Oakland County’s efforts to eliminate subsidies for community service contracts may have gone too far.

Since 2024, municipalities have accepted higher rates for sheriff’s patrols, 911 dispatchers, school resource officers and marine patrol contracts.

But the rising costs for assessment services has communities heading for the exits and that could cost some county employees their jobs.

County Commission Chairman Dave Woodward said the county paid for the gap between the municipalities’ bills and the actual cost of services for decades.

The combined subsidies for dispatch, deputies, marine patrol and school resource officers have totaled close to $100 million over the last 10 years. The total includes vehicles, bulletproof vests, radios, tasers, body cameras, liability insurance, office suppliesm legal counsel, and indirect costs such as administration and payroll, which are calculated by an outside firm.

“Government services are not free. They cost money,” Woodward said. “Every community has a responsibility to provide these services to their residents.”

Rising rates

Over the past 18 months, communities have been hit with five county contract fee increases.

In November, a dozen communities learned they would see increases totaling more than 33% over three years for sheriff’s deputies to patrol their communities.

Also in November, commissioners approved increasing school resource officer rates for 2025-27. The average increase of 15.2% for the first year and 9% for the second and third years had school districts and municipalities scrambling to find the money.

On May 1, commissioners raised rates for the 13 communities receiving marine patrol services. Hourly rates for a marine-patrol deputy with a boat increased over 23%, from $40.13 this year to $49.64 for the new contract. The overtime rate for a deputy with a boat will rise by nearly 21%, from $53.44 to $64.30 for the same period.

County commissioners approved the marine-patrol rates in a 12 to 7 vote. South Lyon Republican Philip Weipert voted yes with Democrats and Waterford Democrat Kristen Nelson voted no with the remaining six Republicans. Commissioner Mike Spisz, who voted against the increases, warned they were pinching the communities.

Waterford Township Supervisor Anthony Bartolotta said while there are no complaints about the marine patrol services the series of county increases were “crazy huge.”

The county has fire dispatch contracts with 15 communities, six police dispatch contracts; four combined fire-police dispatch agreements and one emergency dispatch agreement. Those rates increased by close to 29%.

Oakland County Sheriff’s office is investigating a Rochester Hills home invasion and homicide on Friday, Oct. 11, 2024.(Peg McNichol/MediaNews Group)But most of the county’s community contracts are for property assessments. There are 32 cities and townships that pay the county to assess property values for tax purposes. In recent years, the county assessment subsidy has cost $2.5 million annually, Woodward said.

Over the next three years, the county’s assessment services will increase an average 140% to eliminate the subsidy.

While community leaders grumble about police, dispatch and marine patrol costs going up, there are no cost-effective alternatives. It’s very difficult and expensive to duplicate the county’s law enforcement services, and many communities eliminated their own departments because it was cheaper to pay the county to do the work.

But assessment services are different. Private companies offer the service and several communities have already signed up.

Trouble with assessments

The county has provided assessing services to municipalities since 1971. Many municipal officials emphasized that they have no complaints about the county’s equalization and assessing services, which they say is excellent.

But they’re angry that the county tried to end long-standing subsidies too quickly, refused to consider a longer timeline and sent the contracts out after municipal budgets were approved.

At least five communities have found alternatives: Ferndale, Commerce Township, Hazel Park, Madison Heights, and Orion Township. More are looking to make changes before the current contract ends on June 30.

That’s caused discomfort among some county employees, who know that fewer contracts will likely result in layoffs.

Two assessors have already resigned from county jobs, according to Joe Rozell, UAW Local 889’s first-vice president, and others are upset and worried about their jobs.

Raul Dsouza, hired just under a year ago, said in his resignation letter he felt leaving the county was necessary after the new rates were announced.

“As these changes have created an uncertainty within the team, I believe that as one of the most recent hires, I would be the first to be laid off or relocated,” he wrote, adding that the situation forced him to be more proactive about his career. He’s left the field, according to Rozell.

“This was a great employee starting his career with the potential for a long career at the county,” said Rozell, who is also a Huntington Woods commissioner. In that role he has appealed to county officials more than once to reconsider the increases.

