with municipalities and development developers and we have stormwater management best practices. So we work with municipalities on subdivisions that are developed to make sure that the stormwater does not run off into our surface waters. And so they're managed by detention ponds and also, and that's a permit base. So that department is funded by permits and the soil erosion and sedimentation control is also permit base. And so on the next slide, we have all the different parts of this department. So there's different shops within the Water Resources Office. So you can see how much we spent, over two and a half million on maintenance. We have many, I think it's 4,000 inspections. Just wanted to give an oversight. There's 14 municipalities that are under our jurisdiction with the permits. And then Another thing that's really important is we really try to be fair about our personal assessment so over 90% of the assessments that are paid or under $50 a year so trying to make sure that it's not too cost burdensome to the residents. So this is a process it's kind of hard for you guys to read and it's a template that I can provide separate but basically we also developed that by county. For the 80 county 83 counties in the state to hand to legislators and what this outlines on the left side is how many how many miles we have 700 miles of districts and. the average cost and then the petition project to improve a drain. So that's helpful for legislators that are getting complaints and I think also for you guys if you get complaints from any residents about the infrastructure process. We also are responsible for lake levels and dams and I know you're aware of the Fluke Dam because we came last year. That's a big project over in the Portage Lake chain of lakes. This dam, I think one of the gates was failing A couple years ago, so we did is design and we did a day of review and now we are assessing the lake owners to repair this, this is a $1.2 million project and it should be done by this fall. Then we have the Beyer Dam. You're also familiar with this because we came in front of you to see if you could help us. We got a lot of grant money for this happily. This is located on the east side of the county, right next to Weller Run Airport. And this is to address flooding that has been occurring in the neighborhoods east of the dam. And it should be significant help to potential serious flooding. As we all know, we're having more serious heavy rainfall, and that's really causing problems for our infrastructure to accommodate that. So we have $4 million of the funding, the cost, and three and a half has come from EGLE. That was a $1 million dam safety grant and a $2.5 million grant specifically for Byer Dam. The $1 million was also for Tyler Design. And then we have the match from You're all committed to 250,000. And then Ipsy Township has also done some work. And we're waiting on two other grants that we have not heard back yet on. One from National Wildlife Federation, Fish and Wildlife Federation. And then another one from EGLE. This is to remove the dam and provides stream stabilization and water. That should be a really nice outcome, hopefully. And then this project is in the final stages of equal permitting. There's still the public hearing process should be done in the next 30 days and then we should get the permit and we're hoping to contract that out in the fall with substantial completion in 2027. As I mentioned, we're response for lake levels, but we also do monitoring for invasives in some of the lakes. And that's also done by special assessment of the Lake Association. So the Portage Chain of Lakes, the Joslin Lake, Worth Lake, Pleasant Lake, Silver Lake, and Whitmore Lake all have a program every year that we go out and monitor for invasives. And again, the goal is to try to keep our water as clean as possible. So... So this is a little bit about our environmental group. We do a lot of green infrastructure. If anybody here familiar with rain gardens, hopefully you all are, because that's what we're trying to get educated. And then anybody that listens to WEMU and issues of the environment, maybe heard from Susan this morning, I think, but she did a great job. She's on our team to talk about the importance of rain gardens, how much fun they are and easy they are. And she said that we have over 2000 now, which is huge and really, really helpful for keeping stormwater from polluting going down into the storm drains and polluting our water. So the other things that we are doing, we have the community partners for Clean Streams and also the River Safe, which are programs, the community partners is for business and the River Safe is for residential. And that helps educate people on how to keep our surface waters clean and what you can do on your property. And so the other pieces that we have, we get grants for some of the public gardens. A lot of it comes from the City of Ann Arbor Stormwater Utility. And then we do community events. And I wanted to make sure that you also knew that We have Nancy Stone. I wanted to talk about the Environmental Excellence Partnership Program because that's an annual program. Hopefully you all got an invitation. It's October 28th of this year. We're recognizing people that are contributing to improving the environment. And some of you, I hope, know Nancy because she's done a lot of work over the years. I bet Yusuf does. But anyhow, she got the award for the excellence. And we do recognize Waste Not Awards. Those are businesses that are doing environmental excellence work. And it's a really great opportunity to celebrate the good work that folks are doing to help people. in the area. This slide is about our materials management division. And this talks a little bit about, we're trying to take the annual report and make it really small. And so that's why it's kind of crazy, but there's a lot of really great things that the materials management division is doing, really creative solutions. We went in front of you last year for the pilot program. They've applied for a grant for the pilot for the food waste. And we have one at the City of Ypsilanti, Dexter, City of Dexter and Salem Township. And the idea is to try to figure out how to get food waste out of the landfill. This is a pilot and we're hoping to be able to expand that further. Also in material, I know Theo spent some time explaining what the division does, but 36 schools are in the recycling program. So we're teaching really young children at the importance of recycling and hopefully they're bringing that home to their families. And then you can see the other items that are there. And then, so the materials management division, and again, that was a grant, the pilot, the food waste pilot program. This is all the items that the materials management division does. And again, it was, I put down there was funded by the tipping fees, which is the operator of the landfill has to pay the County. And then we also get some grants like the food waste.

How am I doing? Good.

Okay. So I, I did want to mention that our next county cleanup day which is on here is June 27 it's in northfield township it's free and you can pretty much bring almost anything you can go to the city website she's made the county website. Water resources website put in county cleanup day, you have to register in advance, but it is free, we do ask for a donation and it'll tell you what you can bring and if you register and then there'll be two more. Last year we had over 1,900 folks bring trash and that keeps the trash out of, it keeps it out of the storm drain and out of the ditches. So it's really important that we try to get as many people as possible to attend that. And then I know Jennifer, I talked to her a little bit on the break. She had some questions about the materials management plan. Our next meeting is June 10th. Which is next week it's open to the public again it's on the website our website is very robust so if anybody has any questions, please go to the website and if that's not satisfactory, please feel to give me a call and then. Thank you. I wanted to just say, first of all, thank you to our team. The water resources staff is amazing. They're super dedicated to service, protecting our environment, protecting our public health with drain maintenance and infrastructure. And then I also want to say thank you to commissioners and the administration, because we couldn't do it without you with the, support that you give us, whether it's HR or finance or IT, legal, whatever the hot button is. So we really, really appreciate it. And I appreciate your time tonight because I know you have a lot. So do you have any questions?

Yeah, Commissioner Somerville.

Thanks. I just want to thank you for the report and I just wanted, there was no opportunity to bring this up other than now, but our drain commissioner attended a walking tour of my district on Sunday with two former drain commissioners and Beth Gibbons was there and a number of folks from the city of Ypsilanti and we rescued a baby kitten that was abandoned at Riverside Park. And we're able to rehome it in like two hours. So I was only there at that moment because there was this organized tour with an environmental group that we were all with. So I don't know.

You were in my cohort, right? No, I wasn't.

Okay, Evan. So Evan and Janice Bobrin were in my cohort when we found the kitten. And it was a really sad situation. Somebody had like left it in a plastic container. So cute. Taped shut. So it was literally trapped and couldn't get out. And yeah, so it was part of a bigger situation. um conversation that we were having across various parks and ipsy and all of our former dream commissioners and current were there so anyway it's just a nice tie-in to the great work that you do and thanks for participating in that of course yeah No, I literally, I only had the kitten for two hours. I got it food and immediately found a family for it.

It was so cute.

They close at five on Sundays. It's like a whole thing, but they did respond to me and I did talk to their animal cruelty unit the very next day and they are investigating it because it was an act of animal cruelty. So that's not relevant to this. Thank you.

Commissioner Sanders.

just curious um it do you have any idea how many people how many property owners were assessed for the blue dam i would have to get the number it's okay i'm sure well you can tell me later yeah i think it's like 400 it's a dam also the um that lake is actually uh inner county so it

Livingston County is also involved.

