Make the cuts fair, when the cost from the Non Union to the Union equals out (when they are equal to the amounts we have lost in the past including small wage increases) then the Union members will be willing to at least listen.

DO NOT KEEP BLAMING THE UNION FOR YOUR POOR JUDGEMENT. THE COUNTY WAS TOLD SEVERAL YEARS AGO BY EQUALIZATION WHAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN AND THEY STILL KEEP BUILdING BOB’S LITTLE KINGDOM.

The county adminstration has supposely spent a million dollars on redoing the Towner Office in Ypsilanti, by putting new cabinets, carpets, new floor mats, new phones (there was a room piled high with the old phones), this building has been redone at least 3 times in the last 10 years. The JAIL that Guenzel is building was voted down by county residents, (do you think that the $12,000,000 crisis may have something to do with that). Bob Guenzel, whom, in his wisdom decided to built the JAIL,(which they won’t be to fill it because they won’t have the money to pay for the staff). A sitution which is just like the ZEEB RD BUILDING, (which is 3/4 empty at this time.)

The county wastes money everyday, how much do you think the land scaping cost is for the county. Get over looking good and put down plain grass, not trees and plants that have special requirements with expensive pricetags attached.
Nobody needs to have food and drink at meetings unless it paid by grant money.

Stop the use of color printers and copiers. People do not need embossed certificate in color when they take a class, send a email to me. If my boss wants it, it sure is less expensive than getting through the county mail system (another waste of money). Stop the use of county cars by staff (Vera’s car) recently went to one of the offices in which a car is needed to provide services, not because the Deputy wants to do some shopping in a County car. The county empolyees have to take stupid survey every few years to judge how the county is working (called the OCS). Half the staff don’t fill it out because it does not make any diffences and the othef half (few really tell how they feel) because they are afraid of becoming a target. (I know this has happend, the county will deny but serveral supervisors have really dumped on the employees after the surveys) SO STOP THE SURVEY. STOP HAVING REPEAT SURVEYS DONE UNTIL YOU GET THE ANSWER THAT THE COUNTY WANTS TO HEAR. Many reports to the county including the county OCS has stated that the county is management heavy (NON-UNION), they won’t listen. The counties states that is laying off 24 Non Union, ten which are vacant and then they are adding 2 new Non-Union jobs. (So they give up 10 total). Their average pay is between $80,000 to $100,000. Stop picking on the same groups (most of whom the average pay is between $30,000 to $40,000)to take the cuts. Most support staff are already doing at least 2 employees work and YOU want to add more.

PLEASE PEOPLE OF WASHTENAW COUNTY, DEMAND A REAL ACCOUNT OF THE BUDGET, FOUND OUT THE COST OF THE JAIL AND THE COST OF OTHER BUILDING IN THE COUNTY. DEMAND TO KNOW PEOPLES SALARIES AND HOW MUCH THEY HAVE BE PAID IN YEARLY INCREASES (NOBODY DESERVE $5,000 OR MORE IN A PAY FOR PERFORMANCE INCREASES). MAKE THE COUNTY STOP HIDING BEHIND ALL THE ACCOUNTING GARBAGE THEY PUT OUT. IT IS REALLY SIMPLE, IN MONEY, OUT MONEY. WHY ARE WE PAYING FOR DIFFRENT TP IN THE BOC BATHROOMS AND BOTTLED WATER IN MANY BUILDINGS. GET PISSED OFF NOW…..or soon, well the people of the county will suffer, especially the poorer ones, and it might be you.

You are correct about the overlapping services, both by multiple non-profits and government service providers. It is particularly true of housing and homeless service providers.

Though, from a County perspective, they only have control over the money that it spends on services and cannot control the growth of non-profits. This area is a particularly good haven for non-profits because of the amount of wealth in the area.

Your point about the “nature” of employees who work in non-profits is completely false and presumptuous. I can tell you from experience that most of the employees for non-profits are both young and inexperienced or under qualified. Most use the time to gain experience before they move to better paying positions with a County, State or City agency. There are exceptions and there are very committed people, but again you will get what you pay for.

But the point of my earlier comment has gone largely unnoticed and that is the apparent plethora of non-profits AND governmental agencies that offer services to those in need. Each one of these units has an overhead structure that needs to be fed taking resources away from direct service delivery. I think that it’s time for some group to take a look at this and “rationalize” the number of units (both non-profits and government departments) that provide services and start to combine them to gain some efficiencies. A $100 million City budget along with a similar County budget plus the dozens (?) of millions spent by local non-profits is a lot of money. In total these budgets likely reflect around $750 for every resident in the county. It seems to me that we could get more out of these dollars if we spent them wisely instead of worrying about how County Commissioners get reimbursed for their mileage to and from Commission meetings, for example.

