 Enjoy the 2016 State of Ottawa County, view the video by clicking above or follow the link to read the written version. http://miottawa.org/Departments/Admin/pdf/2016/StateCounty2016.pdf
 Mark Knudsen notified us in late March that he was
retiring effective April 29. Though we
certainly would have loved to hold a reception for him after a Board of
Commissioners meeting and invited local unit officials and other board and
commission and community members that he worked with over the years, we honored
his wishes to not do so.
Earlier this week Paul Sachs was promoted to the
position of Director of the Planning & Performance Improvement Department. Paul served as assistant director of the
department for 14 years and has done an outstanding job. Join me in congratulating Paul and we
certainly look forward to working with him in this new capacity.
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Shannon Felgner and I hosted Bill Capogadli, co-author of The Disney Way on West Michigan Issues & Impact last week, which is produced in the Muskegon Community College studio. It was a wide ranging interview which we think folks will be interested to see. Click here to view the show on YouTube.
The Innovation & Technology Forum was likely our
best to date, both in terms of the program and attendance. We had over 120 registered for the event and
at one time had over 100 in the room. This is significant because speakers, vendors
and participants tend to arrive and leave at different times during the day.
There
were many excellent presentations, both educational and from vendors. Noted author, speaker and professor Kevin Desouza
provided the key note address Realizing
the Promise of (Open, Mobile, and Big) Data and Technologies for Local
Governments.This fascinating presentation covered potential benefits and
challenges of use of Big Data. Jason
Kehrer of New North gave a great presentation entitled The Half-Life Assumptions:
Bringing Empathy to Big Data. We
include innovation presentations at the Innovation and Technology Forum to
emphasize that technology is an enabler and that thought processes have to
occur before engaging technology to get the best results.
The day was
anchored by Oakland County Deputy County Executive Phil Bertolini, back by
popular demand who gave a presentation entitled The Future of Technology: “Are
We Simply Rebranding Stuff?” Phil
covered industry trends and some of the innovative work that Oakland County is
doing.
I will include a
notification in the Digest when all presentations are available on
miOttawa.org.
Ottawa
County has contracted with EPIC-MRA to continue with an every other year
citizen survey. Caller ID’s should identify “EPIC-MRA”, and interviewers
will identify themselves as calling from that firm. Calls will begin on
Monday, May 9, and should conclude no later than Saturday, May 14.
Phoning on the weekdays occurs between 4:00 PM and 9:00 PM, excluding Friday
evening, and on Saturday, if needed, from 10 AM until 8 PM. The firm does
utilize traditional landline and cell phone numbers. We look forward to
receiving the results later in May or early June.
The
Federal District Court signed and issued a consent judgment on April 28
permanently enjoining the Secretary of State from enforcing subsection 57(3) of
PA 269/SB 571.
This is
a major win for counties, cities, townships, villages and schools across the
state. The consent order does not
preclude a future amendment to Michigan’s Campaign Finance Act (i.e. Rep.
Lyon’s HB 5219).
This
legislation was tagged the “gag order” law and prevented local government
officials from discussing ballot proposals from their jurisdiction for a period
of time of 60 days prior to the election.
Local government elected and appointed officials believed this to be an
attack on their 1st Amendment rights to Free Speech and a major
blockage to communicate those who elected their representative bodies from
communicating why they would put a proposal on the ballot.
 It was a tremendous honor to have the Supreme Court
hold a session in Ottawa County at the Jenison Fine Arts Center. The Supreme Court held a real session and
took actual oral argument in a rare “certified question” from the United States
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The
question involved technology – Pandora specifically. The case was viewed by over 1,000 students
from throughout the County.
Kudos to our Circuit,
Probate and District Courts for hosting such an impactful and fun event.
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 Advocates and Leaders for Police and Community trust
(ALPACT) is comprised of leaders and members of the community in Ottawa County,
civil rights and civil liberties organizations, and law enforcement leaders
from Ottawa County. The members meet
regularly to look at and examine issues affecting police and community
relations. ALPACT members work together to explore strategies to increase
opportunities for community partnering and to build a stronger foundation for
higher levels of community trust of law enforcement. ALPACT as an important tool can enhance
efforts to produce a more trusting and positive community and law enforcement
relationship in communities in Ottawa County.
The original ALPACT initiative was established in 1998 in
Detroit, Michigan. This ALPACT was
formed by the Michigan Roundtable for Diversity & Inclusion and included
four police chiefs and four prominent leaders who came together to discuss issues
and community relations.
