UPDATE 4/17/24 6:30 p.m.
19 positions with the Isabella County sheriff’s office that were set to be cut because the county’s budget shortfall are no longer on the chopping block at least for now.
Tuesday night, the county board of commissioners took some steps last night to save those positions, that were expected to be cut starting in October.
Board Chair Tobin Hope said that after a lot of feedback from people in the community, they feel they have the support needed to find the money to keep the sheriff’s department running so they are making plans to bide time until that happens.
“Response times would be reduced. They’d be responding to the aftermath rather than getting there in time to, to prevent some bad things from happening,” said Hope.
Hope said they never wanted to cut jobs from the sheriff’s department. He said he knows how critical they are to the county.
He said the board unanimously approved a motion to fund current law enforcement operations through the end of December.
“The fear was that we would lay people off October 1st and then do a millage after that, and there would be some gap and there would be difficulty getting people back,” said Hope.
He said that move is contingent on passing the county’s 6. 61 millage renewal in August.
The chair said the hope is that a special law enforcement millage that some citizens have been pushing will secure the additional funds needed. to keep operations going after that. The millage will be on the November 5th ballot.
“We know that they are critical. The services will be without, people will suffer, and we don’t want that. and part of it is feedback from the community. We’re a little more hopeful that we can fund those in the future with a special millage,” said Hope.
“We haven’t worked out exactly what the millage rate itself will be, but it will be much less than the 2.5 [mill levy request] that we asked for in February.
Hope said they are putting the law enforcement millage on the November ballot, so it doesn’t compete with the millage renewal and because more voters come out for the November elections.
Other separate millage renewals on the August ballot, include a .35 millage for parks and recreation and a transportation commission millage of up to 1 mill.
Hope said says I-Ride is a service that’s very critical to the people of Isabella County.
“We have a high rate of poverty in this community and a lot of people depend on that service to get to work, to get doctor’s appointments and stuff like that.,” said Hope.
Hope said if the special millage for law enforcement did pass and there are still cuts that have to be made-he’s hoping that can be handled through attrition, the process of people quitting or retiring.
4/11/24 7:50 p.m.
As the possibility of cutting the entire road patrol in Isabella County gets closer to becoming reality, the sheriff is holding out hope that there may be a way to save their jobs and the division.
All 19 positions of the county’s road patrol are expected to be cut as of the end of September.
However, the sheriff said there’s been movement on two different fronts that may be able to stop that from happening.
County commissioners said they were forced to make deep cuts to the sheriff’s office because of a millage that failed on the February ballot, but now, private citizens and county commissioners are trying to find a new path forward.
Sheriff Michael Main said since the cuts were announced a few weeks ago, it has been business as usual at the sheriff’s office.
He said his deputies remain committed to serving this community, many expressing interest in staying to the end.
“We’re still operating at full capacity right now. We take roughly anywhere from 250 to 300 incidents about every seven days. So, they are extremely busy,” said Main.
Main said he’s hoping they will find a way to keep deputies on the road. He worries for his deputies and his community.
He said crime could go up and response times would go down and the effects would be detrimental not only in Isabella County but also in surrounding areas, putting additional strain on the resources of other agencies.
“I’ve talked to the sheriffs in those counties and they’re a little concerned because those state troopers that come to their counties are their backup. It becomes not only Isabella County’s problem becomes a regional problem. There’s just no feasible way for any of these agencies to pick up 16,000 plus incidents that we handle here,” said Main.
Main said county officials and private citizens are looking to try to secure the badly needed funding to keep sheriff patrols on the road. He says that support from citizens has meant the world to him and his office.
“If there is an opportunity to do a petition ballot to put something on the fall time frame for a public safety millage.... If they can’t do that, then that would be more signatures of support or really just people going out there and talking about it, getting the information out,” said Main.
Main said it’s critical to get the funding now because deputies have developed relationships and knowledge that helps them solve crimes quickly, and you can’t get that back overnight.
“If we can’t get on the August or November platform, it will be a year before we could probably get back in and be able to draw funds to support that program. And none of those folks will be here for that. So that would be a complete rebuild,” said Main.
County administrator Nicole Frost confirmed that a discussion about a potential road patrol millage and when that would happen is on the agenda for next Tuesday’s Isabella County commission meeting.
The Sheriff encourages people to come out and be part of the dialogue to find a solution or just show support.
