Inside Michigan’s ‘secret’ elected bodies that doled out $32 million last year

The typical voter has in all probability by no means heard of a conservation district.

But final yr in Michigan, these little-known public our bodies cumulatively spent greater than $32 million.

In the meantime, an MLive investigation into conservation districts revealed the reins are unfastened, the watchdogs few and issues considerable.

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Elections have been negated, board members have maintained workplace with out successful elections, only a few vote, a district supervisor gambled a whole lot of hundreds in taxpayer funds earlier than being caught and one other supervisor is on the middle of a pending investigation beneath overview by the state Lawyer Common’s Workplace.

They’re “form of a secret,” mentioned 15-year Ottawa Conservation District board member and present Chair Matt Hehl. “They do thousands and thousands of {dollars} of labor, however only a few folks see or know of them.”

‘NOT MANY PEOPLE KNOW WE EXIST’

There are 74 conservation districts in Michigan – and practically 3,000 nationwide.

Soil conservation districts, as they have been recognized till the “soil” prefix was dropped in Seventies, have been created by the Soil Conservation Act of 1935 following the devastating Mud Bowl of the Thirties. The primary aim, at first, was to fight soil erosion, normally planting bushes and vegetation to go off one other Mud Bowl. To at the present time, the most important fundraiser for conservation districts is an annual tree sale, a carryover from these early days.

In Michigan, “It form of all began with the seaside sand blowing over the railroad tracks again within the 30s,” Hehl mentioned, referencing Grand Haven sandstorms that led to mass planting of white pine bushes 90 years in the past.

The work is broader now however stays targeted on pure useful resource conservation.

Districts minimize, plant and promote bushes, deploy so-called “strike groups” in waders to pluck invasive crops from rivers, recycle fishing line, educate famers on sustainable practices and infrequently act as liaisons for farmers and landowners in search of state or federal grants.

The board members, typically farmers, approve bills, rent workers, promote and provides bonuses, overview reviews and dole out grant cash with little to no public scrutiny, MLive’s investigation revealed

Whereas administrators are sometimes adept in enterprise, few are skilled directors or accountants. They usually stumble into their positions.

A number of board members who spoke to MLive mentioned they have been elected as a result of nobody else stepped up.

“In some instances, we’re fortunate to get folks to even run,” Cass County Conservation District Administrator Korie Blyveis mentioned.

Of 17 election outcomes MLive reviewed, solely three had greater than 20 ballots forged. Most poll totals have been in single digits, with board members typically voting for one another.

In February 2024, the Tuscola County Conservation District had two unopposed candidates and two ballots forged.

“Not many individuals even know that we even exist,” Tuscola County Conservation District supervisor Michael Boike mentioned.

The five-member boards serve four-year phrases and function equally to different native authorities entities, like faculty boards. They’re topic to the identical Open Conferences Act and public data regulation. The districts are guided by MDARD, which receives biannual district audits, annual budgets, establishes pointers and certifies elections.

Districts had a median funds of $470,000 final yr, primarily based on monetary information supplied to MDARD by 69 districts and reviewed by MLive by way of a Freedom of Data Act request. Spending is, nonetheless, vastly inconsistent.

Six districts have been projected to spend beneath $100,000, whereas a number of the greatest districts in Genesee, Ottawa, Grand Traverse, Van Buren and Washtenaw counties projected spending greater than $1.5 million.

Solely a small portion of funds – $40,000 per district in fiscal yr 2025 – got here by way of assured MDARD operational funding. The remainder of the income is generated by way of contributions, annual tree sale fundraisers and a myriad of aggressive grants.

“Being grant-funded yr to yr is the problem in and of itself,” mentioned Genesee County Conservation District Govt Director Angela Warren. “So retaining workers is a matter, as a result of it’s mushy cash. Will I’ve a job subsequent yr, or gained’t I?”

If board members are paid something, it’s a meager stipend. There’s no windfall for district workers, both.

“It’s a labor of affection,” Hehl mentioned. “We’re a stepping stone for lots of faculty children. Individuals come, do 4 or 5 years with us” and transfer on to different environmental companies.

NO ONE PAYING ATTENTION

Conservation district elections are like no different.

In distinction to highschool board or metropolis council elections that happen in precincts, church buildings, faculties or metropolis halls, conservation district elections occur in vineyards, cramped places of work, beneath park gazebos, in barns and on farms. There are not any privateness cubicles or computerized ballots. The votes are handwritten and manually tallied in entrance of voters.

One tabulation file MLive acquired by way of a data request was a bit of paper with sloppily written names and squiggly hash marks.