The mission of ALPACT will be accomplished by:
- Working with law enforcement, community and
civil rights groups through meetings and forums to identify and address issues
affecting police and community relations.
- Educating communities on the scope of the
identified issues and the strategies needed to address these issues affecting
police and community relations.
- Promoting training of local law enforcement
officers on identified issues affecting police and community relations.
Sheriff Gary Rosema stated, “As a county-wide ALPACT
initiative, we took an opportunity to look at other ALPACT initiatives around
the state and what they stood for and how they operated. It was obvious that ALPACT is about community
and how you develop and sustain law enforcement and community relationship
while understanding both the needs of the community and the role of law
enforcement. A clear understanding how the “system” impacts individual and
communities is critical to our success.”
APLACT in Ottawa County is a county-wide effort. ALPACT has brought together individuals, law
enforcement, prosecutors, organizations, and disciplines from various
communities to have open discussions related to law enforcement, the criminal
justice system, community based programs and the community itself. The ALPACT group meets bi-monthly at the
Ottawa County Fillmore Complex. The
ALPACT co-chaired by Undersheriff Steve Kempker and Mr. Jose Gomez of
Coopersville.
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The County hosted representatives from the Michigan Association of Counties
(MAC) Region lll: Allegan,
Barry, Berrien, Branch, Calhoun, Cass, Eaton, Ionia, Kalamazoo, Kent, Muskegon,
Ottawa, St. Joseph, and Van Buren. Representatives from the County
Commissions meet periodically each year to learn about successful service
delivery in other counties. Dean
Kapenga, Allegan County Commissioner is leading the group this year and Denny
Van Dam, Ottawa County Commissioner is our representative to the group. Presentations were given by the following: Sheriff Rosema (partnerships), Treasurer
Slagh (Dog Licensing & Top Dog Photo Contest), Lynne Doyle (mental health
millage) and Misty Cunningham, Captain John Wolffis and Al Vanderberg (customer
service).
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It
may have been rainy and cold, but we celebrated Arbor Day a day early in Grand
Haven by planting five trees and other small bushes to improve the landscaping
at the Ottawa County Courthouse in Grand Haven. The pictures
show County Commissioner Roger Bergman welcoming neighbors and doing a ceremonial
planting. The improvements replace some trees that had died, and other
landscaping that needed some attention, bordering the parking lot and
neighborhood along Clinton Street. |
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Spencer Ballard
OCDPH Environmental Health Team Supervisor
Decade Award for Leadership in Innovation
Spencer received this
award for his leadership and creativity in implementing the new Environmental
Health Decade Software. Throughout the process he and the environmental health team
worked on innovative solutions and new ways of using the system that will lead
to quality improvements for our department.
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Dale Zahn
CEO of the West Michigan Lakeshore Association of
Realtors
Michigan Environmental Health Association’s
Distinguished Service Award Non-Member
Dale has been designated by MEHA to receive a special
award in recognition of his contributions to environmental health and/or MEHA.
Jessica Voglewede,
OCDPH Environmental Health Specialist
Michigan Environmental Health Association’s
David H. McMullen Young Professional of the Year Award
Jessica has been designated by MEHA to receive this special
award in recognition of her outstanding accomplishment(s) to the environmental
health profession within the first five years of her employment.
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Janine Chittenden
OCDPH Community Health Team Supervisor
2015 Nurse Administration Forum Leadership Award
Janine (on the left) has
been an active member of the Nurse Administrators Forum for many years, and has
provided leadership on a number of Michigan Department of Health and Human
Services and Michigan Association of Local Public Health committees that have led to improvements in
public health practice at the state and local level.
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The call volume and
incident numbers handled through Ottawa County Central Dispatch
for March 2016 were:
Total Incidents – 9,225
up 4.6% over March 2015 and down 1% YTD over 2015
Fire Incidents – 1,276
up 7% over March 2015 and up 3.8% YTD over 2015
Law Incidents – 7,949
up 4.2% over March 2015 and down 1.8% YTD over 2015
911 Calls – 7,684 up 2.4% over March 2015 and down 6.4% YTD over 2015
911 Hang Up calls - 832 even with March
2015 and down 8.9% YTD over 2015
Wireless 911 calls – 89.2% of 911
calls for March 2016 and 91.2% of Total 911 calls for 2015
911 calls answered in 10 seconds or less - 93.7% for
March 2016 and 94% YTD for 2016
(NENA recommended standard is 90% within 10 seconds)
Click here for the most recent update, for older updates click here.
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