According to a staff memo, $16.9 million in principal remains of the original $21.675 million bond sale. The county’s bond counsel, Axe & Ecklund, is advising the re-funding because of lower interest rates, and estimates a net savings of about $869,000 over life of the bond issue. The new issue would be called “County of Washtenaw Capital Improvement Refunding Bonds, Series 2014.” [.pdf of refunding resolution]

Bond counsel John Axe told the board that current interest rates are between 4% and 4.3%. He estimated that the re-funding interest rates would be between 2.2% and 3.8%.

A final vote on this item is expected at the board’s April 16 meeting.

This brief was filed from the boardroom of the county administration building, 220 N. Main St. in Ann Arbor. A more detailed report will follow: [link]

At right: David Trent, Salem Township clerk, attended Wednesday's meeting and thanked commissioners for approving a settlement over the police services lawsuit between the county and township. (Photos by the writer.)

Under terms of the settlement, Salem Township will pay the county nearly $48,000 to cover the costs of sheriff deputy patrols provided by the county in 2006. The townships of Salem, Augusta and Ypsilanti sued the county that year, disputing the amount that was charged for police services. The county and the other two townships are awaiting a judgment to resolve the issue – the county is asking for $2.1 million from Ypsilanti Township and nearly $96,000 from Augusta Township.

David Trent, Salem Township clerk, attended Wednesday’s board meeting and spoke during public commentary, thanking the board for the settlement and saying he was coming forward on behalf of the township board in hopes of starting the healing process between the township and the county. Several commissioners thanked township officials for ending the dispute.

In other agenda items, only one person spoke at a public hearing on the county millage rate, which was set later in the meeting. Commissioners also approved $1.35 million in additional funding to complete the expanded jail and new 14A-1 District Court, with some discussion about issues related to parking and a new Washtenaw Avenue entrance.

And although last month commissioner Ronnie Peterson had vowed to bring a resolution to the June 2 meeting that would reestablish a county land bank, on Wednesday he told commissioners he’d been asked by board chair Rolland Sizemore Jr. to defer that action until their July 7 meeting. Saying he was respectful of that request, Peterson added, “On July 7th, I’ll be aggressive.”

The upcoming elections were mentioned, too. Commissioner Barbara Bergman chastised the Washtenaw County Road Commission for charging Scio Township $2,000 to locate a polling station for the August primary and November general election in the road commission’s Zeeb Road facility. Scio officials say they’ll find another venue, calling the road commission’s decision “disappointing at best.”

Police Services Lawsuit: Salem Settles

The resolution unanimously passed by commissioners on Wednesday effectively ends the smallest portion of the police services lawsuit brought by the townships of Ypsilanti, Augusta and Salem. The suit is winding down – earlier this year, the state Supreme Court refused to reconsider a motion made by the townships to hear the case, and sent it back to 38th Circuit Court Chief Judge Joseph Costello to rule on a judgment request. A hearing on the request took place on Wednesday morning in Monroe County Circuit Court.

The court has held that the townships are liable to the county for additional amounts to cover police services that the county provided to them between Jan. 1 and Dec. 5, 2006 – at $24 an hour more than the townships had paid under a previous contract.

At Wednesday’s hearing, Costello told the county that it needs to provide evidence documenting the specific number of hours of police services provided to the three townships during that time period. According to Jill Wheaton – a Dykema attorney who’s working on the case – after the county produces the backup documentation, it will then ask the court to enter a judgment for $24 per hour, plus interest and costs previously awarded by the court to the county. The amount totals $2,103,822 for Ypsilanti Township, which used 44 deputies, and $95,932 for Augusta Township, which used two deputies.

During Wednesday’s hearing, Ypsilanti and Augusta townships asked for a trial on the issue of whether they were liable for additional payments at all, but the court denied that request.

Salem Township has agreed to pay the additional $24 per hour for the police services provided to it during that time period – and Wednesday night’s approval by commissioners of the settlement agreement with Salem Township will allow that township to be dropped from the lawsuit. During the board meeting, commissioner Ken Schwartz – whose district includes Salem Township – clarified that the county would be entering an order to dismiss. Corporation counsel Curtis Hedger said that Costello had been informed of the likely settlement with Salem Township, and that the judge had simply indicated that the proper paperwork would need to be filed. Because the amounts requested by the county are calculated based on the number of hours of deputy patrols provided to each township during the period in dispute, it’s easy to separate out Salem from the other townships, Hedger said.

Rolland Sizemore Jr. asked a point of clarification: If the documentation produced by the county reveals a different number of hours charged to Salem Township, can the settlement be changed? No, Hedger said, they’ll be bound by the settlement agreement. But the county is confident that the numbers are right, he added.

During public commentary, David Trent – Salem Township’s clerk – spoke to the board, saying he thanked the commissioners on behalf of the township board, and was coming forward in the spirit of starting the healing process between the two groups. They looked forward to working with the county board in the future, he said.

Sizemore thanked Schwartz and the Salem Township board for working out the settlement. Conan Smith thanked Trent and other Salem Township officials as well, noting that it’s his home township and it’s been hard to have the division between the county and township. [Smith, who now lives in Ann Arbor, grew up in Salem Township where his mother, state Rep. Alma Wheeler Smith, still lives.] He said he appreciated the township’s generosity in bringing this chapter to a close.

Extra Funding for Jail Expansion, Court

County administrator Verna McDaniel had given a presentation to the board at their May 20, 2010 working session, outlining her plans to request an additional $1.35 million related to the jail expansion and new court facility off of Hogback Road. There were two parts to the request: 1) $495,958 for additional costs related to the original project proposal, and 2) $861,000 in costs considered to be outside the scope of the originally approved project.

At the working session, commissioner Barbara Bergman had objected to a fence that was built around part of the parking lot. She also criticized plans to secure the gate with a lock. She raised those same issues on Wednesday, saying that it creates a privileged group of employees – namely, staff of the court who are provided with more secure parking – and results in a shortage of parking spaces for others, including the public. It’s been a policy of the county not to fence things in, she said – otherwise, where does it stop?

Bergman said she had planned to bring a resolution opposing the fenced-in, locked parking area, but she knew it would be defeated. She also had talked to McDaniel, who Bergman said had promised to take a comprehensive look at the parking situation there.

Wes Prater commended Bergman for raising the issue, and said he agreed that they should revisit the decision to enclose parking for court staff.

Kristin Judge asked about bids for the Washtenaw Avenue entrance to the corrections complex. At the May 20 working session, she had questioned why bids for that piece of the project were more than a year old. On Wednesday, Dave Shirley, the county’s operations and maintenance manager, reported that they now had three estimates on construction, ranging from $215,000 to $250,000. There would be additional costs as well, he said, including engineering, permits, landscaping and signs. And there are unknowns that might be uncovered underground as they start the project, he said. McDaniel requested a total of $600,000 to reconfigure that entrance.

Speaking about the overall funding request, Jeff Irwin said he supported it. What hurt the most was less-than-expected interest earnings, he noted – $218,855 less than originally estimated from the bond that funded the project. They also had hoped to pay for the entrance out of savings gained during the project, he said, but those savings didn’t materialize. Nonetheless, it’s an important entrance and will make the facility more accessible, he said.

Ken Schwartz added that it would be hard to fathom a corrections facility having only one entrance, especially if there were an emergency.

Commissioners unanimously approved the request at both the Ways & Means Committee and regular board meeting. McDaniel has indicated that she’ll likely return with additional funding requests related to the project, to be included in the 2012 and 2013 budgets.

Land Bank: Revived in July?

At the board’s May 19, 2010 meeting, commissioner Ronnie Peterson had promised to bring a resolution to the June 2 meeting that would reinstate the county’s land bank, which commissioners had dissolved in March. On Wednesday, Peterson told commissioners he’d subsequently had a breakfast meeting with the board chair, Rolland Sizemore Jr., who had asked him to wait until July 7 before proposing a land bank resolution.

Peterson said that he’d be respectful of that request, but that on July 7 “I’ll be aggressive.” Jessica Ping, who chairs the board’s working sessions, pointed out that the topic of a land bank was on the agenda for the July 8 working session. Peterson said he didn’t have a problem with that – they can discuss the resolution that they’ll pass on July 7. He said he had delayed it until July 7, but would not push it back until August. [In the summer, the board meets only once a month.]

Sizemore said the land bank is a good idea, but there are still some glitches to work out. He encouraged commissioners to attend a seminar on land banks being held next week in Lansing.

Ping proposed shifting the discussion from the July 8 working session to the July 7 meeting of the Ways & Means Committee, which is held immediately prior to the regular board meeting. That way, they could talk through the issues they needed to discuss, then vote on the resolution that same evening. Conan Smith, who chairs Ways & Means, agreed.

Other Actions: Deputy Administrator, Millage, WCHO

The board approved several other items with during Wednesday’s meeting. Those action include:

• Giving final approval to hire Bill Reynolds as deputy county administrator, effective June 21, 2010. There was no discussion on this item.
• Authorizing the renewal of an agreement with the University of Michigan to continue the Washtenaw Community Health Organization (WCHO).
• Setting the county millage rate at 5.6767 mills. Only one person – Thomas Partridge – spoke during a public hearing on the millage. He said commissioners should have encouraged their constituents to come to the hearing, and that the millage lacked equity, as all flat-rate millages do. It’s time for tax reform, he said. Several commissioners responded to his comments. Kristin Judge pointed out that there was no increase, and Ken Schwartz noted that the county is bound by the state constitution and by voter-approved millages. “We have to live with that,” he said. Wes Prater said that because property values have declined, most taxpayers will see a decrease in their tax bills – and the county will have less tax revenue.

MSU Extension Program: New Leadership

At a March 4, 2010 working session of the county board, Nancy Thelen – the long-time director of the Washtenaw County Michigan State University Extension – briefed commissioners on restructuring of the statewide program. [Chronicle coverage: "MSU Extension Changes in the Works"] One major change affected her directly, as county director positions are being eliminated, to be replaced by district coordinators that have responsibility for several counties. On Wednesday, Thelen was on hand to introduce the man who’ll be the new district coordinator for the area that covers Washtenaw County: Matt Shane.

Shane, currently extension director for Lenawee County, told commissioners that he actually lives in Washtenaw County, in Manchester. He’ll start his new job in July, with responsibilities for six counties: Washtenaw, Livingston, Jackson, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe. During a transition period, Thelen – who has led the MSU Extension in Washtenaw since 1989 – will continue to act as a liaison to the board, he said.

During comments after Shane’s remarks, several commissioners welcomed him and expressed support for the local MSU Extension. Kristin Judge said they were very proud of the work that the extension did, and Mark Ouimet said he’d been impressed by Thelen’s leadership and her ability to do a lot with limited resources.

Ken Schwartz asked Shane whether there would be substantial programming changes, as part of the restructuring. Shane told him there’d be no major shifts.

Jeff Irwin suggested that Shane watch a video of the March 4 working session, to get an idea about some of the concerns that commissioners had regarding the changes. He said it would be good for Shane to return in the fall and give commissioners an update during one of their working sessions.

Wes Prater wrapped things up by telling Shane that “we’re a friendly group – and we like to see results.”

Other Communications

-

Scio Township Elections

Commissioner Barbara Bergman highlighted a copy of communications the board had received between the Washtenaw County Road Commission and Scio Township officials. Scio clerk Nancy Hedberg had written to request that the township use space at the road commission’s administration building on Zeeb Road as a polling station for the August primary and November general election. The building is located in Scio Township.

A letter to Hedberg from Steve Puuri, the road commission’s managing director, states that the commission would grant Scio’s request, if the township covers the cost of using the building outside of normal business hours. He estimated the expense would be $2,000.

Responding to his letter, Hedberg wrote that the township had used the road commission’s facilities for several years and was surprised by an “apparent change of heart, whereby one government entity will no longer extend the courtesy of allowing their public building to be used for a civic purpose without charging a cost.” She continued:

A Church can do it; WISD can do it. To function as a polling place, we simply need access to the Lobby and Board Room at 6 a.m. and until polls close when elections inspectors have processed all the data for the day. Frankly, Scio Township continuously lends its meeting rooms for public purposes, including road related purposes, and we even trust the users by giving them a key with the expectation that they will clean up after themselves. And they always do.