My reaction was based on some impatience with the generality of the proposition, after we made a good-faith effort to correct such problems. But it seems that the wheel keeps turning around and arrives again at the same spot.

I agree with most of your points, but having had direct working relationship with a lot of those agencies, quite a few rely on public sources for survival. Far more than you imply including Ozone House, which is referenced in the article.

I think it is debatable whether sub-contracting for services is cost efficient than providing it directly to clients. I think it is easier and cheaper, and in the end, you generally get what you pay for…

The County has not established any clear priorities and has shown even less capacity to actually fund to them. Because of the continued revenue growth, the County became the patron for a lot of agencies and services which were either not needed or ineffective. Among the Board of Commissioners, there has never been a desire to take a hard look at real outcomes as it relates to spending on social services by the County. There has been an even greater reluctance to look at needs by geography. They just don’t really want or care to know, it has always been a state of blissful ignorance when it comes to social service spending.

When faced with criticism, the supporters argue a false morality, which ends any rational discussion about needs in the community. Just because I am critical of spending on social services, it is based on my assertion that under the current structure it does very little to address real needs, and not because I’m insensitive or oppose assistance to county residents.

Also…JCP, I understand your point, but the County was the last horse to cross that finish line. Oakland County and many others had projected the budget impact far sooner than the Washtenaw did. The Board strategically ignored the signs because they did not want to make difficult choices until was too late and they had no choice. As a consequence of their failure, the cuts were for more severe.

I was not their fault that the revenue dropped, but it was a failure of leadership.

1. At the BOC some years ago (1998? 2000?) we altered the procedure for both the new Childrens’ Well-being and the old Human Services grants programs. Previously commissioners spent a great deal of time dickering over amounts for various favored agencies. We went to a staff-directed outcomes-weighted procedure that did result in favoring more established agencies over others; but it also meant that some agencies no longer received funds. At the time, it was said that we were in the business to deliver services, not support agencies.

2. One reason that nonprofit agencies have become a chief vehicle for delivering services is that they are much more economical (i.e., cheaper) than using governmental employees. Another is that they can solicit funding from other sources, so that governmental grants are multiplied. Generally the people in these agencies are also dedicated to what they do.

3. “Clear priorities” for these dollars were established long ago. I don’t have them to hand but they include health, housing, the elderly, and children. The WHP is just one example of a priority and not necessarily the only one.

4. One of the reason for “alphabet soup” is that certain configurations and bureaucratic devices are required to utilize federal funds from various sources.

5. I agree, though, that services should be a priority. A lot of bad investments have been made, whether for programs of uncertain utility like the Aerotropolis or the building program that produced among other things the big, now partly empty, Zeeb Road facility. Unfortunately we are now living with the result of overblown budgets based on the concept, as our past budget director was fond of saying, “The best predictor of the future is the past.” That led to huge projected revenue amounts based on a concept of perpetual growth, and thus long-term obligations to pay for the bonds.

I would even suggest that the County should (actually should have long ago) review the existing services and establish clear priorities. This is particularly shameful when the WHP is closing enrollment at a time when so many people are losing heath coveage. Its seems odd, that the County, if it acted strategically, could direct funding to the WHP and not at the multitude of service provides, who amount to sub-contractors.

Between the alphabet soup of county agencies and dozens and dozens of non-profit service providers,I can tell you first hand, that too often more energy goes into maintaining the Human Service Industry Bureacracy than actually providing services to the county residents. President Eisenhower called it the military industrial complex and tragically I think that similar lessons apply to the human service industry in the County.

Each one of these non-profits and governmental departments/service areas has a department head (or Executive Director) and staff providing direct services as well as an administrative component (including staff as well,) etc…

I’m certain that each of these little (and not so little) “units” were formed at some time in the past based on some genuine need at the time of formation. However, at this point, there must be a tremendous amount of overhead and duplication involved in maintaining all these little (and not so little) units.

I cannot help but wonder if there is an opportunity to consolidate some of these units to streamline the overhead and make more resources available for direct services? I know that this would mean the loss of some jobs and some folks would loose their “turf.” But isn’t the public best served by maximizing the resources that can go into direct services rather than as a de facto “jobs program” for a lot of duplicate overhead staff, offices, vehicles, etc…???