County Sheriff Spends Mental Health and Public Safety Millage Money on New Boat, New Furnishings, Graphic Design, and Bogus Therapy Program

by P.D. Lesko

This article was made possible by The Ann Arbor Independent FOIA Fund.

At a recent “informational meeting” with officials from western Washtenaw County, the Washtenaw County Sheriff Jerry Clayton, The Sheriff’s Dir. of Community Engagement Derrick Jackson (who is presently a candidate for Sheriff) and Lisa Gentz, Community Mental Health Program Administrator – Millage Initiatives, Jail Mental Health Service and Mental Health Court, met with officials to tout the successes of the 1 mill Mental Health and Public Safety Millage. That additional millage is up for renewal in 2026.

“Dog and pony show,” said one of the officials present. “The usual bullshit from the usual bullshitters. We pay the millage and get virtually nothing from it.”

Candidate for Sheriff Ken Magee was present at the meeting, as well. Magee said, “How is it that these people driving county-provided cars to the meeting and using county resources, including their own salaries, are talking up the millage? The Chelsea Chief of Police was there and said, ‘I’m off duty.’ He’s never off duty and neither are Derrick Jackson and the Sheriff when they’re discussing County business.”

The trio of County employees may have violated Michigan’s Act 169 of 1976 (Political Activities of Public Employees). The Act is clear: Public employees have every right to campaign for office, to campaign for another person and to campaign for a ballot proposal. What Clayton, Jackson and Genz may never legally do is engage in such activities while being compensated for the performance of their duties as a public employee. Act 169 of 1976 (Political Activities of Public Employees) states, “The activities permitted by sections 2 and 3 shall (campaigning) not be actively engaged in by a public employee during those hours when that person is being compensated for the performance of that person’s duties as a public employee.”

Clayton, Jackson and Genz, salaried employees, were at the meeting to tout the successes of the Mental Health and Public Safety Millage. However, public records document a clear lack of success on the part of the County Sheriff, despite being given more than $30 million in Mental Health and Public Safety Millage money. For example, the rate of recidivism for those who have been housed in the County jail still stands at 63 percent, and violent crime (including murder) is at historic highs in Washtenaw County, some four years on into the six year millage.

County Records Reveal Sheriff’s Use of Millage Funds

The Ann Arbor Independent examined the County’s 2020-2023 check registers to determine how the County Sheriff has spent the approximately $5.85 million in Mental Health and Public Safety Millage money that he is given annually. In 2016, when the millage (the brainchild of County Commissioner Andy LaBarre) was put on the ballot, the public was told the additional tax dollars would expand mental health services provided by Community Mental Health (CMH) and the Sheriff’s Dept. (including for diversion programs) and positively impact public safety. This has not turned out to be true.

County records revealed that Sheriff Jerry Clayton has used Mental Health and Public Safety Millage money paid by county taxpayers on purchases and services which voters would never have expected, and about which voters have not been told.

For example, records show Sheriff Clayton has used Mental Health and Public Safety millage money to make repairs to and paint the jail, to purchase displays, new office furnishings, to pay IT consultants, a freelance graphic designer, to pay a company that produces custom-designed employee recognition materials, to purchase a new boat, to pay for thousands of dollars in office supplies, to pay a contractor who is currently under investigation by the State of Michigan for professional negligence, and to pay another contractor to provide MRT (Moral Reconation Therapy) “treatment” to jail inmates and probationers.

The MRT cottage industry was invented in the 80s by two men in Tennessee. They sell four-day trainings for $600, and sell MRT workbooks to their “certified counselors.” MRT has been sharply criticized by social workers, psychologists and academic researchers as little more than a pyramid scheme whose “results,” if any, have been “exaggerated” by the founders and, in turn, by their acolytes.

On the Sheriff’s website, this is what the public has been told about how he is spending the millions in millage funds:

The WCSO is using millage funding to enhance functions that have been historically underfunded. Millage dollars also allow for flexible spending—enabling the county to serve a wider range of individuals with varying degrees of unmet social needs. 

You’ll find more detail about millage-funded initiatives here:

• Diversion and deflection programs
• Reentry support
• Interventions
• Local police contracting
• Emergency services and dispatch

County Records Show Millage Money Spend on Consultant for Bogus “MRT Therapy”

Over the past half a dozen years, the Sheriff has spent tens of millions of local, state and federal tax dollars on behavioral programming staff, including spending Mental Health and Public Safety Millage money on a company owned by a local woman named Tracey Woods. Woods said when reached by phone that she and her “subcontractors” provide MRT therapy to probationers. On Tracey Woods’s website, she has lifted language directly from the MRT therapy founders’ website. This includes claims that MRT therapy can reduce recidivism by half in as little as six months.