Scio Township has never paid for a space to house a polling station and, from a civic point of view, there seem to be plenty of other civic-minded entities that are willing to serve the public that we don’t need to start down that path with the Road Commission, whose attitude is disappointing at best. [.pdf of correspondence]

Bergman said she was on Scio Township’s side, and that elections are civic happenings. The road commission should be ashamed of itself, she said.

Mental Health Awareness

Bergman passed out copies of a DVD produced by the Washtenaw County Community Support & Treatment Services (CSTS), aimed at raising awareness and getting support for young people with mental illness. It’s part of a broader statewide mental illness prevention campaign dubbed MP3 – Michigan Prevents Prodromal Progression. Early intervention has a tremendous effect on people’s lives, said Bergman, who’s also a board member of the Washtenaw Community Health Organization. She also distributed a booklet titled “Recognizing and Helping Young People at Risk for Psychosis: A Professional’s Guide,” as well as bookmarks and posters – Bergman encouraged commissioners to distribute the items throughout their districts.

Transparency, Internet Safety

Commissioner Kristin Judge noted that she and commissioner Wes Prater have been working on a transparency team, and plan to bring a resolution to the board in July. She said she met with the county’s department heads earlier that day to go over what they’d be required to do to make their department’s check registers accessible online. [She has also written about this issue on her blog, "All Politics Is Local."]

Judge also noted that the Internet safety task force she and sheriff Jerry Clayton have organized now has roughly 40 people involved at the local, state and federal levels, and is far exceeding her expectations. The group is planning a formal kick-off in early October, which also marks National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Judge said she’ll be bringing a resolution about the initiative to the board in the future.

Public Commentary

Thomas Partridge spoke during three of the four opportunities for public commentary, plus the public hearing on the millage. He noted that he is a Democratic candidate in the race for the 18th District state senate seat, and urged commissioners to address the vital needs of the community, including affordable housing, countywide transportation, lifetime education and access to health care. He advocated for better cooperation with neighboring counties. Saying that this year’s elections were vital, Partridge said the state legislature and county commission need forward-looking Democrats in those positions, not “can’t-do Republicans.” He said the state constitution is being interpreted in a right-wing manner, and if it needs to be revised, now’s the time to do it.

Present: Barbara Levin Bergman, Leah Gunn, Kristin Judge, Jeff Irwin, Mark Ouimet, Ronnie Peterson, Jessica Ping, Wes Prater, Ken Schwartz, Rolland Sizemore Jr., Conan Smith (absent during the Ways & Means Committee meeting, but present during the regular board meeting)

Next board meeting: The next regular meeting is Wednesday, July 7, 2010 at 6:30 p.m. at the County Administration Building, 220 N. Main St. The Ways & Means Committee meets first, followed immediately by the regular board meeting. [confirm date] (Though the agenda states that the regular board meeting begins at 6:45 p.m., it usually starts much later – times vary depending on what’s on the agenda.) Public comment sessions are held at the beginning and end of each meeting.

Commissioner Jessica Ping's son, Sullivan, attended Wednesday's board meeting. He did not cast any votes.

A temporary sign at the entrance to the corrections complex off of Washtenaw Avenue east of Carpenter, site of the jail expansion and new district court facility.

Unexpected costs, construction delays and lower-than-expected interest earnings contributed to the shortfall, she said. An official request for additional funding will be made at the board’s June 2 meeting.

McDaniel divided the request into two categories: 1) $495,958 for additional costs related to the original project proposal, and 2) $861,000 in costs that are considered to be outside the scope of the originally approved project.

These expenses are in addition to the staffing request made earlier this year by sheriff Jerry Clayton, and approved by the board. The expanded jail eventually will require 39 more full-time workers, bringing the total corrections division staff to 103 employees. The additional staff will increase the corrections budget by $1.478 million this year and $3.248 million in 2011, and create a projected budget shortfall in 2012 and 2013.

Commissioners were informed that additional items not covered in these requests will be addressed during the planning process for the 2012 and 2013 budget cycle. No dollar amounts were provided for those anticipated expenses.

Washtenaw County Jail Expansion: A Brief History

In February 2005, voters in Washtenaw County were asked to endorse a 20-year millage proposal to raise $314 million to build a new jail and courts facility, as well as funds for operations. The proposal was championed by the county administrator at the time, Bob Guenzel, and put on the ballot by the county board of commissioners.

When it was overwhelmingly defeated at the polls, the county administration and board regrouped. In August 2005, commissioners authorized Guenzel to proceed with building a scaled-back expansion to the county jail and a new facility for the 14A-1 District Court, now located in a small building next to the jail, and authorized issuing a $30 million bond for the project.

A citizens group objected to the $30 million bond, saying it was too similar to the ballot initiative defeated earlier that year. The group – called the Save Our Sheriff (SOS) Committee – collected more than 17,000 signatures aimed at forcing a countywide referendum on the issue. The protest came in the context of disputes between the county administration and the sheriff at the time, Dan Minzey, over funding for operations as well as the cost of sheriff deputy patrols in the townships. In early 2006, commissioners dropped plans to issue that bond.

But in November 2006, the county board was ready to move ahead again, approving a $21.6 million bond issuance for the expansion. This time, no organized efforts were made against the proposal, and the bonds were sold in early 2007. Just over a year later, in March 2008, the board authorized another $12.6 million bond for the new 14A-1 District Court.

The projects are overseen by the county’s public safety and justice oversight committee, a group formed back in August 2005. Members of the committee include the county administrator, sheriff, chief judges of the 14th District Court and 22nd Circuit Court, and two county commissioners (currently board chair Rolland Sizemore Jr. and Ken Schwartz). The committee meets monthly and have authority to review and approve contracts, bills and other matters related to these capital projects.

According to a timeline provided to commissioners, inmates started occupying the new portion of the jail last month, and renovation is now underway in the older jail facility, to be completed by September. [The state Department of Corrections has rated the expanded jail at 444 beds. Of those, 112 beds are in the new facility. The total number won't be available until the existing jail units are renovated.] The sheriff’s offices are moving into the new facility this week. The new jail lobby will open in June, and the new court building will open in July.

In her presentation on May 20, county administrator Verna McDaniel said the committee had reviewed and approved making the current request for extra funding.

Jail, Court Additional Costs: Presentation

McDaniel said told commissioners that the original contingency for the $34.6 million project had been $1.753 million, or 5% of the total budget. Actual contingency expenses, however, totaled $3.23 million.

Those expenses included:

• $506,255 in higher-than-expected bids for the project.
• $547,190 in “soft costs” – snow removal, topographic surveys, blueprints and other items. Commissioners were provided with a five-page itemized listing of these expenses.
• $159,306 in adjustments requested by sheriff Jerry Clayton.
• $77,793 in adjustments requested by district court officials.
• $228,057 to Clark Construction Services, the project’s contractor, for extending the original project end date from May to September 2010.
• $1.712 million in construction change orders – $1.138 million for the jail, and $573,725 for the court. A packet distributed to commissioners included about 50 pages of itemized change orders.

The $3.23 million in expenses was offset by $1.52 million in cuts, McDaniel said. They include:

• $420,639 in cuts from adjusting the budget early on in the project. The bulk of that amount – $300,000 – came from eliminating some work on the new jail building entrance.
• $999,844 in savings from “value engineering” the project. Of that, a reduction of $600,000 from the budget came from pushing back the roof replacement on the existing jail. That work will be deferred until 2014. Some of the other cuts come from eliminating a snowmelt system ($33,943), reducing the size of insulated metal paneling ($46,000), reducing the cost of fencing in the intake/receiving area ($49,286) and making product substitutions at lower cost ($55,714).
• $100,000 in reduced costs for furniture, fixtures and equipment.

The $1.52 million in cuts – plus the original $1.753 million contingency – totaled $3.273 million, which covered the $3.23 million in total contingency expenses, McDaniel said, leaving a remaining contingency of $42,700.

However, the project will require another estimated $190,000 in contingency costs, McDaniel said. There’s also an anticipated shortfall in projected interest earnings of $218,855, and an $87,103 adjustment needed to reconcile records related to the two bonds (adjusting the budget to reflect the actual bond proceeds, not the projected amount). That brings the total needed to finish the project in its original scope to $495,958 – or 1.43% over the original budgeted amount.

McDaniel said she was requesting that the nearly half-million dollars be paid for out of the Facilities Operations & Maintenance fund, which has a balance of $781,796. Money had been set aside in the fund from operating surpluses in 2008 and 2009, stemming from staff cuts, lower energy costs and a shift to preventative maintenance.

Jail, Court Additional Costs: Commissioner Questions

Barbara Bergman said she’ll support the request, but added that she was very concerned. She noted that a fence had been built around a parking area, even though the majority of the board had indicated they did not want to build it. She wanted to know much had that cost. She also wondered if they planned to limit access to the parking within the fenced-in area – if so, they’d lose parking places for the general public, she noted.

Kristin Judge asked whether it was normal to have so many change orders on a project this size. Dave Shirley, the county’s operations and maintenance manager, told her that it was normal. Judge also wanted to know what the Facilities Operations & Maintenance fund would have been used for otherwise, if they didn’t have this shortfall. McDaniel said there was no other intended use for the fund.

Mark Ouimet recalled that when the construction work had “come out of the ground” – when the foundation and other underground work had been completed – he’d been told by staff that the project was either on budget or possibly under budget. He said he had questioned that at the time. He asked how McDaniel and her staff planned to manage the project going forward. It wasn’t a huge concern that they were 1.43% over budget, he said, but it was disconcerting to find out they were so far off from what they’d been told.

McDaniel replied that they would carefully monitor the situation. They’re at the punch-list portion of the project, she said, and they didn’t foresee any additional large expenses.

Ken Schwartz said he wanted to address these issues because he serves on the public safety and justice oversight committee, which oversees the project. There had been several unanticipated expenses, he said. When they started digging beneath the former parking lot, for example, they discovered water and sewer utilities that they didn’t know had been located there, as well as a vault from an old cemetery. That caused some delay, he said. They also ended up paying an unanticipated $100,000 watershed fee to the city of Ann Arbor, to allow the facilities to discharge water into the drainage system.

He noted that a new sheriff, Jerry Clayton, was elected in November 2008, after the project was underway. Clayton has an operational philosophy that in the long run will save the county money, Schwartz said, but it required some slight design changes. [Clayton outlined that philosophy and its implications on operations at a March 18, 2010 working session: "Sheriff Requests More Staff for Expanded Jail"]

Additional changes were demanded by the defense bar and judicial coordinating council, Schwartz said. And interest rates fell precipitously, he said – that’s something they’ve seen in other areas too, like the county’s retirement investments. Overall, he thought the staff had done a good job in managing the project.

Schwartz also addressed the fence issue that Bergman had raised. The lot was at an exit point for inmates, and the staff felt that additional security was needed. He described the fence as modest.

Bergman replied that the size wasn’t an issue – it should have come back to the board for approval. Part of the discussion is that some people are protected, she said, while others aren’t. As a public official, being exposed came with the territory, Bergman said, noting that her own home phone number is listed in the phone book. She said she planned to make a fuss over locking the fenced-in area.

Schwartz said the access to that area can be worked out, but noted that it was reasonable and modest protection, determined as necessary by professional staff.

Jail, Court Out-of-Scope Costs: Presentation

McDaniel also outlined an additional $861,000 request for items that are deemed necessary, but that fall outside the approved scope of the project:

• $165,000 to demolish the existing 14A-1 District Court building.
• $600,000 to reconfigure the Washtenaw Avenue entrance into the corrections campus. The entrance is shared with St. Luke Lutheran Church – the plan is to create a split in the drive for better traffic flow.
• $80,000 for a smoke extraction system in the jail.
• $16,000 for door handles in the jail’s intake area, in case workers need manual entrance or exit.

The demolition costs would be paid for out of the Facilities Operations & Maintenance fund. The Washtenaw entrance would be covered by funds from the 1/8th mill fund, which is used for maintenance projects and has a balance of $1.59 million. The smoke extraction system and door handles would be funded from the county’s risk management fund, which has a balance of $1.57 million.

There will be additional out-of-scope items that remain to be funded, according to a memo provided to commissioners. Those include soundproofing the existing jail cells, increasing the number of cameras in the existing jail, parking for the detective bureau, vehicle storage and an impound lot. It’s recommended that the funding for these items be addressed during the planning process for the 2012-2013 budget.

