Issue of the Month: Kent County Drain Commissioner

The past several months I have highlighted a county department performing services for our citizens. This month I want to highlight our County’s Drain Commissioner, Bill Byl. The County Drain Commissioner is an elected official whose mission is to “improve and maintain storm water drainage for the public health, safety, convenience, and welfare of the citizens of the county.” There are over 536 miles of County Drain and 356 storm water detention ponds in the county. In recent years the Drain Commissioner worked with all local units to update their drain master plans, and covered half the cost. The Drain Commissioner also has responsibility to monitor and control lake levels in 19 lakes throughout the county. We have had several months of record rainfall and snowfall this year—culminating in the mid-April deluge that really taxed our county’s drainage systems. Grand Rapids sits about in the middle of the Grand River basin which begins way back in the central part of the state and has numerous smaller rivers and creeks draining into it. Each smaller river and creek has numerous ponds and drainage tiles flowing into it. Although Commissioner Byl has taken precautions to minimize flood damage by installing new drainage systems, and maintaining storm water ponds, the rain deluge over an extended period of time still sent unprecedented flood waters into the Grand River and nearly swamped Grand Rapids. The fact it didn’t create any more damage than it did is a credit to Drain Commissioner Byl’s expertise. Although the Drain Commissioner is an elected official, it is important to have someone in that position that has experience and education to handle the responsibilities. Commissioner Byl has that experience and education.

Issue of the Month: Kent County Sports Commission

The County Commission established the West Michigan Sports Commission seven years ago to bring new tourist and economic development to our county by bringing popular sports events to the area. In 2012 The Sports Commission brought 60 events with thousands of people and millions of dollars spent in hotels, restaurants and entertainment areas. Some signature events the Sports Commission has become involved in are (1) the Meijer State Games of Michigan which features 31 sports in an Olympic format so that participants can get a feel of the actual International Olympics, (2) the 2012 Transplant Games of America which highlighted participants with and/or participating in some sort of organ transplant, and (3) Major college venues such as the MHSAA Division I swimming and diving championship competition and the NCAA Division I hockey regional at Van Andel Arena. A recent highlight is the construction of a 12 field baseball and softball complex in northern Kent County that will bring numerous baseball and softball competitions to our area from throughout Michigan and surrounding states. This new complex received a major donation from Art Van Furniture plus many others donors to cover the cost of development. No Kent County general fund dollars are involved. This new complex will be completed by Fall of 2013, and is expected to have an economic impact of $10 M in the first five years of operation. One of the fields will be used by players with disabilities and will be called the ‘Miracle Field’. The Sports Commission is also working to make Grand Rapids one of the regional sites for future NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament. The next big event this year will be the Meijer Games on June 21-23 at the Fifth Third Ballpark.

Issue of the Month: Kent County Dispatch Authority

Since 2007 the County has made significant progress in providing county citizens the ability to get emergency services with one phone call to 911. We started with the appointment of an eleven member Kent County Dispatch Authority (KCDA). During the past six years the Authority has (1) consolidated public safety dispatch from nine centers into two major redundant centers—the City of Grand Rapids and Kent County Sheriff’s Department (2) reduced 911 transfers between dispatch centers by establishing new wireless 911 direct call routing schemes, and (3) implemented new call handling technology so that efficiency and quality of information is improved. These have led to faster response times for emergency workers. The annual budget for the KCDA is about $5 million. There are two major sources of funding—one a state surcharge of .29 per cell phone that brings in $1 Million, and the other a county surcharge of .45 cents per cell phone bringing in another $4 Million. Out of the revenue received about $2.5 Million is dedicated to operations and the remainder used to fund administrative costs as well as equipment replacement and maintenance. During the next year the KCDA is planning to purchase $150,000 worth of equipment to implement the Priority Dispatch Emergency Medical Dispatch system at each of the two call centers. This will give Kent County residents access to medial pre-arrival instructions without the need to transfer the caller to another location. It will also study the cost of a new county-wide interoperable radio system that will serve all public safety agencies. A recent report by Curtis Holt, Chair of the Authority stressed the need to continue funding the Authority. Check out more information at www.Kent911.org.

Issue of the Month: Kent County Performance Management

Like every good public body, Kent County has focused on getting the most good for the public dollars it receives from taxing its citizens. The County has had an internal performance management and measurement system since 1997, and has gradually tweaked it to become one of the most highly thought of performance enhancing systems in the state. Our system involves every department head developing their own method of measuring output, outcomes, and efficiencies. These measures are reviewed and approved by a countywide Performance Measurement Review Team (PMRT) before becoming that department’s measure of effectiveness and/ or efficiency with county public funds. The department heard provides once per year verbal and written reports to the Legislative and Human Resources Committee of the County Commission. The performance system has received two major improvements since being formally established in 1997. An initiative in 2004 resulted in more of the measurements tracking actual ‘outcomes’ or quality versus only ‘outputs’ or quantity. A further improvement in 2008 involved development of a countywide database so each department head can input data into a database that can be accessed by all departments so there is one consistent format of measuring performance countywide. The new database has been used by the Administrator to merge performance data into his annual budgeting process. The Performance Management System has become the focal point to ensure efforts are being made continually toward accomplishing the County’s mission to “be an effective and efficient steward in delivering quality services for our diverse community.” Check it out at www.accesskent.gov Performance Management System.