According to CCI’s website, the for profit company that sells MRT certificates and workbooks, “The MRT program leads to increased participation and completion rates, decreased disciplinary infractions, beneficial changes in personality characteristics, and significantly lower recidivism rates.”

The recidivism rate data in Washtenaw County doesn’t support these claims.

In 2000, the Washtenaw County recidivism rate stood at 37 percent. According to county records, the recidivism rate is presently 63 percent. In 2023, statewide, Michigan reported a recidivism rate of 22.1 percent, down from 45.7 percent in 1998. In 2010 shortly after Sheriff Clayton was elected (2008), Washtenaw County had the highest rate of recidivism in Michigan; it still does, some 16 years later. Between 2008 and 2023, county taxpayers have funded Sheriff Clayton’s department, the County Jail, and the local courts to the tune of more than $1.2 billion.

In the time since Woods was awarded a contract in 2018 to facilitate eight MRT cohorts (2 men’s groups inside the jail; two women’s groups inside the jail; two men’s probationer groups, and two women’s probationer groups) recidivism in Washtenaw County has not seen “significantly lower recidivism rates,” but quite the opposite. Add to this the fact that the County Sheriff’s crime clearance (solve) rate has been only around 30 percent, on average. This means that not only has the rate of recidivism risen dramatically since Clayton’s election and stayed elevated, it also means the County Sheriff’s Dept. has failed to solve more than 40,000 reported crimes, representing murders, rapes, robberies, child sexual abuse, shootings, thefts, as well as non-violent crimes.

The Sheriff’s Dir. of Comm. Engagement, Derrick Jackson is running for Sheriff. On Feb. 26, Jackson sent out an announcement that he has been endorsed (again) by Sheriff Clayton and by County Prosecutor Eli Savit. In a public TedTalk presentation, Derrick Jackson told the audience, “I am a social worker who runs a police agency.”

On the campaign trail, Jackson has repeatedly claimed that he is a social worker (He has never been licensed by the State of Michigan.), and that he single-handedly brought “modern policing” practices to the Sheriff’s Office, including the hiring of felons as outreach workers. On the Sheriff’s website, Jackson claims that among the Sheriff’s felon outreach workers, the recidivism rate is less than 10 percent.

Sheriff’s Dept. employees and public records say otherwise.

Michigan AG records show that Jackson’s Community Outreach Coordinator Marvin Gundy is presently under investigation by the Michigan AG’s office for alleged witness intimidation and witness tampering. Records show that the witness, a teen boy who was shot, reported that Derrick Jackson and Marvin Gundy showed up in their Sheriff’s Dept. uniforms to dissuade him from filing charges.

Another of Jackson’s outreach workers, a felon, was pulled over by police and the man was carrying weapons. Presumably to avoid arrest, he reportedly told the arresting officers that he “worked for Jerry Clayton.” Deputies arrested him nonetheless, according to records.

In April 2022, County Commissioners handed over a $1.2 million ARPA fund grant to a murderer on parole and a pedofile to, ostensibly, have their non-profit do community violence intervention work. Part of the explanation given by elected officials for voting in favor of the grant was to combat the high rate of recidivism in Washtenaw County. Text messages shared with the A2Indy revealed that Supreme Felons, Inc. was, in reality, controlled by Marvin Gundy and Derrick Jackson. Text messages show Gundy and Jackson dictated who would serve as the “President,” of Supreme Felons, Inc. They chose Alan K. Fuqua, a man who had been convicted and served a lengthy sentence for child rape. Part of the Supreme Felons, Inc. contract with the County mandates the group’s members work with children.

Ken Magee, also a candidate for Sheriff, has 30 years of experience in local and federal policing. Magee suspects that the Sheriff and his employee Derrick Jackson are conspiring to cover up crimes committed by the felons in their employ.

In response to leaks of damaging records and information to the media and to others from individuals within the Sheriff’s Dept., concerned with what they see as “pervasive corruption,” Sheriff’s Dept. employees received a warning email from Undersheriff Mark Ptaszek.

