Less than two months into the year, Washtenaw County leaders already are talking about the social and fiscal challenges they'll face in the years to come.

Commissioner Ken Schwartz, D-2nd District, laid out a process Wednesday night for the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners to go about setting new priorities to reflect the challenges that lie ahead as financial resources shrink.

Commissioner Ken Schwartz says a process involving community input is needed to help the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners set priorities for 2012-2013.

File photo

"Some studies suggest that full recovery for Michigan will take almost a quarter century to realize," he said. "If that's a true statement, then we have to do something to try to prevent that in Washtenaw County and that is why we need to undertake this reevaluation of county priorities at this time."

Schwartz, now in his fourth year in office, said he met last week with fellow commissioners Conan Smith and Kristin Judge, along with deputy administrator Verna McDaniel, who will take over as administrator when Bob Guenzel retires in May.

"Tonight I'm presenting to the board of commissioners a proposed process that will involve the board of commissioners, the public and other institutional interests in deriving a set of board priorities based upon this body's vision and thought for the future of Washtenaw County," Schwartz said.

Leading up to December, county officials worked long hours to address a $30 million structural deficit in the two-year budget for 2010 and 2011. But they're not out of the woods yet.

Annual general fund revenues are expected to slide from $99.2 million to $90.2 million over the next four years, while expenses continue to climb. Two years ago, general fund revenues totaled more than $110 million.

Those predictions leave the county with an estimated $11.5 million gap in the 2012 budget and a $16.2 million gap in 2013.

"Personally I think it's going to be a little tough to cultivate broad consensus because the issues are so broad, but we're going to have to try because we can't afford to fail," Schwartz said.

"At the outset, it's important to recognize the losses that our residents have suffered in home values, business loss. Unemployment is at unprecedented levels. We're also (seeing) foreclosed homes," he said. "The practical effect on county government has really been the loss of revenue and the loss of services to its citizens, but this really is the nasty fact of life in Michigan these days we need to cope with."

The board meets at 6:30 p.m. tonight for a special working session, where commissioners plan to talk about administrative planning initiatives for 2010. Schwartz said that discussion is separate from the board priorities discussion he plans to have in the coming months.

Schwartz outlined an aggressive four-step process that involves commissioner and community input, data analysis and a board planning session on April 22. That plan culminates with adoption of new board priorities for fiscal years 2012-2013 on May 5.

Other commissioners raised concerns Wednesday night, saying that may be too aggressive of a schedule. They also debated the best process for going about gathering public input from a broad representation of the community, doubting whether a proposed online survey on the county's website would be accurate and questioning whether a scientific phone survey would be better.

Judge, D-7th District, said she plans to work out the details with county staff. She said a community survey could be done several ways, including via phone, paper or online.

"It is another way to have a public hearing. It doesn't have to be scientific," she said. "But you can't create priorities as a board, as representatives of the people, without asking the people what their priorities are. We have certain things that we put money toward and where do people want their money spent?"

Schwartz said it's time for commissioners to set aside personal ideologies and preconceived notions and listen.

"And in the end, the board priorities will be our best effort to find reasonable and intelligent compromise among the 11 elected officials of this board, while listening to many other elected officials, community and business leaders to find proper balance of ideas and efforts that the public will support," he said. "I hope the end product will reflect the deep respect for the ideals of this county while recognizing the daunting economic challenges ahead of us."

Ryan J. Stanton covers government for AnnArbor.com. Reach him at ryanstanton@annarbor.com or 734-623-2529.