Meeting Notes 4-26-22
Meeting Notes from the April 26 Meeting of the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners.
Meeting Packet: https://www.miottawa.org/appImages/Calendar/1650647069286-packet.PDF
Meeting Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ1NZW_hkRM
FY2022 Budget Adjustments, including Contract for Forensic Panel Report in the UM Innocence Project Appeal of People v. Karen Boes case: : The Board approved 10-1 the Budget Adjustments for March including a request from the Ottawa County Prosecutor’s Office for $141,400 to contract with the Forensic Panel Group to produce a report addressing various issues raised by the appellant in their May 2021 Motion and Brief.
I support the Prosecuting Attorney’s office’s desire to respond to the original motion; however, I voted no on this item because I feel the cost, $141,400 for a single report, far exceeds our normal expense structure in Ottawa County for engaging experts to assist us.
2022 Ottawa County Equalized Value
The Board voted to approve the 2022 Ottawa County Equalized values and to appoint the Equalization Director to represent Ottawa County at State Equalization Hearings.
Summary:
State law requires the County Board of Commissioners to set County Equalized Values for each class of property throughout the County. A local unit's Assessed value can be adopted as the County Equalized Value in all classes of property where the ratio of Assessed Value to this year's recommended True Cash Value for that class computes to within 49% and 50%. This year all property classes in all jurisdictions were found to be within the appropriate margin and therefore can be adopted as County Equalized Values.
Sheriff's Office Personnel Request for Crisis Intervention Team Coordinator position: The Board voted to approve the proposal to add one, full-time, benefitted Crisis Intervention Team Coordinator position at the POLC 312 Eligible Road Patrol paygrade at an additional cost of $123,961 paid for with Bureau of Justice grant funding.
Summary:
The Ottawa County Sheriff's Office (OCSO) has been awarded a $500,000 Connect and Protect: Law Enforcement Behavioral Health Responses grant from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA). This grant is designated to support law enforcement and behavioral health cross-system collaboration in an effort to improve public safety responses and outcomes for individuals with mental illness and/or substance abuse who come into contact with the criminal justice system.
The Ottawa County emergency response system primarily involves the OCSO, Ottawa County Central Dispatch Authority (OCCDA), local police departments, fire departments, EMS providers, and hospitals. While all of these agencies play a critical role in emergency response, none of these agencies are robustly prepared to respond to emergencies from the perspective of behavioral health best practices, serious mental illness, intellectual/developmental disabilities and substance use disorder treatment.
During police interactions with the public, where the stakes for both officers and the public are high, protocols and practices informed by mental health professionals could greatly improve the efficacy of our local response to emergencies. OCSO is committed to advancing our partnership with Community Mental Health of Ottawa County (CMHOC), our local mental health agency, in order to integrate behavioral health best practices throughout our emergency response system and, whenever possible, divert people from criminal prosecution and into appropriate treatment and community services at the earliest point of intercept.
While the initial partnerships, staffing and primary intervention methodologies have been established, the requested CIT Team Coordinator position will build the necessary programming so that these efforts will be impactful and sustainable over time.