A Contractor With Big Promises But Without Academic Credentials, Experience or Results

County records show Tracey Woods submitted her RFP proposal in April of 2018 to facilitate MRT classes. At the time she applied, Woods was already a county contractor facilitating anger management classes. Woods’s proposal to provide MRT facilitation absent MRT certification shows she had no experience or credentials. Her proposal included the stipulation that she would, “Attend national MRT training program and obtain facilitator certificate” and taxpayers would foot the bill.

Yet, Woods’s proposal also included an affidavit. She swore she had been “dealing for at least 12 consecutive months on a regular commercial basis in the kind of goods or services which are the subject of the bid proposal”–MRT facilitation.

The county contract for which Tracey Woods submitted a fraudulent affidavit focused teaching people in jail and on parole the importance of “enhanced moral reasoning and personal responsibility.”

After Tracey Woods was hired to provide MRT facilitation, her training was paid for by the Washtenaw County Sheriff. To become a certified MRT facilitator requires no college coursework or diploma, just $600 and 4 days of training (32 hours). Only individuals who have paid $600 for the 4-day training may purchase CCI’s MRT client workbooks.

One academic researcher concluded MRT is a pyramid scheme.

On Tracey Woods’s business website, she sells MRT “certificates” and “training.” A bookstore on her website has not yet been populated with MRT workbooks and CCI books.

Mental Health Millage Money Squandered on Cheap, Bogus Treatment Program

“CCI [the for profit company that sells MRT certifications and workbooks] has embellished its evidence-based claims…A profession whose body of ethics requires competency is in contradiction with the use of MRT and its lack of evidence for claims made by its creators.” —“The Broker of Reality: A Scoping Review of Moral Reconation Therapy” (2023).

“If there’s any good news here, it is that the poor outcome [of MRT] cost a rich bank $1.2 million, rather than taxpayers.”–How Wall Street Dehumanized Teenage Inmates with Scientology-Infused Therapy

According to Tracey Woods’s company website, In Season Solution, LLC does a little bit of everything: email etiquette training, phone etiquette training, words-at-work-training and anger management training.

A call to Woods’s work phone resulted in this message: “You have reached the Anger Management and MRT (Moral Reconation Therapy) programs for the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office.”

In Season Solution, LLC owner Tracey Woods bills herself as “an organizational development specialist” with 25 years of experience. Her business is headquartered at a home in Ypsilanti, according to State records.

In August of 2018, Woods received a Testimonial Resolution from Detroit City Council. In the resolution, Woods is touted as having 32 years of experience. On the In Season Solution, LLC website, Woods describes her company as partnering “with companies to transform their organization through enhancement of their leaders and workforce. Through organizational development, and providing performance skills training for leaders, supervisors and technical professionals, In Season Solutions helps organizations accomplish their goals.”

According to the In Season Solution website, “In 2005, a meta-analysis of nine published outcome studies detailed the effects of MRT on recidivism in parolees and probationers. The studies found MRT cut expected recidivism by nearly two-thirds over a time period of six months to over two years.” This language, unattributed, is taken verbatim from the website of the co-founders of MRT. The “meta-analysis” referred to was authored by Gregory Little, Ed.D., co-owner of CCI and co-founder of MRT.

In his “meta-analysis,” Little did not identify his many conflicts of interest. For starters, Little’s research into his own creation did not identify himself as the co-founder of MRT. Little did not make clear that he benefits financially from MRT. In his meta-analysis, his “nine outcome studies” include a Master’s thesis from a University of Phoenix student.

In his meta-analysis, Little writes of his own business, “Moral Reconation Therapy (MRT®) is a cognitive-behavioral treatment approach that has been utilized since 1985 and is probably the most widely researched treatment for offenders (Little, 2001).”

Independent academic researchers don’t concur.

Debunking Unscientific, Pseudo-Therapeutic Gobbledygook

In 2023, two independent researchers and three faculty members (two from the Portland State University School of Social Work and one from the University of Chicago) published a thorough examination of MRT: “The Broker of Reality: A Scoping Review of Moral Reconation Therapy.”

In their paper, the authors’ write, “Our review of 669 articles identified through Google Scholar and eleven academic databases yielded zero peer reviewed studies on MRT’s effectiveness or outcomes.” The researchers went on to conclude that “MRT’s evidence claims may be inflated.”

