I sincerely hope you and your family had a wonderful holiday season and are having a great start to the new year!

This past year was surely busy, but I’m even more excited to get back to work on the issues that will make a difference for our community. Read below to see what I’ve been working on both in Lansing and in Southwest Oakland County.

As always, please don’t hesitate to reach out to my office if there is ever anything I can do to help!

From auto insurance reform to porch pirates prevention and a suicide commission, it’s been a busy year in Lansing. It has been my goal to serve our community to the best of my ability, and to advocate for change that will make a positive difference. I have truly enjoyed traveling our district, meeting all kinds of new folks and hearing what issues are important to you over the past year.

Next to being a husband, father, and grandfather, being your state senator has been the greatest honor of my life. And I can’t wait to see what else we can accomplish together in the new year!

I recently introduced a bill that would help law enforcement crack down on human trafficking.

Senate Bill 717 would help police identify victims of repeat incidents of domestic violence where human trafficking may be a factor. This legislation will revise the Standard Domestic Violence Incident Report Form to allow police to indicate whether they are also investigating for human trafficking.

Human trafficking can involve either involuntary servitude or commercial sex trafficking, and some instances may on the surface appear to be domestic violence incidents. The victims are often moved from place to place, which keeps them vulnerable. Because of this, cases are not often easily identified as human trafficking by law enforcement. Including this new checkbox on the form will help us track how often officers are investigating for human trafficking as a component of domestic violence.

In Michigan alone, there were 1,504 total cases of human trafficking logged from December 2007 through December 2018, based on contacts received by the National Human Trafficking Hotline. That number is probably only a fraction of the actual cases of human trafficking — this is a crime that is significantly underreported. It is my hope that this legislation will become law quickly and will help make a difference sooner rather than later.

As a member of the Michigan Joint Task Force on Jail and Pretrial Incarceration, I believe the recommendations put forward this month include some good ideas for reform. While I still have some concerns, I look forward to working with my colleagues to iron out these concerns as we go on in the legislative process to help improve our criminal justice system.

Currently the state House is considering House Bill 5229, which would undo several taxpayer protection reforms made over the previous decades. This piece of legislation would make it easier for advocates of a regional transit authority (RTA) to once again work toward an expanded RTA at a cost to hardworking taxpayers.

Southeast Michigan already opposed an expanded RTA in 2016. Voters felt such a proposal only taxes Oakland County residents for the benefit of empty bus lines in Wayne and Washtenaw counties. Any new RTA proposal would be a dinosaur approach to a 21st century environment that is seeing Michigan lead the way in new solutions like driverless cars and constantly evolving technology.

Local communities should have the option of opting out of such a system, and I agree with the overwhelming number of township supervisors who oppose this latest push. The legislative efforts in this case are the wrong solution. It is for those reasons that I will be opposing HB 5229 if it makes its way to the Senate.

On Jan. 20 I had the great privilege of speaking at the Power of Unity breakfast in Novi, where we had the chance to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King declared, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” His words and his message of unity are as important today as they were then, and it is up to us to take his message to heart in our daily lives.

Michigan residents have told horror stories of the government abusing their power to foreclose on homes. We must protect the most vulnerable in these situations — the poor, the elderly, and those whose first language isn’t English and have difficulty understanding their property taxes — against a government singling them out. Senate Bill 725 does just that by improving foreclosure notice requirements. My colleague Ruth Johnson sponsored SB 726, which would require that property tax payments made on current amounts be applied toward delinquent amounts when possible to prevent foreclosure and redeem the property.

We’ve heard the stories of an Oakland County home in which officials foreclosed on a property with a tax debt of only $8.41 after the owner had made a payment on a current bill instead of paying off an older one. The county then sold the property for more than $24,000. This is simply wrong, and we need a commonsense fix to help folks stay in their homes when possible.

Answering questions and visiting with students is always a highlight of my day! On Jan. 16 I had the chance to speak with students from Dublin Elementary in White Lake, and on Jan. 21 I was able to visit with fourth graders from Scotch Elementary in West Bloomfield. Our future is bright with students like these!

Jan. 9 is known nationally as Law Enforcement Appreciation Day. This was a time for all of us to thank our law enforcement officers for their sacrifices and for keeping our communities safe! We are able to enjoy our beautiful community and all that it has to offer due to the sacrifices that officers and their families make for us every single day.

My staff and I are currently looking for new office hour locations across the district and are planning our office hour schedule for the year. In the meantime, if there is ever anything that my office or I can do to help, please don’t hesitate to reach out!

The 15th District includes the cities of Northville, Novi, Orchard Lake, South Lyon, Walled Lake and Wixom and the townships of Commerce, Lyon, Milford, Novi, West Bloomfield and White Lake.

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Thank you for taking the time to read this legislative update and please don’t hesitate to contact me if I can be of assistance on any matter pertaining to state government.

Best Regards,