Okay.

So I'm not sure the exact number, but it's probably over 400. Portage Lake and Baseline Lake and Little Portage.

So do you know if their assessment was more than the average 50 a year? No, I cannot. I will get back to you on that. Okay.

Thank you. I think that the 50 was for actual drains and that's for a dam. So it's a little bit different. Okay.

Thank you. I'm sort of amazed in this booklet you gave us about Michigan's essential infrastructure, how far east the Lake Michigan watershed goes. Really far. Yeah. We do things in meetings that betray our nerd.

Well, there's a lot of really good information in that book at the whole, a lot of folks on, we had a task force for this, our first lobby day. And so a lot of folks worked on that. And I think there's a lot of different perspectives that were put into that. Also on the PowerPoint, I had a link to the, There's a video, but it doesn't, if you click on it, it didn't go through. So it's macdc.us. And there's a really fun video that Brian John here, who's the Livingston County Drain Commissioner put together. And it's pretty fun if you get a chance. I had a limited amount of time, otherwise I would have shown it. So it's okay. I know you guys have late meetings. So are there any other questions?

Thank you. Yeah, thank you. You're just giving a thumbs up.

Thank you, Commissioner. Next up, we have our Executive Director of Parks and Rec, Megan Bonfiglio. She is here just to give you guys a real quick update on the Eastside Rec Center.

Good evening, Commissioners. Nice to see you. I thought I'd share a couple of bright spots and things looking forward for the East Washtenaw Community Recreation Center. So I think since we spoke last, we have the new coming soon signs for the East Washtenaw Community Recreation Center installed at the property. So there's four different signs that are installed there. We're already getting some feedback from the public because they noticed kind of the fresh update. And then we continue to keep the project website up to date as new information or renderings become available. And as a reminder, that's washtenaw.org slash EWCRC. Additionally, we have hired a construction project manager. His name is Brad Sharp, and he is starting with us next week. So perfect timing, because this is when we get into the big specifics of all the construction details. So he'll be helping going through all the design development plans. Speaking of design development plans, we just received those for owner review last week. And when I say a plan set, it is a plan set, like about this deep. So it's on my desk. And we're taking a look at it. And then with that design development plan, Clark Construction, who is our construction team, and then Newman Smith, who's our architecture team, are working together to prepare an updated cost estimate based on that design level detail. So it's really important just to keep us kind of staying on top of what this project will cost. You all know we have that $49 million price tag for this project. And again, we're still following that line here. And then preliminary engineering work has started on the site-wide non-motorized trail improvement project. That again was a TAP grant that we received. It's separate from this project, but something that's kind of going along in tandem. And then looking forward, we are in the nitty gritty. Like we're doing IT meetings, security meetings, door hardware meetings. So if anybody's interested and wants to participate with us, it takes more time than you care to know, but happy to share. And then I anticipate that I'll be back in August asking to authorize a facility superintendent position. So we're looking to try to get that person hired on in the fall or early winter. Ultimately, that person will be responsible for the daily operations for the facility. But we want to pull them on early enough so they can start looking at building community contacts and partnerships, helping us determine staffing needs, because it will look similar to what we have at Mary Lou Marie, but a little bit different. So we want to make sure we pull them on and help them understand what's needed there and help them inform kind of our decisions moving forward. And then they'll also help with interior building layout and furniture selection, because it's really important to pick the right type of furniture for the space that we'll have. And then park staff is continuing to work internally and with Plant Moran on a preliminary operational budget and staffing projection. So that's in the works. And then groundbreaking is anticipated this fall that will correlate with the foundation and site work for the building. So hopefully early fall, looking at September, October, And then with that groundbreaking event, we've been talking with administration about doing a community public meeting at the same time to help share designs, give some updated renderings, and just get general buzz and excitement going at the same time. So details on that are TBD, but all our focus right now is on making sure we keep the building on track and on budget. I'm happy to take any questions.

I've already seen Commissioner Somerville.

Thanks. I just want to thank you for your continued updates. I got to spend some time with some of my younger constituents this week and they are really excited to see when the ground breaks finally. Just out of curiosity, do you think it's possible for us to have like maybe like a like QR code, like card stock that we can keep with us so we can give to people when we're at community events. I have a lot planned in my district this summer, and I'd like to be able to tell people, like, here, take this. You can scan it. You can go look at the website.

Sure.

Okay.

Business card size would be okay. We can look and make something for you.

So that we can share that. Other than me telling them to go to the website, it would be helpful, I think.

Of course.

So thank you. Yeah.

Good idea. Any other questions for Megan? Thank you so much, Megan. Thanks.

Thank you, Megan. This next item isn't on the agenda, but I've asked Director Jackson to come up and give us just a real quick update on Sycamore Meadows. As he makes his way to the mic, I do want to thank... Annie Somerville, Commissioner Somerville for her work in shepherding us together. HUD was out, has been out over the weekend. We have toured the site on a number of occasions. The MSSI has been out there and Director Jackson and I were on a call with the HUD field team, I believe it was today. The county has taken the lead administrative authority, you can hit me on the head later, to just, we have commissioned a contractor to clean the sewage drains in and around that area. So all of that work is there, Director Jackson will share.

And I'll be brief, just mention that this is the third kind of larger apartment complex issues we've had in our county in the last 12 months. The first being Arbor One in Ypsilanti City and Commissioner Somerville's district. The next being Thorncrest and Saline and Commissioner Beeman's district. And now again, back in Commissioner Somerville's district for Sycamore Meadows. Sycamore is in Superior Township, 262 units. Lots of young people live in that community, a subsidized housing community. So over the years, there's been issues. But this latest one that we received in the last couple of weeks, I think it's been very concerning. Lots of raw sewage. And lots of the homes, as Administrator Deal mentioned, the county has stepped forward because of the issues to hire a contractor to go through. So just have a couple of updated numbers for you. They are literally clearing out the entire system under Sycamore Meadows. And one of the major kind of pipelines there, I was told earlier today, about 70% of the blockage was cleaned up. But that's going to take really the rest of the week to get through all of it. There's, from the contractor's perspective, a lot of public education we probably need to do in the community around what's being dumped into sinks and being flushed down the toilets. And so with the Racial Equity Office, the Resiliency Office, and reaching out to Environmental Health, hopefully we'll put together some public education campaign materials we can get out to residents. The MSSI was out there just yesterday. is the Office on Wheels, and so really mobilizing services to go directly to the people. It will be out there every Tuesday around 5 o'clock. Lots of kids, I'm told, were out there this time, but really thinking about how we get information into the hands of residents. We did have four families that came to us. One family we were able to get connected to the management company, and they were able to be temporarily rehoused in a hotel. Two families, as Commissioner Somerville, Administrator Deal, Congresswoman Dingell, Supervisor Dabish Yakan was on a tour, ran into a couple of families who had raw sewage. One had five kids and really explained how toxic the fumes were from that raw sewage. The other family had six kids. So the county did temporarily house them in a hotel over the holiday. And then a fourth family that we got connected to Superior Township to get some services. So between the contractor, the MSSI, and getting some of the families housed, I think the county has stepped up to really help. And then we'll keep monitoring that situation.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Oh, Commissioner Somerville. We're trying to...

I can say to the Minister, you know, and... They're jumping for all the words in our team. We're always ready to go. And I asked, and I thought that's it. And also, we had a great time last night. We talked to a lot of you. And actually, that's why I asked the client so they could scan and feel our hope because they were really excited. I think for

Sorry, my mic's not on. They were really excited when we were talking, like explaining to them, you'll be able to walk to the rec center. And some of the parents that I ended up talking to towards the end of the night, it was nice to just connect with them. The supervisor and Trustee Green have been doing a lot of work with constituents throughout the week when... when they're requesting assistance. And Congresswoman Dingell has obviously elevated the issue to the highest level at HUD. So I think it's about time that they take immediate action. And thank you again to Administrator Dill for expediting our ability to step in and help with the sewer lines, because that was what was causing the biggest issue for residents. And I'm looking forward to the long-term community and public education engagement that we're going to do. So I'm looking forward to it. The kids are excited that we'll be back again. And yeah, hopefully in another summer or so, we'll be taking the kids to the rec center. So thank you for the update.

