Volunteer alleges county broke trust over animal shelter donations

During the July 9 meeting of the Mackinac County Board of Commissioners, public commenter Joann Ford told the board she and her late husband created the Mackinac Animal Aid Association (MAAA) and that the county had an agreement allowing them to take donations from the county animal shelter and deposit funds into the MAAA bank account. Ford said that trust was broken and that the board had not been honest with the association.

"The Board of Commissioners were not honest with them and the trust was broken and does not understand why," Ford said, describing a prior arrangement in which donations from the Animal Shelter would be placed in the MAAA account. The transcript records the allegation and Ford’s statement of personal and organizational involvement but does not record a detailed response from commissioners on the specifics.

The board later received the June Animal Shelter report as a communication item; no further discussion or corrective action related to Ford’s allegations is recorded in the transcript. The meeting moved on to other agenda items.

The board did not provide a recorded rebuttal or an explicit plan for investigating Ford’s claim in the meeting minutes; follow-up would likely be handled through clerk or county administration channels if requested by the public or commissioners.