Isabella County’s board of commissioners reimbursed local government a portion of the costs for August’s 911 surcharge election. At the meeting, some local officials called the election a county mistake while dissenting commissioners said sharing costs would set a bad precedent.
The county reimbursed local governments a total of $18,389 to help cover costs from election workers and postage at its Oct. 5 meeting. That wasn’t the full amount local governments requested, and not every local unit of government received money. That’s because not every unit of local government filed a request on time.
Union Township received the most money at $5,155, followed by Sherman Township at $2,525, Mt. Pleasant with $2,210, Chippewa Township with $2,016, Coe Township with $1,371, Lincoln Township with $1,140, Gilmore Township with $1,139, Fremont Township with $1,000, Wise Township with $874, Coldwater Township with $540 and Denver Township with $415.
Broomfield, Isabella, Nottawa and Rolland townships filed no requests for funds, according to a document with the meeting packet. During the meeting, it was revealed that Deerfield Township and Mt. Pleasant had filed late requests, which were not considered.
“Where will it stop,” asked Jim Horton, commission chairman and District 4 Republican from Union Township, said about requests that came in after the board packets were circulated with the $18,389 figure and what it might mean for the future.
Horton and Tobin Hope, county commission vice chairman and a District 7 Democrat from Mt. Pleasant, opposed reimbursing local governments on the grounds that it set a bad precedent that would allow local governments to ask for money any time the county wanted to place a question as the only thing on the ballot.
Representatives of local government disputed that it set a bad precedent during the public comment period.
“The county made a mistake somewhere in the system and overlooked the expiration of the 911 surcharge that needed to be in place and as a result had to put it on the ballot,” said John Pedjac, Denver Township supervisor. “And we at the townships had to run that election.”
Pedjac told commissioners that he is the chairman of the Isabella County Michigan Township Association and felt comfortable saying he was speaking on behalf of most local government officials.
Coe Township’s clerk also addressed the issue of whether the county was setting a precedent.
Patti Sandel said that she couldn’t find an example of where the county reimbursed local governments for previous elections and that local clerks do expect unexpected elections to pop up.
But the county should overlook the issue of whether this set a precedent, she said, and instead accept a partial reimbursement as a means to accepting accountability for an error made by the county in scheduling the election.
The August election is unlikely to break the budget of local clerks, she said. But money from the county would be appreciated.
During county board deliberations about it later in the meeting, Horton said that local clerks are expected to budget for three elections a year. He also said that state law mandates that school districts share election costs, but county governments aren’t.
The commission voted 5-2 in favor with Horton and Hope voting no.
