The Cheboygan Courthouse Doors-The Tip of an Iceberg

Most of a Michigan County’s essential services, many mandated by our Michigan Constitution, are provided by offices or departments headed by elected officials. The voters elect Judges, the County Prosecutor and Sherriff, and the Clerk and Treasurer. There may be decisions made that do not satisfy everyone, but for a group of elected officials chosen by popular vote, they all serve Cheboygan County with a surprising amount of competence. The Cheboygan County Road Commission, a Board with five elected individuals and their own budget and building, manages to rebuild old roads and maintain newer roads while plowing snow for much of the year. The CCRC Board relies on the capable efforts of a management, engineering, and accounting staff that gets the job done while dealing with a legacy of pension costs and all of the complexities of State and Federal rules, mandates, and grants. 

Our elected Board of County Commissioners oversees the County Administrator and provides the few County services not directly controlled by the previously mentioned people.  The Administrator working with the Finance Department holds the purse strings and ultimately controls the budgets for all of the Cheboygan County departments except the independent CCRC. The County Commissioners come and go subject to the whims of the voters every two years. County Administrator Jeff Lawson, much like a corporate CEO, must work for this ever-changing Board. Mr Lawson recently disclosed his current salary of $100,928 per year. That does not include his benefit package; healthcare, defined pension, vacation and personal time, vehicle use, life insurance, and other perks that assuredly exceeds the County employee benefit average of 53%.  Mr Lawson seems well compensated to facilitate the needed communication and coordination to manage the day-to-day operation of the rest of the County Building and keep the doors open.

Did I say doors? Every week, one of Mr Lawson’s failures is on display as taxpayers and other visitors to the Cheboygan County Building attempt to gain entry through a single ill-conceived security door. That was Mr Lawson’s idea.  Mr Lawson sold the design and implementation of a very expensive and often out-of-service security system to a too trusting Board. In 2002, just after 911 and while Mr Lawson was still Village Manager at Mackinac City, the State of Michigan had published Michigan Court Security Guidelines. “Weapons screening is an essential part of court security. All persons entering the court facility should be subject to security screening. A proper weapon screening station has: Adequate room for people to congregate inside, out of the weather, without being so crowded as to present additional security problems.” Mr Lawson ignored those guidelines and best practices. The Board had placed their trust in him. Mr Lawson promised again in March 2017 to correct the door issues: “Staff has been in communication with Diebold and the door manufacture to receive estimates on door modifications to place employee at the door during peak use times or modify the existing remote system to provide additional scanning capability”. More than a year later, that never happened.  Meanwhile, hundreds of people, county staff and employees, lawyers, and even elected township officials, apparently more trustworthy than a Cheboygan County citizen or taxpayer just swipe one of the hundreds of cards issued and walk through any other door. Until everyone is subject to the same security screening, the County building will only have a false sense of safety.

If the front doors, a still unresolved embarrassing failure are the tip of the iceberg, what issues are floating just below the surface out of sight to all but the most diligent observers?  

A failed Zoning Ordinance with 147 amendments and much needed changes stalled, business openings and investments delayed, failed enforcement of both zoning and building safety violations, with the Planning & Zoning and Building Safety Departments under-staffed and over-stressed. The list continues with a failed attempt to reconstitute the Cheboygan Economic Development Corporation, a failed Cheboygan Marina Fuel Tank project budget, and a twenty-year-old Solid Waste Management Plan that needs revisions before a half-full garbage truck becomes your new neighbor.

If Cheboygan County Administrator Jeff Lawson, like a CEO, answers only to the County Board of Commissioners, when do the shareholders get their say? The County Commissioners will allow you three minutes to comment to their often-deaf ears. Every even numbered year, the taxpayers can exercise their right to vote and support or oust the Commissioner that does or does not represent their District.