County approves police support and participant boilerplate for MyCareerQuest event

The committee approved two economic-development items to support MyCareerQuest 2025: an interlocal agreement with the city of Novi for police services at the event and a boilerplate agreement to govern participation by government exhibitors.

Jennifer from the county’s economic development and workforce team said the Nov. 18 MyCareerQuest Southeast event at the Suburban Collection Showplace is expected to draw roughly 8,000 high-school students from multiple counties and about 225 interactive occupational exhibits. The county requested a not-to-exceed $1,500 interlocal payment to Novi to provide two police officers for the event from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.; the city’s officers also bring a public-safety exhibit to the show, staff said. The committee approved the interlocal with Novi on a 5-0 vote.

The committee also approved a government exhibitor participant agreement (a boilerplate interlocal) that the county will use with community colleges, cities, villages and townships that exhibit at the event; the agreement was reviewed by corporation counsel. Jennifer said exhibitor and student registration is robust, and the county partners with regional intermediate school districts, Michigan Works agencies and a broad set of employers and training providers to recruit schools and exhibitors.

During discussion, staff flagged potential state and federal funding cuts that could affect workforce-development staff and programming used to organize the event. Jennifer said some workforce-development staff positions and youth-program dollars are at risk in proposed state and federal budgets, which would reduce staffing capacity to run events if cuts occur. Commissioners and staff discussed outreach and sponsorships; staff said the team secures sponsorship funding and partners to cover event costs and that they continue to recruit exhibitors and sponsors.