BERRIEN COUNTY COMMISSION UPDATE

By DEBRA HAIGHT
BCR Correspondent
ST. JOSEPH – The committee tasked to select the new Berrien County Sheriff to fill a one-year vacancy left by the retirement of Sheriff Paul Bailey has decided to interview all five candidates who applied.
Berrien County Prosecutor Steve Pierangeli told Berrien County Commissioners last week that he and fellow committee members County Clerk Sharon Tyler and Chief Trial Judge Mabel Mayfield will interview the five candidates on Nov. 22 at the St. Joseph courthouse.
Berrien County Sheriff Paul Bailey announced earlier this year that he would not be running for re-election in 2024 and would in fact be retiring at the end of 2023. He has been sheriff for 23 years and in law enforcement for over four decades.
Pierangeli said the search committee met in October to officially accept Bailey’s resignation and to ask for applications to fill the vacancy. Five people applied by the Oct. 20 deadline and all met the criteria the committee requested of people having seven years of police/public safety experience including three years in a supervisory capacity.
He told commissioners that committee members decided to interview all five and set the date of Nov. 22 to conduct the interviews starting at 9 a.m. that day. He said each applicant will be questioned for 45 minutes with 15 minutes set aside for committee deliberation on each.
He said the interviews will be conducted at the courthouse in St. Joseph. The interviews will be conducted in public under the Open Meetings Act but members of the public won’t have the chance to make comments.
“At the end of the interviews, we will be deciding who should be appointed as the next sheriff,” Pierangeli said. “We’re hopeful we’ve got some pretty good qualified candidates and we will have a very good, well qualified sheriff starting Jan. 1.”
Whoever is appointed will serve until the end of 2024. The sheriff’s position is up for election on the November, 2024 ballot.
Those applying are Sheriff’s Department Lieutenant Thomas Dyer of Niles, Miramar, Florida resident Jeffrey Gorley, Undersheriff Charles Heit of New Buffalo, Sheriff’s Department Lieutenant Roger Johnson of St. Joseph and Sheriff’s Department Deputy Jason Long of Berrien Springs.
Heit has also indicated that he will be running for a full four-year term as sheriff next year.
Other topics addressed at last week’s meeting included starting the process of distributing opioid settlement funds, approving the county parks millage and talking about the public safety and 9-1-1 millage levies that will be put before voters next August.
County Commissioners took the first steps toward the distribution of $8 million the county is getting over 18 years as part of a national opioid settlement. Last week’s action involved authorizing county staff to proceed with the Request for Proposals process.
The county board formed a taskforce earlier this year with community stakeholders to discuss what would be the best way to spend the opioid settlement funds. The taskforce finished its work on recommendations in late summer with a three year plan on how to spend the first $1.1 million.
County Administrator Brian Dissette reported that the county board will have two more resolutions on the issue to vote on this week. Those resolutions will be to establish a review team for the requests for proposals and to outline the process of how the requests will be reviewed.
Dissette and Commissioner Jim Curran also reported to the board on the public safety ad hoc committee’s millage recommendation. The ad hoc committee was formed earlier this year after voters defeated a public safety millage increase last November.
Last year, county officials had asked that the current .3496 mill levy be increased to .45 mill and extended to pay for hiring new deputies and buying new equipment. Voters defeated the proposal with 52 percent voting no. The defeat keeps the current public safety millage in place through 2024.
Curran said the ad hoc committee which is made up of he and two other county commissioners along with county staff is recommending that the public safety millage be kept the same with no increase. The committee is recommending to renew both the public safety millage and 9-1-1 millage which is also up in 2024 for six rather than four years.
“Although we could justify an increase, we just felt at this this time that an increase would not be well received by the public,” Curran said. “The need is there but we think it would be better timing if we tighten our belts and stay where we’re at.”
Dissette said the millage requests for public safety and 9-1-1 as well as the senior citizen centers are expected to be on the August, 2024 ballot. The senior center millage renewal would still be for four years while the other two renewals would be for six years. He said the county board will be asked to put the proposals on the ballot in early spring.
Commissioners approved the extension of the one-tenth mill levy for county parks. Using a tax levy to raise funds for public parks is allowed under state law without a public vote when the levy is one-tenth of a mill or less.
The new renewal is for six years through 2029. The one tenth of a mill levy was first authorized by the county board in 2012 and has been renewed since then, the last time for three years in 2020.
The millage is expected to raise $958,381 in its first year and go to support the county’s park system. Berrien County parks are estimated to have a positive tourist and economic development impact of over $5 million annually.
The county operates seven county parks and the funds from the millage levy goes for the improvement, maintenance or acquisition of public parks. In addition to the millage levy, the county park department relies on a variety of fees, admission charges, grants and donations for revenue.
Besides Love Creek, the county owns and operates parks throughout the county including Madeline Bertrand south of Niles, Galien River near New Buffalo, the History Center at Courthouse Square in Berrien Springs, Paw Paw River in Watervliet, Rocky Gap near Benton Harbor and Silver Beach in St. Joseph.