The researchers also pointed out, “In 2008, MRT received a yellow or ‘promising’ rating from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Register of Evidence-Based Programs (NREPP) (CCI, 2008, p. 1). Ten years later, SAMHSA indefinitely suspended the NREPP (Peter G. Dodge Foundation, 2018) and declared its rating methodology unsupported (Green-Hennessy, 2018) )….Despite this, CCI [the for profit company that owns MRT] continues to advertise MRT as a SAMHSA recognized research-based program (MRT, 2021).”

In another wide-ranging study in 2021, researchers concluded, “MRT does not live up to its evidence-based claims.”

Blonigen et al. (2022) published findings on the first-ever randomized control trial of MRT. The authors studied the risk of recidivism of 341 participants of three mental health residential treatment programs randomly assigned to a ‘usual care’ or ‘usual care’ plus two MRT groups per week. The study found that “MRT had no additional effect on reducing the risk of recidivism.”

Dr. Gregory Little’s CV book publications are either pay-to-publish companies, or the publisher is listed as Eagle Wing Books, Inc. (a company Dr. Little owns along with a business partner). One of Dr. Little’s most recent books (2019) is titled “Easy Money.” It is a 40-page workbook designed to be used as a text in group settings. Order 500 copies of the $13.95 workbook and you’ll receive “a discount.”

Dr. Little claims, “MRT—Moral Reconation Therapy® is the premiere cognitive-behavioral treatment system used in criminal justice. Countless individuals have been treated with the method. Over 200 outcome studies have been published on MRT from various programs. These studies include MRT outcomes on over 100,000 individuals. Virtually all research shows MRT treatment leads to lower recidivism, improvements in personality variables, enhanced treatment compliance, and higher staff satisfaction.”

A 2022 study conducted by Daniel M. Blonigen, Michael A. Cucciare, Thomas Byrne, Paige M. Shaffer, Brenna Giordano, Jennifer S. Smith, Christine Timko, Joel Rosenthal, and David Smelson, a group that includes multiple MD’s, clinical psychologists, researchers and psychiatrists, also disagreed with Dr. Little’s conclusions about MRT’s effectiveness. “In this study, MRT was not more effective than usual care at reducing recidivism risk for patients in mental health residential treatment.”

In examining MRT as an intervention delivered by social workers in South Australia, in 2020 Dr. Michelle Jarldon of the University of South Australia published, “Radically rethinking social work in the criminal (in)justice system in Australia.” Dr. Jarldon criticizes MRT for its “…moralization, religious connotations, and rhetoric of personal responsibility and choice.” Given MRT’s overall poor outcomes (including in Washtenaw County), Jaldron and others view the use of MRT on jailed inmates and on probationers as unethical.

Journalists who’ve delved into Dr. Little’s MRT “therapy” business have likened Little’s “treatment program” to Scientology.

In 2016, High Wire published, “How Wall Street Dehumanized Teenage Inmates with Scientology-Infused Therapy How Wall Street Dehumanized Teenage Inmates with Scientology-Infused Therapy.”

Author Maia Szalavitz writes, “The project’s disappointing results were published last year, but the bank’s investors weren’t exactly going out on a limb with the experiment. The treatment used in the study is known as Moral Reconation Therapy (MRT)….Indeed, much of MRT is about getting prisoners to take complete responsibility for their situation—rather than exploring the role of factors like poverty, unemployment, poor schooling, mental illness, and past trauma.”

In an investigative report for the influence, Sarah Beller documented the influences on Moral Reconation Therapy.

“Moral Reconation Therapy reflects the idea that people who end up incarcerated are morally inferior—and that is why they are in a prison. It’s an idea that anyone familiar with the history of the War on Drugs, for example, would reject,” Beller writes. “And the more I investigated MRT, the more I found there was something significantly wrong with this program—and that no one seemed to realize or care.”

According to academics, MRT’s purported benefits and outcomes (lower recidivism, for example) are simply bogus.

Woods’s MRT “facilitation” services which she claimed were provided by “subcontractors,” and begun in 2018, bear out the concerns of academics. Despite half a dozen years of Woods’s MRT services paid for with public money, including Mental Health and Public Safety millage money, the rate of recidivism in Washtenaw County has remained virtually unchanged.

Several recent high profile crimes, including a 2023 high profile murder in Ann Arbor, were carried out by individuals on probation from the County Jail.

