COUNTY NEWS UPDATE

By DEBRA HAIGHT

ST. JOSEPH – Pay raises are coming for Berrien County elected officials after action at last week’s Berrien County Board of Commissioners meeting. Commissioners also took action on a number of resolutions including three related to the Public Defender’s Office.

County Commissioners approved the 2.5 percent annual pay raise for 2023 and 2024 for themselves and six other elected officials on a 11-1 vote at last week’s meeting. Commissioner Ezra Scott voted no and said he did so because he is not running for re-election and would not vote on a pay raise for the next board.

Commissioners’ annual salaries will increase from $11,061 now to $11,338 next year and to $11,621 in 2024. Committee chairs and the board’s vice chair will see their salary increase from $11,726 this year to $12,019 next year and $12,319 in 2024. The county chair’s salary increases from $12,530 this year to $12,843 next year and $12,165 in 2024.

In addition to the salary, commissioners get per diems for coming to meetings and also reimbursement for mileage. They also get other benefits such as health insurance, life insurance, dental/vision reimbursement or insurance and can participate in the county’s pension plan.

Other elected officials seeing their salary increase are the county clerk, the county treasurer, the county prosecutor, the county sheriff, the drain commissioner and the register of deeds.

Four elected officials get the same salary. The county clerk’s, county treasurer’s, drain commissioner’s and register of deeds’ salaries rise from $88,684 this year to $90,901 in 2023 and $93,174 in 2024.

The county prosecutor and the county sheriff are the two highest paid elected officials. The county prosecutor’s salary increases from $140,670 this year to $144,187 in 2023 and $147,792 in 2024. The sheriff’s salary rises from $114,679 this year to $117,546 in 2023 and $120,485 in 2024.

In addition to Scott’s comment, Hagar Township resident Adolph Peltzer first questioned who was getting a raise and how much they make. He then suggested that everyone should get the same dollar amount raise rather than a percentage raise where those who make more get more.

The information on who is getting a raise and what they make was released during the meeting.

Also last week, commissioners approved three resolutions for the Berrien County Public Defender office, one for annual funding from the Michigan Indigent Defense Council and two others related to a new project.

As the resolution asking for annual funding noted, Commissioners created the Berrien County Public Defender’s Office in late 2016 with the goal of standardizing the legal representation given to indigent defendants. Since then, the county has become a state leader in providing those services.

The resolution allows the county to apply to the Michigan Indigent Defense Council for $4.59 million in annual funding for the 2022-23 fiscal year starting Oct. 1. The amount of local financial support provided by the county will be determined at a later date.

The other two resolutions are related to the Emerging Adult Task Force proposal brought to the county

board by Berrien County Chief Public Defender Paul Jancha, Jr. in early April. He said then that the goal is to better meet the needs of marginalized youth. Plans call for the new program to be housed in the Niles Courthouse starting in June.

“The objective is for Berrien County to create an Emerging Adult Task Force to make not only an immediate impact for those youthful indigent clients most in need of this support, but also serve as an intense focal point for data collection and proof of concept to support policy change,” Jancha said.

“Policy change should focus on tipping the scales of indigent defense, not by reducing the service offered to adults, but rather by providing a renewed intensity where it will have the most impact- emerging adult (youth to age twenty-five) defense,” he added.

Jancha said his office is requesting $155,980 in extra funding from the Michigan Indigent Defense Council for the rest of the state fiscal year which runs through September with no extra funds required to be given by the county. He said the annual cost of the new project is anticipated to be $502,335.

County commissioners approved the final resolution which allows for the addition of four staff people to work in the new program. The staff to be added are two new assistant public defenders, a social worker and an investigator. Those positions will be eliminated when the county no longer gets the state grant for the new program.

In committee reports, County Commissioner and Administration Committee Chair Jim Curran reported that his committee heard a report on the new south county telecommunications tower project. The county has been looking for a location for the new tower to improve emergency radio reception along the state line.

Curran said that progress is being made in negotiations with American Electric Power for the purchase of the building the county wants to use as well as with the city of Buchanan which has to approve planning and zoning changes.

The county received a $5 million state grant to help pay for the tower project last fall. The entire project is expected to cost $7.8 million.

He said the hope is to have the same presentation from Pearson Construction, the county’s contractor, that his committee heard last week be given to the full board at an upcoming Committee of the Whole meeting. Committee of the Whole meetings are held most Thursday mornings at 8:35 a.m. prior to that day’s county board meeting.