Jail, Court Out-of-Scope Costs: Commissioner Questions

Kristin Judge asked how confident they were in the estimates. McDaniel said the staff was being conservative, so that they wouldn’t have to return to commissioners for additional funding. Judge asked when the estimates had been made. Dave Shirley, the county’s operations and maintenance manager, said the demolition estimate had been made within the past 30 months, but the estimate for the Washtenaw Avenue entrance was from 2009. Judge requested that an updated estimate be obtained.

Judge also said she had concerns about security at the 14A-2 District Court in downtown Ypsilanti. Was that a question to address as part of this discussion? she asked. McDaniel said she’d prefer to handle that separately, at a later date.

Rolland Sizemore Jr. reported that he’d been working with Shirley to lower the cost of the demolition. He also said he planned to work with Kirk Tabbey, chief judge of the 14A District Court, and court administrator Gene DeRossett about the security issues that Judge had raised. [Both Tabbey and DeRossett attended Thursday's working session, but did not make a presentation to the board.]

Sizemore then asked Shirley why they needed to keep Clark Construction on until September – wasn’t the project almost done? Shirley replied that the project is about 90% complete, but there’s still a lot of work to be done. There’s also renovation that needs to occur in the older jail, he said.

Wes Prater expressed dismay at the number of change orders and add-ons, saying he’d never seen anything like it. He contended that some of the items should have been covered by the original bid, and said he planned to look through the list in more detail and ask questions. He hoped the county was holding back payments.

Prater later asked about the approval process for change orders. He was told that they are all reviewed and approved by the public safety and justice oversight committee.

Shirley told commissioners that 86% of the project has been paid for so far.

Other Working Session Topics

Two other presentations were made during the May 20 working session: 1) A report by officials of the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) on infrastructure issues for the region, and 2) a briefing by staff of the county’s economic development and energy office, regarding tracking of the county’s energy usage and a potential energy-related pilot project. The Chronicle may address these presentations in a separate report.

Commissioners present: Barbara Bergman, Leah Gunn, Jeff Irwin, Kristin Judge, Mark Ouimet, Ronnie Peterson, Jessica Ping, Wes Prater, Ken Schwartz, Rolland Sizemore Jr.

Absent: Conan Smith

Mary Kerr, president of the Ann Arbor Convention & Visitors Bureau, talks with Rolland Sizemore Jr., chair of the county board of commissioners, before Wednesday's meeting of the board. (Photos by the writer.)

Commissioners heard from leaders of the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti convention and visitors bureaus, who explained how they’ve been using revenue from a hike in the county’s accommodation tax, which raised $3.039 million in 2009.

That tax also came up during a report by the county treasurer, Catherine McClary. Collections have been more difficult because of the economy, she said, but all hotels are up to date on their payments. Five bed & breakfasts in the county are not. McClary’s report also included updates on the county’s investments and foreclosures, and a preview of a proposal for dog licenses.

Two other financial reports were given during Wednesday’s meeting, by interim finance director Pete Collinson and Mark Kettner of Rehmann Robson, who performs the county’s financial audits. The county was also presented with an award for its 2008 financial report – it has received the same award for 19 consecutive years, given by the Government Finance Officers Association.

Another presentation marked a transition, as the county handed over leadership for a literacy coalition it had spearheaded. Now, the campaign to end illiteracy will be handled by a community group. Read about it below.

Accommodation Tax: How is It Used?

At its Dec. 3, 2008 meeting, the board unanimously approved an increase in the county’s accommodation tax from 2% to 5%. Revenues from the tax – which is levied on rooms at hotels, motels and bed & breakfasts – fund the convention and visitors bureaus in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, in a 75/25 split. The increase took effect March 1, 2009.

Mary Kerr, president of the Ann Arbor Convention & Visitors Bureau, and Debbie Locke-Daniel of the Ypsilanti CVB both gave reports to commissioners, explaining how they allocated those tax dollars in 2009.

Kerr’s presentation gave an overview of Ann Arbor/Washtenaw market last year. The hotel occupancy rate was 58.9% for the year, down 6.7% from 2008. Though that’s a decrease, she noted that the occupancy rate in Washtenaw was the highest of all metro areas in Michigan. The statewide average occupancy rate was 47.5%.

For the Ann Arbor CVB, which employs 10 people, 89% of its income comes from the accommodation tax. Last year, the bureau’s share of the tax amounted to $2.159 million. All of the funds from the tax increase went toward marketing, sales and programs, Kerr said. She highlighted local participation in the Pure Michigan campaign, and – after waiting several minutes while a staff member struggled with some technical issues – played both a radio ad and a TV commercial focused on Ann Arbor and featuring voiceovers by the actor/comedian Tim Allen.

The radio ad can be heard here – scroll down to the “Original-Ann Arbor” section. It’s the same ad that Kerr played for commissioners at their Nov. 19, 2008 meeting, when she lobbied for the tax increase. [A second radio spot has also been developed, but wasn't played at Wednesday's meeting.] The TV commercial – which includes shots of Michigan Stadium, the Ann Arbor Farmers Market, Nickels Arcade and other spots around town – will begin airing in May in three markets: Cleveland, Cincinnati and Indianapolis.

Other initiatives for 2009 included an online marketing campaign, an emailed monthly newsletter, and the hosting of 50 travel writers and editors from around the country.

The Ann Arbor CVB also launched a new website – Film Ann Arbor – designed to attract filmmakers to the area. It features testimonials from directors who’ve already filmed here, including Rob Reiner (“Filming in Ann Arbor was the best time I’ve ever had making a movie”) and Drew Barrymore (“I felt like it was a blessing we got to shoot there”). Eleven films have been based or shot in Washtenaw County, Kerr said, bringing an estimated 24,500 hotel room nights, or $6 million in economic impact.

Kerr said the Ann Arbor CVB has been designated an official film office by the Association of Film Commissioners International (AFCI) – staff from the bureau will have an exhibit at next week’s AFCI locations trade show in Santa Monica, Calif. The CVB is also advertising in Variety, a film industry trade publication.

In addition to increased activity from filmmakers, Kerr highlighted the work her bureau has done in attracting labor union conferences to the area. The ironworkers union – the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers – will hold its annual educational conference in Washtenaw County for the first time this year, after 23 years in San Diego, she said. It’s the third major union to bring its educational conference to the county. Others are the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters, and the National Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee for electricians. Kerr estimated an annual economic impact of $12.5 million from these events, which include classes held at Washtenaw Community College, the University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University.

The Ypsilanti CVB received $719,711 from the accommodation tax in 2009. The bureau’s president, Debbie Locke-Daniel, told commissioners that they used some of the additional funding to hire another full-time sales manager – now they have two of those positions.

In addition, funds were used to redesign its website, as well as to develop YAA Life, a blog that highlights communities throughout the county. Since the Internet is the primary way that travelers do research for their trips, Locke-Daniel said they’ll continue to optimize their online presence. ”My hope is that when you Google Ann Arbor, you’ll get Ypsilanti first,” she joked.

Commissioner Comments

Rolland Sizemore Jr. said he’s asked Kerr and Locke-Daniel to encourage filmmakers who come to this area to work with local schools, donating film equipment or allowing students to job shadow.

Mark Ouimet, who serves on the county’s accommodation ordinance commission, said he was impressed with the work of the CVBs, and that they’d had a dramatic impact on the local economy.

Noting the decrease in hotel occupancy, Conan Smith wondered whether the CVBs could say whether their marketing efforts had any impact on lessening the decrease, compared to what it could have been. Kerr said they’d be meeting on April 30 with members of the Washtenaw County Hotel/Motel Association – that group has already reported that the marketing has had a significant impact, she said. Locke-Daniel added that business from the film industry and unions were really the “saving grace” for the hospitality sector last year.

Smith observed that when the county first started discussing an increase in the accommodation tax, there was some concern that it might drive away business, but it appeared that the reverse was true. The CVBs haven’t heard any negative feedback from hotels about the tax increase, Kerr said.

Treasurer’s Report

Catherine McClary, the county treasurer, reported on four issues handled by her office: 1) the accommodation tax, 2) the county’s cash position and investments, 3) delinquent tax collection, and 4) potential changes to dog licenses.

Accommodation Tax

McClary explained the treasurer’s role in collecting the accommodations tax was to receive and bank the money, investing it until payouts are made each month to the two CVBs. Last year, the county collected $3.039 million from that tax – an increase of $1.5 million from 2008. [.pdf file of 2009 accommodation tax annual report]

Washtenaw County treasurer Catherine McClary talks with commissioner Ronnie Peterson before the start of Wednesday's board of commissioners meeting.

Part of the increase was due to stepped-up enforcement, which McClary described as very difficult. In November 2009, the board approved a five-year agreement with the CVBs, from 2010 through 2014 that increased the county’s share of the accommodation tax revenues from 5% to 10%. In 2009, the 5% share totaled $160,929. The additional revenue coming to the county will be used by the county treasurer’s office to help administer and enforce the accommodations tax ordinance. [See coverage of this change in the Chronicle's report of the Nov. 11 administrative briefing.]

McClary reported that the county had obtained judgments against two hotels last year that were delinquent on the tax, but that now all hotels are current on their payments. Five bed & breakfast establishments are behind in their payments, however – she said her staff is working with them on a collections plan.

[When the board of commissioners held a public hearing on the tax increase at their Dec. 3, 2008 meeting, the only two people to speak were the owners of a bed & breakfast in Chelsea. From The Chronicle's report of that meeting:]

Only two people spoke, standing together at the podium: Jim and Kim Myles, who’ve owned the Chelsea House Victorian Inn for eight years.

Jim Myles said they were concerned about the impact of this room tax, which is being raised from 2% to 5%. He said they’d planned to lower their rates to attract more customers, so the proposed tax hike would force them to take an even greater income hit. Myles also said that since their business was on the western side of the county, they didn’t feel they benefited from marketing done by the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti convention & visitors bureaus, which are funded through this tax. Kim Myles pointed out a trickle-down effect on the local economy: the lower income they’ll have because of the tax would result in them spending less money at other local businesses. She also said that the tax should be phased in over several years, rather than raised dramatically all at once.

The Chelsea House Victorian Inn was not among those listed as delinquent in the treasurer’s 2009 accommodation tax payment report, submitted to the county’s accommodation ordinance commission [.pdf of payment report].

Cash Position and Investments

McClary reported that the primary goal in her cash investment strategy is to safeguard the public funds, following state law and the board’s policies. Last year, her office managed nearly $150 million in investments and earned over $2 million off of that amount. At the end of 2009, $101.7 million was in CDs and money markets, $12 million was held in commercial paper, $26.66 million was in treasuries and agencies, and $7.69 million was in bank accounts.

The county invests for diversification, cash flow and yield, McClary said. Currently, the county has $250,000 in insured CDs at each of 15 banks – including locally based Ann Arbor State Bank and Bank of Ann Arbor.

She noted that the investment portfolio is lower in part because the county has been spending funds it had previously set aside for construction. [One example is the county jail expansion, which is set to open this summer.] Investments are also down because of the decrease in revenues coming into the county from property taxes, due to the economic downturn [.pdf of 2009 treasurer's report].

Delinquent Tax Collection

In 2009, the treasurer’s office collected $4.473 million in delinquent taxes and fees. Since 1999, the office has collected delinquent real property taxes on just over 92,000 parcels, McClary told the board. Of those, her office has foreclosed on 164 parcels. But those numbers are climbing, she noted.

It takes three years to get to the point of foreclosure, beginning when a taxpayer is delinquent on their taxes. In 2008, there were 26 tax foreclosures, from tax year 2005. Last year, there were 102 tax foreclosures, with 45 of those ultimately sold at auction. This year, there are 515 properties in tax foreclosure, McClary said.

The good news is that for March, delinquent taxes – a leading indicator of eventual foreclosures – were slightly lower than a year ago, McClary said. It’s the first time that’s happened in seven years. However, she still expects to see higher foreclosures in the coming months, especially on commercial properties.

The treasurer’s office runs programs for both tax foreclosure prevention and mortgage foreclosure prevention. Regarding mortgage foreclosures, McClary said her office will be holding three educational seminars in April, May and June aimed at helping people who are “under water” in their mortgages – who owe more on their mortgage than their home is currently worth. Even educated people, she said, can be financially illiterate and find themselves in difficulty.

McClary also noted that a new state law mandates that lenders give homeowners a 90-day extension if they’ve defaulted on their loan. She urged people to call the foreclosure prevention program at 734-222-9595 or email mfpp@ewashtenaw.org to get counseling and advice.

