The Sanilac County Board of Commissioners have concluded their evaluation of first year Administrator/Controller Tara Griffith and are pleased with her work performance. Griffith, who is a former Health Department employee, took over for Kathy Dorman who retired late last year. Griffith scored high in 10 categories, on a scale of one to five, with five being the best. Chairman Dan Dean said the board is extremely pleased with Griffith and stated she has been very successful in taking on a very daunting task. During the Finance portion of the meeting, the board agreed to recommend a 2% raise for Griffith, raising her annual salary to around $87,700 dollars.
In other Commissioners news, the County has taken action to help the financially strapped Medical Care Facility who is facing an accounts receivable shortfall to the tune of $2 million dollars. Chairman Dean said a lot of the delinquency is from state and federal agencies who have not made their allocations. Dean felt anything the county could do to help the facility would be appropriate. Working with the Treasurer’s Office, the board voted to give a $360,000 three-year loan to the facility, at an interest rate of 1.25%. The money will come from the Delinquent Tax Revolving Fund. The facility will make monthly payments of $10,000 dollars monthly until the loan is paid in full.
The Sanilac County Sheriff Department received approval to move forward in the process of possibly purchasing a drone for the department. The device is projected to cost around $33,000 dollars and the department will be seeking a USDA grant to pay for three-quarters of the cost. The County’s share would be $8,400 if the grant is successful. Two sheriff department staff have been licensed to fly the drone that is capable of covering up to seven kilometers. The device could be used for various sheriff department matters, as well as providing assistance to area fire departments and helping with missing persons.
