Judge Intervenes After Lawmakers Use $65,000 Of COVID-19 Aid On Bonuses

Commissioners in Shiawassee County, Michigan, paid themselves as much as $25,000 in bonuses. One commissioner said she “earned it.”

A Michigan judge has ordered $65,000 in bonuses paid to county commissioners and staff using federal COVID-19 relief aid to be frozen following public outrage over the funds’ use and a county prosecutor calling the payments illegal. A Genesee County judge on Monday ordered payments made to Shiawassee County commissioners, as high as $25,000 each, to be frozen until further review, The Detroit News reported. The order came in response to a lawsuit accusing the commissioners, all Republicans, of violating the state’s Open Meetings Act by approving the payments in a closed-door session on July 15. “At no point were the amounts of ‘COVID Hazard Pay’ deliberated, decided, or confirmed at a meeting open to the public,” states a complaint filed last week by a local resident against the board and five of its seven commissioners.