Dog Licenses

Through the treasurer’s office, the county collected $31,195 in dog licenses for 2009. Currently, the licenses must be renewed annually. [The licenses cost $5 for a dog that's spayed or neutered, and $10 for an "unaltered" dog. There's no charge for service dogs.] McClary said she plans to bring a proposal to the board of commissioners this summer, creating the option for residents to get a three-year license. That way, owners could renew licenses on the same cycle as the dogs’ rabies shots, she said. [A valid rabies vaccination certificate is required for the license.] It would also help her office better manage the workload, she said.

In addition, McClary is working with the sheriff’s department to explore the possibility of an ordinance that would allow law enforcement officers to ticket owners of unlicensed dogs for a civil – rather than criminal – infraction. Currently, not having a valid license is a misdemeanor, and officers are reluctant to issue tickets for that, McClary said.

The cities of Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, as well as Ypsilanti Township, issue their own dog licenses. Rolland Sizemore Jr. asked why there isn’t a single licensing procedure for the entire county – McClary said she didn’t know. He asked how the county’s rates compared to those charged by other municipalities. McClary said the other rates were higher. [Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti charge $16. Ypsilanti Township charges $6.]

Other Financial Reports

Commissioners heard from both Pete Collinson, the county’s interim finance director, and Mark Kettner of the accounting firm Rehmann Robson.

Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR)

Pete Collinson dedicated the 2009 comprehensive annual financial report (CAFR) to Peter Ballios, the long-time finance director who recently retired. Ballios taught the staff to work as a team, Collinson said, and it was under his leadership that the report has been completed in a timely manner – by March 31 – for the past 13 years.

Giving an overview of the county’s finances, Collinson noted that they ended 2009 with a $584,000 surplus. He said that showed the measures approved by the board to cut costs and raise revenues were effective in addressing a projected shortfall for the year. The county’s unreserved fund balance was $9.8 million, representing 9.4% of general fund expenditures – or a little over a month’s worth of money to pay the bills, he said. While good, Collinson noted that the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) recommends a minimum two-month reserve. He pointed out that over the years, general fund reserves have steadily increased, from less than $4 million in 1992 to nearly $10 million last year.

Several other funds in the county ended the year with a surplus, Collinson said: facilities management ($646,355), child care ($566,260), self-insurance ($421,481), Friend of the Court ($298,524) and environmental health ($106,604). He pointed out that the graphic on the slide he displayed for this information was a picture of a nest egg: “I really like clip art, I must say.”

In 2009, the county drew down about $6.5 million out of its state revenue-sharing reserve fund, leaving a balance of $24 million. Projecting ahead, the fund will be depleted sometime in 2013, he said. It’s possible that the state will refund that reserve, he said, but they can’t count on it.

Collinson said that upcoming projects for the finance staff include examining the county’s general fund cash flow, in light of the decreasing revenue-sharing reserve fund. They’ll also be making a presentation on internal controls at the board’s April 22, 2010 working session, he said. And the staff will be looking at the county’s cost allocation plan, with the goal of simplifying how it is calculated.

There are four capital projects that are slated to be finished this year, and Collinson briefly reviewed those costs: $23.8 million for the county’s enhanced emergency communication system (the 800 Mhz project), $21.7 million for the jail expansion, $12.9 million for construction of the new district court building, and $2.8 million for a fiber network.

Despite the economy, the county has maintained a solid bond rating, Collinson reported. He noted that county administrator Bob Guenzel and deputy administrator Verna McDaniel traveled to Chicago last month to meet with ratings agencies. Standard & Poor’s rates the county at AA+ and Moody’s has given the county an Aa2 rating.

Auditor’s Report

Collinson then introduced Mark Kettner of the accounting firm Rehmann Robson, which conducts the annual audit of the county’s financial report. Kettner noted that the audit gives an unqualified – or “clean” – opinion about the county’s financial statements. It’s an opinion on those statements, he said, not an opinion about the county’s financial controls or conditions. He said there were a few minor items that they reported to administration, who will be following up in writing with commissioners. [.pdf of Rehmann Robson management letter for the audit]

Commissioners had only a few comments and questions for Collinson and Kettner. Jeff Irwin said he always enjoys getting the CAFR, calling it a “tremendous cure for insomnia.” Leah Gunn congratulated Collinson for being appointed interim finance director – he was previously the county’s accounting manager. She noted that she’d first met him when she was on the Ann Arbor library board, and he had come to a meeting and explained the county’s budget to them. She also noted that the county had pinched its pennies, which resulted in the 2009 surplus – it speaks well for being careful about their finances, she said.

Mark Ouimet asked about the county’s Money Purchase Pension Plan. He said that he and Gunn feel it’s time to close the plan and move the remaining $1.9 million in assets somewhere else. There are only a dozen people in the retirement plan – all of the county commissioners, and a judge. He asked Kettner to explain how it might be terminated.

Kettner said it was his understanding that commissioners couldn’t make changes to their salaries or benefits until the beginning of their next term.

Wes Prater objected, saying there needs to be some discussion about what to do with the pension plan. Nobody has convinced him that eliminating the plan is the best option. “I, for one, am not ready to go that route,” he said.

[Retirement benefits for most county employees have been shifted out of the MPPP, a defined contribution plan, to the Washtenaw County Employees’ Retirement System, known as WCERS, which is a defined benefit plan. Commissioners contribute 7.5% of their salary on a pre-tax basis to the MPPP and receive a 100% employer match. The county also contributes to a voluntary employee beneficiary association (VEBA) on behalf of each commissioner.]

Literacy Coalition: Passing the Book

Several people who’ve been working on the Literacy Coalition of Washtenaw County attended Wednesday’s meeting. The co-chairs of that coalition – county administrator Bob Guenzel and Josie Parker, director of the Ann Arbor District Library – both spoke briefly to commissioners.

Guenzel called the evening a kind of graduation. He recalled that several years ago, commissioners Leah Gunn, Ronnie Peterson and Conan Smith had supported an administrative effort to strategically coordinate the various literacy activities in Washtenaw County. That led to a board resolution in July of 2007 to create the coalition [.pdf of 2007 board resolution forming the Literacy Coalition of Washtenaw County and appointing its members]. Guenzel said the county wasn’t abandoning the effort, but was really just giving it back to the community.

Josie Parker, director of the Ann Arbor District Library, talks with county commissioner Leah Gunn before the start of Wednesday's board of commissioners meeting. Parker was co-chair of the Literacy Coalition of Washtenaw County, a county government initiative that was officially handed over to a community group at Wednesday's meeting.

Parker echoed those sentiments, and thanked the board for its vision in believing that it was possible to eliminate illiteracy. Like the county, the library isn’t backing out of the effort, she said, and will continue to support the coalition in this next stage.

As part of this transition, the coalition has hired its first coordinator, Vanessa Mayesky, who also spoke to the board. She described the Blueprint to End Illiteracy as the group’s “action plan,” with three main goals: 1) increase public awareness, 2) enhance the delivery of services, and 3) build an infrastructure to support these efforts. “We’re making progress in all three of these areas,” she said.

Among the coalition’s current projects are developing a directory of literacy providers and services; launching a local program of Dolly’s Imagination Library, which distributes free books to pre-school kids and their families; and forming a comprehensive family literacy program.

Mayesky told commissioners that the coalition plans to hold board elections at its May 10, 2010 meeting. [The meeting runs from 2-3:30 p.m. at the NEW Center's 2nd floor conference room, 1100 N. Main St. in Ann Arbor.]

To achieve 100% literacy, the coalition needs 100% community engagement, Mayesky said. They’re pursuing a path of “literacy infusion,” putting literacy development at the heart of all activities, not just in its own box. “You have put us on that path,” she said.

Month of the Young Child

Also during Wednesday’s meeting, the board approved a resolution declaring April 2010 as the Month of the Young Child. In brief remarks to the board, Mary Phillips-Smith – chair of the county’s Head Start policy council – said that as parents, they were excited about the literacy coalition’s efforts. She specifically cited Dolly’s Imagination Library, which is eventually expected to serve 21,000 children in the Ypsilanti area.

Extra Jail Staffing

Without discussion, the board approved a staffing recommendation for the expanded county jail that will add 39 full-time positions to the payroll. The corrections division currently has a staff of 103 people.

At the board’s March 18, 2010 working session, sheriff Jerry Clayton gave a detailed presentation about the recommended staffing changes. [See Chronicle coverage: "Sheriff Requests More Staff for Expanded Jail"] The main concern expressed by commissioners at that meeting was the projected nearly $2 million two-year budget shortfall in 2012 and 2013, resulting from the additional staff.

Clayton attended Wednesday’s meeting, but did not address the board. Initial approval of the staffing change was voted on at Wednesday’s Ways & Means Committee meeting, which is held immediately prior to the regular board meeting. A final vote will be taken at the April 21 board meeting.

Public Hearings Set

As part of its consent agenda, the board set upcoming public hearings on two issues. There was no discussion of these items:

• At the board’s April 21, 2010 meeting: A public hearing to get citizen input on the 2010/2011 annual action plan that the county will submit to the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development. The hearing is required in order for the county to receive federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and HOME Investment Partnership program funding, administered by the Urban County. [See Chronicle coverage: "Urban County Allocates Funding"]
• At the board’s May 5, 2010 meeting: A public hearing to get citizen input on an amendment to the county’s brownfield plan, related to the city of Saline Automotive Components Holdings’ brownfield redevelopment plan. From a memo distributed to the board: “The Saline Automotive Components Holdings, LLC project will provide economic assistance to support the continued economic viability and growth of a large manufacturing facility in the City of Saline. This Amendment is to enable MBT Credit application to the State of Michigan Treasury Department for approximately $1.2 million in MBT credits. Other brownfield eligible activities related will be addressed through private financing.”

Present: Barbara Levin Bergman, Leah Gunn, Jeff Irwin, Mark Ouimet, Ronnie Peterson, Wes Prater, Rolland Sizemore Jr., Conan Smith

Absent: Kristin Judge, Jessica Ping, Ken Schwartz

Next board meeting: The next regular meeting is Wednesday, April 21, 2010 at 6:30 p.m. at the County Administration Building, 220 N. Main St. The Ways & Means Committee meets first, followed immediately by the regular board meeting. [confirm date] (Though the agenda states that the regular board meeting begins at 6:45 p.m., it usually starts much later – times vary depending on what’s on the agenda.) Public comment sessions are held at the beginning and end of each meeting.

Washtenaw County sheriff Jerry Clayton, left, talks with county commissioner Mark Ouimet after the March 18 working session for the board of commissioners. (Photos by the writer.)

The additional expenses associated with those new hires would increase the corrections budget by $1.478 million this year and $3.248 million in 2011. County administrator Bob Guenzel told commissioners that there are sufficient funds to cover those costs. However, looking ahead to 2012 and 2013, the administration is projecting a two-year shortfall for the corrections division of nearly $2 million – a possibility that commissioner Jeff Irwin described as “scary.”

Commissioners in general were supportive of the sheriff’s proposal, and of his approach to managing the jail. Clayton had previously outlined for the board several efforts that the department is making to raise revenues and cut costs. On Thursday he made a case that the expanded jail is necessary to achieve the county’s vision: Keeping residents safe, while providing programs and services to address the root causes of incarceration.

Clayton, Guenzel Give Details of Jail Staffing, Budget

County administrator Bob Guenzel began the presentation by saying that he’s probably one of only a few people still in county government who remembered when the jail was originally built, more than 30 years ago. At the time, in 1978, it was state-of-the-art, he said, and cost about $9 million to construct. It was originally designed to house 215 inmates.

Over the years it’s been modified and expanded, but the current statutory rating at 332 beds has been insufficient for many years, Guenzel said, and the jail is chronically overcrowded. He acknowledged that he’s been among several people who’ve pushed for an expansion, describing it as a “difficult community issue.” Some people, including former sheriff Dan Minzey, wanted a much larger facility – Minzey had advocated for as many as 600 beds. Others felt that the existing jail was already too large.

In February 2005, Washtenaw County voters rejected a 0.75 mill public safety millage proposed to pay for a jail expansion and several other projects. On Thursday, Guenzel told commissioners that the county funded the roughly $22 million expansion instead through capital reserves and other sources. [The county issued bonds to help pay for the expansion – its annual bond payments are $1.6 million – $800,000 from the general fund, and $800,000 from capital reserves.]

