Macomb County charter proposal, 911 fee renewal on Nov. 5 ballot

MOUNT CLEMENS — When Macomb County voters go to the polls in November, they will decide on more than just who holds various seats in the government. Two proposals will give voters the option to potentially reshape the very foundations of county government.

First, voters will decide whether to continue to fund 911 services in the county via a 42-cent monthly surcharge for the next four years.

“A 911 surcharge is a fee that is locally assessed on all devices that can access 911 services,” said Angela Elsey, the dispatch director at the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office. “It includes both landlines and wireless devices, and counties in Michigan have the authority to impose a local surcharge which applies to each device that has the capability to contact 911.”

Michigan counties are able to charge up to 42 cents without a proposal, which helps fund local 911 operations alongside a portion of the state’s 25-cent surcharge. The state applies a 6% 911 charge to prepaid phone lines. Local surcharges collected in Macomb County are distributed to the nine county-based dispatch centers on a per-capita basis.

Elsey says the local surcharge is the “most profitable” source of funding for 911 dispatch centers in the county because the state’s funding is spread thin and not all 911 dispatches have the same backing.

“Some dispatch centers within the counties may have some general funds available to them, but not all,” Elsey said. “There’s some centers that are 911 authorities or independent departments outside of a police department, so they don’t have access to general funds and they really rely on that surcharge.”

Immediately following the surcharge on the ballot is a proposal to revise the county charter. According to John Schapka, corporation counsel for Macomb County, the proposal is regularly placed on the ballot every 10 years.

“It would be the beginning of a process to change (the charter),” Schapka said. “If the voters vote the proposition down, it would continue as-is.”

Schapka has not heard of anyone in the county government particularly clamoring for a charter revision, but a “yes” vote would open the door for county officials to do exactly that. The Macomb County Board of Commissioners would be tasked with setting up a board to frame and revise the charter.

“The way the process works is the voters would approve the creation of a commission,” Schapka said. “The commission would then do any drafting or redrafting they think is appropriate, and then the final product has to be approved by the governor and, I believe, by the voters again. It’s a very long process. It does not take a year. I believe it takes two or three years.”

Schapka said the cost of having a charter revision committee would be low.