Grand Traverse County commissioners walked away from a nearly five-hour strategic planning session Saturday with a clear to-do list for 2017, including rebuilding the county’s human resources department, identifying a plan to address the county’s pension debt, and determining the future of the Commission on Aging. 

John Amrhein of Michigan State University Extension facilitated the session, intended to clarify the priorities of the board for the coming term. The Ticker looks at the commission’s top three immediate goals, as well as future priorities for the board.

Goal 1: Focus On Employees
Chief among county commissioners’ concerns was rebuilding the county’s HR department, which has experienced persistent turmoil since the departure of former HR director Jen Seman in March 2015. The department lost all of its full-time employees following several resignations in December and is currently outsourcing several of its HR functionalities.

“I think we need a fully-staffed, full-time HR department as a starting place,” said Commissioner Cheryl Gore Follette. Creating an environment where “employees feel comfortable bringing forward suggestions and concerns” could help rebuild trust and morale among staff, according to Gore Follete, who said she wanted to “stop the drain of quality people” leaving the county.

“That has to be one of our top short-term goals, to rebuild that department,” agreed Commissioner Sonny Wheelock. Chair Carol Crawford said the county should set benchmarks to measure its efficacy in building better relationships with its employees. “One measure of how well we’re doing is employee retention, that our employees want to stay with us,” Crawford said. “One the flip side, (another benchmark is) how many applicants we’re getting for the open positions we have.”

Employee morale was also a hot-button issue during public comment at the strategic planning session, when several long-time employees who were required to start contributing 10 percent of their salaries toward their defined benefit plans January 1 addressed the board about the financial hardships imposed by the cuts.

“I know a decision is fundamentally flawed when I lose sleep, when it affects my personal relationships and my ability to focus appropriately on my job,” said County Prosecuting Attorney Bob Cooney, who called the cuts a “scorched-earth” policy. "It’s not just the financial hardship, but it’s also the feeling that I’ve been stepped on...I can say without a doubt that this is the most toxic work environment that I’ve ever been involved in in 37 years of working.”

County Administrator Tom Menzel told commissioners he would soon bring them a proposal to scale the defined benefit cuts back to 6 percent for non-contract employees, a move that would match rates recently negotiated with unionized staff.

Goal 2: Figure Out The Pension Debt
“We need a pension solution. We need to quit talking about it and get it done.” Gore Follette’s sentiments on addressing the county’s pension debt reflected those of several other commissioners, who said they were tired of treating retirement obligations as an all-consuming issue for the county. “I don’t think it should color every single thing that we do,” said Crawford. She said the county needed to identify a plan to address the debt in a long-term and “sustainable way…so we don’t cut things to the bone to be debt-free really fast. We need to maintain the (county’s) level of service.”

Commissioners agreed to hold a study session in the near future specifically devoted to the pension debt. Menzel said negotiations were also continuing with the Municipal Employees’ Retirement System (MERS), the county’s pension plan provider, on a more relaxed repayment schedule. In addition to identifying a pension solution, commissioners also hope to evaluate services and look for ways to increase revenue – a nod to previous county discussions about implementing results-based budgeting. “(It’s) figuring out a new model for increasing our income stream in ways other than taxation,” said Gore Follete. “What other services can we provide or partnerships can we nurture that will add to our bottom line?”

Goal 3: Determine The Future Of The Commission On Aging
Commissioners will also soon hold another separate study session on the county’s Commission on Aging. Administrators have proposed outsourcing the management of the department to Comfort Keepers. Noting that the public had overwhelmingly supported millages for the department, commissioners said they wanted to review COA closely and determine the best path forward for its future.

“(The community) seems to think we have a need, and we said we don’t have a need,” said Gore Follette, referring to a December board decision to partially return COA millage funds to taxpayers. “Are we just making random decisions? I don’t have a handle on it.” Wheelock said the public approving a county millage to give taxes to COA meant “they expected the county” to manage the department, saying it was a “huge trust factor” with voters.

Crawford said one of the most important functions of county government was protecting “vulnerable groups of people,” such as the elderly residents served by COA. Wheelock agreed, adding: “We need to make sure we’re being as effective as we can possibly be when we’re providing these services.”

Other Future Priorities
In addition to the above priorities, commissioners also identified several other areas of focus for the near future. They included: evaluating infrastructure, improving information technology (IT) systems, supporting better housing and economic development policies, boosting public safety, expanding regional/intergovernmental collaboration, lobbying for state legislation (particularly regarding state revenue sharing and a possible tourism tax), improving community outreach, and overhauling county branding. Staff will work on plans for implementing priorities; commissioners are also expected to incorporate the goals into next year’s budget planning process.