Wayne County Executive Warren Evans returned to Dearborn to give his annual State of the County address March 21.
While on stage at the Ford Community and Performing Arts Center, he talked about the year that was, and the year that will come, touting successes as well as places that need further improvement across the county.
One of the places he wants to improve is the Wayne County Juvenile Detention Facility.
Evans called for a public health state of emergency at the facility.
“The situation has become untenable for nearly 140 youths that are currently residing there,” he said. “Extraordinary action has become necessary. Which is why, today, I am calling for a public health state of emergency. This order, under the powers of the county’s health officer, will allow us to establish an incident command structure reporting directly to me, which will expedite action to adequately staff and provide therapeutic services in the facility.”
The public health state of emergency comes after months of overcrowding in the facility, driven largely by the dwindling number of long-term stay beds made available by the state for post-adjudicated youths.
“We will continue to explore every effort to work with them to expedite that solution,” he said. “As our partnership with the state progresses, our hope is that we’ll be able to rely on them to do their part and get children out of our facility and into the long-term placements they deserve.”
The number of residents in the juvenile facility nearly doubled between 2021 and 2022. In 2021, the average number of juveniles in the facility was 68. There are 137 in the facility today. Concurrently, the average stay has ballooned from 21 days to 127 days. One child languished in the facility for over 800 days awaiting a placement. The overcrowding has created a staffing crisis in the facility.
Under the public health emergency, the county hopes to expedite staffing and therapeutic services to increase safety and security, and to facilitate efforts to partner with the Wayne County Circuit Court and the state to find solutions to overcrowding created by the state’s long-term bed shortage.
Evans, who has been in office for eight years, spoke about the state the county was in when he was first elected, and where it is now.
“We’re stronger, more stable, and more financially sound than Wayne County government has been in many, many years,” he said. “Under this administration, we have enjoyed eight straight balanced budgets and budget surpluses each year, and an ‘A’ credit rating from Wall Street which has helped spark substantial economic development. This, compared to the junk bond status I inherited when I took office in 2015. Eight years ago, many people were certain Wayne County was headed for bankruptcy.
“Our structural and accumulated deficits were upwards of $180 million and our unfunded health care liabilities amounted to $1.3 billion. No one wanted to start new businesses, and we had this unfinished failed jail to boot involving protracted litigation and the wasting of $100 million. Who would’ve thought that one administration could dodge bankruptcy, resolve the deficiencies we’d inherited, take on a global pandemic, and emerge even stronger than before? But against those odds, we made it work.”
Evans said he and his team have continually focused our attention on providing better services.
“We’ve empowered thousands of families and businesses with programs and resources designed to help them through the pandemic, and we’ve adjusted our own operations to cope with this crisis,” he said. “These are huge accomplishments. And we achieved them not by the efforts of one or a handful of individuals, but because of the sustained effort and sacrifice of our dedicated Wayne County workforce.”
State of the pandemic
Evans spoke extensively on positive outcomes of the pandemic, and how improved Wayne County has been in the last year.
“I know most of us want to leave the pandemic in the rearview mirror,” he said. “But if you’ll indulge me for a moment, we need to recognize that for the past three years our community has relied on those Wayne County residents and Wayne County employees who have exhausted themselves for the good of our public health in the face of great personal risk. At one point during the pandemic, Wayne County had the highest infection rate in the state of Michigan. This meant that our front line and essential workers, our health care heroes, and our Health Department staff had to work harder than ever before.
“They distributed millions of masks and administered thousands of vaccines. Because of their efforts, our county went from having the highest infection rate and the most deaths in the state in 2020, to having more than 70% of our residents fully vaccinated. That’s a higher vaccination rate than the Michigan state average by more than 10%, and our COVID-19 rates have remained lower than the state average since March of 2022.”
Evans said those improvements were thanks to the hard work of the Wayne County Public Health Division, and his communications staff working to get out the messaging about vaccine clinics and vaccine efficiencies.
“But of course, this pandemic wasn’t only about a virus, its “blast radius” was so much bigger than that,” he said. “The pandemic hit pocketbooks too, which left people out of work and needing the basics such as food and rental assistance. Mental illness spiked. Domestic violence increased significantly, and I know the Wayne County prosecutor is all too familiar with the social implications related to that. But here, too, Wayne County delivered.
“Throughout the pandemic, we partnered with Forgotten Harvest, Gleaners, and faith-based organizations to deliver food to our seniors and lower-income families. From April through August of 2020, working in partnership with Forgotten Harvest in Romulus as well as the Michigan Muslim Community Council, we provided food for approximately 550 families every single week, serving roughly 8,300 families in our drive-thru locations. We also delivered 25 semi-trailers worth of packaged food to families in need.”
Behavioral Health Unit
Evans also spoke of helping the mentally ill, instead of treating them as criminals.
“We’re also proud of the incredible work being led by Probate Court Chief Judge Freddie Burton,” he said. “Judge Burton approached us with a simple concern that he was sick and tired of treating mental illness as a crime. County residents suffering mental illness don’t need law enforcement, they need help. And that’s why, under his leadership with the partnership of Wayne County and Wayne State, we’ve funded a Behavioral Health Unit, which works every day to divert people with mental illness out of the criminal justice system into receiving the care they need.”