The project adds 112 beds to the jail, and includes an expanded intake/transfer/release (ITR) area. The facility was designed for the future, Guenzel said, noting that the ITR area has the capacity to handle a jail with up to 500 or 600 beds, if additional expansions are required. “When we open this in June, you’ll be very proud of it,” Guenzel said.

He noted that the next phase will entail moving inmates to the new beds, then renovating the older part of the jail.

Sheriff Jerry Clayton continued the presentation, commending Guenzel and the board for recognizing that a jail expansion was necessary. The jail is a key component in a continuum of services, he said – without it, they’d be hampered in efforts to assess and manage risk, and to provide appropriate programs and services to residents. Dealing with root causes of incarceration is a priority, Clayton said. The new facility will allow his staff to better manage the inmate population and address those root causes.

Clayton described the process of determining how many additional employees are needed, calling it a collaboration between his department and the county administration. They tried to align the department’s staffing needs with the county’s budgetary constraints. “I assure you we have not padded one FTE,” he said.

When arriving at these numbers, they kept in mind the need to run a safe and secure facility, he said, and to manage risk. What the board doesn’t want, Clayton said, is for the county to be faced with a lawsuit because something goes wrong in a jail that’s not adequately secure. Given that, they looked at every position, he said, and challenged whether it was needed.

Corrections commander Rick Kaledas listens to county commissioners discuss the proposed increase in staffing for the Washtenaw County jail expansion.

Clayton then asked corrections commander Rick Kaledas to explain how they’d determined the number of additional staff they’d need at the jail. Kaledas said they looked at the operation as a whole, examining every post – that is, the location where a corrections officer or others are stationed. Each 24/7 post requires 5.2 full-time equivalent employees to staff it, he said.

Using national best practices methodology, the goal of their analysis, he said, was to “get the right amount of people in the right place at the right time, doing the right thing.” As an outcome, they identified the need for 39 additional positions, Kaledas said, including four sergeants, 19 corrections officers and 16 community service officers.

New employees won’t need to be “post-ready” until Aug. 1, Kaledas said, but hiring would begin in April and training would take place in June and July. This year, they plan to add the four sergeants, 15 corrections officers and 11 community service officers. The remainder of the new staff will be joining the division in 2011.

Clayton clarified that the new sergeant positions will be filled by promotions of current corrections officers. He also noted that when fully staffed, they expect to incur lower overtime costs. Other potential savings are expected to come from negotiating down the jail’s contracts for food and medical services, he said.

One-time costs of about $218,000 associated with the hiring process include background checks, physical and psychological evaluations, training and uniforms.

Guenzel picked up the next part of the presentation, going over the budget projections in more detail. Because the hires would be phased in, the projected budget increase in 2010 will be $1.478 million – including $1.23 million for salaries and fringe benefits. In 2011, the budget increases by $3.248 million. [The 2010 total corrections budget is $16.355 million – of that, $9.433 million goes toward salaries and benefits. For 2011, the approved budget is $16.975 million.]

The county proposes paying for the increases each year out of $2.4 million in jail expansion reserves, which Guenzel said includes $1.2 million from reserves set aside annually to pay for jail overcrowding. The other $1.2 million had already been allocated to the correction department’s budget for 2010 and 2011 to cover anticipated operational costs related to the expansion.

Chart showing 2012-13 jail budget increase. (Links to larger image)

But those reserves won’t cover the projected costs in 2012 and 2013, when a two-year $1.88 million shortfall is expected. Guenzel said he realized it would be a budgeting challenge, but that there are opportunities in savings from collective bargaining. In addition, the sheriff is exploring other ways to bring in new revenue, Guenzel said, which will help address the shortfall.

Guenzel told commissioners they’ll be asked to vote on the proposal at their next Ways & Means Committee meeting, on April 7. The sheriff’s department needs to ramp up recruitment in order to hire and train new employees in time for the opening of the jail expansion.

Commissioner Questions, Comments

Leah Gunn led off by saying that she’d recently been on a tour of the new facility and she’d been very impressed by the intake area. She noted that the JPORT program (Justice Project Outreach Team) would be located there, and she was supportive of that.

The county’s jail and corrections operation is a state-mandated service, Gunn pointed out, in contrast to police services, which are not mandated. She said she looked forward to seeing a compromise in that area, and noted that the lawsuit with three townships, related to police services, was still pending. [Gunn was referring to a dispute between the county and the townships of Ypsilanti, Salem and Augusta over the cost they've paid for sheriff deputy patrols. See Chronicle coverage: "Townships Lose Again in Deputy Patrol Case"]

The budget would be a strain, Gunn said, but she planned to support the additional staff request. She asked for clarification of the corrections officers and the community service officers, in terms of training and duties.

Clayton said that corrections officers will have direct contact with inmates, both inside the jail and elsewhere. Qualities for those hires include the ability to solve conflict in a positive way, interpersonal communication, decision-making skills, and an understanding of safety challenges, among other things. The community service officers will be handling intake, he said, so accurate data entry skills will be needed. CSOs will also require the ability to assess inmates to determine what kinds of programs or services they’ll need, and what classification of risk they should be given, which in turn determines how they’ll be housed within the jail.

Barbara Bergman raised concerns about the juvenile population in the criminal justice system, noting that it’s important to look out for juveniles within the corrections campus. She also asked about the number of beds in a cell, wondering how they arrived at four beds per cell.

Clayton said the expansion was designed before he took office in January 2009. He said staff will be stationed inside the jail’s housing units, and that inmates will be assessed, classified and housed according to risk. Those factors help identify potential problems and allow staff to deal with them before there’s a crisis, he said.

Bergman acknowledged that Leah Gunn had taken a lot of guff for the jail expansion, but Bergman reckoned she herself had taken even more – because of that, she joked that they should name the jail the Barbara Levin Bergman Living Memorial Jail, with Gunn’s name in small letters beneath that.

Mark Ouimet picked up that theme, saying they should perhaps sell the naming rights to make up for the shortfall – they could put the Nike swoosh on uniforms, he quipped.

Ouimet then clarified that the hires will be phased in during 2010 and 2011. Jennifer Watson, the county’s budget manager, said the biggest area of uncertainty related to budget projections is in fringe benefits, but that they were conservative in their estimates.

Ouimet asked if the budget was based on the assumption that the jail would be filled at all times. Clayton confirmed this. Ouimet followed up by asking whether the staff size would decrease if the jail population fell. No, Clayton said, they’d staff it the same, unless the jail population were down significantly for an extended period. Bob Guenzel said they’d have to shut down an entire “pod” – the term used for a wing of the jail – in order to see cost savings.

Clayton elaborated on the definition of “full.” Though 112 beds are being added to the current 332, for a total of 444 beds, the operational capacity is about 380 beds, he said – the optimal number of inmates to allow the staff to effectively manage the jail population. Their current average daily population is 350.

Kristin Judge asked for more details regarding efforts to renegotiate contracts for food and medical services. Those are the two largest service providers to the jail, Clayton said, and so they hope to see cost reductions from renegotiated deals. On the other hand, he added, the number of inmates is increasing. It’s likely that the net effect will be flat.

Greg Dill, director of sheriff administrative operations, talks with Verna McDaniel, incoming county administrator, at the March 18 working session for the county board of commissioners.

Greg Dill, director of sheriff administrative operations, is leading negotiations on these deals. He said they’ll be bringing a recommendation to the sheriff for the medical contract on March 22. For food services, Dill is working with the county’s purchasing department, and they might end up issuing a request for proposals (RFP) for that contract.

As she’s stated in the past, Judge reiterated her belief that the county needs to “do things differently” regarding its approach to public safety. Clayton acknowledged that this was a “human services county,” but said that public safety had an impact on quality of life and the economy. There are people who want to do harm, he said, and the county needs a facility to hold them. Despite their best efforts, it’s likely that the jail population will continue to increase, Clayton said. The state continues to turn offenders back into the community, he noted, and people continue to make bad decisions that land them in jail. An adequate, well-run jail is crucial to the community, he said.

Jeff Irwin asked whether the department will see savings from changes in transportation needs, given the facility’s new configuration. The 14A-1 District Court, now located in a former monastery built in the 1950s, will move to a new building attached to the jail. Clayton said they don’t expect to see significant savings, but that through video arraignment and other changes, they’ll be looking for ways to cut costs.

Irwin said the budget projections for 2012 and 2013 were troubling. In the proposed budget, the jail expansion reserves of $2.4 million in 2010 and 2011 will increase to $2.52 million in 2012 and to $2.646 million in 2013, Irwin noted – what accounts for the increase? Guenzel said they projected inflationary increases in arriving at those numbers. If that additional $370,000 or so doesn’t materialize, Irwin said, it’s likely that the two-year shortfall will be over $2 million. Irwin said it had been smart of the sheriff to come before the board recently and talk about how he planned to increase revenues, just prior to requesting additional staff. [See Chronicle coverage: "County Board Gets Update from Sheriff"]

Irwin then asked when the department expects the state Dept. of Corrections to come in and give a rating of the jail expansion. That will probably happen in late 2010 or early 2011, said corrections commander Rick Kaledas.

Irwin also wanted to know how they’d arrived at the 5.2 number of full-time workers needed to staff one 24/7 post. Clayton explained that they estimated they’d need a total of 8,700 hours to cover each post – 24 hours multiplied by 365 days. Each full-time employee works about 1,700 hours each year, after accounting for vacation time, holidays and sick leave. Dividing 8,700 by 1,700 results in roughly 5.2 positions needed.

Barbara Bergman brought up the lawsuit that the townships of Ypsilanti, Salem and August filed against the county – what was the status of that settlement? What does the county need to do to get that money, she asked, because that would be very useful to apply toward the jail operations budget. [Previously, the county has indicated they'd be seeking roughly $2 million.]

UPDATE: The county is requesting $2,231,326.25, according to Curtis Hedger, the county’s corporation counsel. That’s broken down into these categories: 1) damages of $1,845,048; 2) interest of $385,841.95 (calculated from the date of the filing of the counterclaim until the approximate date of the entry of judgment); and 3) taxable costs of $436.30. Judge Costello’s office has requested a hearing on the county’s motion for entry of judgment – the hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Wednesday, April 21, 2010.

Guenzel reported that the county had recently filed for entry of judgment – asking 38th Circuit Court Chief Judge Joseph Costello to issue an amount for the townships to pay. Now, they were waiting for the townships to respond, he said. Bergman wondered whether the county would receive that money in her lifetime.

Bergman clarified that inmates ate in their “pods” – the term used for each jail housing unit. She asked whether access to exercise equipment was a privilege to gain or to lose. A little of both, Clayton said. He added that recreation should be available throughout the jail – it’s not possible to effectively manage inmates if they aren’t provided with a way to exercise and stimulate both the body and the mind, he said.

Kristin Judge asked whether the county had enough funds to demolish the old 14A-1 District Court building, after the court moves to its new facility. Guenzel said they don’t have funds identified yet to do that – they don’t anticipate that there will be extra money available from the jail expansion bond proceeds. They’re looking at possibly using other non-general fund reserves or money from the so-called 1/8 mill allocation, which is used for maintenance projects. The court will likely relocate in June, Guenzel said, and the goal would be to demolish the building in late summer or early fall – assuming they can find a funding source that commissioners are comfortable with.

Jessica Ping, who chairs the working session meetings, recalled that at the board’s regular meeting on March 17, lobbyist Kirk Profit mentioned that the state was eliminating reimbursements to county jails that house state prisoners. She wondered whether there were any federal grants available to offset that loss. No, Clayton said, but they were looking at various revenue opportunities.

Commissioners present: Barbara Levin Bergman, Leah Gunn, Jeff Irwin, Kristin Judge, Mark Ouimet, Ronnie Peterson, Jessica Ping, Rolland Sizemore Jr., Conan Smith

Absent: Wes Prater, Ken Schwartz

Editor’s Note: After the break begins the next installment of the Washtenaw Jail Diary, written by a former inmate in Washtenaw County’s jail facility on Hogback Road. The piece originated as a Twitter feed in early 2009, which the author subsequently abandoned and deleted. See previous Chronicle coverage “Twittering Time at the Washtenaw County Jail.“

In now working with the author to publish the Washtenaw Jail Diary, The Ann Arbor Chronicle acknowledges that this is only one side of a multi-faceted tale.

We also would like to acknowledge that the author’s incarceration predates the administration of the current sheriff, Jerry Clayton.