Yeah, and thank you again to Director Jackson. He was really the tip of the spear along with Commissioner Somerville as we thought about what the county can and should do and what the humane response looks like. We certainly had more bandwidth in Superior Township. They stepped up and really led this process, but we wanted to make sure that we were supporting this work in the most appropriate way. So just wanted to say thank you to you all. Then the last item. So, you know, I've been, I've been reflective over the last few, few weeks. And I sent a communication to the board of commissioners on last Friday, announcing my intent to retire when my contract ended. Some have questioned that communication. And I wanted to make sure that I had the grace and space to have a conversation with you all to make sure that we were focused on 1,400 employees who deserved a response from me if my tenure was going to end. We have five countywide officials, two areas of the courts that are separate branches of government that have created a relationship that I wanted to make sure that was intact. And then a myriad of community partners that really have, I believe, not only myself, but this board has really improved those relationships. And I wanted to have the space to have those conversations with them. Then lastly, I want to remind the board that I sit on 11 boards and commissions. And on a few of those boards, my absence creates a quorum issue. So we want to make sure that we untether or unbraid all of those things as we think about when I exit this organization, whenever that may be, and how we make sure that we keep the appropriate framework in place in this organization. Lastly, the Emergency Communications Committee. I chair that. And that work is at a critical juncture because the executive director of that work is planning a retirement. As you all know that That component of our organization and operation, those resources could be a critical component that we leverage as we think about the next version of dispatch. So with all of those things in mind, I thought it prudent for me to get out in front of what I thought was a door that was closing quite rapidly. There are 26 working days between now and July 12th. So really all of this was my intent to make sure that we have a clear and stable framework for moving forward and that we keep all of those relationships intact. So we just wanted to make that statement to you all this evening. I know there are more conversations teed up, but I will say to you all, really, really grateful about the opportunity that this board has afforded me. When I... Some of you know, I prepared my dress the day prior and I was reflective and thought about 2002 the first time that I was in this space. I know Jason's in the back. This space was a little bit different. The plaster was falling from the ceiling. We didn't have the screen there. The cameras were different. The lighting was dim. And I remember how how you all and the board was different, but how intimidating the space was. And what I tried to put on, I saw the suit in the closet, the suit that I had on in 2002 when I was first in this space, I tried to put it on last night. And I've discovered that my waistline has grown over the last 24 years as well. So I won't try that again, but I wanted to say a heartfelt thank you to you all for the work that you do as county government. You are truly, we talk about anchor institutions all the time. We are the anchor institution in my mind in this community. We're the glue that makes everything work. So thank you to you all. And that will conclude my report.

Okay. Thank you. uh their uh next item on the agenda is report from the chair i have no report no special order of business no appointments would somebody like to move the consent agenda okay moved by lavar supported by beeman all those in favor any opposed thank you um we have final reading resolutions on the agenda uh commissioner lavar

Sure, Chair. Under final reading, just a resolution approving the 26-27 annual action plan authorization for Urban County from HUD.

Support.

Commissioner Hodge. Yep. Commissioner LaBar. Yes. Commissioner Light.

Yes.

Commissioner Maciejewski.

Yes.

Commissioner Robbie. Commissioner Sanders. Commissioner Scott.

Yes.

Commissioner Somerville.

Yes.

Commissioner Beaman.

Yes.

Motion carries.

Okay. Would anybody like to move the single reading resolutions? Commissioner LaBar.

Chair 3A under single reading resolution to authorize the issuance of limited tax obligation bonds from finance be a resolution to accept and appropriate an infrastructure grant from city of Michigan for road improvements. C, a resolution to create an aging program administrator within office of aging services. D, a resolution approving the final recommendations on the mini grants under the new human service partnership. E, a resolution to declare 326 East Michigan Avenue in Ypsilanti, Michigan as blighted. f a resolution allocating portions of the board's youth priority allocation to youth summer programming in the 48197 and 48198 zip codes g resolution approving the first quarter budget adjustments from finance h a resolution honoring june 28th excuse me june 22nd through 28th as pollinator week in washington county i a resolution honoring Ruby outburn as community action volunteer of the year J resolution proclaiming June 19, as the county observation of Juneteenth K resolution, claiming June Pride Month in Washtenaw County, L resolution recognizing and honoring Omar Jean Winborn, and then would move approval of claims support.

Moved by LeBar supported by Hodge. Would anybody like to pull anything for separate consideration? Commissioner Robby. Item C, we will poll. Commissioner Sanders, B. Anything else? All right, let's do those separate items first. Let's start and do it in order of the agenda and start with B, a resolution to accept an appropriate infrastructure grant.

I just have a question. It lists the grant period for two years. Is the funding spread over the two years or is it that amount per year?

I'm gonna give...

Yeah.

Deputy Administrator Andrew DeLue.

Yeah, thank you, Chair. Commissioner, to your question, the project has already actually been completed. It was funding from the state of Michigan to reimburse a road project in Sio Township. So we don't expect that. The county is really just acting as a pass-through for this entity and expect it to be pretty minimal in terms of the time that we would have the funds just to get it through us back to the developer who borrowed the cost of the project.

So it's just a million, period? Correct. Okay. Thank you. Mm-hmm.

Any other questions or comments on this item? Okay. We'll do a vote on this one.

Commissioner LaBar. Yes. Commissioner Light.

Yes.

Commissioner Maciejewski. Yes. Commissioner Robbie. Commissioner Sanders.

Yes.

Commissioner Scott.

Yep.

Commissioner Somerville.

Yes.

Commissioner Beaman.

Yes.

Commissioner Hodge. Yes. Motion carried.

Fantastic. Item C, questions, comments, and concerns. Commissioner Ravi.

Thank you, Chair. I know we talked about this during the working session, but Shannon, can you remind me the differences between this position and your position?

Sure. So in a nutshell, I would like to stay within the space of strategic strategy, visioning, higher level. And then this position is very in the operations of everything that the Office of Aging Services is being charged with. So it's much more operational. It will also manage all of the five staff, including the senior nutrition team and then future proposed staff.

are they going to be doing any delivering of services of any kind?

They will be very integral to the Aging Resource Center, the development of that and implementation of that, support and management of the Senior Nutrition Program, and then the other additional programming that I mentioned, like the ECHO, the Summit, those sort of activities.

I really like you. You're doing a really good job. I don't think I can support this position. I maybe could support this position if it was coming with a suite of service deliverers that this person would be helping to manage. I am a firm believer that Too many administrators is not a good thing. I think government should be in the business of doing work in the community. And I feel like sometimes we hire a lot of administrators. Multiple deputy administrators creates redundancy that I don't think is necessary. And so I, unfortunately, will be voting no on this today. It is single reading. If it was in two readings, I would considered voting yes on first reading and think about it until the next meeting but i don't have that option so i really like you and the work that you're doing and i'm sorry that i have to vote now i hear you commissioner hodge

Thank you, Chair. I really like you and the work that you're doing, too. And I will vote yes. So I brought this up at a recent Community Action Board meeting. And I'll tell you, we had some members from CAF here earlier. They are very eager to engage with you and to learn more about the office. If anything, they would have wanted this position and then the other ones in your org chart that have already been created. But we are moving at the pace of county government. So I will enthusiastically vote yes. And thank you for your work.