Air quality
Evans announced a plan to construct a system of 100 air monitors across the county. They’ll sit on lampposts and streetlights, collecting data on air quality.
“For too long, too many of our residents have had to breathe the fumes from incinerators, factories and idling trucks,” he said. “Our kids suffer more from asthma than in almost any other part of Michigan. Meanwhile, the corporations that are polluting our air have been applying for permit after permit to increase the level of their emissions. That environmental injustice has got to stop.”
Evans said children with asthma will be given portable monitors for their backpacks, as well.
“We also plan to give out 500 mobile air monitors that clip on backpacks for children with asthma,” he said. “Along with that, they’ll be given sensors to put on their inhalers. Every time they use one, we’ll know about it. Together with air quality data, they’ll allow us to learn the air fingerprint of asthma in our communities. We can use that data to take immediate action. We’ll notify parents when air quality is poor, helping them protect their children so they don’t wind up in the emergency room.”
Millennial Advisory Council
A new advisory group to help the younger crowd get involved was recently launched.
“Maybe we should be listening a bit harder to the good ideas that our young people have to offer,” Evans said. “The Millennial Advisory Council, brainchild of my wife, Renata, was designed to help meet this need. The Millennial Advisory Council was created to advise County leadership on internal and external programming and policies.”
Workforce development
Evans said he plans to start looking at local community colleges and universities to recruit and develop new talent and employees where needed across the county.
“These economic times have challenged us to compete for workers, and that’s true across the country,” he said. “Here’s how we’re dealing with it. Wayne County and our partners at the Southeast Michigan Community Alliance have teamed up to improve economic and social outcomes for Wayne County residents through a series of new job training programs called Wayne L.I.N.C. Those four letters stand for what the program will offer participants: learning, investment, navigation and career. This partnership generated a historic investment of tens of millions of dollars from the county.”
He said a new workforce development collaborative, including leaders from business, education, government, and nonprofits, will launch next month.
“Wayne County’s Department of Personnel and Human Resources partnered with Wayne County Community College District to provide satellite testing for employment positions currently available in Wayne County,” he said. “Satellite testing will provide those with limited access to transportation and technology the opportunity to access online testing for open positions across the county. We also partnered with the Wayne County Community College District to conduct in-class recruitment to connect directly with students who are ideal candidates for our Wayne County jobs. We hope to expand this partnership to Henry Ford Community College and other community colleges to help us expand our reach.”
Moving forward
One of the other things Evans talked about was finally finishing the new jail, which will be done this year.
“We’ll be launching a state-of-the-art integrated facility where all criminal justice needs will be located in one central location,” he said. “These new facilities will include a criminal court, as well as a standalone sheriff’s and prosecutor’s headquarters. The efficiencies of a centralized location will help us to do more with less resources, and it will also open up valuable downtown real estate for development opportunities.”
Evans also spoke about continued repairs to county roads, sewage disposal, and more.
Business investments
Evans touched on several business investments that are happening across the county.
•Our Next Energy, in Van Buren Township, is investing close to $2 billion to create over 2,000 jobs.
•Millbrook Engineering, in Livonia, is investing $24 million, creating 85 jobs.
•Ford Motor Co. is investing $100 million in their Ion Battery Park in Romulus, creating 200 jobs.
•Kroger partnered with the international firm Ocada, in Romulus, to invest $95 million into a robotics fulfillment center and create 450 new jobs.
•Piramal, in Riverview, is an international company that continues to invest in Wayne County. Most recently, investing $35 million as workers produce active ingredients used in life-saving cancer medications.
“These are only a few of the great economic development projects happening around the county,” he said. “Millions of dollars invested, thousands of jobs created.”
Reinvesting in the future
Evans closed out his speech with the announcement of a “particularly special” project coming to Hamtramck, as well as other projects of note.
“As a longtime fan of the history of Negro League baseball, I took pride in August of 2021 when the Wayne County Commission approved my administration’s $850,000 grant proposal to fund the renovation of Historic Hamtramck Stadium, once the home of the Negro National League’s Detroit Stars,” he said. “The business of Black baseball was an asset to Black communities in cities like Detroit. Black baseball created wealth in the Black community, jobs for Black workers, and opportunities for Black ballplayers. The renovation of the Hamtramck Stadium is about more than simply economic development; it’s about preservation, pride and legacy.”
Evans said when the stadium is fully operational again, it will be for more than just baseball.
“Our sports are part of that, but so is our music,” he said. “And I’d argue that there’s no county in the world that’s had a bigger impact on music than Wayne County. Whether its jazz, R&B, gospel, rap or soul, we’ve made our mark. And that’s why we made a foundational investment of $2.5 million to the Motown Museum.”
Evans said his administration has invested $800,000 in the Dozier Community Center in Inkster; used over $2 million for the demolition of distressed and blighted properties in Highland Park, Ecorse, and River Rouge; and completely renovated the Historical Museum in the city of Wayne.
“And to assist our business community, we granted over 6,000 small business grants and loans, totaling $50 million, to help keep businesses alive throughout the pandemic,” he said. “These grants went to businesses like Michigan Children’s Law Center in Hamtramck, United Humanitarian Foundation in Dearborn and Starr Commonwealth in Harper Woods.”