This narrative, which we expect will run over a series of several installments, provides an insight into a tax-funded facility that most readers of The Chronicle will not experience first-hand in the same way as the author.

The language and topics introduced below reflect the environment of a jail. We have not sanitized it for Chronicle readers. It is not gratuitously graphic, but it is graphic just the same. It contains language and descriptions that some readers will find offensive.

Suicide watch

There’s some silence. Then Charlie tells me that now I will probably stay in Bam Bam longer than I should. He turns out to be correct.

The detoxing teen heroin user asks, “Do you really work for Channel [_]?” I say I do, then think that I will likely lose my job now. I am right.

Eventually, Charlie goes back to his block. Heroin teen goes home. Each time the officers come, I cite the number of hours I’ve been without my phone call. I have not eaten any of the meals offered. It is the beginning of the Washtenaw County Jail radical-weight-loss plan for me.

I am alone in Holding 4, half-naked in my Velcro Bam Bam suit. It is approaching evening. I think of my wife and children, I think of the humiliation when my coworkers find out. For the first time today, I break down into sobs.

I spend the night in Holding Cell 4 and manage to fall restlessly asleep. Then, the “suicide watch” feature of the accommodations kicks in.

When I read, or write, about “suicide watch” in the news, I picture a team of nurses and psychiatrists asking the prisoner how he “feels.” Now I learn what really occurs.

At night, a guard runs by the cell every two hours and bangs on the window. If you startle, you’re alive. If you do not move, then the officer’s extensive psychiatric training kicks in. The guard will enter the cell and poke you with his finger. If you move, you’re alive. Next patient, please. That is suicide watch.

Holding Cell 3

It is again morning. I have been in jail a day now and it has already changed me permanently. It is too much to hope that I can simply wait out my time in Bam Bam with a holding cell all to myself. I am transferred to Holding 3. “Break 3!” the guard screams to desk officers who release the sliding doors.

I enter into a crowded holding cell, and the biggest nightmare of my life.

First thing that hits me is the smell, then the solemn faces that look up disinterestedly. My first day was nothing, a picnic. Here is the real Bam Bam.

This is the bottom half of the author's sketch of Holding 3's layout. From the center, clockwise: Me | "Old School" 10-year old warrant | Drunk | Toilet | and that's booshit

There are five inmates in Holding 3. I am the sixth. Six can lie down semi-comfortably on the ledges and the floor. I throw down my foam mat.

To my left is a man lying on two foam mats – relative comfort. Yet he grimaces. He had fallen down courthouse steps while in leg irons and handcuffs. He takes one glance and, again, there must be something about me that gives it away: “You’ve never been in jail before,” he says.

To my right is an elderly black man everyone just calls “Old School,” which is a kind of label of respect for all older black men in jail. Older white men, in general, do not merit an “Old School” designation. Usually, they are called “Pops.”

Old School, in Bam Bam due to a heart condition, doesn’t know why he’s in jail. He shows me a court paper. Something about a 1992 case. As best as I can tell, Old School was pulled over for DWB (driving while black) and his name came up in a ’92 warrant for a traffic offense. So they haul a confused, old man with a heart condition into a filthy, crowded holding tank in an overcrowded jail. Nice, Washtenaw County.

For unexplained reasons, Old School looks to me as a reliable source of information on what is going to happen to him. I try as best I can. It is the beginning of a trend. Fellow inmates can tell I am new in jail, but also sense in me some kind of unearned intellectual authority. I will be called upon to settle arguments about wide-ranging topics during the course of my five months in the Washtenaw County Jail. My advice to Old School is the start of a kind of career in jail. Later, I branch out into ghost writing speeches for inmates to give before their judges. In the end, I will be proud of how I behaved toward others (with some very dramatic exceptions) in an extremely stressful environment.

But, for now, there is only anger, distress as my rights are denied and as I take in what is happening in this increasingly crowded cell. In the right corner of the cell sits a man I’ll call “Frank,” a muscular black man in his 30s with a weary-looking face. He has been in Bam Bam for three months. Frank is in suicide watch by choice. It’s a last-ditch defense tactic. Charged with armed robbery, Frank is going for an insanity defense. Anyone who willingly subjects himself to Bam Bam must be crazy, his reasoning goes. So he refuses to see a shrink, refuses to go to a block.

In every part of the jail I live in the next five months, there is always one experienced person who takes me under his wing. Frank does this for me in Bam Bam. Frank had heard my confrontation with the guard in Holding 4. He thinks I can tell his story to Channel [_]. I am sorry, Frank. My old employers now want nothing to do with a convicted criminal.

During my first month in jail, I would have vivid, epic dreams in which I try to make it back to work to tell the reporters what I’ve seen. Later, I would learn that even in a “news” organization, nobody is interested in the lives of convicted criminals. Jail. End of story. But, again, I get ahead of myself. I am still in my second day at the jail and I am living in an increasingly crowded, filthy holding tank.

And in walks the accused rapist.

Flush on 3

I will see him on and off for the next three months – as his case goes back and forth from 2nd-degree to 3rd-degree “criminal sexual conduct.” I will know more about his case than I care to, since he talks endlessly about it – going through the same story over and over again. I have noticed already that there is very little real conversation in jail. Instead, everybody seems to be carrying on parallel monologues. One of the best compliments I receive from an inmate will be spoken in a couple of months: “I like you, [______]. You listen, then you talk.”

But the alleged rapist is a man – a child, really, at 19 – who does little listening and a lot of talking. He has an almost intelligent look about him, with a goatee and glasses. But the illusion is shattered when he opens his mouth. He practices his “story” on us. The woman who accused him of rape is his first “baby mama.” His second “baby mama” cried in court, which made him cry. So, he was sent to suicide watch.

Rape Boy says that he has text messages from the alleged victim telling him to do her doggy style. He says this over and over again. He also says there must be apartment surveillance video showing that she had buzzed him in many times. Later, I will share a courthouse holding cell with him and hear, with satisfaction, his lawyer say that none of these things are a defense. But, for now, I just listen to this 19-year-old kid talk endlessly about his “baby mamas” and what he’ll do to each of them when he gets out.

By now the stench is approaching unbearable. Frank gets up and pounds on the cell window. Frank pounds a few times before he has a guard’s attention. Then makes a twisty motion with his fingers. “Flush on 3!” Frank yells. “Can you give us a flush on 3?”

We do not operate our own toilets. It is the loudest flush I have ever heard, filling the cell with sound, halting all conversation for about 30 seconds.

Bricks and Butterfingers

A nurse comes with medication. I tell her how many hours I have been in jail without my phone call. She does not look very interested. The nurse asks me how I am. I say I’m fine, except I’m in jail. She says that she’s in jail, too. “Except I get to go home.” Such compassion.

I am seen by a community mental health worker. He questions me and determines I am not suicidal, says he will recommend I be taken out of “checks.” I am not comforted by this. I know that although the booking officers are about 15 feet away, my paperwork will likely get “lost” as a result of my earlier confrontation with the officer.

More people are packed into the cell. The air is thick with unpleasant odors and the walls seem to be closer. I stare at the white bricks, feeling helpless and hopeless. No contact with my family, no knowledge of when I will be allowed contact. I gaze at the bricks and wonder how it would feel if I bashed my head against them.

I came to suicide watch with no thoughts of suicide. About 40 hours of denial of rights, of no hope, of no information, and all options are open.

To distract myself and to keep my mind from spinning into a dangerous loop, I strike up a conversation with the heroin addict in the corner I’ll call “Jack.” Jack’s stringy hair hides his eyes, forcing him to jerk his head back in nervous nods now and then. Jack insists he had hidden a heroin syringe in his shoe, somehow transferred it to his jail sandal, only for it to fall out on the walk to Bam Bam. It was to have been Jack’s last fix before detox in jail. He’s quitting for good, he says, having spent too much of his wife’s money on his habit.

Jack’s wife has a honorable, professional job. And while she works all day, Jack stays in the basement – shooting up. Great arrangement. The happy couple – heroin addict and respected professional  – dipped into retirement to pay off court costs. He was going to leave jail with a clean slate. The nurse had given Jack something. Not sure if it was methadone. It relieved his withdrawal symptoms. Now, though, he craves Butterfingers.

I ask Jack what it felt like the first time he tried heroin. He grins deeply at the memory and says it was 10 times better than sex. But now, for Jack, nirvana can be achieved only through Butterfingers bars via a magical place – on a real cell block – where inmates can have rights to something he calls “commissary.”

Jack talks so much about Butterfingers that his obsession becomes my obsession. I have eaten little in 40 hours. Butterfingers sound nice. My first taste of jail has been Bam Bam, the worst place to be outside solitary. I wonder what’s next. I think about this “commissary” and Butterfingers.

Sights, scents and sounds

The drunk enters the tank, swearing up a storm. He’s tall, thin and talks to nobody in particular as he lies down near the toilet in back. “I blew a motherfucking .08. So fucking what? To me that’s just a fucking hangover. So they put me in fucking Bam Bam? Fuck!” Then he pukes. The drunk’s puke is not cleaned during the rest of my stay in Bam Bam – still roughly 12 hours to go in that tank. The smell lingers.

It has been 42 hours since I “disappeared.” No contact allowed with family. I’m laying half-naked in a crowded cell with the stench of puke.

But I’m not the only one feeling uncomfortable. On the floor ahead of me is a guy with long, gray hair moaning, “I need my crack pipe!”

The drunk is sleeping it off in his own puke, snoring and slaying some demons in his sleep, and the odor of shit cuts through. Charlie sees me wrinkle my nose and nods knowingly. He says there was a Mexican guy in here a few days ago who didn’t make it to the toilet. The cell was never properly washed and you can still pick up the odor of shit when the vents start pumping out air. Like now.

I try to sleep with the overwhelming smell of human waste. Then I learn the other reason they call this area of the jail Bam Bam.

Bam! Bam! The sound comes from Holding 2, which is usually reserved as a cell for inmates waiting for transport to and from court. Tonight, Holding 2 must be either a Bam Bam spillover, or it’s where drunks come to sober up without actually being booked into the jail.

Bam! Bam! The pounding gets louder. His is the only voice you hear. “I want a fucking cup! Where’s my fucking cuuuuuuup!” Bam! Bam! “This is like fucking Guantanamo, man. Guantanamo. Where’s my fuuuuucking cuuuuup!” Bam! Bam! Bam!

Eventually, we learn to ignore him. Cup Man goes on all night. Not an exaggeration. All … Night.

He does, however, get me thinking about the Guantanamo comparison. But Guantanamo is not in my frame of reference for the situation I am in. I come from a family of Holocaust victims and survivors. Auschwitz. I do not go screaming “Auschwitz” and “Holocaust” everywhere. I am not the kind who sees Nazis in the woodwork. I know I am not in Auschwitz. But, the way I feel, the filth I am living in, huddled in a crowded cell, my right to contact my family denied. I think of those pictures of bewildered skeletons after liberation. I understand that is not where I am. Yet, it is how I feel.

I try to use the comparison to my advantage. I think of what my great-uncle endured in Auschwitz and decide this is nothing in comparison. It’s a selling point, I joke to my increasingly insane-sounding mind. “Washtenaw County Jail Suicide Watch: At Least It’s Not Auschwitz.”

Bam! Bam! “Where’s my cuuup!” Cup man shouts. Rape Boy in the corner is boring another victim with his story: “Yeah, Dog, she texted me to turn her over and do her doggy.”

The repetition makes me think, hope, that this is all a bad dream.

Good Cop

“I have been here 48 hours now and I still have not been allowed my phone call.” The officer looks bored, looks through me.

It had been a horrible night, between yells of Cup Man, the repetition of Rape Boy and the every-two-hours window banging of suicide watch. I approach Day 3 resolved to get out of Bam Bam and get my phone call. I see others come and go. I see others making calls. So it’s possible. I try to think logically, although my base-coat of panic is never far from the surface. Who knows how to get things done? I turn to Frank.

Frank has been here so long that he knows which officer will help you out and which to avoid. He points to a tall, older man in civilian clothes. “He’ll get you your phone call and get you out of here,” Frank says. And he’s right. It will take about 8 more hours, but he’s right. The man Frank points to is a distinguished-looking sergeant.

Every now and then, the sergeant walks from holding cell to holding cell – not opening the doors, but placing his ear nearby and listening. It looks like he is used to cleaning up the messes his officers have made. I am one of those messes. I guess you’d call him the “Good Cop.”

