Commissioners approve specialty-court grant slate after judge wins removal of contingency language

Eaton County commissioners voted to approve ten specialty-court grant resolutions as a slate on a motion that was amended to remove language tying continued use of awarded grant funds to later county approval.

Chief Judge Cunningham, who identified herself as a circuit court judge and chief judge of the trial court, asked the board to remove the contingency language because, she said, it would leave community corrections employees and more than 100 program participants at risk of sudden job loss and service disruption if the county delayed or withheld final approval after grants are awarded. "We will not know until September or October if you're going to let us keep the money to fund the community corrections department, which means that we have employees that will could have less than 24 hours notice that they're out of a job," she said.

The judge said the contested resolution…