I want to say I think the work that you are doing in your office is potentially some of the most transformative work that the county is doing, has done, and will do. I'm eager to support you in your role here and what needs to be done. So thanks for the thoughtful presentation and the way you're thinking about making this work with the way our community already works. So thank you. Let's do a vote on this item.

Commissioner Light?

Yes.

Commissioner Maciejewski? Yes. Commissioner Robby? Commissioner Sanders? Commissioner Scott?

Yes.

Commissioner Somerville?

Yes.

Commissioner Beaman?

Yes.

Commissioner Hodge. Enthusiastically, yes. Commissioner LaBar. Yes. Motion carries.

Great. The rest of the items on the agenda, questions, comments, or concerns? I do know if we have something on E. We do have somebody here to talk about that. Commissioner Robby.

Thank you. On item A, I was wondering if we have a debt repayment schedule. I didn't find it on the digital board packet.

We can get it it would be the ones that were it's the right now we only have financial scenarios from the consultant until we issue the bonds and we know the final bond payment. So it'd be the ones that were shared a couple meetings ago when Tina was presenting to you all of the potential scenarios.

So those are estimates based on what we think we're gonna get in terms of bond rates and- Yes, estimated interest rates per the financial consultants, 20 year repayment, $1.3 million. Do you remember from that repayment schedule if it's pretty much the same on a year to year basis or does it vary at all?

I can look it up.

Okay.

Administrator Dell.

Yeah, and Catherine, please correct me if I'm wrong. We are expecting our updated bond rating later this week, correct?

I think Moody's, yes. I don't know on the... Commissioner Sanders?

I just had a quick question about F.

Can we just be sure we're done with A before we move to F?

Yeah.

Okay. Any other questions on A? We don't muddy the waters here. Okay. Let's move. Sorry.

Looking up an answer.

Okay.

So it is roughly the same, but it does change slightly in the scenarios.

Like within a million dollars or within?

No, no, no. Like 1.302 million to 1.307 million. So roughly 1.3 million. Okay.

All right. Thank you.

A standard deviation or less. Okay. Yeah. A rounding error. Okay. Commissioner Sanders on F?

Yes. I just wanted to know what is the portion that's being reallocated? It says resolution allocating portions of the board's youth priority allocation to youth summer. How much?

I think that's probably in the memo and the resolution, but we can look at, I can look in the board packet and tell you what that is. I don't know it off the top of my head, but I do remember reading it when I read the packet.

If I may, that's, Thank you, Chair. Commissioner, to your question, the board last year in the budget allocated $150,000 towards youth programming. We were presented with a series of funding requests for programs over the summer that would support youth that seemed to align with the instruction of the board when that was set. So these can be found in the resolution. Give me a second in terms of the total on the math, but just to run through the four allocations. acts of change network, East neck, um, uh, $15,000. Our community reads, uh, would be $10,000 community family life center. Uh, would be $58,100 in Odendi youth action village, uh, would be $9,387 and 23 cents. Uh, so there would still be a portion of that allocation. Uh, what's that? Thank you. Almost $92,000. Left? No, it would be a $92,000 expenditure. So left would be about $58,000.

Okay. So thank you for answering the question for our constituents. It doesn't matter that we have it in the packet. I ask questions for a reason. So thank you for answering that.

Commissioner Robby?

on that topic, are we still doing, I noted that there was not a memo actually on this item. And I noted that there was not a memo on any items on the agenda, unless at least the one that the public can see. Are we still doing memos?

We are still doing memos. I would say that this is an exception. This is an item that was requested of us to prepare from a commissioner. And so we facilitated the preparation of the resolution.

still generally we have memos, right?

Yeah, absolutely. I would say again, this is the exception. And just in terms of the timeline that we had, again, I don't see it for anything.

I mean, maybe I'm just missing it on the public website, but am I, am I just missing it? The memos, there wasn't a memo for bonding either. It was just the resolution. There's a couple cover memo for the final reading item from last week, but all the single reading items, none of them have. Oh, it looks like the aging program coordinator has one. But most of the other ones don't.

It is our practice to prepare them. There's one for the new human services partnership memo as well. I certainly, I think it's our expectation and you should expect from us that we will prepare cover memos for you. This one, again, it just was put together very late and we did not have time to prepare it.

Okay, especially if we're being asked to vote on single reading without all the information, I think that's a problem. So thank you, in the future, definitely, especially over the summer months, having those memos is important. Can I just ask a follow up to what Commissioner Sanders was asking, which is, I just wanna better understand. So this is an allocation from a commissioner, you're saying, is a commissioner request? And so how was it determined that these organizations would get is it is there a youth is it the youth board that recommended these.

No. So the request came to the administrator. I would say that these would be similar to things that the administrator has approved under administrative approval in the past. Oh, I see. Yeah. And so for us, again, we have this funding source that was allocated by the board. It seemed to align with the sentiment of the board when you established $150,000 for youth allocation. we do not have a tremendous amount of information about the programming, but again, it's consistent with what, what has been done through administrative action.

Got it. So this is, this is what, this is like the similar thing that the administrator has been asked for in the past and approved, except this is the, whatever commissioner requested it is now coming forward to the board to ask for approval rather than the administrator just granting it.

for this set because of the funding source and because it was set through the board through last year's budget process, we felt like that was the appropriate way to bring these forward. Okay. All right. Thanks.

Any other questions, comments, Commissioner Hodge? Thank you.

It's not really a question. It's just, we don't have to talk about me like I'm not here. I requested it and I requested it to do it through board action to make it more transparent. And so the board would vote on it. And because there was a clear identifiable funding source to go along with it. So that was the thinking on that rather than asking to use administrative authority.

Commissioner Robbie.

I'd like to thank the commissioner that requested this, whoever that may be.

Commissioner chair commissioners, we still did use administrative authority to move this forward. So. Okay.

Commissioner Somerville. I just wanted to thank the commissioner who requested this because it benefits constituents of mine.

Thank you. Any other questions, comments or concerns? uh do we do you want to talk about nobody asked any questions about e i don't want to make anybody talk about it if we don't have to talk about it but if you if you want to prepare i mean i know people are prepared to talk about it but i want to leave some anybody out who wants to talk mr somerville

I'll just take this opportunity once again to celebrate the work that the Youth Arts Alliance is doing and have been doing to try to get space. And thank you to OCD staff, specifically Nathan Vogt. That's all.

Thank you. Commissioner Sanders.

I guess not. I pulled it up. It's just vacant land, right? I'm not seeing a building on it.

No.

Okay.

Okay. Um, I will just say, um, I, um, we have a number of resolutions on here that were, um, honoring resolutions, um, were, noting that the county observation of Juneteenth is on June 19th and a resolution proclaiming Pride Month in Washtenaw County. We did attempt to dress as the rainbow at the board table today. Thank you to Commissioner Beaman and Somerville who tried to spearhead this. I was supposed to be the rainbow. So you might not see my earrings that are rainbows, but... I think that it's important we continue to make sure that we do resolutions like this and make sure people in Washtenaw County continue to stay feeling seen. Let's vote on these resolutions now.

Commissioner Maciejewski. Yes. Commissioner Robby.

Yes.

Commissioner Sanders. Commissioner Scott.

Yes.

Commissioner Somerville.

Yes.

Commissioner Beeman.

Yes.

Commissioner Hodge. Yes. Commissioner LaVar. Yes. Commissioner Light. Motions carry.

fantastic items for current and future discussion we've already done one of them look at that uh the next is uh just discussing again this idea about a health care millage i think this is the place for us to have a discussion about how this would look and um some different ideas that have come up about that uh commissioner labar

Thanks, Chair. Ashley's going to get some documents with draft language. This is something that we've talked about three times now at this board table in terms of some sort of response to what the Trump administration has done on healthcare in this country, particularly as it relates to poor people generally, but certainly the immigrant community and certainly women and This would represent a two-tenths of a mil ask over three years. It's split up into three different sections within public health. And this is designed really just to try and put some meat on the bone in terms of what we heard in presentation in November and March from the Washington health plan. And then last working session in terms of what's happening on reproductive rights and sexual health access. So, uh, Ashley is, is passing it out. It's language that, uh, Jeremy Lapidus at WHP worked to put together with, uh, Jimena Lovelock, our, our public health director. Uh, and, uh, that that's sort of the background and the language there chair commissioner Sanders.

