RESULTS - LAW AND COURTS COMMITTEE

    This program area involves Ingham County's provision of public safety through its law enforcement and judicial system.  There are fourteen total departments and agencies included in this committee.  Many of these are either statutorily mandated or otherwise common among similar counties, so eleven are included in this analysis. 

Law & Courts Committee - All Departments

        More so than the other two committees, the relationship between Law & Courts category and population is very strong - 90 percent of expenditures can be attributed to population. Unlike the other categories, there is little variance in the departments among the counties. With the exception of emergency telephone, every county has each of the other nine departments. Also, there is little variance among the counties regarding the duties of the departments. This means that stronger conclusions can be drawn from the results of the regressions.

Animal Control

    Animal Control - This department is funded at an elevated level - only Muskegon spends more per resident and no other county’s total budget is greater. Its staff is also significantly larger than other counties. The R-Squared value indicates that the Animal Control budget is independent of a county’s population, meaning that it is funded and staffed according to the priorities of the county government. Although not formally a priority in Ingham, the Board of Commissioners has continued to increase allocations to this department over the past several years.

Child Care

    Child Care - In general, larger counties have larger child care budgets - particularly from the general fund. Ingham is significantly lower in this category - the second lowest county in terms of budget per resident. There are two possible explanations for this. First, the reported rates of both child abuse cases and crime rates among juveniles might be lower in Ingham than in other counties. Second, the cap rate for state reimbursements is structured differently in Ingham. The structure might be in need of review.

Circuit Court

    Circuit Court - Although Ingham has the same number of judges as both Washtenaw and Genesee, Ingham’s budget is about 35 percent greater than either of the two larger counties. Ingham also has the largest budget per resident and number of employees per resident of the fifteen counties included in the study. The State Court of Claims and litigation cases account for an estimated 25 percent of the budget, which is 60 percent of the variance. When this element is factored, Ingham is still higher than the other counties. The remaining variance can be attributed to three other factors. First, Ingham has higher costs of administration, support, and maintenance due to multiple courts facilities. This accounts for at least one staff position as well as higher costs of operation. The costs of building rental are included in this budget and such costs might or might not be included in other counties (see Buildings & Grounds above). Second, a disproportionate number of class-action suits are filed in Ingham County. Due to the fact that interest groups and collective organizations tend to locate themselves in close proximity to the capitol, more collective lawsuits will tend to be filed in Ingham. These suits are more complex than other suits and tend to require a large number of resources. Third, state litigation which is non-tortious in nature also tends to be filed in the Ingham Circuit Court. Each of these factors can be attributed mostly to geographic coincidence. Although the costs of these exogenous factors can not be accurately measured, if they account for even 40 percent of the total budget, Ingham County would be below the trend line.

Community Corrections

    Community Corrections - In terms of gross budget amount, Ingham is lower than any of the fifteen counties. Staffing is also low - the state average of number of employees is 5.92. There are two reasons for the lower funding. First, Ingham is lower than other comparable counties in amount received in the form of grants from the Office of Community Corrections. Second, the general fund allocation is very low in Ingham.

District Court

    District Court - On a per resident basis, Ingham allocates fewer resources than every other county except for Kent. This is largely due to the fact that some counties have cities which have district court systems separated from the county court system. This is the case with Ingham, which has district courts in Lansing and East Lansing. For this reason, a better variable for comparison is cost per court. In this category, Ingham’s cost per court is $662,652 which is near the average of $693,623. This indicates that no significant difference exists.

Emergency Services/ Civil Defense

    Emergency Operations/ Civil Defense - In general, smaller departments tend to have large variances and low R-Squared values. This is the case with emergency operations - budgets per resident range from $0.15 to $1.70. Ingham’s budget per resident ($0.28) is at the lower end of this range.

Emergency Telephone Services

    Emergency Telephone/ 911 Budget - The 911 budget per resident is much greater than expected - more than double the state average. However, the number of employees is near the expected amount. The structure of services contributes to this variance. Most counties contain several dispatching stations of which a small number are operated by the county - the remainder being operated by cities, townships or regional authorities. Ingham is one of few counties with relatively few dispatch centers, thereby reducing service duplication. If the combined budgets of 911 services were incorporated and compared, it is likely that Ingham would have fewer expenses per capita than other counties. A cursory survey of some 911 services in other counties confirms that Ingham’s per resident budget is within the expected range when 911 services are examined in their entirety. It also revealed that updating technology seems to be a higher priority in Ingham, as one county budgets nothing for technology upgrades.

Friend of the Court

    Friend of the Court - The budget for this category is very near its expected amount, indicating that Ingham funds this activity near the average of other counties. The R-Squared indicates that the allocation is largely attributable to population.

Probate Court

    Probate Court - This budget is also near its expected amount and also has an R-Squared greater than .7000. The number of employees is also near the expected number.

Prosecutor

    Prosecutor - The Ingham County Prosecutor’s budget is largest of all counties. The budget is also largest on a per-resident basis. The number of court locations is relatively high in Ingham, so many general costs such as rental are likely to be higher. However, the budget was significantly higher than average when other dependent variables were used, including incidence of uniform crimes, incidence of index crimes, number of arrests from uniform crimes, and number of arrests from index crimes. In each of these areas, the total budget, size of support staff, and number of assistant prosecuting attorneys were larger in Ingham County. This is due in part to the multiple court facilities as well as variance in the priorities and duties within a prosecutor’s office. For example, a diversion program is operated in Ingham County. This program is not common among all counties.

Sheriff

    Sheriff - Funding for this department is related to population and Ingham is within the expected range in both the budget size and the number of employees. Regressions were also run using various crime activity as the dependent variable. In each case, the both the Sheriff’s funding level and the number of employees were within the expected range.

    As is the case with other departments, multiple purposes can not be examined with any degree of certainty. Specifically, the budget size of the corrections division or the budget of the field services division can not accurately be compared with other counties. This is because the budget details from the other counties are not known. An analysis of the divisions would require additional information. However, information on the capacity of county jails was available. A regression revealed that there is wide variety in jail capacity (61 to 1144) and Ingham’s expected capacity is 456. Ingham’s actual capacity is 536, an estimated 64 of which are leased. This makes the jail size fall within the expected range.