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The Week in Review: April 26, 2024

Kent County, Michigan sent this bulletin at 04/26/2024 04:44 PM EDT

THE WEEK IN REVIEW

April 26, 2024

Al Vanderberg, County Administrator

Good afternoon Chair Stek and Commissioners,

We successfully completed two more cohorts of Disney Way customer service training with our employees this week. It was a great experience meeting and interacting with staff, hearing their ideas, and answering their questions! My team is now compiling and analyzing the findings from each training session that occurred over the past year and a half. The ideas generated from this training will serve as the foundation for enhancing customer experience across our organization. Many people came up to me at the conclusion of the event and thanked me for the presentation and remarked that they never understood that much about county government.

Last night. I spoke at a meeting of OC – One, a group that has formed in Ottawa County Commission District 1 to support good government candidates. This group describes themselves as “poly partisan” because they not only support Republican and Democratic candidates but are open to supporting 3^rd party candidates as well. I informed group that I was not there to attack Ottawa Impact nor could I participate in partisan politics. However, I gave a short presentation on what good County governance from a county board and administrator perspective looked like. Another speaker covered sound financial practices in County government and a third speaker talked about the process of running for office. Many people came up to me at the conclusion of the event and thanked me for the presentation and remarked they never understood that much about County government.

I hope to see you at Monday's ribbon cutting ceremony for the Behavioral Health Crisis Center. Have a great weekend!

Office of the Public Defender

Change to the Kent County Office of the Public Defender Independence Council

On Tuesday, LHR approved the position request as well an Independence Council and administrative policy for the new Office of the Public Defender. We originally proposed a representative from the Federal Defender’s Office serve on the Council. However, we learned on Wednesday that they cannot serve due to their internal policies. Therefore, we changed this seat to the Executive Director of the State Appellate Defender Office (SADO) or Executive Director of the Legal Assistance Center (LAC). Click here to review the updated charge, function, and members of the council.

Costs

During Tuesday's LHR meeting, Commissioner Pachla raised a question regarding the cost of indigent defense services. The following costs represent the numbers submitted for the FY 2024-2025 County budget and as part of the Michigan Independent Defense Commission grant application.

Our contract commitment with the Kent County Office of the Defender (KCOD) for FY 2023-2024 (the current year) is $6,381.371.04, with allowances to pay less if all positions are not filled.
Our current MIDC-approved cost for our system for this year is $23,884,344.34. Of that total, $21,416,076.03 is from the state grant and $2,468,268.31 is our mandated local share.
The cost for next year has been submitted as $29,932,312.08. Of that total, $27,408,220.92 is from the state grant, and $2,524,091.16 is the local share. The local share increases because it will include $55,822.85 from the “Collaborative” (Grandville, Kentwood, Walker, and Wyoming). Those cities will forward their local shares to the County, so the County’s contribution remains unchanged from this year.
The increase from FY 2023-2024 to FY 2024-2025 is caused by:

Taking on the misdemeanor-only representations for the Collaborative
Meeting the maximum case load requirements imposed by the new MIDC standard (Standard 6)
Increasing roster attorney hourly rates by approximately 3%
One-time expenses to build-out and furnish office space on another floor in the Calder Plaza building

Other Resource Materials

Updated FAQs: This document compiles the questions asked to date about the proposed implementation of the Office of the Public Defender.
Map Showing the Public Service Delivery Model Across Michigan: This resource offers a comparative analysis of public service delivery models across the state.

The clearest data available, dating back to 2007, indicates that there are 28 states with county-based public defender offices. An investigative journalist is currently conducting a state-by-state survey of public defense. Click here to read the stories, which currently have an update up to the state of Delaware.

Legislative Updates

The Legislature passed legislation this week to extend the May 1 deadline for courts to charge operational fees on guilty defendants. The bill is now headed to the Governor for signature.
The House’s recommended budget for the state Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy did not include the Governor's proposal to increase landfill tipping fees from $0.36 per ton to $5 per ton.

Fuller Campus Traffic Impact Update

Several Commissioners have inquired about the traffic impact associated with the County’s future move to the Fuller campus.

My team has submitted our staffing and visitor projections to the Grand Valley Metro Council and they will be incorporated in the next update of the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP).

The TIP identifies proposed projects developed by local agencies in accordance with the joint regulations of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). These regulations establish the TIP as the programming phase of the overall continuing, comprehensive, and cooperative (3C) planning process. This planning process includes local jurisdictions, transit agencies, and state and federal transportation officials. All federal monies returned to the Grand Rapids metro area from the federal fuel tax are distributed through this process.

A Traffic Impact Analysis will also be a part of the scope with our design consultant. Once we have identified the location and size of the new building, a Traffic Impact Analysis will be conducted which will provide recommendations on ingress/egress routing as well as potential traffic signal timing modifications that could be made in proximity to the Fuller campus.

Although unlikely, if we discover a capacity issue that cannot be solved through signal timing modification, we would work directly with the Michigan Department of Transportation and the City of Grand Rapids to find a solution.

KCCA’s Housing Choice Voucher Program

We shared in the March 29^th Week In Review email that staff is examining the option to transfer Kent County’s Housing Choice Vouchers to another entity. This is based on an analysis of the current funding model under which cost increases have not kept pace with HUD revenue. That is making it difficult to appropriately staff the program and to afford the fiscal reporting and reconciliation needs of the program.

Information gathering is still in process. A meeting is on the books with MSHDA to learn about the option of transferring our vouchers into their program and a meeting is being scheduled to gather more information and feedback from the HCV staff team. With those two meetings complete, we will prepare an update and schedule of next steps for your information.

Soccer Stadium Contractors

I was notified by Commissioners that there are some community concerns regarding an outside contractor being selected to complete the Soccer Stadium. Grand Action 2.0 led a competitive process to select a general contracting team that is qualified to complete this project. Ultimately Rockford Construction was selected as the local partner and lead general contractor. As part of their proposal, Rockford Construction partnered with AECOM Hunt, which is nationally renowned for their specific expertise in stadium construction. Adding that expertise to the team was critical to the success of this project. The bid packages for the Soccer Stadium have not been awarded to any trade contractors. It is the team’s intent to utilize West Michigan trade contractors to build the facility. There may come a point when work is so specialized that an outside contractor may be selected, but they believe that will be limited. If you have any more questions about this process, please let me know.

John Ball Statue Move Completed

During the week of March 19, the John Ball statue was moved to its new location directly north of the Pavilion Building on the Zoo property. As you may recall, I formally approved this project, as required in the Operating Agreement with the Zoo, in early February. The statue move was a success and landscaping around the new location is ongoing. This move is only the second in the statue’s history. The diagram on the left-hand side shows the history of the statue’s location and below are few photos of the move in progress.

Image collage of John Ball statue being moved

MSU Extension Hires Urban Bilingual (Spanish) 4-H Program Coordinator

MSU Extension’s Kent County office recently hired Adriana Sierra Ramirez as the new County urban bilingual (Spanish) 4-H Program Coordinator. Adriana’s focus is on engaging youth and volunteers from traditionally underrepresented communities. Click here to learn more about Adriana and how she is currently working with the community.

Kent County, Michigan
300 Monroe Avenue NW
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49503

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