I've had several conversations about this as well. I don't think that I, I'm not certain that I asked specifically what the breakdown was in terms of the number of residents that were being served or would be served by this. Also, I had a question about whether or not any of the current participating funders were planning on pulling out. from WHP in terms of their, I don't wanna say sustainable funding, but their ongoing funding that they've provided in the past. Also, I will say transparently the same thing that I said to Dr. Lapidus, which is I have gotten enough feedback from my constituents that they're not supportive of another millage. they are actually in a revolt stage. I've said this before. I think that our residents are millage fatigued. I mean, quite frankly, I'm millage fatigued. And I think that there should be a better system. My limited experience is that these are brought to us in a rush sort of situation. A sky is falling. And if you don't do this, There's going to be a catastrophe. But I'm concerned that there is a concerted effort and history of doing this in a way that we don't have options and that we are forced to make decisions that are not well thought out. They certainly do not include the voice of our constituents. And I think that it matters when we're asking people to add on to their already burdensome property tax costs. And I have said that I would be willing to advocate amongst the board that we cover the anticipated deficit that WHP is expecting next year to the tune of about 750,000. And perhaps even for good measure, throw in a couple of extra 100,000 that might help offset anything that DC might be handing down to us. And I've frankly asked is the world gonna come to an end related to WHP if the millage is not put on the ballot this year and not voted on? And the answer was no. So I don't understand why we are attempting to force our residents to tax themselves again. And my first and still concern is that there are going to be people in this county, possibly even me, who are going to be asked to vote for this, but will not be eligible for the services that they will be paying through the millage. And I, don't understand why we always do this this way there has not been meaningful board communication about this there's been some walls um and quite frankly i asked um why this was even brought to us at a working session because in all of my history we are not supposed to be asked for anyone during a working session it is supposed to be just a presentation. And I'm concerned that this was a purposeful ambush. And it is a way that this board has been doing these millages for a while, and I don't think it's okay. And I don't like to be pushed into a corner. and then inadvertently painted as someone that is not supporting the residents because there's a whole lot more that is involved in millages than just they say they don't have enough money. So I'm saying that out loud. I've tried to request other information and to try and explore other resources that could help with this. And every suggestion basically has been met with a no response. I noticed that this most recent amendment to the millage has now taken away the thing that I was concerned about, which is the fact that we continue to not support our own youth in this county in a meaningful way. We throw dollars at it, but there's nothing really sustainable that we're doing to help our youth. And originally there was something that was added in as a way to sort of, I think, get me to support it, and now it has disappeared because they've gone to two or three other entities and tried to cobble something together in a way that would make it more palatable. So I'm just saying that out loud. I want my constituents to know that I have offered, and I think it should be a reasonable offer or pushback meet in the middle that the board not say to our residents, we're gonna tax you more as opposed to utilizing the surplus that we've just heard we have through the county, which would be more than sufficient to support the continued operations of the WHP through the next year or two. So that's my comment, thank you.

Commissioner Light. I want to support any health care initiatives that we have, but I want to also say that I am full of ideas and full of ways to fund this project or to close a gap so that there isn't a shortfall. And I don't believe that a millage should be our first option in CRY. Considering the administration that we have in DC, it's the unknown. And so we have to carefully utilize our millages. I think for even we need to hold on to that, our millage amount, and we don't need to cap out because we are able to close this shortfall. I presented the idea of us partnering with other healthcare entities that I have met at a conference. And then there was a further meeting with our healthcare teams, and it was a push away. Anytime services, wraparound services and healthcare is coming to offer and to partner, it shouldn't just be pushed away and just saying, oh no, well, we have that covered because we don't. If we had the services covered, we wouldn't be here discussing the millage. So we need to keep our options open. And that's what I do. I seek for opportunities that can benefit us so we're not just pulling out of our purse. The second thing that we could do to cover this shortfall for 2027, which I believe is about 700K, there is one of the DDAs in our county that is no longer going to exist. There will be roughly about a 1.8 million reimbursement that comes back to the county. That can close the shortfall of of our Washtenaw Health Project for next year, and then some additional funds, and then we can figure out with collaboration of other healthcare facilities on how we can work so that we do not have to engage in a millage. We also need to think about and have community engagement I know that I like to go into district two and especially our seniors, because I have a senior, I have my mom, I have plenty of seniors, my aunt, my uncles, and they say, oh, so I hope you're going to make sure that I can live off my pension that they worked hard for and that they retired union workers. And they did their due diligence that y'all not going to just tax us to death with all these millages. So I said, well, This last minute was for you so you don't have to utilize that, however, another millage is not going to help them. And so we need to think about how we are going to affect our resident and we need to communicate with them and have the communications and have discussions on if this is what they want. We need to think about. what amount of the population because I know, for instance, I have a loved one that will not be able to receive services from the Washtenaw health plan, however, but can't receive services. It's just, we need to make sure that this is not going to just be for what is it 3000 people? That's for a whole millage for 3,000 people was not okay. So more precise numbers, we need to be open to partnering and we need to utilize funding that is coming here because that funding from the closure of a DDA was not expected. And so since we weren't expecting it and it was not put into our budget, we can utilize that to close this shortfall that's gonna be in 2027. So, let's be careful on how we always wanna grab a millage and not use other opportunities that we have.

Commissioner Sanders.

I was just gonna add that I did ask to get information about how close were we to the ceiling for millages that we can assess as a county. And although they were not able to give me a specific number and would not be able to likely be more exact until sometime in November, the estimate is that we've got about six mills left before we get to the ceiling. And to me, that's emergency funding. That we should not be spending up to the ceiling and feeling comfortable with that. So I just wanted to add that for the residents that may be listening. We've got about six meals left, at least until we have a more definitive answer in November before we get to the ceiling of not being able to tax any further. And so I just think that there's no reason we don't have any proof that we cannot continue to support the WHP. And by the way, typically a project is called a project because the people that originally said it was okay didn't want to make it a sustainable thing. And so that's something to be said. This health project was just that, it was a project, it's a plan, and it was not set up in a way, and I don't know if that was purposeful on the part of the authors or the original approvers, that it was not set to be sort of sustained on behalf of the county. So I just think that this is a, for me, it's not a no, it's a not now, so. Thank you for letting me do the follow-up.

Thank you. Any other commissioners with comments on this item? I mean, it's here in items for current and future discussion, so we can have the discussion about it. So nobody's feeling like the back is against the wall, specifically why we're talking about it at this meeting. Commissioner Robbie?

A question for Corp Council. So for the knowledge language, ballot language, If I remember correctly from past millage discussions, that for a renewal would not be changeable, right?

That's correct.

Then I would recommend that for those looking at drafting, if that's something that you would want to consider after three years, I think the language should be crafted with that in mind. And I think the first sentence, though it is relevant to the reasoning for why we want to do this now potentially, it may not be relevant in three years. Something to consider. Good.

Commissioner LaBar.

