THE HILLSDALE CONSERVATIVES
Truth • Liberty • Local Stewardship
Hillsdale County, Michigan • Sunday, February 22, 2026 • 2¢
Picture the Hillsdale County Fair on a packed summer night.
Right in the middle of the grounds is an elephant, and there’s a big sign:
ELEPHANT RIDES, WINNING TICKETS PICKED BY COMMITTEE.
But here’s the twist that makes this Hillsdale, not a children’s book.
You don’t choose to buy a ticket.
The ticket is forced on you.
It’s baked into the price of admission. It’s tucked into your fees. It shows up whether you agree or not. The cashier doesn’t ask, “Would you like to participate?” They say:
“Here’s your ticket. Next.”
You can love the elephant. You can hate the elephant. You can think the elephant shouldn’t even be there.
Doesn’t matter.
You paid.
Now imagine the raffle itself starts to feel rigged, not in the Hollywood twirling-mustache way, in the quiet small-town way.
The winners just keep “happening” to be the same circles. Friends. Family. Insiders. Connected agencies. The same connected people, over and over again.
And everyone knows the talk isn’t exactly secret, it’s just not allowed in public.
Because if you say it out loud at the fair, here’s what happens.
You get ridiculed.
You get labeled a troublemaker.
You get told you’re making it political.
And if you keep pressing, you get shown the gate.
And the best part?
You’re not getting your money back.
Forced ticket. No refunds.
That elephant ride is how a growing number of Hillsdale residents now describe county government decisions, especially when the topic is elections, big money, public credit, and agencies that operate like they’re beyond questioning, who just happen to run the entire show.
And that’s exactly why the LifeWays bond fight has turned into a circus.
What’s happening with LifeWays?
LifeWays wants a new facility. The number being discussed is up to $15.5 million.
That’s not routine government. That’s not a small administrative decision. That’s the kind of number that should trigger one reflex in any honest public body:
Maximum transparency. Maximum accountability. Maximum public consent.
Because even when officials say “this isn’t a tax increase,” residents are still being dragged into participation. If the county’s credit and authority are being used to help finance something, the public is part of the risk environment, whether they like it or not.
Residents don’t opt into that.
They get billed.
Forced ticket.
Why Hillsdale doesn’t want LifeWays expanded in the first place
Outsiders keep trying to frame this as “Hillsdale doesn’t care about mental health.” That’s not what the public record shows.
The public record shows people objecting on three fronts.
1) Values and trust
Many residents do not view LifeWays as a neutral, commonsense, local institution. In local reporting, residents and commentators describe LifeWays as ideologically captured, the kind of place that absorbs public dollars while pushing modern narratives that do not match Hillsdale’s culture.
2) Risk and leverage
At the July 8, 2025 county commission meeting, the Hillsdale County Review documented public comments that were direct and consistent: residents did not want county credit, county leverage, and long-term county exposure tied to LifeWays.
Here are the simple versions of what was said, using the Review’s documented comments.
- “Get your own loan.” One speaker argued LifeWays could pursue a commercial loan without asking the public credit to be put on the line.
- “Where’s the risk plan?” Former judge Mike Smith, speaking as a citizen, asked the most basic question: is there a risk mitigation plan.
- “Let us vote.” Another resident argued it belonged on the ballot because it is the public’s dollars at risk, including future generations.
That is not confusion. That is Hillsdale’s instinct for stewardship: if you want the project, own the risk, and if you want the public involved, then the public gets a clear vote and clear terms.
3) Accountability
The same Hillsdale County Review coverage captures an underlying fear that a long-term bond structure reduces the public’s ability to hold decision-makers accountable.
In other words, residents are not just objecting to a building. They’re objecting to being forced into a long commitment with an entity they do not trust, through a structure they believe reduces leverage.
The hinge moment: the public was headed toward a vote, then the door shut
This is the moment where the elephant ride feeling becomes real.
In July 2025, the county board moved toward placing the LifeWays bond question on the August 2026 ballot. Local coverage at the time reported the vote as 3 to 2 to put it on the ballot.
Then in February 2026, the board reversed course.
Radio Hillsdale reported that on Feb. 10, 2026, the board voted 3 to 2 against putting the LifeWays bond issue on the August primary ballot. Benzing and Ingles voted yes. Leininger, Collins, and Wiley voted no.
The Hillsdale Collegian likewise reported a 3 to 2 vote against placing the bond on the ballot.
So the story Hillsdale residents are living is simple:
- People demanded a public vote.
- The board was on a track toward a public vote.
- Then the board reversed course and kept it in-house.
That is how you take a high-trust decision and turn it into a legitimacy crisis.
Because now it looks like exactly what it is, a forced ticket, no vote, trust the same “decision”-makers anyway.
Why residents say this was forced by one vote change
From the resident point of view, this entire problem hinges on one thing: the board was moving one direction, and then it didn’t.
