Delta County Board votes to table discussion of Delta Conservation District contract

ESCANABA, Mich. (WLUC) - The Delta County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to table the discussion of a new contract with the Delta Conservation District at Tuesday’s meeting.

The board will take up the agenda item at its next regularly scheduled meeting on May 2.

The board also unanimously voted to have the Delta County prosecuting attorney review the contract prior to voting on whether or not to approve it.

This comes after some public commenters at Tuesday’s meeting cited concerns with the newly proposed contract.

A Ford River Township resident claimed there were increasing administrative fees and other costs in the conservation district’s five contracts with the county between 2011 and 2022.

She added that this all cost the county more than $1.3 million over those contracts’ time period.

“It is imperative you know the real cost of running the county parks and you should be asking the question, ‘What was that administration fee used for and was it actually an administration fee or something else,’” said the resident, who was the first person to take the stand for public comment at the meeting.

As part of these contracts, the resident added that the conservation district was not required to pay the county for the office space it was using during that time.

Also at Tuesday night’s meeting, the county board voted to enter a closed session to discuss allegations with legal counsel that it broke Michigan’s Open Meetings Act.

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