GRAND TRAVERSE COUNTY: Parsing per diems

Mar. 26—TRAVERSE CITY — Some Grand Traverse County commissioners are routinely paid for attending two township meetings on the same night, back-to-back meetings taking place at the same location, and for one-on-one meetings with constituents, county administrators, township trustees and even other commissioners.

This year, they make $65 per meeting after commissioners in December voted to increase their allowance — called per diems — from the $35 each had received per meeting last year.

The county commission budget has grown from about $377,900 to nearly $700,000 — 87 percent — in the last 10 years.

And this year's budget grew by 26 percent from last year. A big part of that increase is because board members can now sign up for family health care benefits.

After a report appeared in the Beacon newsletter detailing the per diems each commissioner has received over the last four years, some responded by calling the report partisan mudslinging and political gamesmanship.

"I work really hard at this job and do really good work for my people," said Darryl V. Nelson, who has collected more in per diems over the last two years than any other commissioner. "I take calls when I'm on vacation, when I'm at home, at night, on the weekends. This whole thing is political."

According to board policy, regular monthly board meetings, meetings with constituents and events such as ribbon cuttings or grand openings do not qualify for per diems.

But special meetings, committee meetings or other boards a commissioner serves on, do qualify. City or township meetings within their districts qualify, as do seminars, conferences and tours that are related to their duties, such as a tour of the county jail.

Other meetings qualify if "per diem is deemed appropriate as determined by the individual county commissioner who is seeking per diem compensation," the policy states.

"It's come to light that there's a lot of gray area in the policy," said Commissioner Ashlea Walter. "Documents show there are clear violations of the policy and there's a lot of pushing the boundaries of the discretionary meetings."

Walter proposed changes that would not allow per diems for one-on-one calls or meetings and that all per diem requests from county commissioners be included in the board meeting consent calendar.

Her proposed changes will be included in the board's April 5 meeting packet.

The Beacon, written by Ted Wendling, appears on the Grand Traverse Democratic Party website and is highly critical of the actions and behavior of Republicans serving on the county board. It often gets personal.

The latest issue contains documents detailing what each commissioner was paid in per diems from information obtained by county resident Bruce Moore in a Freedom Of Information Act request.

Moore ran against board Chairman Rob Hentschel in the last election and lost by 111 votes.

"It strikes me as an abuse of the policy to show up at one township meeting, speak for a few minutes, leave, go to another township meeting, speak for a few minutes and then drive home, perhaps before either meeting has finished," said Moore, noting that he doesn't think people realize what county board members are paid.

The details

Documents detailing each commissioner's tally of monthly per diem reimbursements show that board Vice Chair Brad Jewett, former Commissioner Ron Clous and Hentschel routinely charged for two township meetings that took place on the same night, but were miles apart.

Hentschel, who also occasionally charges for attending township meetings that are not in his district, said this is the way it has always been on the county commission.

Documents show he charged per diem for a Bay Area Transportation Authority meeting he attended Feb. 23 to give public comment about his opposition to increasing the BATA board from seven to nine board members. Then he later voted at a county board meeting to charge two BATA trustees with willful neglect of duty that could end in their removal from the BATA board.

"Current practices reflect decades of past practices," Hentschel said, adding that a discussion about per diems comes up every few years.

Documents show Hentschel collected $1,430 for January and February meetings, many of them with people he listed only by their initials. He clarified what the initials stood for to the Record-Eagle, but said there is nothing in the policy that states commissioners have to say who they met with.

Moore said constituents have a right to know whether commissioners are discussing county matters. If not, he said, they should not be paid.

Many of Nelson's meetings, for example, do not seem to be about county business and should not be reimbursed, he said.

Nelson is involved with the Traverse City Horse Shows that take place at Flintfields Horse Park in Williamsburg in his district. He got a call one night after a storm telling him the power was out and the 2,600 horses that are boarded there would not be able to get water. Park officials were told they would have to wait five days for power.

