By DEBRA HAIGHT
BCR Correspondent
ST. JOSEPH, MI – Berrien County Commissioners handled a number of issues at their meeting last week including support for state legislation designed to combat predatory foreclosure practices. Commissioners also received a preview of the 2026 budget which will be the subject of a public hearing this week on Nov. 20.
County Administrator Brian Dissette told commissioners that county staff have developed a proposed budget that meets the board’s goal of having a balanced budget. “A majority of the board said at the last work session that your preference was to have the budget balanced with a minimal or zero draw down of the fund balance,” he said.
He said county staff has achieved that by defunding a variety of positions in the Trial Court and eliminating some of planned positions at the juvenile center. He said in response that Trial Court officials have requested that vacant positions not be eliminated totally but be funded at a 50 percent level.
“I made it clear to them that you want to see a plan on how they will fill the bulk of the vacant beds at the juvenile center,” he said. “What I said to them was that the recommendation to fund their vacant positions at 50 percent is contingent upon a plan being presented to the board to fill the beds and ultimately accept their plan.”
“If you are not happy with the plan they’re proposing to fill the beds at the juvenile center, the 50 percent agreement will be eliminated,” he added. “It’s absolutely the board’s prerogative to decide the budget. I made it clear you want a balanced budget with minimal draw down from the fund balance.”
Dissette said county staff have adjusted the proposed 2026 budget so that the original use of $1.2 million of the fund balance drawdown has been reduced to just $120,000. “That is a dramatic reduction although it’s not zero. It also allows you to have healthy fund balance representing 37.2 percent of expenditures.”
He credited the cooperation of county department heads to reduce the budget deficit so much. “We have had really good cooperation with the departments and we will keep pushing existing staff to keep up with work flow as well as the demands of the public.”
He acknowledged that it will be lean budget. “We are absolutely trying to stick to the facts, we face a significant reduction in overall revenue and we’re the balance the way that has been presented to county departments,” he said.
“We are running on the assumption of a no increase in revenue and the only way to get there is through the selective cutting of various expenses,” he added. “We have very intentionally not targeted the elimination of existing positions; there will be no layoffs planned in this budget proposal.”
County Board Chairman McKinley Elliott likened trimming the budget to cleaning out one’s garage and throwing away stuff that hasn’t been used in years. “If positions have been vacant for 3-4 years, can we eliminate them and reinstate them in the future if things change.”
“But to fund vacant positions when it can save X amount of dollars and X is what it takes to maintain prescription coverage and X is also cost of funding dormant positions,” he added.
With the foreclosure legislation, commissioners approved a resolution in support of two House Bills, 5152 and 5153, that provide critical protections for homeowners during mortgage foreclosure proceedings. The legislation is supported by two Berrien County state representatives, Democratic Rep. Joey Andrews and Republican Rep. Brad Paquette.
The issue was brought to the county board’s attention earlier this month by Corporate Counsel Thaddeus Hackworth. Hackworth learned of at least one situation last year where a predatory firm had cheated an elderly heir of her rights to the proceeds from a foreclosure auction.
Last week, two area residents spoke before the county board’s vote in support of the state legislation. Both said they had seen examples of county residents who have been scammed by predatory foreclosure firms. They said they hoped that more can be done for these people who have defrauded of funds they should have received.
Also last week, an area police chief thanked the board for moving forward with the purchase of mobile Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) for over 40 first responder agencies in the county.
Coloma Township Police Chief Wes Smigielski thanked the board for moving forward with the project. Smigielski noted that it puts Berrien County in the “Next generation of what pretty much that everyone else in the state has.”
“With CAD, we will get officers to places quicker, communication will be enhanced, dispatchers will be less burdened by some of awful radio traffic, and larger scale calls will become a lot easier,” he added.
“We will be able to know exactly where that officer is, especially with cell phones in officers’ pockets. When there is a chase in the woods we will be able to know where they actually are with GPS,” he continued. Smigielski went on to note it will be a huge change for the county.
The county has committed to an investment of up to $213,000 with local entities also pledging funds for the CAD project. Earlier estimates put the cost to establish the program at $596,650.