County renews tele‑town‑hall services for outreach, citing large dial-out reach

The Macomb County Board supported a contract to continue tele‑town‑hall services with Combat Data Inc. for $91,797.50, with staff noting the vendor kept pricing the same as the previous year and county purchasing followed a formal bid process.

Joe Bionda, speaking on behalf of the prosecutor's office and CEDO, described how the tele‑town‑hall platform dials large lists of numbers and provides a web page for registered participants. He said the county’s outreach event on Aug. 13 dialed roughly 298,000 numbers; 3,639 people listened for five minutes or more, and peak concurrent participation reached about 5,000 for short intervals. Bionda said the events generate hundreds of voicemails the next day that staff follow up on for services.

Commissioners asked for follow-up metrics (how many callers stayed on, post-event call volume and outcomes), and staff agreed to share detailed engagement data and recordings of past events with the board. The board approved forwarding the contract to the full board with a unanimous vote.