Fleming steps off Portage Manor board so she can still vote on it as commissioner

SOUTH BEND — Deb Fleming announced Tuesday that she’s temporarily resigning from three board positions to which she’s been appointed as a St. Joseph County commissioner, saying she wants to avoid any conflicts in voting on related matters.

One of those positions is on the board of managers for Portage Manor, the county home for people with mental illness and disabilities that she has ardently supported — even when it has meant voting in opposition to her two fellow commissioners.

The commissioners had voted to appoint her to that board on March 21. That was just a week after the commissioners and the county council had paused efforts to close Portage Manor, offering advocates 60 days to come up with a plan and proposal for a private party to take over the home. Fleming has been part of the advocates’ meetings.

March 15, 2023: County council hits pause on Portage Manor so ideas to save it can develop

She also said that the time commitment had also become difficult, given her involvement with the Portage Manor efforts. She said she supports public health and wants to help people.

“I am hopeful things will change in the next couple of months so I can resume,” she read from written comments at Tuesday’s Board of Commissioners meeting.

Speaking to The Tribune just after the meeting, Fleming said her fellow commissioners had suggested that serving on the Portage Manor board could prevent her from voting as a commissioner on the home. She said she checked with her attorney, who told her the same.

“No, no, I want to be sure I’m voting in the right way,” she told The Tribune, noting her disappointment with other commissioners’ prior votes to close the home.

“We appreciate your willingness to step down temporarily and deal with other matters,” Carl Baxmeyer, the commissioners’ president, said to Fleming at the meeting.

Portage Manor’s board of managers serves in an advisory role, though it can make recommendations to the home and the commissioners.

Fleming said the resignations, which were immediate, also include the boards of the county’s child protection team and the Michiana Area Council of Governments. To fill those seats, Commissioner Derek Dieter was appointed to the child protection team and Baxmeyer to MACOG on Tuesday.

Fleming said she will retain her appointments to the county’s Board of Finance and to the Solid Waste & the Housing Consortium.

Also Tuesday, the commissioners voted 3-0 to appoint Portage Manor advocate Jenny Piontek of South Bend to the home’s board of managers. The board already had a couple of openings, prior to Fleming’s resignation. Piontek had expressed an interest in serving on the board last week.

March 23, 2023: Advocates start work to save Portage Manor: 'Cannot … waste a minute.'

Update on Portage Manor

County council member Mark Catanzarite, one of the point persons for the task force to save Portage Manor, told commissioners Tuesday that the council is drafting a letter urging the Indiana General Assembly to boost the amount of per-resident funding that the home receives through the state’s Residential Care Assistance Program.

Catanzarite said the letter has unanimous support from the council “no matter what happens to the facility.”

Because so many of Portage Manor’s receive RCAP funding, the boosted dollars would help to alleviate the home’s persistent financial losses.

Dieter also noted an issue that arose with the transfer switch on Portage Manor’s generator. It failed to click on during this past weekend's storm. He said there are efforts to seek a replacement part for the generator, which otherwise works, having been installed in the 1980s.

Dieter said there are also efforts to seek a proper place to evacuate residents in case of an emergency such as a storm or power failure.

Vans to Our Lady of the Road

In other business, the commissioners voted 3-0 Tuesday to sell two county-owned vans for $1 to Our Lady of the Road that the county had already been allowing the charity to use in its service to the homeless.

Our Lady of the Road runs the Motels4Now program in a Knights Inn motel in South Bend that serves as barrier housing for the homeless.

March 30, 2023: Some neighbors balk as Motels4Now buys Knights Inn motel to continue homeless program

The charity is in the process of buying the motel with funding from the city of South Bend, as county officials have refused to appropriate more pandemic relief dollars to the program.

Redevelopment commission

Also Tuesday, Baxmeyer announced that Tyler Gillean has resigned from the county’s redevelopment commission. County commissioners will seek to name a replacement. Gillean is chairman of the county’s Republican Party.

South Bend Tribune reporter Joseph Dits can be reached at 574-235-6158 or jdits@sbtinfo.com.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: St. Joseph County Commissioner Deb Fleming off Portage Manor board