Grand Traverse County commissioners Wednesday approved what officials described as a long-overdue agreement between the Sheriff’s Office and the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians to cross-deputize their law enforcement officers so both can make arrests in each other’s jurisdictions. Commissioners also approved several building projects related to the Boardman and LaFranier campuses.

Cross-Deputization Agreement
Commissioners Wednesaday unanimously approved an agreement – with TJ Andrews and Brian McCallister absent – that Sheriff Mike Shea called a “no brainer” between the county and GT Band to cross-deputize their law enforcement officers. The arrangement would allow Sheriff’s Office deputies to make arrests of both Native Americans and non-Native Americans on tribal lands and allow Tribal Police to do the same on both tribal lands and other parts of Grand Traverse County. Several prominent GT Band properties are located in Grand Traverse County, including Turtle Creek Casino & Hotel and a growing housing development on Herkner Road.

Each department would still have primary responsibility for its respective area, and jurisdictional issues related to arrests would be resolved when they go to court. The agreement will help protect law enforcement officers by establishing the right for them to make arrests in areas they currently cannot, Shea said. He said while the Sheriff’s Office is often the first to respond to incidents, such as assaults in progress, deputies have been assaulted before on trust lands and were unable to respond because they didn’t have legal standing to act.

The GT Band already has cross-deputization agreements in place in Leelanau, Benzie, and Antrim counties, said GT Band attorney John Petoskey. Grand Traverse County has been delayed in executing such an agreement because it sought approval from its insurance provider – the Michigan Municipal Risk Management Authority (MMRMA) – where the proposal then “stalled,” Alger said. MMRMA covers other counties where such agreements are in place, so when Alger asked why there was a hold-up in Grand Traverse County, “the answer I got was because we asked,” he told commissioners wryly.

Alger said the agreement was an “absolute must” to protect law enforcement officers. Petoskey agreed, saying the arrangement has worked well in neighboring counties and will help provide “effective law enforcement for the whole community.”

Building Projects
Commissioners approved several building-related projects for the county’s Boardman and LaFranier campuses Wednesday.

The board approved a not-to-exceed contract for $110,000 with Machin Engineering to evaluate the structural stability of the Grand Traverse County Jail and the surrounding land and buildings after stress fractures appeared in June in the floor tile of the jail lobby. An analysis determined the building “had shifted and was settling,” according to County Director of Parks and Facilities John Chase. “It was determined that the issues did not signal catastrophic fail or a danger to the health and safety of its occupants and was likely normal settling due to age and pressure build-up, although the actual cause remains unknown at this time.”

To ensure the building is safe to occupy in the long term, Machin Engineering will take core samplings around the jail area to determine its integrity and evaluate the soil structure, as well as deploy structural monitoring services including crack monitors and tilt meters. The costs will be covered by contingency funds available in the county’s capital improvements plan (CIP) budget.

Commissioners approved two other projects on the Boardman campus. The first is the removal of trees and shrubs around the Historic Courthouse. Chase said while the building itself is in sound condition, the “exterior brick work is another story.” The close presence of vegetation to the building walls is contributing to their decline, Chase said, blocking light and trapping moisture. The vegetation removal is necessary to “allow that brick work to breathe,” he said.

While staff wouldn’t normally come to commissioners with vegetation removal that can be handled internally, Chase acknowledged that tree removal can be unpopular in the community and will alter the look of the courthouse. In response to commission questions, Chase said the county will follow Traverse City’s tree ordinance – replacing trees as necessary, though some of those replacements may be planted off-site – with appropriate-sized shrubbery also planned for the courthouse.

Commissioners also gave the green light to plans to remodel part of the first floor of the Governmental Center. The project will replace most of the furnishings and fixings in the register of deeds, county clerk, and county treasurer’s offices, replace customer lobby furniture and fixtures, replace carpet, and add enclosure walls for the deputy clerk’s office and a privacy well between the clerk and register of deeds public office areas. The improvements are estimated to cost just over $204,000.

Finally, commissioners Wednesday approved Cunningham-Limp to become the county’s construction manager for Project Alpha, the planned expansion of the LaFranier campus. The firm has previously served as the project manager and owner’s representative but will now transition to overseeing construction. The county Building Authority will now serve as the owner’s representative. Design work is underway and nearing completion for the campus expansion, which calls for building a new combined emergency operations and 911/Central Dispatch center and centralized county storage facility.