County commissioners ask state to pass financial disclosure legislation

By Anne Snabes, asnabes@detroitnews.com

The Oakland County Board of Commissioners voted Thursday to assist state laws that it stated would set up “a uniform monetary disclosure coverage.”

Oakland County Government Dave Coulter proposed a monetary disclosure coverage for elected county officers and senior appointees in October. However the province has since realized it lacks the authorized and constitutional authority to require this, he stated.

In a 15-2 vote, the Board of Commissioners authorised a decision Thursday night calling on the Michigan Legislature and the governor to enact laws “establishing a uniform monetary disclosure framework for all the state and explicitly authorizing and requiring counties to implement monetary disclosure necessities for all elected county officers and candidates for county workplace.”

However Commissioners Charlie Cavell and Kristen Nelson, each Democrats, criticized the decision earlier than voting towards it Thursday night.

“As an alternative of doing the precise factor, you are once more attempting very laborious to do the other,” Cavell stated of the Democratic majority on the board. “As an alternative of doing the precise factor, you’re shirking duty and betraying the individuals of Oakland County.”

Coulter’s proposed disclosure coverage, which he introduced in early October, would have required elected officers and high-ranking appointees to regulate their monetary disclosures mid-year to report new exterior sources of revenue exceeding $10,000. Coulter additionally requested these two teams to declare the pursuits of their companions and relations and that the disclosures be posted on-line for public viewing.

The county authorities’s announcement on the time got here after criticism of Board of Commissioners Chairman Dave Woodward, who labored as a paid exterior marketing consultant for personal corporations and a contract awarded to a county worker.

Coulter stated the Legislature may give counties the choice to require monetary disclosures, or it may require the disclosures themselves. He stated, “That might be as much as the legislature.”

“We had been upset to study that we wouldn’t have the authorized authority to undertake an enforceable monetary disclosure coverage for county officers and for candidates operating for county workplace,” Woodward stated within the information launch. “I applaud the bipartisan efforts of the commissioners to attempt to advance a proposal, however it’s clear {that a} change in state regulation is critical to attain significant monetary disclosure for elected officers.”

Opposition to the change of plans

Cavell stated on the assembly that “our flesh pressers” are alleged to be “afraid of their constituents.”

“As a result of energy rests with the individuals who put us in these seats,” he stated. “So this decision that you’re placing ahead undermines this precept and damages individuals’s religion in our democracy, as they instructed you.”

Nelson, one other commissioner, stated the board’s decision doesn’t create a monetary disclosure.

“There isn’t any want for anybody on this province to report something,” she stated. “It does not deal with loopholes, stop conflicts of curiosity, and even improve transparency in any approach. However it does do one factor: it shifts duty to the state of Michigan, so this administration does not need to take motion.”

Level 17.d. was faraway from the Supervisory Board agenda earlier than the assembly began, in response to Commissioner Michael Spisz. Cavell instructed The Information that the difficulty, which was his proposal, was to make monetary disclosure a board coverage so that each one commissioners must report their financials.

When the board reached that a part of the agenda, Cavell stated he felt the board ought to undertake the coverage. Woodward interrupted Cavell and stated his transfer was “out of order.” They then traded forwards and backwards till Commissioner Angela Powell spoke about different agenda objects.

Coulter on monetary disclosures

Coulter stated he, the 5 deputy county directors and the county’s finance director will submit private monetary disclosure varieties on-line by Jan. 15.

He stated division administrators in Oakland County have to be authorised by the Board of Commissioners, however his deputy supervisors don’t. He stated they aren’t “topic to any formal vetting course of.” He stated that due to “that quirk in our construction” he determined to have them submit monetary disclosure varieties.

Coulter’s October announcement in regards to the monetary disclosure coverage got here after some county commissioners and Oakland County residents raised issues about Woodward, the chairman of the Board of Commissioners, who labored as a paid marketing consultant for the Sheetz fuel station chain.

When requested if the proposed monetary disclosure coverage was associated to Woodward’s work for Sheetz, Coulter stated, “No, it was not.”

“All through my political profession, I’ve been a supporter and supporter of those legal guidelines, and that’s the reason I say, ‘It took the Legislature 20 years and a vote of the individuals to do that,’” he stated. Michigan lawmakers, statewide elected officers and candidates operating for these workplaces are required to file monetary disclosures below a constitutional modification authorised by voters in 2022.

Coulter stated he’s not “going to disclaim that there have been questions on individuals’s ethics” in Oakland County, together with a latest controversy over a contract. In July, the county found it had awarded a three-year, $450,000 expertise staffing contract to an organization owned by a present county worker. Coulter’s workplace introduced in October that each one 4 staff concerned within the incident had been suspended with out pay.

Coulter stated his workplace can be working to determine an ethics overview course of for the county.

“We’ll create a course of the place any worker, any commissioner, any resident of Oakland County who believes they’ve seen one thing occur that’s unlawful or violates a coverage can file a grievance,” he stated.

He stated he’ll ask the Supervisory Board to submit this proposal in January, after which the board will overview it.