What is Charlevoix County Hiding?

Where Are The Charlevoix County Public Documents?

On the Charlevoix County Government website is a “Search All County Documents” tab. Click on it and you are taken to the page titled “Welcome to Documents-on-Demand”. There you will find the “Information” tab; clicking on it brings the following:

Welcome to Documents-On-Demand

In an attempt to better serve the residents, we have created a searching tool that will allow you to view AGENDAS and MINUTES. Not only will you be able to look at the current meeting information but you will be able to search past meetings for specific meeting detail.

PDF FILES

Archives are saved as PDF files. Adobe Reader is free software that lets you view and print Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files. To access PDF files you need Adobe Reader installed. If you do not have Adobe Reader on your computer, you can download it below.

DOWNLOAD ADOBE READER

SEARCH (QUERY) FUNCTION

A query is broken up into terms and operators. There are two types of terms: Single Terms and Phrases. A Single Term is a single word such as "test" or "hello". A Phrase is a group of words surrounded by double quotes such as "hello dolly".

The Advance Search function allows you to search within a specific department (ZBA, PLC, and BOARD). Boolean operators allow terms to be combined through logic operators. DOD supports AND, OR, and NOT as Boolean operators.

Thank you and Enjoy the site!

Also listed on the “Documents” page is a list of the various county departments, featuring “drop down” menus where the appropriate document lists should be found; however, that is not the case. While there are many discrepancies and omissions, the focus here will be limited to the Charlevoix County Transit System and Transportation Authority.

Even though the official information lists meeting agendas and minutes, none can be found or accessed for county transit. Instead, the county transit department lists “photos”, meaning if you would like to view a photo of the cat that lives at the county transit offices, you’re in luck. That photo is readily available. However, should residents of Charlevoix County want to inspect the agenda for upcoming meetings or the minutes from previous meetings, they are quite simply out of luck. No such documents are available.

To give some examples of the seriousness of this issue, consider the resident who would like to understand the changing focus of the transit department from on-demand bus service to tour agency, or when trying to understand how the transit department determines which medical appointments are valid and worthy of service,  one is left without any information.

So, to recap, photo of “transit kitty” OK - documents pertaining to the operation of the Charlevoix County Transit System, not to be found.

The Charlevoix County Transportation Authority is only marginally better. There you can find minutes, but no agendas, from portions of years 2010-15, but nothing listed for 2016.

With all of the various committees and boards holding numerous meetings, an official chain of command, and claims of capability, integrity and fairness, how is this allowed to happen?

Also, what exactly is supposed to be available through the county website, all public documents or just minutes and agendas? Either way shouldn’t the documents be available to county residents as stated?