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4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS ELECTION DAY OCTOBER 18, 2024 Community Mental Health Public Safety Millage — what to know before November 5 Nothing is certain but death and taxes. The death part is obvious — if you’re a human being, you have an expiration date. But why are taxes certain? Because as long as you're alive and a human being, you or someone you know may need public services. Public services are provided by the people running the government through programs and departments. The Washtenaw County government coordinates important services like community mental health and public safety. As we live in a society driven by money, these services need to be funded to pay employees and obtain resources. Hence, taxes. The Community Mental Health and Public Safety Preservation Millage was voted on in 2017, commenced in 2019, and is set to expire in 2026. It is up for renewal in the upcoming general election in order to avoid running a special election next year. The millage is a 1 mill tax that generates $15 to $18 million a year for Washtenaw County. Five to six million dollars go to CMH, the rest goes to public safety/the Sheriff’s Office. The Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office provides services like animal, boating and food/restaurant safety; disaster response; and 911 dispatch. CMH provides services like prevention (early diagnosis and mental health awareness campaigns); crisis intervention (for people facing mental and/or emotional stability challenges); stabilization (programs that support the recovery of substance abuse and mental illness survivors and people with barriers to such services due to lack of resources or homelessness); and diversion (avoiding incarceration, ER visits and JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 rehab while providing extra mental health and substance abuse recovery services for people in jail). The impact of these services is measured in the number of people helped. There is no public impact report for the funds allocated towards the Sheriff’s Office. The impact of Washtenaw County Community Mental Health services in 2023 are as follows: • Substance abuse call line was answered approximately 250 times per month • The CARES team served 2.4 times more people that year than before the millage • The CMH crisis team visited 2,628 crisis calls in person • Served over 2,200 children and young adults • Provided over 300 hours of psychiatry • Created more than 10 programs for the Washtenaw Intermediate School District • Found emergency shelter for over 250 individuals • Provided over 800 people with support services such as therapy and case management • Created a co-response team with a mental health professional and a deputy who responded to over 540 emergency calls An additional service that the millage would have provided for is the Crisis Stabilization Center, which is not currently open. Advocates have long been calling for accountability both in terms of individual programs the millage funds, and particularly regarding the portion of the funds that go to public safety activities. Though there is reporting to involved agencies, the general public is often kept in the dark. Preceding the June 5 Board of Commissioners vote to restore and renew the millage on the November 5 general election ballot, the BOC passed an ordinance to create a Public Safety Millage Advisory Committee (MAC) that will provide oversight over the majority funds allocated to the Sheriff’s Office. More details regarding this ordinance can be reviewed in the May 17, 2024 edition of Groundcover News. Even with advisory committees, the public is unhappy with expenditure accountability. Kat Layton, LLMSW is a community-centric social worker and a former employee of Community Mental Health. When asked for the most important thing for voters to know about the millage renewal, she had this to say: “I was an employee at Washtenaw County Community Mental Health from February 2022 to December 2022. During my short time there, it became evident that the Crisis Stabilization Center at 750 Towner was no longer operational due to staffing issues, shortly after its opening in June 2020. I later noticed, reviewing meeting materials from the Millage Advisory Committee (MAC), that despite this, funds from the Public Safety and Mental Health Preservation Millage continued to be allocated to this center. “After noting this financial spending, it is concerning to see taxpayer money being allocated to a service that is no longer operational, especially when pressing needs within our community could benefit from these resources and the purposes of the millage funds are intended for these resources. I want to inquire why our millage funds have been directed to a crisis stabilization center over the last two years without providing that service. “During the 8/12/24 MAC meeting, CMH administrators acknowledged that the line item labeled ‘Crisis Stabilization Center’ visible on the bi-monthly and yearly financial reports was allocated to the renovation of the 750 Towner facility, which does not seem in alignment with the original appropriation of these funds and millage monies. CMH administrators stated this location was being ‘built up’ for transfer to another CMH department rather than being utilized for the Crisis Stabilization Center services as initially intended. This raises significant concerns, considering that millage funds, derived from taxpayer contributions, were allocated to support public safety and mental health services.” Questions about openness/ accountability are important, because if the millage is renewed, citizens should be able to monitor the associated expenditures. This includes whether funds are appropriated to re-establish the Crisis Stabilization Center which, in addition to an emergency shelter based in Ypsi, is a greatly needed resource. No matter who wins, don't forget the Americans! I wrote this article to draw out information from people who are economically challenged or poor. I interviewed five people about issues related to public policy and the election, and this is what they offered. Some said they are going to vote, and some said they will not, and some said that they are not yet 100% sure. They shared different perspectives on and about the current political climate in this year 2024. Overall it was agreed to by all five interviewees that the policies are far from resolved. If the individual presidential candidates, former president LA SHAWN COURTWRIGHT Groundcover vendor No. 56 Donald J. Trump or Vice President Kamala D. Harris, and the embodiment of the political parties that must agree, forget the purpose as they argue and finger-point at one another, they are forgetting about the American people. Many of these people are the backbone of major industries as the labor force, and the other veins and arteries that support the vast array of billionaires and those who possess generational wealth, while they are undervalued — not even human, just a poor person. As a result, the information gathered from the poor results in policies that cause even more harm and wrong-doing. Policy-makers imply that the wealthy could really, actually benefit by modeling and utilizing the data that they've collected. The only thing that's apparent is that these “benefits” always backfire on the poor. I'm going to refer to the commenters as Person A-E so that you don't know their real names. That should not matter. They want to just briefly comment on the issues and be open about their views and experience. Person A talks a little about how having monthly food stamp benefits see BENEFITS page 11 

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