TONIGHT 3/20/2024 7pm: Washtenaw County Board Vote On Public Hearing For Mental Health/ Public Safety Millage

The Washtenaw County Board Of Commissioners [BOC] will vote on whether to hold a public hearing regarding the Mental Health And Public Safety Millage [originally passed in 2017] tonight March 20, 2024 during the 7pm BOC regular meeting. This action comes in response to widespread county resident advocacy to slow down renewal process of the millage, set to expire in December of 2025 [for funds covering services through December 2026]. I wrote about this in a previous op-ed here.

Some board members have claimed that the reason to have this renewal vote now is to be able to put ballot measure during a higher-turnout presidential year general election. It has also been stated that a renewal this year will help agencies impacted to budget for future years.

A majority of the residents speaking out on proposed the millage renewal during both the working session and regular meeting on March 6, 2024 want the dollars focused on mental health services. These services continue to be underfunded while the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office [WCSO] continues to be the beneficiary of the largest amount of county funding among all county programs/ services. Some residents also asked that the county be more forthcoming and specific about where our millage dollars are going, what exactly we are funding. Others suggested that the millage be split into two separate ballot initiatives. You can look at the minutes for the regular meeting on March 6, 2024 of the BOC here.

Care Based Safety, a local nonprofit organization dedicated to the creation of unarmed crisis response service programs in Washtenaw, issued a document prior to the March 6 BOC meetings which you can read here. The document doesn’t appear to have been updated yet, nevertheless it documents legitimate, detailed concerns many residents have about the current millage, what/ who is being funded and how the dollars are used by all recipients. Of particular concern are the $6M from the millage currently sitting in the WCSO portion of the fund balance. Looking at the 2023 county revenue white paper written by Administrator Greg Dill, he shows us that of the $6.9M the WCSO received from the millage in 2022, it only spent $1.4M, see image below and full report here. Washtenaw County Community Mental Health [CMH] is carrying a fund balance as well but receives a fraction of what the WCSO gets from our county general funds.

If the WCSO needs the millage dollars to maintain its current programs and services [which is in part how the millage was marketed to residents], why are they using only a fraction of the dollars they received from the millage in 2022?

Sheriff Clayton is clearly angered and responds defensively to questions about this $6M fund balance during a BOC meeting back in September of 2023. Here is the video of the exchange between Commissioner Yousef Rabhi [Ann Arbor] and Sheriff Clayton during that meeting.

Residents will have the opportunity to offer feedback and input during this public hearing on April 17, 2024 at 7pm which will be held at the county administrative building in the board room at 220 N. Main St in Ann Arbor. Go here for info on how to participate in person and via zoom. Residents can also contact the BOC with their feedback via this online public comment form. You can find additional contact information for each commissioner here.

Thanks for reading.

We wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t been there.