Comments on: Proposed County Budget Brings Cuts

By: Crazymad711

Crazymad711 — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 20:22:58 +0000

The proposal was pulled but not dead yet. “McDaniel said she hopes to bring the reorganization proposal back to the board for consideration after commissioners are more comfortable with it” So in other words you plan on pushing it through when no one is looking. I am willing to bet that this money gets put under the $500,000 misc item in the budget, lots of hidden cost there. Why should anybody in a NON Union position get paid more money for doing more work when UNION staff has been doing that for years. I have constantly worked more than my position, often taking on 50% or more of other duties when staff was laid off. There was never a mention of extra pay for that work, we were expected to do it or GET FIRED. So 4 people are covering the job of ONE, and they need to be paid more at the same time UNION employees have agreed to give up a large percentage of their check to help with the county shortfall. All of these employees already make over $100,000 and if their pay is over $125,000 the money will go into their retirement.
I have worked for the County for over 20 years, the cuts to take place in 2012 will take my income from a huge $1,640 take home a month to approximately $1,200 a month (the same pay as I made in 2002) and that money is now to be given to people who take home approximately $5000 a month.
Every county job as the statement “other duties as assigned” written into its description. Why in the world should these people get paid more for doing more work, when non-union staff have been covering 2 or 3 positions that have been cut and merged into their job description over and over. Local 2733 have lost over half of its members due to cuts, the union has given more and more while those in higher positions continue to get more money. How insulting to the working class. . If you want to spend $75,000 dollars, use that money to increase the beds in the shelter since I am sure some county employees will be living there come 2012. I forgot, the county just cut that money out too so now their will be no warming shelters for homeless people. Maybe they can stay inside the admistration building, Verna can pay for the coffee.

By: Edward Vielmetti

Edward Vielmetti — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 22:06:40 +0000

A previous story from March 2010 in the Chronicle is instructive: [link] with reference to the county's obligations under the Dog Law of 1919:

Washtenaw County meets that obligation through its contract with the Humane Society of Huron Valley. The value of that contract in 2007 was $200,000, which has increased by $100,000 each year to its current level of $500,000. No further increases of this kind are planned, because the amount is now in alignment with what HSHV estimated to be its actual cost of providing the service to the county [.pdf of HSHV analysis from 2006]. At the Dec. 2, 2009 meeting of the board of commissioners, Tanya Hilgendorf, HSHV’s executive director, had extended her thanks to the county for the funding. She also told commissioners that if the county were to provide that service independently, it would cost an estimated $1.6 million.

By: Deb Kern

Deb Kern — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 19:56:58 +0000

For the people who will not read the linked PDF’s to this article, I encourage you to please read more about the contract the Humane Society of Huron Valley has with the county.

The contract with the County is exactly that, a contract. It is not “funding,”– not a gift, nor a grant. It is a service agreement to provide state-mandated County services for animals that are:
- stray and abandoned
- victims of cruelty whose owners are being prosecuted
- bite/rabies quarantined
- dogs in the process of being deemed dangerous by the courts
- animals otherwise brought to HSHV for legal reasons

In most counties (including, Jackson, Monroe, Livingston, Oakland and Macomb) there are county-run animal control facilities and completely separate humane societies because the humane societies don’t typically care for the types of animals mentioned above. Rather, the humane societies focus on prevention, education, and animals relinquished by their owners.

In Washtenaw County, HSHV serves both functions. Instead of Washtenaw County government running its own animal control facility, they contract with HSHV, saving them immense expense and not a small amount of headaches.

Last year, stray and abandoned animals made up over 4,500 of the 6,700 total cared for at HSHV.

Please go to http://www.hshv.org and read more.