I think that's a good point that Commissioner Robby raises and maybe a useful point to respond on. I think all nine of us have been concerned about these issues. and are all in the same situation in that this is the federal government imposing these things on us. We are obviously the bluest county in the state of Michigan. This isn't sort of Trump country here. But unfortunately, he controls the White House and his folks control the Congress. they have attacked these programs uh with with these uh with these cuts in the one big beautiful bill or whatever you want to call it and so i think the thinking on the three-year millage is twofold one is to be a very short duration for a millage And two, Commissioner Robby, to some of your point there, to try and predicate this as a response to specific federal action. I think if we're being forward-looking here, in three years, in four years, looking at a clean public health millage at a little bit bigger that's a sustainable operation for the 10-year window, that sort of thing. That may be in the cards, may not, I don't know. But I think the intended language here is to target that this has been beset upon us in the last 12 months from on high. And this is our best way to calibrate a response in a targeted amount of time, specifically responding to three of the most odious impacts of these federal actions. And this is an imperfect work. If you like what you see, Jeremy wrote it. If not, blame me. But if you're open to changes, modifications, and so forth, I hope you'll consider it. Thanks, Jeremy.

Commissioner Hodge.

Thank you. So it sounds like to me, and I guess, correct me if I'm wrong, that the intent would not be to renew it. So it was designed in such a way that there would not be the intent to renew.

That is how it's, how it's written though. I believe legally you could, you know, try that, but the intent here is not to write something that would be renewed. Okay.

And then another question for court counsel. Yeah, talking to you. Have you had a chance to look at it, and what are your thoughts in terms of the legality of it? Oh, come on.

My office has not had a chance to review it yet, but it is underway. The review is underway.

Okay, so more to come then in future discussion.

I think the point was that if we could talk about things a little bit at the table now, and then look at things as they're reviewed later, this just gets some of the discussion to be had right now.

Commissioner Light. I just want to make sure that everyone heard me say that there will be some funds that were not expected to And we can close the short fall that gap of 700,000 so just to consider that we may not have to even have this discussion about. About a millage at this point, because even though. We got to update about how good we are. We're not broke as broke as broke. But still, we got to keep all of our ducats intact and make sure that we budget. So that's what they voted and elected us to do, is to be good stewards of this county money. And I just want y'all to remember, $1.8 million, I think, could cover a gap of $700K. Let me just... And we don't have to create a millage. And we can start to plan and prepare without us creating a millage. And we won't have to worry about this. But let's remember that there are partnerships available. that for health care wraparound services which include housing that are available and there have been meetings and there have been people like oh we got it but remember we don't because we wouldn't be having millage talk so i need for you all to remember that we don't have to have a millage we don't have to because there are other available options so 1.8 partnerships that have wraparound services and housing. I mean, in a millage where y'all about to tax my mom and my aunt and my uncles on their pension that they worked hard for at the plant. My dad did. May he rest in peace. Worked hard. So I just want y'all to know that we don't have to have a millage. What did I say? 1.8 million? Oh, okay. Okay.

One of the things that I will just note is that last year when we talked about what we had with budget surplus, I think it was disappointing to many of us that we really had to not look at some of the things we had hoped to do because there were issues about deferred maintenance. that we had left for so long that they needed to be done. Like nobody wanted to spend the surplus last year on elevator maintenance, but we needed to spend it on elevator maintenance. And there were things that weren't done. So I think that we have some, surplus that we're looking at, but I could write a list that would go from this table to that wall of in my normal writing of things that I would like to get done at the county that we don't have funds for, regardless of the surplus, including the YARC, including workforce housing, including more child care. options for people, including transportation, including more CVI work, including reentry services, including more climate resilience, including more civic engagement, all of those things. So we don't have an unlimited pot of money to do these things. I think that I I personally think we're in an emergency situation with people who aren't going to have access to health care. And I think that that's really tragic. And I think what we heard from Planned Parenthood is disturbing and that this new iteration of thinking about this allows us to address some of those issues for a time-limited space that Make sure people can still access health in this county and i'm willing to ask the people if they want to do that, like I just think. I just always say this. I think about when I have my kid and when he was little, he'd be so mad if I would tell him, he's a man now, he's a man. But when he would wake up in the middle of the night with this asthma he had, and I was, one, he was on the My Child for a while because I didn't have my nursing job. I was in school. So I had insurance for him. And then when I was working and had insurance, that peace of mind of being able to take him to the hospital at 2 in the morning when he couldn't breathe and knowing that he would be taken care of and it wasn't going to break me, I hate the thought of a mother waking up at 2 in the morning and listening to her child struggling to breathe and thinking, if I take my kid to the hospital, it's going to cost me thousands of dollars that I don't have. And that's why I am willing to say, let's think about putting this on the ballot as a time-limited measure to make sure we can continue to help people who are in that moment of crisis feel like there's some hope. That's where I am. Commissioner Light? Commissioner Robbie?

Were you first? light okay um so i i understand and i so for individuals for instance a 45 year old male that works he is not eligible to utilize the washington health plan project but is not eligible and cannot afford health care through his job or is not provided. And then it's a rough time getting, you're not, so it's not, I want it to be beneficial for all those that, like he's in a place, this gentleman is in a place where he can't, he's not gonna be able to utilize the health. project, the health plan. I already talked to Dr. Lapidus and there's some other folks that cannot. And so who is, who are the individuals that are really going to receive this care? Like we got to stop. We got to tell who it is because there are a lot of folks that are not going to be able to receive this. And so most, most children, they have, they have my child. but then, and the mother does, but then you have the father who may work a job 15 or $16 an hour. He makes too much to be on the project, but then it's just, so I get what you're saying, but who are we serving? Who is this millage going to take care of? Is it going to be just Are immigrants and refugees, is it going to reach over into the individuals with our Planned Parenthood? Is it going to reach into our communities over on the south side, over in Superior Township? Who are we helping before we go and take a millage? I want to know, are those individuals that I just say, are they going to get the help? because I know a lot of folks, I grew up here. I grew up in Superior Township, West Willow, and it's a lot of folks that are not gonna get this care. Let's be realistic. So is it going to help them? That's what I wanna know. I'm all for it. If this is going to help those that need this care, that are in the communities that need this the most, fine. But no one can say that. No one has told me that. It's only supporting, what, up to 3,000 people? And we're gonna take a millage for three years? We can't figure out a way. We're not smart enough to figure out a way to take care of this project because it is important for those 3,000 people, but to figure it out with other ways than a millage. That's what I'm saying. We need to make sure that the health plan continues, but we need to be wise on how we do it. And continuing to nip, nip at millages for every single thing is not wise. Our residents did not sign up for us to, oh, we'll just have a millage. Oh, we'll just have a millage. What happened to stewardship? What happened to being creative on how to budget, on how to come up with ways that we can provide for our residents besides asking for the easy way out, which is a millage? So... I understand. We have to help our constituents and our residents, those that need this care. But we need to make sure that all people that need this care are going to be able to get it. But we need to be smart enough to figure out a way to do it without asking for a millage every single time. Because then next year or when something else is going to come, well, we can take a piece from this millage, a piece from this millage. No. let's not rely on a millage. Let's use the wisdom that the creator gave us to come up with ideas on how to budget and how to provide services for our county without always having to ask for a millage because they're paying many millages already. We just ask for millages. So everybody, get your creative juices. Let's not turn down and push away others that come to us that wanna provide the help with partnerships. Don't turn your nose up, because we not too good, because if we were, we wouldn't be at this table discussing this right now. So I'm just saying, let's talk about it. We talking about who and how, who is it really gonna help? my cousins that live in the green that's going through what they're going through right now are they going to get the health care nope because they don't have it now they're not eligible my people in west willow that work but still have to have services are they going to get the help nope because they're not eligible they already applied so please tell me with us going to get a millage to make sure we service our residents that this is going to help those individuals that can't get the help when we can just be smart about it and figure out a way to fund the plan, the project outside of a millage.

In the initial conversation before this change, the WHP current service compared to expanded services need was talking about, they currently support 4,000 people on Medicaid enrollment support. With this, they expected to support 12,000 people marketplace support. They currently support 1200. They expected to support 2200 people there. and up the Washtenaw health plan coverage actually from 3,500 to 4,700. And this was their attempt to try to respond to the 12 to 18,000 people they think will lose health insurance under HR1. I refuse to call it the OBA, I refuse. Commissioner Robby.

