The Saginaw County Board of Commissioners, after cutting $1.25 million from tentative accords to spend federal ARPA funds for city-based projects, now is holding back on contributing a comparatively tiny $5,000 from its regular budget for a mutual guide that will list summer youth activities and employment.
This sum is vastly smaller, but it continues a growing disconnect within the County side of the City-County-School Liaison Committee.
Commissioner Sheldon Matthews, the County Board’s lone designee to attend Thursday, reported that members desire more details before they would consider issuing the $5,000.
City and school commitments already are in place.
For more than two decades until 2010, the three entities united for a printed guide titled, “Hot Times: Summer in the City,” with a cartoon smiling sun on the cover. This year’s revival will be an online version, possibly connected with the larger “Saginaw Celebrates Summer” through the Arts and Enrichment Commission.
School Superintendent Ramont Roberts and City Manager Tim Morales informed the liaison group that staffers are wrapping up their listings and logos for the youth guide, within the $5,000 guideline and in plenty of time for the school-to-summer transition. This currently leaves absent the County Board, mainly its Parks and Recreation Commission, from the summer information.
There also will be something-to-do listings for all age groups, but the main intention is to help families guide their children and teens along productive paths and out of harm’s way.
Charles Coleman, Board of Education president, looked beyond whether or not the county board will enlist as a last-minute third partner in the summer project. He proposed that reps from the schools, county and city all should come back with ideas approved by their full memberships. Matthews suggested a starting point of two or three top items from each body, noting that more funds than $5,000 apiece would be needed for a multiple liaison agenda.
Liaison members are appointed from the three governing bodies, with a stated intent of seeking paths toward cooperation in making the most of their multi-million-dollar general budgets. The tri-union generally has been idle ever since “Hot Times” dissolved, simply on account of lack of liaison attendance. Revival is launched with an infusion of federal funds to all three governing bodies that followed President Biden’s election, which took place during the pandemic peak.
The $5,000 apiece for the youth guidebook hits local general budgets that already are cash-strapped for all three entities. In contrast, ARPA, and ESSER for the schools, provide one-time “extra” federal windfalls based on helping with recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, which idled classrooms and youth programs for two years. Federal aid totals are $60 million for city schools, $52 million for City Hall and $37 million for the county.
After a trio of tentative agreements last fall, the County Board has removed itself from one plan and reduced amounts for the other pair. This took root after outcounty commissioners, outnumbering Matthews and fellow reps based in the city, noted that the city’s dwindling population of 44,000 is an increasingly smaller share of the countywide 190,000.
- The County Board and the City Council had agreed to $500,000 apiece for First Ward Community Center, but the County Board on a split vote reduced its share to $250,000.
- An identical scenario occurred with the Saginaw County CAC, Community Action Committee. CAC headquarters is within the city limits at 2824 Perkins, but it is countywide, as are War on Poverty agencies across the nation.
- Finally, there was a mutual three-way plan to convert up to half of Saginaw High into a one-stop center for various agencies and into a recreation center when the facilities are available. This would have used a portion of the building not needed for a smaller district-funded middle school that will replace the high school in 2024-25, when Saginaw United opens. The plan for the countywide one-stop agencies and rec center was $750,000 apiece. Coleman said in March that he pursued explanations for the reversal, with the City Council also dropping out, but was told only “that it wouldn’t fly.”
The next liaison session is slated for 5:30 p.m. Thursday, May 18. All meetings are at the Board of Ed because the parking is closer. Officially, the County Board will take its turn hosting in May.
