BOC OK’s Resolutions for Lake Level Structures

By DIANNE ALWARD-BIERY

Cleaver Senior Staff Writer

HARRISON – The opening of General Public Comment at the Feb. 19 Clare County Commissioners meeting saw resident Pat Adams inquiring about the County’s lawsuit seeking to recoup court expenses from then/now former Clare County Prosecutor Michelle Ambrozaitis. His questions included how, when the BOC had refused to grant funding for additional prosecuting attorneys, that it could then turn around and approve a wage increase for the new prosecuting attorney after he previously had stated he did not seek a pay raise.

Noting that after a wage study, that salary had been raised to $105,000 Adams clarified that concern was that the BOC should be aware of the “optics” of that situation in the eyes of Clare County residents.

Commissioner George Gilmore took a few minutes to explain what the process had been, and how the wage choice had been made.

“Let me explain something to you that you may have missed,” Gilmore said. “First off, he [new prosecutor] said he doesn’t need more staff; he needed less staff. And they seem to be knocking it out of the park and doing a wonderful job – a so, if they can do it with less staff and stay within their budget…then we did a wage study, we have a Personnel and Wage Committee. That committee actually did a study of the surrounding counties, compared wages, and the prosecutor and assistant were slightly under average. And we took recommended action from that board to this board to take action to bring them up to average [over a three-year period of time].”

Gilmore said that would still be slightly below average, but that since the prosecutor is working within his budget – with the prosecutor saying that budget is more than sufficient – if assistants need to be paid more and can stay within budget, that is up to the prosecutor.

Adams reiterated his concern for the optics of the situation, and Gilmore informed that the Board would be meeting with its attorney in closed session that day regarding the ongoing lawsuit. Gilmore continued, saying that there had been a lawsuit with the former prosecutor because the BOC didn’t want to hire more attorneys for that office.

“We felt they were overstaffed by comparison to the surrounding counties,” he said. “And that was dealt with in the court system. Our current prosecutor says he has plenty of staff, and they’re working with almost half of what the former prosecutor did.”

Gilmore said the amount of money expending for the current prosecutor’s office is significantly lower than was spent in the past. “So if he wants some extra cooperation, as long as he stays within his budget, we should allow him to see what he can do,” Gilmore said, adding, “That’s my opinion.”

Next up was the Administrator’s Report, wherein Lori Phelps said her office was finishing up the audit, with the expectation it would be complete in the next week. She also noted that she and Treasurer Jenny Beemer-Fritzinger had been working with the Bond Council finalizing bond information for the road commission.

Phelps said there was some possibly good news as Charter Spectrum is expanding its fiberprint in Clare County, and applying for funding for that expansion, which would require assistance from the county.

“We participated and helped write the Robin Grant,” Phelps said. “Then we were given the Robin Grant, then the state took it out from under us. So, I’m hopeful but not holding my breath after the rug was pulled out from under us before.”

She also noted that the Windows 11 update continues for all county systems, and that the cybersecurity audit has begun.

Phelps said the governor’s budget plan had been released, with counties receiving only a proposed 4% increase in revenue sharing. However, that does not apply to the entire revenue sharing base from 2025.

“Notably absent from this plan is the Revenue Sharing Trust Fund that we have been pushing for local government groups and they have supported for a long time,” Phelps said. “The governor is also seeking $75 million for public safety and violence prevention, however, counties are excluded from eligibility as the funding is only slated for cities and townships. And most rural townships rely on county-level services.”

Phelps also informed that the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency notified the county that it had discovered it didn’t have as much funding for FY 2025 as it had believed, and grant allocations would be adjusted. She said that would have affected Clare County by roughly $20,000 because Clare County Veterans Affairs had already spent its money. Phelps said after a discussion, the agency agreed to honor the previously signed grant agreement and that extra $20,000.

After the administrator’s report [see her closing remarks in adjacent box], the meeting then went into the aforementioned closed session at 9:14 a.m., and resumed open session at 10:28 a.m.

Drain Commissioner Bill Faber addressed the Board regarding resolutions sought to enable moving forward with lake level structures on Doc and Tom Lake as well as Cranberry Lake. He explained that this was a first step in the process enabling the work. Attorney Kyle O’Meara was on hand via Zoom, and explained that lake level structures were required to be inspected every three years; that SADs which benefit from lake levels bear all the costs on the lakes, and can include such things as auxiliary spillway and embankment rip rap. He noted the resolution process which was required for work costing over $10,000 and that the cost would be assessed to the property owners until the project is completed. The construction cost at each of the two lakes was estimated to total $60,000 to $80,000 with design work/engineering to be an additional cost.

The Board then approved those resolutions.

In her Clerk’s Report, Lori Mott described filers for the upcoming May 6 election, noting the nearly countywide Clare-Gladwin RESD millage renewal, with the exception of Redding Township. She said the Osceola ISD would be on the ballot for one address in the county, and that Hayes Township would be seeking a millage renewal.

Treasurer Beemer-Fritzinger noted that all three tax deadlines, including the dog license renewal deadline, would arrive Feb. 28, and that tax settlement for all 19 local units starts March 1. She said her office tries to have that work completed by March 20.

She also spoke receiving judicial approval allowing her department to send out notices – as per the Schaeffer v. Kent County case for the eastern side of the state – noting a March 31 deadline to file a notice of intent to claim any surplus proceeds from the sale of foreclosed property

“We sent out notices to any potential claimants whose property or interest was foreclosed and sold in an auction between the 2013 and 2020 auction years,” she said. “It was supposed to be 2015 through 2020, but because of their negotiations, they wanted to make it match with the western side. The western side has been settled, however they have not been paid out because there are more appeals; every time something gets determined, there’re more appeals going on.”

Beemer-Fritzinger said those local notices have hit mailboxes, and assures they are legitimate, and are for anybody who potentially had an interest: not just an owner, but anybody who had any kind of lien on the property prior to foreclosure. She reiterated the March 31 deadline for filing an intent to claim those possible proceeds.

She also spoke of her office’s work in uncapping of tax rolls, as well as informing that the new funds and bank account for the Clare County Road Commission bond have been set up and fully prepared for the bond closing and bond funds on March 4.

After the various commissioners’ reports, the agenda moved to the State of the County Budget. There, Phelps reported that at this time of the year, the County should be approximately 41.67% expensed and is currently at 31.4% expensed.

“Last year at this time, we were at 38.57% expensed,” she said, adding that currently only 14% of our revenue had been received, which she said is not unusual for this time of year.