Does That Clarify Things?

A fairly understated week with Marcus E Wiley and the Boys of the Board. If Clovis was still with you, he’d be much better able to capture the significance of what’s happening. But like I mentioned last time, in his absence we instead have important county business being conducted in a way that almost seems designed to evade public comprehension.

Public Comment

No update from Stephanie Scott on her attempt to get answers. Was looking forward to that. Hopefully next time.

Instead, Mary Meintz comes flying off the top rope on Commissioner Marcus E Wiley with accusations of conflicts of interest regarding LifeWays:

• Meintz: “So the bottom line is: you should be receiving no more than $60 a day for your services on [the LifeWays] board, and instead you’re receiving $65-$70 an hour from LifeWays, and LifeWays is paying you retirement. That is a direct conflict of interest, and yet every time a member of the public has come here and said there’s a conflict of interest with you sitting here and sitting on that board, you scream, “No, there’s not,” because you quote the fact that it is required to have board members on there [County Board members on the LifeWays Board]. Yes, but it’s still a conflict of interest because you’re employed by LifeWays … [You] continue to collect money and make decisions when you’re not representing just the county—because when you go to LifeWays and they get more going on, you get more pay.”

Public Safety/Judiciary Committee Report

By a vote of 5-0, the Board of Commissioners voted to “authorize the Hillsdale County Dispatch Director to sign the attached change order from Motorola Solutions for a structural analysis and foundation study.”

Budget Committee Report

For the life of me, I could not grasp the meaning of this letter in “Correspondence” to Commissioner Leininger from LifeWays CEO Cassandra L. Watson, MPH, MSN, APRN, AGPCNP-BC:

• “Attached is the LifeWays Local Match Budget Appropriation request in the amount of $194,000 for Fiscal Year 2026-2027. In August 2018, LifeWays was supported by the residents of Hillsdale County in securing a Mental Health millage. The anticipated millage dollars for 2027 is $901,735. It is understood that Hillsdale County may/will use the millage dollars to meet the above request totaling $194,000. For FY 2026/2027, the total appropriation request is $1,095,735.”

Commissioner Leininger, however, swooped in to clarify (sort of):

• Leininger: “I don’t necessarily like the way LifeWays writes that letter because the total amount they’re requesting is technically the total millage funds. We’re just using part of the millage funds to pay the annual appropriation amount that’s required according to the statute.”

  • Commissioner Ingles: “It almost looks like an add-on.”

  • Commissioner Leininger: “And it’s not. The total amount—the $1,095,735—is what we anticipate that we will bring in from the millage that we approved levying at our last Board of Commissioners meeting. The $194K is part of that. Like I said, I just wish LifeWays would have written the letter differently so that it truly reflects that that annual appropriation is coming from the millage funds. It’s not in addition to that as of right now.”

Does that clarify things?

A little later, Ingles asks Leininger “Is the $194K by definition from the state required to go to a particular entity?” Leininger pauses before responding. He looks briefly to Marcus E Wiley. He shifts in his seat. Seems like a subtly dramatic moment in an otherwise understated meeting. (And if you’re going to take interest in these meetings, you have to focus on these types of exchanges, I’m learning.) Is he annoyed that Ingles seems to be opening the door to the county doing business with a mental health organization other than LifeWays? He responds: “It’s required to go to the community mental health agency serving the county, if memory serves me right.”

And that’s that.