The Leelanau County Board of Commissioners is looking to spend more liberally when it comes to the county’s Early Childhood Development (ECD) millage fund, and the man advocating for the change is the same person who previously proposed zeroing out that millage. As part of the new strategy, Leelanau County will provide $3,000 per month to help fund the the United We Smile dental clinic in Traverse City (pictured). Other new supports will include county-funded child care vouchers and prenatal care for pregnant women, though the exact shape of those programs is yet to be determined.

Will Bunek, Leelanau County’s District 3 representative on the Board of Commissioners, brought forth the proposal for an “enhanced” ECD program during an executive board session last Tuesday.

“What I’m hoping to do is that we can enhance the ECD program, and actually help to increase children’s participation in the program,” Bunek told fellow commissioners. “The money’s there, and hopefully we can get more children to be involved, and help children better.”

Specifically, Bunek moved that the board “direct county administration to research and use the early childhood education millage to provide child care vouchers for children 0-6 years old, and prenatal care for children in the womb, and present potential programs, policies, and procedures to the Board of Commissioners at our July executive board meeting.”

“We would love to serve pregnant women with our early childhood funds, and it would be very easy to integrate that with our current policies and procedures,” said Michelle Klein, director of personal health for the Benzie-Leelanau District Health Department (BLDHD), in response to Bunek’s motion. “The early childhood vouchers, we would have to talk about how that works… We could do something with child care scholarships, if you wanted to filter that through the Parenting Communities program… We would have to create some policies, in how that would work.”

Bunek’s proposal ultimately garnered unanimous support from Leelanau’s seven county commissioners, and County Administrator Jim Dyer is expected to return with options for program implementation at next month’s executive board session.

The move is a sharp pivot for Bunek in particular, who has been a vocal critic of the county’s ECD millage in the past.

County voters first approved that millage in a November 2019 special election, supporting a 0.253-mill property tax request to fund ECD services from 2020 through 2024. As approved, the millage was set to raise approximately $728,000 each year for the BLDHD’s Parenting Communities program, which offers services like playgroups, home visits, parent programs, and more.

Serving on the county board in September 2021, though, Bunek advocated for zeroing out the ECD millage, arguing that it was overfunded and that there was “a tremendous redundancy of early childhood programs for children in Leelanau County.”

“I have stated my opposition from the beginning,” Bunek said of the millage at the time. “This is a constitutional republic. As representatives of our constituents, we vote to do what’s right for the county. When things are wrong, and people make a wrong decision, we’re here to make sure that doesn’t go on.”

County commissioners ultimately arrived at a compromise that reduced the millage rather than cutting it down to zero. But outcry over Bunek’s maneuver lingered, prompting a recall campaign that, in May of 2022, cost him his seat on the board. Bunek won back that seat last November, beating the same opponent – Lois Bahle – who had ousted him in the recall fight. His return to office came just months after Leelanau voters backed a four-year renewal of the ECD millage.

Per Dyer, the closer look at how to spend ECD dollars happened because United We Smile had requested $60,000 in funding from Leelanau County. Launched in 2023 by United Way of Northwest Michigan, United We Smile is a first-of-its-kind dental clinic aimed at improving dental care access for three underserved groups: children, veterans, and pregnant women. While it’s located in Traverse City, United We Smile draws patients from all over the state, including Leelanau County.

In an info sheet provided to Leelanau commissioners ahead of Tuesday’s meeting, United We Smile estimated it had “served 33 individuals in Leelanau County with an additional 5 local veterans” since opening in September 2023. “That means more than $90,000 worth of dental services were delivered completely free of charge to the patients [from Leelanau],” the info sheet noted. The document came with a request for Leelanau County to “consider supporting United We Smile at $5,000 per month” – or $60,000 per year – “to help sustain and expand this life-changing work.”

In reviewing the United We Smile request, Dyer said he looked back at the initial ballot language for the ECD millage, along with “all the legal opinions that were received regarding that millage,” to check whether the money could be used for such a purpose. He also consulted with BLDHD to determine whether contributing money to United We Smile “would interfere with their funding” for existing Parenting Communities programs. Those conversations prompted a broader view of potential ECD expenditure options, which led to Bunek’s proposal.

In a second motion, Bunek moved that the board appropriate $3,000 per month from the ECD millage – or $36,000 a year – for United We Smile, rather than the requested $5,000 per month.

“When I visited [United We Smile], they talked about how Grand Traverse County gives them $12,000 a month,” Bunek said. He reasoned that Leelanau County is significantly smaller and has fewer kids, and that a $3,000 monthly appropriation is “still very generous.”

Commissioners approved Bunek’s United We Smile motion unanimously, though District 6 commissioner Gwenne Allgaier said she hoped the county would consider additional funding for the clinic in the future.

 “They said they needed $5,000 [a month], so I hope we will keep that in mind, and watch the development of their ability to raise money,” Allgaier said. She also noted that the county could fund the clinic with other funds, not just ECD dollars. “We also, in our general fund, could supply a couple thousand dollars a month, if they were short. Because that is a really important service for our residents. We have a lot of adults [using that clinic] too.”

For her part, Klein said she was happy to see ECD funds going to United We Smile.

“We know that, for children in particular, to find a dental provider is difficult, and if you’re a child that has autism or any kind of difficulties, it’s nearly impossible,” Klein said. “So, [United We Smile] is a great organization. They’re doing really good work, and clearly it’s related to the health and wellbeing of our children.”