Issue of the Month: Probate Court of Kent County

Last month I presented the 17th District Court of Kent County. The Kent County Probate Court occupies the same building, but in different courtrooms and with different judges. The Probate Court is a court of statutory jurisdiction concerned with the protection of incapacitated or mentally ill individuals and their assets, and the proper transfer of assets at death. Protection of incapacitated adults involve guardianships, guardianships of minors, and guardianships for persons with developmental disabilities. If a guardian is appointed, the Court must monitor the guardianship, making sure the guardian is performing in the best interests of the individual being protected. The Probate Court also hears petitions for Protective Orders, civil actions where a person or party is suing a trust or estate, and gets involved in minor issues such as change of name and handling the disposition of an estate where there is no will. There are currently four Probate Court judges in Kent County. The work of the Probate Court has grown by nearly 30 percent in the past five years. Most of this increase is because of an increase in need for appointment of guardians. The growing aging population is causing some of this increase, but also an increasing workload addressing mental commitment cases. The Probate Court has nearly 1200 minors under guardianship. Guardians are either paid through the private assets of the protected person, or in the case of indigent persons, the state pays $45/month for guardianship services. During the summer of 2011 our Probate Court was audited along with Wayne, Saginaw, and Ingham Probate Courts to assess the effectiveness of Probate Courts. The Kent County Probate Court showed favorable results in comparison with the other counties.

Issue of the Month: 17th Circuit Court of Kent County

The Kent County 17th Circuit Court is, like all Michigan Circuit Courts, the trial court of general jurisdiction. It has jurisdiction in all civil matters over $25,000, all criminal cases where the offense is a serious misdemeanor or felony, all domestic relations cases, and all child abuse, neglect, and delinquency cases. There are currently 13 judges sitting on the 17th Circuit Court, and 225 FTEs employees doing the work of the Court. There are 10 Circuit Court judges, and 3 Family Court judges within the 17th Circuit Court. The work is divided organizationally between three areas: (1) Administration and Adjudication Services with 105 employees performing the administrative work of the Court and headed by a Court Administrator; (2) Circuit Court Services with 23 employees providing alternatives to incarceration for appropriate defendants; and (3) nearly 100 employees working in the Friend of the Court section managing the huge child support and parenting issues. This represents over $25 million of cost borne by county taxpayers — very little of which actually benefits any particular taxpayer personally. Our County does a fairly good job of developing alternatives to traditional justice and punishment system and relies on a broad range of alternatives for both adult and juvenile offenders so they don’t have to spend much time in jail. An additional function of the Circuit Court is the provision of the Office of Community Corrections which seeks to limit state prison commitments for County offenders, and prevents local jail overcrowding through a system of Jail Bed Allocations to each judge. The Circuit Court makes improvements every year in how it selects jurors and how they are treated during their time of duty. I’ll cover the Probate Court next month.

Issue of the Month: County Prosecutor’s Office

The County Prosecutor’s office provides prosecutor services on behalf of all citizens of Kent County in the 17th Circuit Court, and District Courts 61, 62A, 62B, 63, and 59 located in the main cities and townships of the County. Seventeen law enforcement agencies in these localities submit charges and warrants to the Office. These are fielded by 3 Assistants 24 hours per day to ensure immediate charges can be filed, and perpetrators put in jail. There are 33 attorneys, plus the elected County Prosecutor, Bill Forsyth, to handle these cases. In the past year there were over 9,000 warrants authorized. The highest number of charges were for controlled substances (1800), and the next highest group, each with over 1300 cases, were larceny and retail fraud, OUIL/OWVI, and Domestic Violence. The number of homicides dropped dramatically from a year ago to 9 this year and 25 the year before. The Prosecutor’s Office is split into four main functions (1) Criminal Division which handles all criminal cases, (2) Appellate Division handling appeals on previous convictions, and (3) Family Law Division handling such things as paternity cases, and child support; and (4) Juvenile Division handling all delinquency, neglect, and mental incompetency hearings. The Prosecutor’s office operates with a budget of nearly $8 million, and has less attorneys and funds compared to other similar sized counties throughout Michigan. Even with the somewhat limited number of attorneys and funds, our Prosecutor’s Office is one of the more effective counties in the State with 98 convictions per attorney, compared to a low of 36 per attorney in Ingham County, 78 in Macomb, and 61 in Kalamazoo County. Next month a review of the individual courts will be provided.