Unlike MRT “facilitators,” a licensed clinical social worker in Michigan is required to earn a Master’s degree from an accredited college or university and then do hundreds of hours of supervised training. Likewise, a licensed clinical psychologist must earn a Ph.D. from an accredited institution and complete hundreds of hours of supervised training. Psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers are also subject to State oversight, including disciplinary hearing for ethics violations and professional negligence.

Tracey Woods is overseen by Sheriff’s Dept. employee Renee Casey, who has a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice.

The Sheriff’s MRT “Therapy” Provider Has Raked in State, County and Mental Health Millage Money

The Mental Health and Public Safety Millage was passed in 2016, but funds were not made available until Jan. 2019. In 2018 Tracey Woods’s company In Season Solutions began its consulting work in the Sheriff’s Dept.; In Season Solutions earned $833.24 per month ($13,331 in total) paid from the Sheriff’s State Community Corrections budget. In 2019, Woods’s company earned $1,250 per month ($15,000 in total). In 2021, Woods was paid $22,747 in Mental Health Millage Money, $57,622 from the Sheriff’s Community Corrections Fund, and $23,500 from the Corrections Inmate Housing Fund. In 2022, Woods’s company was paid $64,170 using Mental Health and Millage Funds. In 2023, Tracey Woods’s business In Season Solution was paid $92,041. That amount included $30,486 using Mental Health and Public Safety Millage money, $1,120 from the County’s General Fund and $60,435 from the Sheriff’s Community Corrections money funded by the State of Michigan.

When contacted by phone, Tracey Woods was defensive and secretive. She refused to answer questions about both her company’s services and her own educational background. She did say she teaches “anger management courses.” It’s unclear what Woods’s professional qualifications are to teach anything. Her job at the University of Michigan was in the Office of Patient Experience.

When asked who provided the MRT therapy services, Woods said, “subcontractors.” She repeatedly claimed that because her services were delivered to people on probation, she was not free to answer questions about her company, her qualifications or the qualifications of her “subcontractors.”

“I’ve never had a phone call like this before,” said Woods. “I have to be careful; I don’t want to lose my business by saying the wrong thing or talking to someone.”

Woods, when asked about her educational background, claimed the information was on her website. When told it was not, Woods then claimed her website “had been hacked.” She went on to say that before she could answer a question about whether she had a college degree, she would have to check with Renee Casey, whom Woods referred to the “Program Director.” Casey works as the Dir. of Comm. Corrections and Corrections Reentry Services for the Sheriff.

A phone message to Renee Casey asking why Woods believed she could not speak about her own professional qualifications and experience without Casey’s permission went unanswered.

Emails show that after Casey received the phone message, she emailed Sheriff Clayton to say that a piece was being written about his use of the Mental Health and Public Safety Millage money. Casey added that she had received a “threatening phone message.”

Clayton replied almost immediately: “I’ll call you in 10 minutes.”

Despite having been hired as a consultant in 2018, Woods tried to evade answering questions by claiming she was “new” to contracting with the County Sheriff’s Office. She repeatedly claimed that while transparency concerning public money was important, she could not provide any information about the services she provides to the County which are paid for with Mental Health and Public Safety Millage funds.

Woods finally took issue with the “tone” of the questions and hung up.

Despite the Sheriff having received over $50 million in additional funding from the Mental Health and Public Safety Millage, and almost $500 million from the County’s General Fund since 2008, in Washtenaw County violent crime, including murder, has skyrocketed.

In 2023, there were over 30 murders, more murders than ever before in the County. Records from the Michigan State Police show that since Sheriff Clayton’s 2008 election, his department has failed to solve between 65-70 percent of all crimes reported. In total, the Washtenaw County Sheriff has failed to solve over 50,000 crimes since he took office.

In 2008, when Clayton was elected, the Sheriff’s Dept.’s budget as a part of the County’s General Fund to provide citizen services, was $34 million. In 2009, that amount jumped to $45 million. By 2022, Sheriff Clayton’s budget had ballooned to $54 million, plus millions from the Mental Health and Public Safety Millage. Between 2008 and 2022, county records show that taxpayers have forked over $613 million in tax dollars from the County’s General Fund to the County’s courts and the Sheriff; some 47 percent of the County’s General Fund has been used, since 2008 when Jerry Clayton took office, to arrest, jail and try county residents.

Annually, Washtenaw County Commissioners now allocate $303 per capita for criminal justice services (excluding the County’s Public Defender and Prosecutor’s offices).