Union officials and county labor relations officials met with employees in May to calm anxiety about possible layoffs.

“We’re committed to working through a process where employees who wanted to remain county employees would have a place to land,” Rozell said. “It’s not lost on union leadership that folks have families to feed and they’ll have to make a decision if this is an environment they want to work in or if they’ll pursue other options.”

Rozell said under the current union contract, job cuts would begin with non-union employees then include union members with the lowest seniority.

But they won’t know until June 30 how many communities will not renew county assessment contracts. Then, Rozell said, it will take five or six months to sort out who will be reassigned to different jobs and who may not have one.

Larry Gray, Commerce Township’s supervisor, told The Oakland Press that a contract with Washington Township-based Assessment Administration Services will cost $50,000 less than the county’s rate for 2026.

The company has contracted with Northville since 2017 and Auburn Hills since 2020, as well as communities in seven other counties.

Gray said savings over the three-year county contract through 2028 is $600,000 less than what the county wants to charge.

On May 13, the Hazel Park City Council unanimously agreed to pursue agreements with other communities. Councilman Luke Londo wrote a resolution rejecting the increased county rates and shared the text with the 31 other communities served by the county’s equalization office.

According to officials, Hazel Park would pay nearly $1.4 million more for the county’s services under the new rates that take effect on July 1. Mayor Michael Webb said he and other officials “went ballistic” when they saw the new county rates, which were approved by the county commission on May 1.

On May 19, Orion Township trustees approved a three-year contract with Assessment Administration Services. The township will pay $247,200 for the first year with gradual increases over the three-year term to $267,360.

This year, the township’s bill from the county was nearly $300,000. The new county rates listed in a May 13 message to the township were nearly $370,000 for the first year increasing to just over $700,000 by the third year.

Rozell said Huntington Woods is now looking for an outside contractor to provide assessment services. He’d like to keep the county contract so assessors can keep their jobs, but there’s a higher priority.

“We have a responsibility to our taxpayers,” he said. “We’re receiving quality service from the county.”

There’s no conflict-of-interest in Rozell voting on the issue. His UAW work is unpaid and he would not be directly affected by the city’s decision.

The big concern, he said, is that potential contractors are unknowns — city officials will have to investigate each one to determine not just rates but the level of service they provide.

The biggest issue to communities, he said, is how the county developed new rates and how the information was communicated. Huntington Woods had completed its annual budget hearing and is required to approve the budget before July 1.

“We got hit with that type of increase once our budget is already set — that’s the biggest complaint that I’m hearing from around the county. There was no notice and the increase was huge,” he said.

The county has subsidized assessment services since 1971 in part, Rozell said, because property taxes are the county’s largest source of income and that’s also true for municipalities.

“That’s our city’s largest source of revenue, too,” he said. “We benefit from uniformity — the assessment consistency across communities and real-time access to that data for budgeting and forecasting purposes.”

Municipal officials are also unhappy about a flat, per-parcel rate. Rozell said rates were historically set based on the size of a community and tailored to whether a community was small and largely residential, more industrial or rural.

“We shouldn’t be taking the easy way. We should spend more time to do what’s right,” he said.

Madison Heights City Manager Melissa Marsh felt disbelief as she watched the May 1 county commission’s vote to approve increases.

She’s worked for the city since 2005 and was finance director before being named city manager in 2018. She recommended the city council reject the contract and started researching companies to replace the county.

This month, she joined other communities and signed a contract with Assessment Administration Services. Madison Heights does not require formal requests for bids for professional services, she said.

“I’ve worked for Madison Heights for more than 20 years and we typically have a very positive relationship with the county,” she said. “This didn’t feel like it was done in the spirit of partnership.”

The county’s March 3 notice of meetings and presentations about the rates didn’t raise a red flag, she said, because she expected rates to rise between 3% and 5%.

Now, she said, the new provider is charging a lower initial rate than the county charged for service this year. They’ll have representatives at city hall 10 days a month — nine more than the county provided.

If the company wants a rate increase in three years, they’ll have to negotiate directly with city officials.

Based on her calculations the county stands to lose 24% — more than $5 million — of the money it takes in from assessment contracts.