Thank you, Chair. I just wanna, I guess, i'm not sure well i'll just say it i think one of the things that commissioner light uh outlined that i think is interesting to contextualize is the notion and i think what she's expressing is the notion that uh connects to something that i've said for a long time which is um we need universal health care And I think when we look at doing things as a county that we should be looking more at programs that can address a more universal approach to cover more of our community. I know that it costs more money on paper, but I think in the end it would cost less money to the community because a lot of people who pay a lot for health insurance, The health insurance industry is an incredibly profitable industry and one that exploits people and exploits us for the rates that we pay, as we saw with the fight between U of M and Blue Cross. And I just wanna put a plug in for the importance of thinking about universal healthcare. And I think when we look at even initiatives that we're doing at the county level, I totally agree that like being creative and finding solutions that go beyond the health plan or expanding the health plan, and thinking about ways that we can be inclusive of those individuals that you're outlining in West Willow is super important. And there are programs out there that exist that I think we should be considering in tandem with this consideration, like the program that I tried to, bring forward from wayne county that allows for business owners to basically collectively come together and buy insurance at a discount through the county so i wonder if there's ways that we can explore creating exchanges like that at the local level i was just in lansing for a committee hearing in the Senate where they're talking about doing a state-based exchange to get, because the federal exchange is all messed up, Obamacare is all messed up because of what the Republicans have been doing, and they've gotten rid of the subsidies. And so instead of the state paying into the federal exchange, creating a state exchange, we don't have necessarily that same fiscal incentive, but maybe there's a way that we can look at doing something at the county level That's similar to what they've done in Wayne County that engages our local businesses that allows for people to who often don't have health insurance offered at work to get health insurance offered as a joint payment between their employer and the employee. And maybe there's a role for county to play to stretch our dollars further because everybody's paying many people who have health insurance are paying premiums now. And so, you know, why not have an offering that goes beyond just like those that don't have health insurance providing it, but even offering and providing health insurance to people that do and creating basically revenue opportunities for people to pay in and buy insurance through a county-run, you know, program that brings revenue into the picture to help support the broader totality of people that need health insurance. But bottom line is I... I think the sentiments that Commissioner Light is bringing forward are really important because there are a lot of people that are falling through the cracks that we've built, you know, a system that supports a certain segment of the population. And then there's a certain segment of the population that can afford health insurance. There's a ton of people. that are caught in the sort of donut hole in the middle that don't get the support and don't get the health insurance and are gonna fall through the cracks even more now because of what's happening at the federal level. And in some ways to me that advocates for a more intensive investment beyond, you know, what this millage is proposing to cover, that there may be even more people that we should be covering. And to her point, finding other resources that we bring in as well to do that. That wasn't initially what I was going to talk about, but I appreciate her bringing that up. What I was going to ask was a question to Corp Council in your analysis of, or you said you're going to be reviewing the language, right? I don't know if you're the right one to do it or if Greg's the right one to do it, but um when you come back with an analysis for us it would be helpful for me as I'm evaluating this millage to understand um how much of the millage will be going to tax capture authorities across the county um I don't believe that there's a way for us to exempt this millage from capture and so the DDA, Ann Arbor DDA is going to be capturing a percentage of or a portion of it and all the other DDAs as well. And I'd like just a breakdown of how much of the millage is actually, you know, going to be used for the things that the voters would be voting to have it used for and how much of it is not going to be used for that because it's being captured. And then I guess the follow up question there is for brownfields. This will certainly apply for future brownfields that we approve, but I genuinely don't know the answer to the question, will it be collected by current brownfields? And so for example, on the Arbor South, we've already approved the brownfield plan. Will this or won't this be included in that capture? And I genuinely don't know the answer to that. So that would be helpful in our discussion at our next meeting. Thank you.

Commissioner LaBar.

Thanks, Chair. This has been a helpful discussion. There is some of the whereas language that speaks to some of the applicability on these funds, but I think having Jimena from our public health director, Jimena Lovelock, and having Jeremy with us, if we push this forward in July, or at least have more discussion um i think they could flesh out exactly the ways in which multiple segments of this community uh could be served by it um and i do just want to say i appreciate and respect the political reality that in a representative democracy you can only go to the voters so many times before they tell you no i would also go say Part of the beauty of that representative democracy and that form of government is the notion that because we have the wonders of federalism here, we can ask our voters. They can say no. They have before. In 2009, they turned down a special ed millage countywide. It doesn't happen in Washtenaw County as much as it does in other places, but it is a possibility. What the voters don't have that only the nine of us here at this table do is the ability to facilitate that question to them on the ballot. So one way to look at it is that we have the mechanical step to ask the question, but ultimately they retain the authority to decide that answer. But I appreciate the discussion here tonight in the consideration. Thanks, Jeremy.

Thank you. I have Somerville and then, oh, I was going to say then Beeman, but maybe Beeman will be back.

Okay. I just had a question and this is for Michelle, maybe between now and our next board meeting. I know before it was discussed that there was potential that we could reduce another millage in order to like not actually have to increase the millage rate. Is there a way to get some of that information ahead of time?

you can choose to not levy the full tax amount of another millage, yes.

Okay, that's helpful to know.

Yeah, I'll reiterate some of my commentary from the first time we talked about this. I was really uncomfortable with the idea of us putting up a millage for one entity because we have gaps in our health department and we have community health workers. The funding for that was funded through ARPA and so that's gonna sunset. our community health workers are out in a lot of the neighborhoods in my district that have major health equity challenges. West Willow is one of them. Sycamore Meadows is another one where we have a lot of support from the health department through the community health worker that we have assigned to that region. And so some of what I've been thinking about since then is like, why is this only like a standalone and how can we actually do something to expand the county's capacity to continue being engaged to community health workers, those employees became really critical after the pandemic and continue to be really useful resources and also help people stay connected. Obviously this issue of changes made at the federal level, a lot of it's a paperwork challenge and it's gonna take a lot of people, not just Washington Health Plan, but all of us as commissioners, but throughout different departments of the county and different organizations that we work with to help keep people on. the state's Medicaid expansion. I luckily for a short period of time in my 20s qualified for that. And then when I started waiting tables, I made too much money and get kicked off. But luckily for me, I was still able to access healthcare at Planned Parenthood, no questions asked. And so I think when we're talking about all the different gaps, and I know Planned Parenthood was here at our last board meeting, but They are like no questions asked. If you need this care, you receive the care. They also do a lot of work to help keep people on their Medicaid. And so I just wanted to flag that the new proposal, I think to break this up and cover different areas is really important because it helps expand reach. I know it kind of reduces what the Washtenaw Health Project originally wanted to do, but I feel really strongly that we certainly shouldn't just have a one-off, because I think that opens up the floodgates other organizations, because we have a lot of gaps coming. And we need to be able to prepare for those. And I'm also interested if we can have a working session and go through our budget line by line and figure out what we want to cut. I'm happy to cut stuff to make sure that we can provide healthcare. And so I'd be down for a special working session over the summer to do it. But I do feel really like I feel very strongly about the community health workers that we currently have in the health department. And like, just so everybody knows, like, we don't have a way to pay for them. after 2028. And so that's going to be here really quick. That's just one kind of part of health care access that is available in the districts that we all serve. So just wanted to flag that I would be interested in what we could do maybe to reduce another millage to fill the gap. I also had some concerns about, well, if there was this one-off millage for Washington Health Plan, what does that do to private funders that are currently funding them? I think breaking this up and reducing how much would go to help expand their services maybe would eliminate some of that, I think, potential risk for them. obviously I don't work for them and I don't know what conversations they're having with the partners that have funded them for a while. But obviously we all got the alarm sound at our last board meeting. And I also just wanna say access to gender affirming care, we need to be prepared as a board to roll up our sleeves and figure out ways to not just fill in the gaps for reproductive care, but also gender affirming care, especially if Planned Parenthood clinics do close, because that is also going to become a mental health crisis when people can't prevent unwanted pregnancies, but certainly can't make a choice after that. And people who are utilizing services who are or people who have recently been cut off of services for gender affirming care that becomes like life and death, and I want us to be in front of that so again i'm happy to think about ways to not increase the the tax burden and i'm happy i'm free all summer i'm happy to. be here as much as we need to to go through the budget and let's cut some stuff. That's why I also just wanna say, I think it's gonna be difficult conversations when we're talking about the need to get people to pay for alcohol monitoring, but that's one of the reasons why I'm saying that now. We could continue to pay for people who decide to choose to drive under the influence. that's four hundred thousand dollars a year that we could be spending on keeping people connected to health care so this is part of the bigger picture but we have to make difficult decisions and um i'm willing to do that work together but um i do think we might need to schedule some extra meetings this summer to be able to get ahead of some of this and i'm definitely willing to do that i know i'm kind of boring and i'm saying off my cat all the time but yeah That's all I have.

