AUDIENCE QUESTIONS WHY THE COUNTY WOULD WANT TO TAKE OVER THE ROAD COMMISSION

NILES – Berrien County Commissioners ventured to the south county last week for one of their 2017 night meetings. Commissioners held their weekly meeting inside the South County Building last Thursday. This was the fifth of six night meetings set for 2017, the last will be at the Berrien County Administration Building in St. Joseph on Sept. 7.
Although the current controversy over the future of the Berrien County Road Commission wasn’t on the meeting agenda, that didn’t stop audience members from bringing up the topic during public comments. County officials have brought up the possibility of a county take over of the road commission recently since the resignation of manager Louis Csokasy.
County Administrator William Wolf made a presentation to the county board July 27, outlining the situation and the options available to the county board. He said then that there would be a Committee of the Whole meeting of county board members Aug. 10 to hear presentations on the issue.
The Aug. 10 presentations were scheduled to include one presentation by other Michigan counties on their decisions to eliminate their county road commissions as well as one by the Berrien County Road Commission. The county board has talked about having two public hearings on the road commission on Aug. 17 and 24.
Wolf outlined five options to commissioners on July 27 including the county taking over the operation of the road commission which currently is an independent body. A 2012 state law allows counties to transfer road commission powers to the county government.
He reported that the county could take over the road commission by replacing the road commission board with the county board and leave it as a standalone organization. The county could also take over the road commission entirely so that it would become one of several county departments under the supervision of the county administrator.
He reiterated the points he made in a similar 2013 feasibility study which concluded that transferring road commission responsibilities to the county board is feasible, the cost to the county is acceptable and the liabilities and risks are manageable.
The other four options include maintaining the current five member appointed commission, restructuring the commission as an appointed three or four member board, restructuring it to be an elected board of three to five members and enhancing collaboration between the road commission and the county.
As Wolf noted in a timeline of road commission history, the road commission has had three managing directors and three interim managing directors since 2011. During that time, there have been 15 changes to the road commission membership due to death, removals, resignations and appointments.
County board members tackled the issue previously in 2012-13 when a similar discussion was held after a period of employee turmoil and investigations. County commissioners decided then to hold off on taking over the road commission after holding public hearings.
Those speaking at last week’s county board meeting in Niles questioned why the county would want to take over the road commission.
Sodus resident Terry Bennard said he was concerned that the situation at the road commission wouldn’t necessarily improve with a county take over. “You say that the (road commission) board meddles into the daily operation, what are you doing?” he asked. “You want to control it too.”
“You see that they have $2 million in funds, what about the $11 million in unfunded liabilities?” he asked. “You’re getting a rosy picture painted about the road commission.”
Pipestone Township resident Darrin Schaer had similar concerns. “We’ve lost track of the original problem when employees came to you to ask for help (in 2012),” he said. “You called in the road commission, you got rid of some and others quit. It’s not about the roads but about people and management.”