Nelson said he made a call to Consumers Energy and was able to get the power back on in about an hour. He charged the county $35 for his work, saying the horse shows bring in a lot of money for the county.

He also has collected per diems for several meetings with constituents, which is against the policy. But he said that, when he takes a call from a constituent, he works to get an answer for them.

"I've talked hundreds of times with constituents that I don't charge for," Nelson said. "If a constituent meeting leads to phone calls or research, then I charge."

Nelson is a commercial landlord for five businesses and has two retail stores that sell beer, wine and liquor. When a meeting takes him away from his regular job, he charges for it.

"These per diems don't come anywhere near covering what it costs me to do this job as a commissioner," he said.

Nelson has charged for meetings with county Administrator Nate Alger, with Hentschel, and, more than once, with former Commissioner Betsy Coffia.

"When we were both new on the commission sometimes, after meetings, we would go for breakfast, but it would never have occurred to me to charge a per diem for that," Coffia said.

In December, Coffia met with Nelson after he asked to talk with her about publicly attacking the credibility of her county commission work during her state House race.

"We ended up also talking about ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act), but that was not at all the stated reason he asked to meet Dec. 20," Coffia said.

Jewett regularly charges for both Emergency Management and Local Emergency Planning Commission meetings that take place on the same day on the second floor of the government center, although these meetings take place in different rooms. Minutes show that the two meetings, together, often take less than two hours.

When deciding how much of a raise in per diems the board should give itself, comparisons were made to commissioners in Leelanau, Midland, Lenawee, Eaton and Jackson counties, all of whom are paid between $35 and $45.

In East Bay, Garfield, Long Lake and Blair townships, trustees are paid from $75 to $125 per meeting.

Traverse City commissioners do not receive per diems.

Commissioners in Bay County, another government used in the comparison, are not paid per diems and, instead, receive annual salaries of $12,419, with the board chairman getting $1,000 more.

Bay County Commissioner Tim Banaszak said their board voted to get rid of per diems last year "after they got out of hand and several commissioners were making a lot of money."

"It doesn't make sense when we are all getting salaries," Banaszak said. "You shouldn't be there for the money. You should be there for the constituents. You're there to serve the people."

He said he attends four or five meetings per month.

The budget

The $699,750 Grand Traverse County Board of Commissioners' budget includes pay and benefits for an administrative assistant, as well as office supplies, IT charges, dues, attorney fees, travel expenses and conferences.

This year, the largest budgetary increase is in health, optical and dental insurance for commissioners. Board members voted in 2021 to allow part-time elected officials to add spouses and dependents to their health care plans if they chose. Before that, they were eligible for single coverage.

Like other county employees, commissioners pay 20 percent of their premiums. Commissioners also were given a substantial pay raise in the last couple of years.

Dean Bott, director of finance, said the increased budget reflects the increase from seven to nine commissioners, but it also allows for all nine board members to opt for the family health care plan.

Three commissioners are enrolled in the family plan — Chairman Rob Hentschel, vice Chairman Brad Jewett and Brian McAllister, according to the Human Resources Director Donna Kinsey. Two commissioners are enrolled in the single plan — Penny Morris and Darryl V. Nelson — and four opted not to take coverage — Lauren Flynn, T.J. Andrews, Scott Sieffert and Ashlea Walter.

Those who opt out of insurance are paid $2,000 for the year, although Sieffert isn't. When contacted, he said his wife works for the county and he is already on her family plan, which also makes him ineligible for the opt-out money.

In 2017 and 2018, commissioners were paid $1 per year and received no per diems. That was when the county was trying to pay down its retirement debt and board members volunteered to take no pay.

Hentschel said the county is doing better financially now than it was then and can afford to offer higher pay and benefits to not just commissioners, but all of its employees.

As for claiming their per diems, he said every commissioner has to work within their own conscience.