Delta County has usually held their election beneath a park gazebo with pizza; Midland County held its 2023 election in a barn and Muskegon County’s 2022 and 2023 board elections have been at a farmers’ market.

Typical voter registration isn’t required, solely proof of district residency.

Every district is required to host what’s referred to as an “annual assembly,” and inside that assembly is time for an election. However promoting for the conferences isn’t at all times clear.

Missaukee County and Muskegon County each held banquets the place folks needed to pay for tickets final yr, though representatives mentioned residents have been allowed to vote with out paying for a meal. The Blue Water Conservation District, which oversees Sanilac and St. Clair counties, holds an annual banquet however doesn’t cost.

“I believe you’ll deter lots of people in the event that they needed to pay to return to it,” Blue Water Conservation District Supervisor Megan Naplin mentioned.

MDARD spokeswoman Lynsey Mukomel mentioned districts have deliberate occasions “to extend consciousness and curiosity within the district and voter turnout” however there may be “clear steering {that a} district can not require fee for entry to the annual assembly so as to vote.”

The MDARD handbook stipulates that when the votes are tallied, they’re imagined to be counted by “non-district affiliated volunteers,” though the handbook doesn’t outline what qualifies as “non-district affiliated.”

MLive’s overview of election data discovered a number of polling officers have been employed by the districts they counted votes for. In a single occasion, a polling official was the partner of an elected district board member.

Most election points found by MLive by no means got here to public gentle.

Nobody has been paying consideration.

UNCERTIFIED

In lots of instances, conservation district election outcomes aren’t being licensed by the state, in keeping with paperwork obtained through data requests from a sampling of 20 districts throughout Michigan.

Ten elections weren’t licensed as a consequence of issues and three have been by no means performed, regardless that elected board members’ phrases have been expiring, in keeping with the paperwork.

That doesn’t embrace the Macomb County Conservation District, which simply stopped working an unknown variety of years in the past with little public consciousness.

“There might have nonetheless been a board, however I don’t assume it’s been energetic for a minimum of near 10 years now,” mentioned Blue Water Conservation District Supervisor Naplin, whose neighboring conservation district performs some companies in Macomb County.

“Primarily based on our restricted data, (the Macomb County Conservation District) seems to have stopped working in early 2016,” mentioned Mukomel. “Their final election is believed to be held on February 4, 2015. It’s assumed to have been licensed however our retention schedule expired since then (three years), so we don’t have that documentation anymore.”

For the reason that regulation states, “a director shall maintain workplace till a successor has been elected and certified,” the identical board has technically been in place in Macomb for years with none election.

MDARD couldn’t instantly present a listing of board members in place when the district dissolved.

There have additionally been points in Northern Michigan’s Antrim County. The district’s most up-to-date 2024 election couldn’t be licensed as a result of workers didn’t submit the mandatory election data inside the 90-day window.

Antrim County Conservation District Govt Director Melissa Zelenak cited “a number of inside challenges” in a Jan. 9 electronic mail to MDARD.

“I discovered final quarter that our workplace server has been dying for a while which has resulted in a number of of our scanned paperwork by no means going by way of, or in the event that they did, all of the pages weren’t included,” she wrote.

In Bay County and Clare County, elections have been negated as a consequence of candidate petition points in December 2023 and March 2025, respectively. Clare County submitted an unsigned candidate petition and is now required to carry a particular election in July. Bay County Conservation District officers didn’t reply to requests for remark.

“Please work along with your regional coordinator to schedule and conduct a particular election for the one board seat that would not be licensed as quickly as attainable,” MDARD instructed the Bay County district and its board.

MDARD wouldn’t certify Menominee County’s 2024 election as a result of it didn’t correctly publish discover inside 60 days of the election. Menominee Conservation District Supervisor Donna Buechler mentioned she initially printed the discover inside the window, however a double-booking on the venue delayed the election, ensuing within the error. In 2023, Manistee and Emmett counties didn’t submit certification paperwork by the deadline and Cass County final yr had extra ballots than registration types.

“I didn’t practice (the volunteers) appropriately … and we had the unsuitable rely,” Cass County Conservation District Administrator Korie Blyveis mentioned. “So we simply did it once more. And the subsequent time, we made preparations to have licensed election employees and every thing went clean.”

Officers with the conservation districts in Manistee and Emmett counties didn’t reply to requests for remark.

Elections have been skipped completely in Kent County in 2021 and Clare County in 2022 or 2023. The board members, whose phrases ended, stayed as unelected appointees.