Good Cop listens intently to inmates through glass windows, jots down names and notes, moves on. I wave for his attention … too late. Cart pushers come in with trays. Good Cop disappears back behind the officers’ glass. Another meal for me to reject is pushed in. I still have eaten very little since my arrival. I pick at my food a little, then give most of it to Frank, who devours it appreciatively. It sickens me a little to watch that garbage being eaten so quickly. But I am beginning to understand how food is used as currency in jail. Frank gave advice on how I can get my phone call. So he gets my food tray. I’ve not yet experienced the deep, deep hunger I will feel later.

“. . . and that’s boooshit,” says Rape Boy. That’s pretty much how he ends every story he tells, since most are about how he’s been wronged. Another story about his “baby mamas,” then he turns to me and says something I never saw coming.

Rape Boy says the name of an anchorwoman at the TV station where I work and asks if he could meet her.

I say I likely would not see her again.

Then he asks if I am going to “put Washed-Away County Jail on TV” or tell “the news” what goes on in Bam Bam. I say I will try.

“They should do something on Old School,” Rape Boy says, pointing at the old man. I agree that they should, but they probably won’t.

Frank nods. “We’re in jail,” Frank says. “Out of sight, out of mind. Nobody wants to see us on TV after we’re in jail.” I agree that he is right. Then Frank adds: “But you’ll go tell [name of anchorwoman] about Old School. She’ll put him on TV.” I smile in a noncommittal way. “I don’t think I’ll be telling any anchorwomen about anything when I get out,” I say. “I don’t think I’ll have a job anymore.”

Then Good Cop comes out near the cells again. I bolt upright, run to the window and bang for his attention. Bam! Bam! “Excuse me, sir?”

And here I am, saying words that, about 50 hours earlier, I could never have imagined would come from my mouth.

“Excuse me, sir? I have been in Bam Bam 50 hours, was cleared after 24 hours as not suicidal and I have not been allowed my phone call.”

“Wait wait, one thing at a time,” Good Cop says patronizingly, taking out a notepad. “Who cleared you?” I freeze. No idea what his name was. If he had told me his name, it didn’t stick. So I think of his identifying features. “An Asiany looking guy who smiles too much,” I say.

“OK. If he cleared you, then there’s no problem,” Good Cop says. I tell him that the paperwork was somehow lost before it reached the desk. He stops writing and glares at me. I am guessing he knows that if the paperwork was “detoured,” then I must have caused some trouble.

Good Cop is the first apparently sane person I have spoken to since the ordeal began, so I start speaking faster to tell him my whole tale. “Whoa, slow down,” he says. “You claim you were cleared, but there’s no paperwork showing it. You’re in checks, so no phone call.” My heart sinks. Back where I started. It’d be funny if I did not have a role in this joke.

“To my family, I’ve just disappeared,” I say.

Good Cop is well aware of the Catch-22 involved in cases like mine. In the end, there are no rules. There is simply the judgment of an officer.

For a brief moment I see a light go on in Good Cop’s eyes. He is assessing me. I think I pass some kind of test. “I’ll look into it,” he says. He is the first cop I encounter in jail who is not lying when he says that. There will be only one other.

The door to Holding 2 slams shut and for the first time I think about what exactly I’m going to say to my wife once I get my call. It is going to be a bad conversation. My thoughts turn full-time back to the real world now. I do not expect to be in jail more than another day or so. Need to salvage my life. I think of what a mess I’ve made of things and I start to feel physically ill.

I will discover later that it is best to turn off the portion of your brain that makes you think too much about life outside of jail.

“You’re getting out of Bam Bam soon and going home,” Frank says. He turns out to be half right.

Frank tells me not to forget about them when I get out and to tell everybody about what goes on in Bam Bam. I do not forget. Later, my public defender will advise me not to write about this experience while I am on probation because of possible reprisals against me. I am now ignoring that advice. It is one reason I am writing anonymously.

Editor’s note: All installments of the “Washtenaw Jail Diary” that have been published to date can be found here.

Editor’s Note: After the break begins the first installment of the Washtenaw Jail Diary, written by a former inmate in Washtenaw County’s jail facility on Hogback Road. The piece originated as a Twitter feed in early 2009, which the author subsequently abandoned and deleted. See previous Chronicle coverage “Twittering Time at the Washtenaw County Jail.“

In now working with the author to publish the Washtenaw Jail Diary, The Ann Arbor Chronicle acknowledges that this is only one side of a multi-faceted tale.

We also would like to acknowledge that the author’s incarceration predates the administration of the current sheriff, Jerry Clayton.

This narrative, which we expect will run over a series of several installments, provides an insight into a tax-funded facility that most readers of The Chronicle will not experience first-hand in the same way as the author.

The language and topics introduced below reflect the environment of a jail. We have not sanitized it for Chronicle readers. It is not gratuitously graphic, but it is graphic just the same. It contains language and descriptions that some readers will find offensive.

Chapter 1: Bam Bam

-

Prologue

It is a spring day in 2008. Yesterday, I told my boss I’d be a little late for work today, that I have to take care of some minor legal trouble in Ann Arbor, but I should be in sometime in the afternoon. So, this morning I kiss my wife goodbye. She says something sarcastic and cutting about the misdemeanor case I’m going to take care of. I expect to get two years probation, no jail time and that Washtenaw County will shake me down for a few thousands dollars in court costs – money that I, of course, do not have.

I drop my kids, ages 3 and 2, at their preschool. As I take them to their classrooms, I get a “feeling,” a real bad feeling that makes me almost physically ill. I give them each extra-tight, unusually long hugs before I tell them goodbye and to have a fun day.

My car’s a little shaky and in bad need of repair, but I manage to make it from suburban Detroit to Ann Arbor. Along the way, David Bowie’s “Sorrow” plays on my tape deck. I sing along. “With your long blonde hair and your eyes of blue; The only thing I ever got from you was sorrow. Sorrow.”

I have a touch of obsessive compulsive disorder. Repeating song lyrics in my head is sort of my equivalent of rocking back and forth to comfort myself. There is a decent cadence to the Bowie song.

I am so nervous, I can hardly move. I park in the garage across Main Street and wobble across the crosswalk to the gates of hell – Washtenaw County’s 15th District Court.

“You never do what you know you oughta; Something tells me you’re a Devil’s daughter. Sorrow. Sorrow.”

I enter the building, wondering – just barely above conscious thought – how long it will be before I see the light of day again. I have a bad feeling.

Courtroom

“Well, you’re going to jail,” my court-appointed lawyer tells me. My eyes briefly go dark and the courtroom spins.

I grasp the lawyer’s shoulder to steady myself and plead, as if a touch will convince.

“No,” I say. “I can’t go to jail. My kids need me. What can I do?”

“Beg,” he says. “Just beg. That’s your only hope.”

And the mind does try to find hope in hopeless situations. I really believe him. So, I think of, rehearse in my mind, ways I can beg the judge. But, in the end, I simply mutter something about my financial responsibilities to my family. No reaction from the judge.

“Your honor, he did not violate the letter of your instructions, but he did in spirit,” my lawyer says.

It is when this lawyer refuses to defend me that it truly sinks in. For the first time in my life, I am going to jail. JAIL!

In the corner of my eye, I see an officer position himself between me and the courtroom door, reaching for handcuffs. There is a tiny moment when I calculate unrealistic odds: If I “run for it” now, could I zigzag my way around the cop?

Then I think of my kids, my wife, and the room spins again, my eyes start to go dark.

My lawyer steadies me and asks if he needs me to contact anybody. Officer Friendly with the handcuffs says I’ll be able to make a call from jail. This promise of a phone call to my wife will become my obsession for the next 56 hours.

The judge says she is “worried about me” based upon some statements made by my alleged victims. Therefore, she is sending me to “suicide watch.” Soon, I will learn what Washtenaw County Jail’s “suicide watch” is. Inmates call it Bam Bam. And it is a human rights violation.

But, for now, I am comforted that I will be able to call my family from jail, hopefully get a real lawyer, get it all straightened out. I hold out my wrists, I am handcuffed and taken to a room at the rear of the courtroom. Shaking, I enter a strange new world.

“I tried to find her, ’cause I can’t resist her; I never knew just how much I missed her; Sorrow. Sorrow.”

Holding tank

After being relieved of my jacket, shoelaces and belt, I am locked in a holding tank for about 45 minutes with two other men. One is an older black man with a weathered face. The other looks like a teenager.

I ask what it’s like in the Washtenaw Jail. The older man grins. “You ain’t never been to jail before.” He is the first of many to take one look at me and guess. The teen-looking guy rolls his eyes: “Pfft. Washtenaw’s like summer camp.”

To pass time, we twirl the chains on our handcuffs. The smell in the holding pen, with three men and one toilet, is noticeable. Over time, I will build a kind of immunity to odors. When it is time to leave the holding pen, the Ann Arbor officer shackles our legs, chains the three of us together and we waddle out. For some reason, I never really mind handcuffs. It is the ankle-pinching leg irons and the forced waddling that will always get to me.

During the drive in the back of a police van from downtown Ann Arbor to the jail on Hogback Road, I comfort myself that I am OK and this will be over soon. I am wrong on both counts.

The Velcro Bam Bam suit

The sliding doors to the jail open and the first thing I see are four holding pens containing what looks to me to be masses of men dressed in orange, green and blue. In the last two pens on the right are half-naked men wearing robes that Velcro together on their shoulders. Bam Bam. It will be my home for the next 56 hours.

An officer throws me a Velcro Bam Bam suit and slippers. I say so long to street clothes for five months. The suit is also derisively called a “dress” by some inmates. It looks like a cross between a hospital gown and one of those heavy X-ray vests. It opens with Velcro in the front, and no underwear is allowed. I guess you could strangle yourself or others with underwear.

This Velcro suit is one reason they call this area Bam Bam. You look like a Flintstones caveman. Soon, I will find out the other reason.

A nurse approaches me. “Do you have thoughts of killing yourself?” she asks. I answer, “No.” She checks “Yes” on her little sheet of paper. I guess if the judge says I am suicidal, then I am.

“Can I make a phone call now?” I ask. “After you’re booked in,” the officer says. “When will I be booked in?” I ask. “Not my decision,” he says. This will become a pattern in the next few days: I make requests based on what I think my “rights” are, and officers ignore me.

The officer’s eyes give me a nanosecond of pity, seeing that I am obviously new at this. “Break 4!” he shouts. The door to Holding 4 opens.

“Here are a couple of nice gentlemen you can share a room with,” the officer says, instructing me to throw a rubber mat on the cell’s floor. Two weary faces look up at me. Each had already staked their claims on high-rent ledges in the holding pen. My new home is on the floor. My cellmates are both wearing Bam Bam suits. One of them is a muscular, older black man, the other a young white kid detoxing from heroin.

The kid does not say much. The older man never stops talking. Ever. He’s in Bam Bam as a punishment for, of course, talking too much on his block.

Now, he poses like he’s throwing a discus. “These dresses make us look like Julius Fucking Caesar.”

I laugh for the first time in jail.

The man doing the “Julius Fucking Caesar” impression – I’ll call him “Charlie.” He talks about how his son is in jail here, too. (Months later, I will have a conversation with a corrections officer who can name all the multiple-generation inmate families at the jail.) Charlie’s in Bam Bam because he wouldn’t shut up in the bunk area of the gym. The gym is where they cram the spillover in the overcrowded jail.

Charlie talks incessantly – about injustices past and present, about the son he barely knows and of his girlfriend, who claimed he beat her. I wince slightly. I have not yet gotten used to carrying on seemingly normal conversations with men who might have done very bad things.

Charlie’s rapid-fire talk is punctuated by his window-banging. When can he go back to his block? Who is the “property officer”? Whatever that is. His voice, the banging, set me on edge again. I make a mental note never to become a window-banger.

Listening to Charlie’s stories had taken me away from my own troubles, but hearing his demands bring me back. What about my phone call? Sadness, shame of arrest is giving way to outrage, anger over rights not granted. To my wife and coworkers, I imagine, I simply vanished. My phone call! I’m supposed to get a motherfucking phone call! I begin to “think” in the language of my surroundings.

I bang on the window.

The phone call, the phone call, the phone call

“I have been here for three hours and haven’t been allowed my phone call.” For the next 53 hours, I will preface all my requests with this hour count, much to the puzzlement of my captors.

