Judge needs more time for thorny issues in Flint water case
DETROIT – A judge overseeing misdemeanor charges against a former Michigan governor in the Flint water scandal said Tuesday that he’s struggling with how to handle an aggressive effort to have the case dismissed.
District Judge William Crawford II said he needs more time to research whether prosecutors filed the case in the wrong county as well as other issues.
Crawford said he doesn’t know if he can make a decision about the work of a judge in a Circuit Court who served as a one-man grand jury and returned an indictment against Rick Snyder.
“Don’t remember that in law school. Don’t remember that on the bar exam, either . ... This is all new to me,” Crawford said. He asked lawyers on both sides to submit more briefs and return to court next Tuesday.
When Delaware County’s needy seek help finding jobs, transportation or healthcare assistance, many leave county agencies with a referral to another agency – sometimes with just a phone number.
How often they follow through is hard to know for agencies such as the Delaware County Board of Developmental Disabilities, Delaware County Job and Family Services and the Delaware-morrow Mental Health & Recovery Services Board.
That’s why those agencies have been devising a way to join forces – at least geographically.
The result is a year-long study by MA Architects, which cost the county $70,000, that recommends building a social services campus that would create three new buildings at a cost of about $40 million. Work could begin in 2023.
The location would be near the former Delaware Area Career Center north campus site, along Route 521, just east of the city of Delaware. That building was purchased by the county and is being converted into county offices, including a new sheriff’s headquarters.
The services campus would be built on about eight acres to the southwest of the site, with the possibility of expanding on up to 15 acres. The career center consolidated its two locations in 2018 in a $45 million building at 4565 Columbus Pike.
Delaware County commissioners, who heard a formal presentation of the idea at Monday’s meeting, generally support the social services consolidation, but are wary of the financial and legal complexity of shared lease agreements and overall financing.
The agencies currently have administrative offices in two Delaware buildings and one in Orange Township. Each is its own political entity, and each has a separate budget.
Much of their funding, however, comes from property tax levies and county funds. And commissioners asked for more clarity on who would be fiscally responsible for the complex.
“I cannot support this with general fund dollars in any shape or form,” said Commissioner Gary Merrell, who criti
cized the transformation of a simple idea into one which “has grown exponentially.”
“I need to see a plan to show how this is going to be paid for by the entities that are going to be involved,” he said. “My fear is that, ultimately, this will fall back to the county at some point.”
Commissioner Jeff Benton called the plans “a big, complex project.”
Michael Frommer, county administrator, explained that attorneys are working out the details, likely a combination of cash reserves, bond sales and property taxes from each agency. He said more would be known by the middle of this year.
The size and estimated cost of the campus buildings include: a 71,000 square-foot administration building to house the offices of the three agencies ($17.5 million); a 60,000 square-foot mental health providers building ($16.4 million) and a 16-bed residential care and crisis center in a 16,650 squarefoot building ($5.3 million).
Frommer said that it would provide flexibility to serve an ever-growing population. Delaware and Union counties have been the two fastest-growing in the state in recent years.
The ongoing pandemic also could alter the plans, Frommer said.
“Maybe the size will go down a little since more people have gone to remote working,” he said.
The crisis center is “an absolute necessity,” said Commissioner Barb Lewis, noting that jails and emergency rooms currently are responsible for people who struggle with mental health issues, domestic violence or drug addiction.
The Delaware-morrow Mental Health & Recovery Services Board oversees “an enormous network of care,” including a wide number of mental health and drug crisis programs such as Maryhaven, said Deanna Brant, executive director of the board.
“When the system doesn’t work in sync, synergistically, then people fall through the cracks,” she said.
Kris Hodge, superintendent of the developmental disabilities board, noted that about half of the 2,284 county residents with developmental needs also are receiving assistance from the county’s Job and Family Services agency.
“We’ll be able to do that better if we’re all together in one location,” Hodge said. dnarciso@dispatch.com @Deannarciso