I mean, Commissioner Somerville, the point you raise about that we're going to continue to have increased costs, I don't know if anybody's been to the grocery store lately, but it's, I mean, that's going to be a whole other thing. I have so many concerns. Anyway, Commissioner Beeman.

Thank you, Chair. I want to start out by saying that I support the intent behind this proposed millage expanding access to health care and outcomes for residents in washington county is a huge goal it's a huge lift and I really appreciate all the work that Commissioner lavar put into. pulling this together. But all of that said, I don't feel that I can support the proposed millage at this time. Right now, it's not whether I feel like it's worthwhile program in principle, but it's just the cumulative impact of millages on our taxpayers, especially those in my district. Residents are asked to support additional townships, school, library, special purpose millages. And while they all look very small on their own, we know together they create a large tax burden that a lot of households, it's getting harder and harder to absorb. A lot of us think it's $20, it's $50. I remember being so poor that $20 was a lot. It could make or break me. And so I fully appreciate, again, this, but there are already For me, and I think the point that Commissioner Light was getting to is there's this murky middle, right? There's those that truly don't have funds for healthcare. And there are those that are on the edge. They're paying huge premiums through their employer. They have huge co-pays that they have to meet. Those are my neighbors. And they are the ones that, yes, if their child has to go to the ER, their child will go. If they have pneumonia, they'll stay home because they don't want to incur that cost, that extra burden. And so that's where... This plan is great and it impacts a very important portion of our population, but it doesn't impact the whole population. And we're asking to tax the whole population. We were talking about the cap in western Washtenaw County. I know it was a few years ago, so I may be misspeaking. But I have this weird pocket. And it's actually under Jackson schools. It's Grass Lake, it's Jackson ISD. So the way that the taxes stack up is very different than for someone who's ann arbor or chelsea or you know just has that wisd washington only and i know there are other corners where the you know wayne creeps in monroe creeps in etc and so when we look at these levels it's not necessarily what we are bringing forward but what the fire department needs and what the library needs and all of these different pieces that make up the entire community so I really do encourage us to continue pursuing this goal as others around the table have said like looking at other options, ways to get creative. I'm sorry but I also just want to shout out Lansing right now, there's a lot of talk up there and I don't see action. This is something that they could impact and I know that they are not. in a space where they have as many healthy debates as we have around this table so i'm not going to begrudge them the conflicts that they're facing um on the other side of the table but truly i mean to move the needle when we're putting money into roads and other special projects when we're not taxing data centers that are coming in and giving $10 million to Selene Rec Center. Love Selene Rec Center.

I'd love $10 million for the healthcare plan right now, Oracle, if you're listening.

Not really, please don't.

But, you know, I support the mission.

I support the drive. I'm really excited to continue this conversation, but I just don't see how I can support adding another millage at this time.

Commissioner Light? I just wanted to make sure that I brought up in this discussion that I had a health care provider to meet with our health care providers, and they declined and did not want to partner. did not want to even entertain the notion of the services that could be provided so that we could close the gap. So I'm not just that's not a suggestion. That was work that I was already putting into place and that I had let Dr. Lapidus know that I was going to get those meetings and get those connections and they were made. However, it was just not well accepted and it was kind of rude on the way that one of our directors responded to those individuals that I asked to come and to share the services. Like I said, not just healthcare services, wraparound, housing, all of the things. And so I just, that's why I'm like, we can't just run to a millage, but we also can't have directors and individuals of this organization turning down opportunities without even seeking them first. So I just wanted that to be known that a couple of weeks ago, that meeting did occur and it was pushed away with that. That opportunity was pushed away. So I think individuals need to, us, meaning the individuals, we need to ask more questions and we need to talk to those directors and let them know that we are open to opportunities and we don't have it because we wouldn't be having this conversation. And so it pissed me off because I asked these people to come and to provide information about ways that we could fill our gap. And they were told, oh, well, The Washtenaw Project, they handled, we have that covered. We don't. That's a lie. So we need to let individuals, stop lying. Stop lying to people because we don't have it because we wouldn't be right here talking about it. And I don't appreciate the funkiness that was provided to the individuals that I had to come. So just know that that's one meeting and conversation that took place. And we turned down services and money because they weren't coming broke. They weren't asking us for anything. So just, oh, and it was a Black doctor, a Black-owned here. So I just want y'all to know that too. It is June. We celebrating blackness for real all day. I got on my dashiki. I just want y'all to know, but it's not okay. Stop turning down opportunities and black ones at that.

Commissioner Sanders.

Uh, so, um, commissioner light and I actually sent that communication to our department heads to try and make a connection with that healthcare, I'll say human services support company, and got feedback that was not necessarily positive. Commissioner Beaman, maybe I'm wrong, but I swear I just saw a news article where the Barnard people said they were giving $10 million. No, they aren't. Okay, okay. Okay. Um, I just wanted to say for the constituents, so that they don't think that I'm like sitting up here on my high horse. I know what it's like to be a divorced parent, a single parent, who did not have health care, whose child was on my child, and I had no coverage. And so I know what that's like to be terrified that every day you leave your house, something might happen and you won't have any coverage. I think I was just old enough and nosy enough to figure out that there were some little nuances. I could increase my car insurance deduction since I did not have a major healthcare provider. they would just increase your deductible. If you were involved in a vehicle accident, they would then become your primary care insurance provider. So I just want my constituents to know that I am really trying to stand up for the fact that good, bad, or indifferent, many of the people who would not be eligible for this service also and if we take our judgy hat off, also are in economic situations where they work more than one or two jobs and voting is even a luxury for them. And so the people that are able to vote and say, oh yes, we're in a position we can afford to pay a little extra. They're also the people that have the ability to come and fill up our meetings with public comment Because either they have a decent job that has decent hours and it's only one job, or maybe they're fortunate enough not to have to work or to have a working spouse that allows them. But, you know, let's be clear. The people that often come and raise their voices in our meetings are not the ones that need our help as much. I'm not saying they don't need our help. but the ones that really need help and need uplifting don't have the time to come and sit in our meetings at night for a ridiculous amount of time in the evening. They've got two jobs, they got kids, they got major other struggles, and they rely on us to fight for them. So that's what I'm gonna do tonight. I'm gonna fight for them.

Thank you, Commissioner Hodge.

Thank you, Chair. I appreciate the robustness of the conversation. I think it's given us all a lot to think about. I think there are some specific questions to Corporation Council that I know she'll think deeply on for the next meeting. I want to move to adjourn.

Okay, I'd love that because I'm up at 5.30 tomorrow to go to work, one of those people. All those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? Meeting adjourned.

Well, that would forget that.