What’s been going on at the ACCOA?

It’s a question a lot of Alcona County folks have been asking. For good reason, we feel. There sure seems to be an “air of mystery” surrounding the many recent changes and curious actions with the Alcona County Commission on Aging – a local Non-Governmental Organization (NGO). Unfortunately, the Director has been less than forthcoming when some concerned citizens have reached out for answers…

Ignoring FOIA or “Following Policy”?

A group of concerned citizens acting together as the Alcona County Grassroots Conservatives issued a FOIA request via the County Clerk’s office. The copy we have in our possession is dated 1 September 2022 (the follow up was dated 7 September 2022, also in our possession). The FOIA request was regarding information surrounding the “Lincoln Housing Project” and related surveys (original FOIA & State Record of Lincoln Project Housing Grant below).  These, we believe, ultimately led to the recent controversial (swamp) land purchase the ACCOA made in Harrisville, MI. See the public submission of this information to our site by ACGC Chairman Gary Wnuk here.

Before going any further on this, there must be a couple facts established:

• As of the issuance of this FOIA request via the County, the ACCOA website had zero mention of how to FOIA the NGO. So, the ACGC group reached out to the County which has a contract with the ACCOA. This contract is in place due to a taxpayer voted millage (view the contract below). This millage and the resultant contract with the county holds them to FOIA requirements (page 5, line 8).
• Here is a web archive of the website from June 2022. You can clearly see that there is no mention of how to make a FOIA request to the ACCOA on the website as of this juncture.
• After the FOIA request was re-submitted on 7 September, the ACCOA enacted their own guidelines dated 12 September 2022. However, per the URL on the ACCOA website, these were not added so that the public could see them until sometime in October. It is notable that this is well after the aforementioned FOIA deadline.
• Also, at issue in addition to the non response of the ACCOA regarding this FOIA, the ACGC group also passed a resolution asking the County to investigate the other recent questionable actions the ACCOA has taken (and without oversight of the board).

It is coming to light that many recent actions taken by the ACCOA do appear to be out of the original purview of both the organization and, the premise which prompted voters to pass the millage tax – which provides direct local taxpayer funding to the ACCOA (a community center was the “selling point”).

My take: This smells to me, as though the Federal & State grant money was received by the ACCOA with strings attached outlining precisely how this money is to be spent by the various recipient NGO’s. We see it all the time with schools and other similar non-profits. Federal or State money comes in, and it must be spent in a way which fulfills the agenda of the giver, and this doesn’t necessarily have the best interests of the community in mind.

Public comment at the end of the meeting seems to agree.

An answer to the FOIA may have shed light on this. Do certain people involved not want the light to shine in this direction? Probably… Time will certainly tell.

Why not simply answer?

We reached out to Lenny Avery, the ACCOA director, for comment. He was disinterested in anything other than the fact that Alcona Grassroots didn’t submit the FOIA to him directly. Despite the County’s contract and the fact that there was, at the time, no information set forth by the ACCOA instructing citizens how to submit a FOIA request to the NGO itself.

Here were my initial questions to Mr. Avery:

Many people I have talked to in the County are highly interested in the outcome of this FOIA request. Here are my questions to you regarding it:

Do you plan on following Michigan law and replying to it?

Do you wish to make a statement regarding the perceived lack of transparency between the publicly funded ACCOA and the people who fund it?

Is there anything else you wish Alcona County taxpayers to know regarding this?

It is notable that Alpena lawyer Timothy M. Gulden, Partner with Gillard Law was included on Mr. Avery’s response:

“ACCOA and the County are separate entities, and the subject FOIA request was directed at and submitted to the County, not to ACCOA. Therefore, ACCOA is not the recipient of a FOIA request that requires a response. The actions of any County official concerning the FOIA request, including requesting an extension, do not change these facts.“

Lenny Avery did not answer any of my follow up questions.

But as surely as he saw my follow up questions… You should too.

Since, as a publicly funded entity there was no verifiable dissemination of the ACCOA FOIA guidelines to the public prior the dates aforementioned…

Are you willing to provide to me the guidelines ACCOA had in place prior to the publication of the current guidelines in October 2022?

Did such aforementioned guidelines exist?

Where were they published for the public to find?

Wouldn’t it be simpler for you to simply answer the FOIA and be done with it?

Attached below, is a copy of the contract the ACCOA has with Alcona County. I will draw your attention to page 5, item# 8 where the County contractually holds the NGO accountable to itself (the contract), and not the public regarding Open Meetings ACT and, requires them to comply with Michigan FOIA Law: MCL 15.231.

My observations.

Here is where we begin to wade into the murky unknowns. Which, wouldn’t be unknown if we didn’t have an ACCOA director holding up the dissemination of public information over “policy”. Policy, mind you, which we can only assume didn’t exist at the time this FOIA request was made. There are many questions, many people are asking. And the ACCOA leadership is doing very little to allay these concerns.

It is difficult for me to imagine wanting to withhold public information to the public, over such impropriety as not following a non existent (at the time) policy. In my experience, those with nothing to hide, do not hide behind policy. I have been provided with precisely zero reason which would demonstrate harm to the ACCOA by providing the FOIA’ed information as requested to the County – which holds the contract with the ACCOA.

The ACCOA, based on what I saw at the last meeting, is running “defense”. During the “introduction” of two new ACCOA Board members (Dr. Bob Turek & Leroy Perrin), the ACCOA director spearheaded an hour-plus long “orientation”. This orientation outlined in minute detail, what the ACCOA “does”.

Aside from the attempt to distance itself from the millage money by bringing attention to the State & Federal money (with strings attached, no doubt) they have recently “won”… This presentation was also an attempt, in my eyes, to “build up value” of the ACCOA and, by proxy, to build up the value of the director’s post at the ACCOA. It’s a tried and true marketing tactic. However, a tactic which is much more effective at the inception of a relationship, rather than as damage control after the value has been diminished.

You can watch the full video below. I encourage anyone who wishes to make their own judgments (as I surely have done ), to do so based on what actually transpired.

The video also clearly demonstrates the frustration of the public (and former employees) on many issues, as seen during the public comment sections before and after the meeting. The long presentation did little to effectuate the positive outcome desired, I feel.

Directly answering inquiries, however, would go a long way to restoring public trust.

This is ultimately going to be an ongoing story, I’m sure. I was hoping to get this part out sooner but… Life had other plans. Such is the life of a volunteer “citizen journalist”, I suppose. Better late than never, right?

More to come!

Have tips? Have information? Need it to get out & don’t know who to turn to? Contact us!

Get involved, however you can, your community needs you!

Jeffrey Dobbs