County Commissioners To Consider 2022 Budget, Senior Center Lease Extension

Grand Traverse County commissioners will consider approving the county’s proposed 2022 budget Wednesday, a plan that includes nearly 17 new county positions, wage increases for both county employees and elected officials, the separation of the Senior Center Network from the Parks and Recreation department, an armored vehicle for the Sheriff’s Office, and funds to hire a consultant to create a plan for consolidating county operations onto two main campuses on Boardman Avenue and LaFranier Road. Commissioners will also consider approving a lease extension at the city-owned Senior Center through 2023, a resolution to support legislation allowing community colleges to offer nursing bachelor’s degrees, and motions to go into closed session to discuss employee wages and opioid litigation.

Budget
County commissioners will consider approving a proposed nearly $42 million balanced general fund budget for 2022 at their 8am Wednesday meeting. County Administrator Nate Alger previously noted that Grand Traverse County is in a “strong” revenue position, with property taxes remaining the county’s largest source of revenue. Tax revenue in 2022 is expected to surpass $28 million, a 3.4 percent increase over 2020. Despite some rising costs – notably a 9.2 percent increase in healthcare costs for employees – the draft budget shows a balance between revenues and expenditures.

Various county department heads requested a total of nearly 20 new employee positions in 2022. Alger is recommending approving 16.75 of those positions. He noted that almost all the new additions will be covered by funds from existing department budgets, millages, or grants, with only 1.75 falling under the general fund and .75 requiring additional funding. The budget will add a part-time victim advocate to the prosecutor’s office, a circuit court specialist, a dispatch supervisor and 911 systems support employee in central dispatch, three public health techs and three public health nurses in the health department, a deputy director and an office coordinator in construction code, and a scheduling specialist, a program coordinator, an assessment nurse, and a licensed practical nurse in the Commission on Aging. The Grand Traverse Sheriff’s Office will also receive a new detective by using existing budgeted personnel funds.

The staffing plan also calls for adding a new volunteer and event coordinator for the Senior Center Network. Alger noted that the Senior Center Network is currently part of the Parks and Recreation Department, but said he didn’t know why previous administrators had structured it that way.

“I believe it is time that we remove the Senior Center Network from the Parks and Recreation Department and have the Senior Center Network Manager report directly to administration for the time being,” he wrote. Alger said the move would help keep Senior Center Network millage funds clearly separate from Parks and Recreation, and would allow the county to move ahead with combining the Commission on Aging and Senior Center Network into one county “Senior Services” department. The 2022 budget includes funds for hiring an architectural and engineering firm to assist in developing a “two campus plan” that would consolidate various county operations onto the county’s Boardman Avenue and LaFranier Road campuses. That could mean eventually moving operations like the Commission on Aging, located on West Front Street, to one of those campuses.

Because county commissioners approved bonding the county’s pension debt this year, Alger noted that the county was able to bond 95 percent of its liability earlier this month, selling $39.8 million in bonds at a 1.99 percent rate. The county is required by law to pay the remaining five percent of its debt by the end of 2021, totaling $5.1 million, according to Alger. He is recommending suspending the county’s fund balance policy to use a combination of those rainy-day funds, tax revenues, and the county’s planned pension payment for 2022 to make the required five percent payment.

Another item included in Alger’s budget memo is the purchase of a armored rescue vehicle and personnel carrier for the Sheriff’s Office. The vehicle, called a BearCat, is used by dozens of police departments and SWAT teams across the country, but has generated backlash among groups concerned about the over-militarization of law enforcement.

According to Alger, the cost for the vehicle is $260,599. The Sheriff's Office originally proposed obtaining the vehicle through a lease-to-own program, but the county "identified funds that we could use to purchase the BearCat outright and save the interest to be paid on the payments," Alger wrote to commissioners. In an email to The Ticker, Alger said the BearCat "was not in the original budget recommendation (provided to commissioners earlier this fall) because it was not my intention to recommend it at the time. Subsequent meetings with the sheriff, listening to his explanation, led me to putting it into the recommended budget."

Traverse City attorney Grant Parsons wrote to county commissioners opposing the purchase, saying there is “there is no experience, and there is no threat, that would justify such a purchase.” Parsons said the vehicle “is military equipment not designed for civilian use." 

Sheriff Tom Bensley will be at the commission meeting Wednesday to address any questions about the request, according to Alger.

The 2022 budget also includes a proposed three percent cost-of-living adjustment for all non-contract employees and elected officials. Several union contracts on Wednesday’s meeting agenda for approval also call for three percent wage increases. Alger is also proposing to make health insurance available to elected officials next year, saying it’s the administration team’s opinion that “elected officials are elected to do the jobs of their respective offices and they should be entitled to the wages and benefits that all employees have available to them.” The budget doesn’t include funds related to additional possible salary increases for staff as recommended by a recent wage study, because commissioners still need to fully discuss the report. They are expected to go into closed session Wednesday to do so, and Alger said he expected the board could have “a proposal for additional wages and compensation after the closed session” that could require further adjustments to next year's budget. That discussion is one of two possible closed sessions to be held Wednesday, with the other focused on a settlement strategy regarding national opioid litigation.

Also at Wednesday’s meeting…
> Commissioners will consider approving an amendment to the county’s lease with the City of Traverse City to continue using the city-owned Senior Center building on East Front Street for senior services. The amendment extends the county’s lease at the facility through the end of 2023. The amendment also notes that the city is responsible for building upkeep and repair, but can charge the county up to $20,000 annually for work as long as it sends the county itemized invoices detailing maintenance and repair expenses. The agreement allows either party to terminate the lease with 120 days’ notice. County and city leaders are still having ongoing discussions about the long-term future of the Senior Center building, including whether the facility will be rebuilt and how or if the county will eventually move its services elsewhere.

> Commissioners will consider approving a resolution of support for pending state legislation that would allow community colleges like Northwestern Michigan College to offer four-year nursing degrees. The legislation was recently passed out of committee and could go to a full House vote this or next month. The resolution states that commissioners support the bills because they “would help address hospital staffing issues and increase access to careers in healthcare by allowing community colleges to offer four-year baccalaureate degrees in nursing,” noting that making such degrees “more accessible and affordable will not only support our existing nurses, but will also increase the talent pipeline of new nurses.”