“You’re in checks. No calls until mental health clears you,” the officer says. “Checks” is another word for “suicide watch” – I guess because they supposedly “check” on you.

“But I have a right to a call,” I respond.

The officer smiles slightly, then speaks slowly as if addressing a child. “You … are … in … checks. No … calls.” Then he walks away.

For the first time in my adult life, I feel completely helpless. And to a man who’s never been helpless or caged, this feeling turns to rage. I have not yet learned that in jail, rage and impatience are useless emotions. They never get you anything and almost always make things worse.

Pressures of this horrible day are building in my head. I’ve become so outraged I literally cannot see straight. I’m pacing around the cell. No more Bowie in my head. It is the phone call, the phone call, the phone call. That is my obsession – although, by now, my wife has probably guessed that something went wrong in court.

I went to court this morning thinking I would take care of two misdemeanors, then drive to work. It was bumped to four felonies. I was arrested. Arrested, but not yet “booked in” since I am in this no-man’s land known as “suicide watch,” “checks,” “Bam Bam,” whatever. I don’t exist.

I think of myself as a “disappeared” Central American prisoner whose family, friends never hear from again. Well, this is what my mind turns to in my panicked state. I explain this analogy to blank-faced officers who only see a likely suicidal lunatic blabbering on about disappearing in Central America.

Again it was explained. No phone call because you’re in “checks,” no phone call until after you’re “booked in.” My agitation increases. The smug officers, the closed-in space that seems more suffocating by the hour, the banging, the panic bring me to a point beyond reason.

It is in this unreasonable state of mind that I make one of the worst mistakes I will make in my entire five months at the jail.

“How things work”

Before I was arrested, I worked on the Web site for a local Detroit TV station.

I am delirious with anger, frustration, panic, unable to think clearly. I blurt out the most asinine thing possible.

“I work for Channel [_] and they will find out how my rights are being violated!”

The background cacophony of Bam Bam goes silent for what is probably only 1 second, but seems to last 15, while all register what I said.

I’ll never know for sure, but I am convinced that my stupid little rant is the reason I spend 56 hours (not the customary 24) in Bam Bam.

After the silence, in my eyes there is something akin to a quick zoom of a camera onto a tall, young corrections officer not more than 25 years old. He turns around to face me after he hears my words.

Zzooom!

He hollers: “Break 4!” The doors to my cell, Holding 4, open.

“What?” he asks.

My “colleagues” suddenly find other things to do in the back of the cell. The officer hovers over me, stares me down. “What did you say?”

A chubby, crew-cut cop, the “yuk-it-up” type, decides to get involved. “He said he’s with Channel [_] and he wants his phone call,” he smirks.

“Let me explain to you how things work here because you look like you’re new at this,” says the tall officer hovering over me. The cop’s face contorts into an expression that is just the right, practiced blend of anger and sarcasm.

Then I make my second dumb mistake.

I interrupt the officer who is about to tell me “how things work.” I open my mouth to squeak a few words about “my right to a phone call.”

This gives the officer a chance to use what is obviously one of his favorite phrases. “If you would keep your jaws from flapping, I would tell you how things work,” the officer says.

I’m a little slow. But I now do understand. It is one thing to understand, on an academic level, what it must be like to have no rights. It is another thing to truly experience it. Rules that applied to my previous 40-plus years are no longer applicable. I am now an infant again, dependent on the whims of strange, large beings. I make a show out of closing my jaws immediately. No more “flapping.”

The officer continues his speech, a little louder. I am not listening. The realization that I have no rights at all is now making me more upset.

Like a genius, I interrupt again. And that does it for the officer. This time, the look on his face is true anger, not the practiced sarcasm of cops. Now, he is going to say what is really going to happen.

“We’ll see how long it takes for you to get out of Bam Bam,” he says. “We’ll see if you ever get to make your call.” He turns around. Done.

Three seconds of silence provide the perfect opportunity for the crew-cut “yuk-it-up” cop to turn to the booking officers and point at me.

“This guy’s with Channel [_] and he wants to make a phone call right now!” That was the punch line. Waves of laughter pour from the officers. The laughter is muted with the slam of the sliding door to Holding Cell 4.

Editor’s note: All installments of the “Washtenaw Jail Diary” that have been published to date can be found here.

Carla Wilson, corrections officer at the Washtenaw County Jail: "This uniform confuses people."

It is morningtime at the Washtenaw County Jail, and about 60 men – accused criminals all – are laying quietly awake on their bunks, eyes closed, thinking about their happy place.

Yes. Really. Criminals and their happy place.

As the men hold visions in their heads of the beach, or fishing, or picnicking with their families outside this building of concrete, steel and razor wire, the only sound is soft music from computer speakers. And the still, small voice of Cpl. Carla Wilson, a Washtenaw County corrections officer.

After the inmates are relaxed, “wiping the slate clean,” as Wilson says, for another day of incarceration, she talks to the men about the need to “have a plan” once they leave. “If you don’t have a plan …” Wilson ends the thought with a whistle. “Not good.” She urges the men to “listen to your inner voice that tells you not to do something.” If not, she says, well, this jail may be overcrowded, but there will always be a bed waiting for them.

And, she adds a word to the wise: There will always be “support coat” on the outside, spending time with your woman, taking your kids to school. Some inmates groan in knowing acknowledgment of the jail slang for an inmate’s “replacement” on the outside during incarceration.

About 15 minutes of this “guided meditation,” and life on the block returns to its normal pattern – except for one thing: Inmates line up at Wilson’s desk, making requests that they know will not be ignored under her watch. The requests range from the need for a fresh towel to an inquiry about whether a parole officer has been contacted.

This is J Block, an “open block,” where nonviolent offenders, who follow the rules and do some work on behalf of the jail, are not locked down in a cell 19 and a half hours as they otherwise would be. They can roam around the large room, get access to computers, socialize, attend classes, watch movies.

And every couple of days “Ms. Wilson” rotates through J Block, which is designated a “therapeutic block.”

“This uniform confuses people,” Wilson says in an interview. And by “people,” she means the people who wear the uniforms. “It confuses your ego.” Civilians, she says, “outrank” police officers. “We’re here to provide a service.”

It’s a service she thinks the new sheriff in town, Jerry Clayton, understands. Wilson says that Clayton, who was elected sheriff last November but who was once Wilson’s commanding officer, understands the need to do more with inmates than simply lock them up.

Derrick Jackson, director of community engagement for the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office, reflects the same sentiment: “A part of what Carla is doing – and she’s been doing it for years now – is really along with Sheriff Clayton’s philosophy of, ‘We’re more than just a holding facility.’ We do more and contribute more to the community than just arresting folks and locking people up,” Jackson says.

When you get a group of people together in a high-pressure environment, with nothing but time on their hands, “doing something positive to engage them” is not only a good thing to do, it helps produce a “safe and secure jail,” Jackson says.

We can look forward to more officers being trained in how to engage inmates in more ways than simply being a keymaster, he says.

Regarding Wilson, Jackson says, “She is definitely ahead of the curve, but it’s something that we, as an organization, have a vested interest in continuing to grow.”

Wilson is optimistic that things will move in that direction, but has seen mostly superficial evidence of that so far. She’s a contributing author to a new book, “Serving Productive Time,” written by Tom Lagana, the author of the popular book, “Chicken Soup for the Prisoner’s Soul.”

“Just a handshake. ‘Thatagirl’ and that’s about it,” from her colleagues on the book, she says. The county has highlighted the book contribution on its website.

Both Wilson and Jackson confirm that the old police culture might simply not be good enough for the future. There will be more training in how to interact with inmates beyond the military drill-sergeant style.

Wilson takes this philosophy outside the jail, too. She recently took former inmates with her to speak to a group of mothers in Detroit who have children in prison. This is part of her “Connection Principle” side business – but  she often speaks for free.

One former Washtenaw County Jail inmate and J Block resident, who goes on speaking engagements with Wilson, spoke on condition of anonymity.

“Whether it be in the recovery field, or volunteering to assist prior inmates (returning citizens) make the difficult transition back into society, her gift is her ability and desire to help others,” he says. “Having someone like that as a corrections officer was an unusual experience, especially based on the direct supervision style of other corrections officers.”

Wilson is working on a book of her own, “What If I’m Right?” which details more of her experiences at the jail, dealing with inmates and fellow officers. She is hoping that Lagana’s “Chicken Soup” publisher will take a look at the manuscript.

Meanwhile, Wilson continues to live and breathe the jail and its occupants.

“When I’m not there, I wonder how everybody’s doing,” Wilson says. “I’m hoping they have a good day. I’m hoping they have an officer who is attending to their needs, who’s being approachable and professional. That’s what I think about when I’m not there. I hope they have a good officer that day.”

Veteran journalist Howard Lovy has focused his writing the last several years on science, technology and business. He was news editor at Small Times, a magazine focusing on nanotechnology and microsystems, when it first launched in Ann Arbor in 2001. His freelance work has appeared in Wired News, Salon.com, X-OLOGY Magazine and The Michigan Messenger. His current research focus includes the future of the auto industry and the U.S. criminal justice system.

In his second Tweet: “I will not yet reveal my identity nor my alleged crime. I will say that I was 42 years old when I served my time and had never been in jail.”

The author agreed to answer some questions for us.

But first, a sample from the Twitter feed. Note that the entries read in chronological order, most recent first.

--------------------
A nurse comes with medication. I tell her how many hours I have been
in jail without my phone call. She does not look very interested.
Wed, May 6, 2009 9:51 AM
--------------------
It is the loudest flush I have ever heard, filling the cell with
sound, halting all conversation for about 30 seconds.
Wed, May 6, 2009 9:21 AM
--------------------
"Flush on 2!" Fred yells. "Can you give us a flush on 2?" We do
not operate our own toilets.
Wed, May 6, 2009 9:14 AM
--------------------
Fred pounds a few times until he has a guard's attention.
Then makes a twisty motion with his fingers.
Wed, May 6, 2009 8:57 AM
--------------------
By now the stench is approaching unbearable. Fred gets
up and pounds on the cell window.
Wed, May 6, 2009 8:33 AM
--------------------

-

Q & A

We confirmed that the author was jailed at Washtenaw County jail at 2201 Hogback Road during 2008. The Chronicle acknowledges that this is one side of a multi-faceted tale, some of which predates the author’s incarceration. However, the narrative provides a literate insight into a tax-funded facility that most readers of The Chronicle will not experience first hand in the same way as the author. And we were curious to know a bit more about this writing project than was reflected in the Twitter bio.

1. Describe the writing process. Do you ever have to shave down sentences to fit 140 characters? Did you write out the whole thing in advance? Given the level of detail, you must have taken notes, right? Do you try to leave the last Tweet for the day as a “cliffhanger”?

There are a few parts that I took notes on during my stay in jail and I’ve referred to them as reminders, but the writing, itself, is all as I remember it – 140 characters at a time. Not as difficult as I thought it would be and it’s forcing me to tighten up my usually wordy writing, anyway.

As for “cliffhangers,” when it’s your first time in jail, every moment is a cliffhanger. I had no idea what to expect. Also, in the first couple of months, before I knew what my final sentence would be, every day seemed to be a cliffhanger to me.

2. Do you keep in touch with anybody you met in jail?

Yes, I have corresponded with, and called, a few people I met in jail. There are so many stories in each individual person I met, and some of them wanted me to help them write their personal stories. I am following up with them as time permits. I am also still in touch with one corrections officer – one good one who really does care about the people she is placed in charge of. I will get to her in my story much later.

3. Do you have a favorite euphemism for the time gap on the resume – like “independent projects?”

This was a very sad time in my life. It froze my career and, more importantly, separated me from my young children. They think I was away on a long “work trip,” and the psychological impact of me being away is still being noticed. I don’t have a favorite euphemism. They are all bad.

4. At home, with family, or at work, you find yourself citing your jail time as evidence that you’ve seen and experienced more than the average bear can even imagine? Or is it something that’s just taboo?

No. It is an experience I do not wish on anybody and I hope most find out only second-hand through people like me. It is not a taboo subject at home, but it brings up a great deal of pain that my wife and I still need to sort through.

5. Any idea how much it cost to house you at the jail for five months?

I have no idea, but probably not as much as it might look on the books. I will bring this up later in my narrative – how the system not only takes away your rights and freedoms, but robs you blind by giving you food portions that are not enough to feed a grown man and then making you pay for anything “extra.”