“It was form of chaotic,” mentioned Clare County Conservation District Administrator Christiane Rathke, who now manages the elections. “There was no precise elections held as a result of there was not an administrator or anyone to really set up and maintain these elections.”

Kent County Conservation District Supervisor Erin Sloan-Turner mentioned the 2021 election was canceled as a consequence of COVID, though quite a few different districts performed elections that yr.

CALHOUN COUNTY EMBEZZLEMENT

Conservation districts aren’t proof against monetary misdeeds.

Tracy Bronson, the previous district supervisor in Calhoun County, stole $573,159 from the district over a interval of practically 4 years, between 2014 and 2017, with out her board taking discover.

She’d write herself checks from the district account, money them and go playing. It wasn’t subtle, which made the shortage of board oversight much more obvious. It occurred utilizing Excel.

“Each month we might get a spreadsheet saying these are our payments,” mentioned Calhoun County Conservation District Board Member Linda Kubiak. “We had customary bills each month and so she would simply go in and simply change the numbers to throw a pair new issues in, after which do the identical factor time and again. We thought we have been in good standing.”

On the time, the Calhoun County Conservation District had thousands and thousands in grant funds filtering by way of to pay for large-scale tasks that have been underway. The board thought that they had fluffy monetary cushion, primarily based on the spreadsheet, however then checks began to bounce – first to an excavating firm after which a tree service.

“We’re going, wait a minute, the cash ought to be right here,” Kubiak mentioned. “What do you imply, the examine bounced?”

Bronson didn’t have an evidence. She referred to as for a one-on-one assembly with the board chair.

“She began crying and acquired hysterical as a result of she was all the way down to about $300 within the checking account,” Kubiak mentioned.

The district spent years paying again greater than $300,000 federal grant funds and Bronson is paying the conservation district $150 per 30 days in restitution, in keeping with Kubiak.

The fraud was in a position to happen as a result of the board trusted Bronson, in keeping with Kubiak.

“We’re not crooks,” she mentioned. “So we’re not searching for crooks. She did 23 years of devoted service for us.”

Bronson pleaded responsible to 1 rely of theft from applications receiving federal funds and acquired a three-year jail sentence.

DELTA COUNTY

A more recent case nonetheless beneath overview within the Higher Peninsula the place Christine Williams, an IT skilled, a present Delta County commissioner and the spouse of Delta County Conservation District Board Member Joseph Kaplan, helped uncover what she believes are monetary misdeeds dedicated by her county’s former conservation district supervisor, Rory Mattson, who additionally managed the county parks.

Williams scrutinized public monetary data, together with years’ price of the account ledger entries. She mentioned data inform a narrative of Mattson utilizing income from the parks and depositing it into conservations district for bonuses that Mattson issued to himself and workers with out board dialogue.

Over the span of 11 years, Williams says the bonuses added as much as $500,000.

The legal professional normal’s workplace continues to be weighing whether or not to cost Mattson.

LOOKING FOR GOOD PEOPLE

What will be executed to verify these little-known public our bodies, which do necessary work to guard pure sources, have clear elections and keep away from corruption?

Williams, the Delta County commissioner, mentioned total there must be stronger state oversight, board experience and public scrutiny.

“There’s no requirement to hunt out somebody who has accounting expertise so it’s simply an odd setup,” she mentioned. “In case you have good folks, which I’m certain most conservation districts do, you’re not going to have these issues. However once you don’t have good folks, it’s ripe for misdeeds.”

One repeated suggestion is to extend public consciousness by having conservation district board candidates seem on ballots with different elections.

Nonetheless, that might require legislative adjustments and could also be extra pricey.

“If we’re electing highway commissioners and drain commissioners, why aren’t we electing conservation district board members throughout normal elections?” Williams mentioned.

Delta County Conservation District Secretary Glenn VandeWater mentioned the previous issues – bonuses with out board dialogue – might have been averted with better MDARD oversight.

“Possibly their involvement with the districts must be stepped up somewhat bit,” he mentioned. “They must be overseeing these items somewhat extra.”

For his or her half, MDARD officers attribute a number of the election errors lately to workers turnover.

“We’re ramping up coaching sources for brand new and current district managers,” Mukomel mentioned. “Moreover, when MDARD can not certify an election, the district is required to carry a particular election requiring them to comply with the correct procedures.”

As of March, a consultant with MDARD informed MLive there was no course of for monitoring elections or flagging districts that fail to certify or conduct elections.

“We’re actively exploring methods to assist the districts fulfill their election tasks,” Mukomel mentioned. “That is ongoing and contains standing up a device that may enable us to higher observe, entry, and retain annual assembly dates and related deadlines, director phrases and election paperwork.”