Radio Hillsdale describes the February vote as a reversal of the July resolution.
That reversal is what pulled the decision away from the citizens and placed it back into the commissioners’ hands.
Whether you think that’s wise or foolish, here’s what cannot be denied.
When commissioners remove the public vote on a major public exposure question, they inherit a new duty:
You must replace ballot legitimacy with even higher transparency.
That is the fiduciary standard.
The deeper issue: commissioners keep acting like fiduciary duty is optional
This is why LifeWays has become bigger than LifeWays.
In January 2026, Hillsdale Conservatives published a “Notice of Governance Obligations After Judicial Findings” stating that a previously submitted demand letter and proposed resolution were refused placement on the commissioners’ agenda.
The core argument of that notice is not complicated. It says, in plain English:
- When material issues are placed on formal notice, the board has governance obligations.
- Refusing to deliberate and refusing to place items on the agenda is not neutrality, it is a choice.
- Fiduciary duty means care, loyalty, and good faith toward the residents, including acting prudently once risks and facts are placed on notice.
You can agree or disagree with the authors’ conclusions. The significance is the pattern residents believe they see.
Agenda control becomes a shield. Public duty becomes optional. “We don’t have to” becomes a philosophy.
Now take that pattern and apply it to LifeWays.
Residents asked for risk disclosure, alternatives, and a vote.
The board kept it in-house anyway.
Different topic, same muscle memory.
That is what residents and past commissioners mean when they say the commissioners do not understand fiduciary duty. Not because they don’t know the word. Because they keep choosing the least accountable path available when accountability is exactly what the job requires.
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/17zmnyGYJM
Why this feels like the Elephant Ride Raffle all over again
Once residents believe they’re in a forced-sale system, details stop mattering as much as legitimacy.
This is the loop they believe they’re stuck in:
- Big public-money decision appears.
- Residents ask obvious questions, “risk plan,” “why not commercial financing,” “put it on the ballot.”
- The system says trust us, it’s complicated.
- Scrutiny gets treated as disruption.
- The decision gets pulled into insider procedure, reversals, technical framing, agenda control.
- The public keeps paying.
- No refunds.
That is why LifeWays is not just a building anymore.
It’s the elephant in the middle of the fairgrounds.
What fiduciary duty would look like, no law degree required
If it isn’t your money, you don’t get to gamble with it.
Here is fiduciary duty in Hillsdale English.
1) Put the rules out in the open
Before any final vote, publish a one-page, plain-language summary:
- What exactly is the county agreeing to?
- What exactly is the county not agreeing to?
- What are the worst-case scenarios for residents?
- Who is on the hook if plans fail?
If it can’t be explained on one page, it’s not ready.
2) Publish independent risk analysis
Not sales pitches. Not internal assurances.
Independent memos that answer:
- what the county’s exposure is,
- what happens if projections fail,
- what happens if payments get missed,
- what protections exist, and whether they are enforceable.
A fiduciary doesn’t ask the public to trust. A fiduciary shows the math.
3) Show alternatives like adults
A fiduciary board does not act like the only option is “approve this plan.”
Show options residents have demanded publicly, including the obvious one:
LifeWays self-finances without county backing.
4) Stop hiding behind “we can’t” when the real answer is “we won’t”
If the board refuses to place governance items on the agenda after formal notice, they should explain, on the record, why the public duty ends at the agenda line. Will the Board be holding public hearings on the Lifeways issue?
5) Put it back to the people, or replace the ballot with a higher standard
If commissioners insist on deciding it themselves, then they owe the public:
- two public hearings,
- full document disclosure well in advance,
- written findings explaining how this protects residents,
- a final vote that can survive scrutiny from supporters, critics, auditors, and courts.
Remove the people’s vote, and you owe the people more transparency, not less.
Bottom line: Hillsdale is tired of forced tickets and predetermined winners
This LifeWays fight has become a symbol because it hits three nerves at once:
- Big money.
- Deep skepticism about LifeWays’ direction and accountability.
- A board that repeatedly treats fiduciary stewardship like a suggestion instead of a duty.
Residents don’t want trust us. They want the transparency, accountability and fiduciary responsibility they deserve.
Trust us then silence, is no longer an option.
Because the county doesn’t get to force participation, punish scrutiny, and then act surprised when citizens call it out.
An Elephant Ride.
Forced ticket. No refunds.
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1DT1EiFhGz
County Commissioner Meeting in which they will vote whether or not to take the $15.5M bond issue off the ballot.
Mark your calendar to attend and speak up: 2/24 @9am, 33 McCollum St, Room 210
Email the Commissioners, urging them to KEEP THIS ISSUE ON THE BALLOT!
k.collins@hillsdalecounty.gov
m.wiley@hillsdalecounty.gov
b.leininger@hillsdalecounty.gov
d.ingles@hillsdalecounty.gov
b.benzing@hillsdalecounty.gov
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