• In Ottawa County, the 303,000 residents there pay just $128 per capita for criminal justice services (excluding the County’s Public Defender and Prosecutor’s offices).

• Kalamazoo County’s residents, likewise, pay just $148 per capita to fund their criminal justice services (excluding the County’s Public Defender and Prosecutor’s offices).

What’s the Answer?

One answer would be for taxpayers to refuse to renew the Mental Health and Public Safety Millage in 2016.

In the meantime, is the solution to use Mental Health and Public Safety Millage money and hire credentialled, licensed mental health care professionals to facilitate the MRT meetings offered in the County Jail?

The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics would not permit licensed social workers to facilitate MRT sessions. The NASW’s Code of Ethics requires licensed social workers to “respect the inherent dignity and worth of the person” and “to behave in a trustworthy manner.”

According to a 2022 article published by Harrell, et. al. in the refereed journal “Advances in Social Work,” MRT is incongruous with the norms of the NASW Code of Ethics. The authors describe MRT as “pseudo-therapeutic.”

Constance Johnson, MSW, is a social worker in Bloomington, Indiana. She took the 32-hour, $600 MRT facilitator training course.

“I struggled with the expectation to act ‘honestly and responsibly’ and promote ‘ethical practices.'” Johnson added, “The MRT trainer instructed us to treat participants in an MRT setting differently than even those same participants in other social work settings (e.g., individual therapy). We were told to disregard best practices and ethical standards to facilitate MRT with fidelity to the facilitator handbook. This places the MRT facilitator in a position to behave differently towards the same individuals based on the setting. This encouragement of differential treatment directly conflicts with the NASW Code of Ethics and its emphasis on trustworthiness.” 

According to Harrell, et. al., MRT in no way engages critically with the ways racism may influence the attitudes and traits of individuals. “Thus, the racial disparities reflected in other areas of the criminal justice system are reproduced.”

Harrell, et. al. also observe that, “The MRT participant workbook tells the participant that they have ‘immoral, unethical, evil, negative traits’ and a ‘screwed-up personality.’ Facilitators are expected to prohibit clients from discussing societal inequity, instead insisting that they ‘accept reality’ (as defined by CCI). They are instructed to ignore individual differences and diversity, including the impact of structural oppression, intersectionality, and trauma. MRT disregards the dignity and worth of participants by imposing totalizing and deficit-based labels.”

Researchers agree: MRT is not scientifically sound.

While Tracey Woods’s overt dishonesty and her deceptive answers to questions about her qualifications and who from her company provides the MRT facilitation may appear ironic given her job, she’s a symptom of a more insidious problem. The Mental Health and Public Safety Millage money given over to Sheriff Jerry Clayton is being diverted and squandered on expenses having nothing to do with mental health or public safety.

In the case of Tracey Woods and her company In Season Solutions, Mental Health and Public Safety millage funds have been, since 2918, wasted on a scientifically unsound, pseudo-therapeutic “treatment.” It’s no wonder that the County’s high rate of recidivism, and the corresponding material and financial damage to County’s residents due to that recidivism, is a problem the Sheriff and his protege Derrick Jackson gloss over, hide and, if Sheriff’s deputies are to be believed, collude to cover up.

Sheriff Clayton is not alone in his misuse of Mental Health and Public Safety Millage money.

A 2023 investigation by the A2Indy revealed Community Mental Health (CMH) has been spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in millage money on PR consultants, advertising, paying for fluff news coverage, and doing so while refusing services to residents. CMH continues to use Mental Health and Public Safety millage money to pay a consulting firm to craft a PR postcard in 2023 (“It Takes A Millage”) which touted “dramatic increases in behavioral health services for all ages.” County records show that while there was an initial jump in 2019 in the number of CARES clients, after receiving approximately $20-$24 million in millage money since 2019, CMH has seen an increase in services to 469 individuals, or a 9.5 percent overall increase in services, since Mental Health Millage money began to be dispersed to CMH.

Since 2019, Ann Arbor’s Mayor and City Council members have used its $2,000,000 in Mental Health and Public Safety millage money collected from county taxpayers for alternative transit and affordable housing.

Ken Magee said: “I am in favor of a Mental Health Millage. I just believe that our elected officials and County employees should follow the rules and law in regards to using the money and adhering to the standards set forth for promoting a millage. They should be accountable and transparent.”