The feedback and contract cancellations have not gone unnoticed. The county commission established a study group, called Review of Equalization and Assessment Levels or R.E.A.L., to address future contract concerns.

Appointees include a mix of county officials and municipal representatives, along with Rozell, who will represent the UAW. The group’s first meeting will happen sometime in June, Woodward said.

“We’ll examine the rates and determine why there was such a dramatic increase,” Rozell said. Other topics he expects the group to examine include the possibility of amending the rate increases so they happen over a longer period of time.

Sheriff contracts

For more than 50 years, the sheriff’s office has provided deputies, some with boats, for water safety. The effort has cut the fatality rate in half, said Sheriff Michael Bouchard. The marine patrol unit is part of the sheriff’s office search and rescue division. Some deputies work year round and some do not.

“We staff up heavily in summer because we deploy the boats,” he said, adding that many summer part-timers work without benefits.

Even with the increase, summer part-timers are inexpensive compared to a full-time police officer, he said, adding that many seasonal workers are either retired police officers or people with full-time careers, such as teachers, who want a summer job.

And the jobs are critical, Bouchard said, especially during busy summer days on Cass and Orchard lakes.

He’s not happy with the way rate increases have been decided because it’s unclear where the extra money will go.

“If they’re saying these are actual costs then new revenue should come into the sheriff’s office. But they haven’t decided where it’s going to go,” he said. “I think there were a number of costs folded in that shouldn’t have been.”

Among the costs that puzzle him are a portion of his salary and that of the undersheriff that are passed on to communities.

“We’re here whether we have community contracts or not,” he said.

He’s asked how the difference between his office’s costs and the county rates were calculated.

“They have never been able to get right down to the dollar, the way you do on a car — like, the cigarette lighter will cost $53.10 per car,” he said. “I’ve never seen documented that 10% or 7% of HR’s time is spent on contracts. I think a lot of spitballing happened.”

Woodward said indirect costs are documented on a regular basis by a neutral outside company, Maximus. The county’s most-recent report is based on 2023 spending. Figures from this report are used when applying for federal grants.

Bouchard said he’s concerned about how revenue is being allocated because government agencies are not allowed to make a profit. Woodward said there is no profit after ending the subsidies.

“We’re looking to make the best use of these dollars to provide the most amount of services to the people,” he said.

Addison Township trustees had a lot to say in December after receiving a three-year sheriff’s services contract with an increase of more than 35% over three years. They expected 3% annual increases.

Supervisor Bruce Pearson told trustees he was upset by the timing.

“They did it after the election, so we couldn’t even put on a millage if we wanted to, even though I don’t want to,” he said.

The board had discussions about contracting for fewer deputies, whether they should start their own police department or create a regional department with other communities.

The board unanimously approved the contract. In March, they eliminated one deputy position from the

contract.

Dispatch services

Addison Township trustees approved the county’s 2024-2027 fire dispatch contract without comment in February 2024. That’s despite a nearly 29% increase to $27,168 from 2023’s $21,116.

Addison Township Fire Chief Jerry Morawski, unhappy with the increase, joined other fire chiefs asking the county officials to lower the cost. They were unsuccessful.

He dreads the day when the township faces a $30,000 dispatching contract. The only alternative is to hire dispatchers and buy equipment for the job, something the township can’t afford.

“So it’s ‘shut your mouth and pay that amount,’” he said. “We could never get our own dispatch service for that price.”

He’s especially troubled by a 7% fee added to the contract allocated for overhead costs. He called it a “sneaky fee.”

“We wanted to know what that money was for and we never got a real answer,” he said.

Township voters had just approved a 1.5-mill fire millage to hire more personnel after new county rules required two full-timers on duty at all times.

Morawski said the dispatch increases happened after the township’s annual budget was approved and during renovations to the township’s 1987-era firehouse. He’s struggling to ensure they have enough full-time and part-time firefighters to meet the county requirements.

“There’s a nationwide shortage,” he said. “I squeeze every penny out of my budget. We don’t have a lawn service. We don’t have a cleaning service and we do a lot of our own repairs (on fire trucks). I run around the station turning off the lights.”