Development regulations and storm water management rules
Review and approval of development plans
Staffing and administration of the drain office
Modernization of the drain office
Communication and coordination with other stakeholders
Drain herbicide spraying program
Existing drains and their maintenance
Establishment of new county drains
Development regulations and storm water management rules
As a civil engineer who has practiced in Muskegon County for the last 15 years, I have never seen any development rules or storm water management guidelines from the drain commissioner’s office. I will provide a complete set of development rules and storm water management regulations at no cost on the first day of my job. I was a principal author of state-of-the-art regulations for the Ottawa and Allegan County Drain Commissioners, so these documents have already been tested in the office and the field, and can be easily adapted to conditions encountered in Muskegon County.
Review and approval of development plans
There are concerns that the drain office is not providing timely turnaround on projects requiring the drain commissioner’s approval. This may be due, in part, to recent staffing problems. However, I will continue the present practice of reviewing development plans and drainage calculations in-house, and will complete any and all reviews within 30 days. I have reviewed more than 300 development plans of every possible type in the last 10 years, and am capable of reviewing legal descriptions and other documents needed to obtain full approval.
Fees collected for reviewing development projects will be adjusted to reflect today’s costs. Collected fees will continue to stay in-house to defray county expenses, rather than to outside consultants. Continuing this practice is important, considering the county’s present budget problems.
Staffing and administration of the drain office
Linda Moulds, the records clerk, is retiring on July 7 of this year. Added to the untimely retirement of Marcia Austin, the deputy drain commissioner since 1988, the drain office is in a very unstable and vulnerable condition. When I am elected, the drain office will have greater stability and flexibility from day one, because I can do every job encountered in the drain commissioner’s office. A leader must be capable of doing the work of the people working for him. and one person’s absence should not shut down the drain office.
I will also ask the board of commissioners to authorize rehiring Marcia Austin as deputy, and Linda Moulds on a part-time basis. County policy will not allow them to work full time at first. This is perfectly fine with me. I will ask both of them to work part-time, which will assist me with finding and researching all the drain files, maps and other documents. If they accept my offer, two veterans of the drain office will only cost as much as one full-time employee.
There have been accusations that drain office employees have not always had adequate supervision. When I take office I will be directly involved in all scheduling of staff on a regular basis. I will cross-train personnel in additional drain office duties to improve the flexibility of the drain office. When someone is gone for whatever reason, others will be trained to cover for them.
Modernization of the Drain office
Once research of existing drain office files has been completed, I will submit a plan for modernization of the office to the county administrator. Besides providing state-of-the-art development rules, I will generate maps that show the location of every county drain, their easement widths and drain district boundaries. I will make sure our mapping formats will be compatible with other county departments, now and in the future. Additionally, I will utilize modern assessment methods on our county drains to classify their condition, capacity and resource value.
Communication and coordination with other stakeholders
For Muskegon County to achieve the highest drainage value for the buck while working to improve the quality of our water resources, the drain commissioner needs to seek counsel with other stakeholders. The Muskegon Conservation District, GVSU Water Resources Institute and Farm Bureau are just a few of the groups that may have something to contribute to assist with identifying problems and crafting solutions. I will gather as much information and assistance from as many sources as possible, knowing that in the end, I will often need to make executive decisions unilaterally. A potential benefit to this approach is that other agencies and groups may have access to state and federal grant programs or volunteers to add environmental benefits and cost savings to future drain projects.
Drain herbicide spraying program
I am not convinced that chemical spraying is the best way to keep drains free of obstructions and functioning adequately. At the same time, I respect the fact that this practice has been ongoing for many years here in Muskegon County. After I am elected, I will perform a full evaluation of herbicide treatment. I will meet with individual landowners who live along drains and are affected by spraying herbicides in the county drains. I will also meet with agricultural and environmental groups to gain as much knowledge of spraying’s positive and negative effects, its cost and other options that may be available. I will contact other county job programs to form alliances that could benefit the drains and people in the county seeking work. With unemployment up, and incarceration rates high, there may be a ready pool of laborers that could be cost-effectively utilized to keep the drains clear and free flowing.
Existing drains and their maintenance
Upon being elected drain commissioner, I will personally inspect every established county drain in Muskegon County. Modern assessment tools will be utilized to classify each drain according to its present condition and ability to facilitate drainage and according to its future resource potential. The drain inspector will accompany me on these assessments, and he will be trained to complete this task in my first term. Each drain will be rated according to the urgency of fixing any problems encountered, whether due to deferred maintenance or by natural degradation.
Establishment of new county drains
The incumbent’s present policy is that each and every development in the county must establish a Section 433 Drainage District to facilitate future maintenance of their drainage systems. I believe this policy is too unwieldy and is not always necessary. In fact, 433 drains are not the proper or legal recourse to some situations that the incumbent drain commissioner has used them for. When elected, I will meet with all local units of government to establish working rules for maintaining the drainage infrastructure. Local units that wish to sign maintenance agreements with developers in their jurisdiction will be invited to do so. Others that want the drain office to supervise all drainage needs will be accommodated. All petitions for new county drains will be treated according to laws spelled out in the Michigan Drain Code.