Motion to approve DHHS contract for county attorney services fails on tie vote

The board considered a contract between Clare County and the State of Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to provide legal services on DHHS child-protective cases. County attorneys described the workload and said the contract would bring reimbursed hours to the county and could help fund an additional attorney position needed to handle juvenile, delinquency and child-protection caseloads.

A county attorney explained the contract would bill DHHS at a specified hourly rate and that the county would receive a residual per-hour payment; staffing the expected caseload would still require hiring or restoring an attorney position even with contract revenue. Commissioners questioned whether the contract would expose the county to future budget risk if DHHS withdrew funding, and several members recalled a prior episode when a contract change caused financial strain.

After discussion, the motion to approve the contract was put to a roll call vote and failed on a tie. Commissioners debated the benefit of the county serving as DHHS counsel — proponents said it improves coordination in family- and child-protection cases and preserves DHHS access to multidisciplinary-team resources; opponents cited prior abrupt contract changes and the county’s staffing vulnerabilities.

Ending: With the motion defeated, the county attorney’s office continues current operations without the DHHS contract; staff noted a need to address attorney staffing levels in other ways and highlighted a prior case-management study recommending more attorneys for the workload.