Come clean, Clare

The question is, where does Barry County Board of Commissioners Chairwoman Clare Tripp live? The answer isn’t very clear at all.

Ms. Tripp last month officially claimed her address as 11776 English Court, Shelbyville, in her affidavit when she filed for another two-year term on the County Board. However, in the official Barry County directory for 2005-2006, her address is listed as 11991 Lakeridge Drive, Wayland.

Making matters even murkier is that her address is 11967 Lakeside Drive, Wayland, in a whitepages.com search and in the fall 2005 SBC phone book. Further, in the 2003 SBC telephone book, she was listed living at 12209 Mallard Point Drive, Yankee Springs.

Ms. Tripp claimed the English Court address when she filed for office in 2004 and that was the address she reported in the 2003-04 county directory. But this only makes things even more confusing.

My sources tell me her husband, attorney David Tripp, actually lives at the English Court address and she has been living at 11967 Lakeside Drive. My sources also tell me she and David are married in name only, and that their relationship is a virtual separation, even though they appear together in public in a church pew Sunday mornings, have a sort of Sunday brunch at the Circle Inn, Gun Lake, and then get into their separate cars and go their separate ways for the remainder of the week. My sources also have told me Clare rarely makes an appearance at the house on English Court. According to the Michigan Compiled Laws Annotated Currentness (MCLA), “‘Residence,’ as used in this act, for registration and voting purposes means that place at which a person habitually sleeps, keeps his or her personal effects and has a regular place of lodging. If a person has more than one residence, or if a wife has a residence separate from that of the husband, that place at which the person resides the greater part of the time shall be his or her official residence for the purposes of this act.” 

I’m sure many might wonder why I should bring up all this personal information. Two reasons:
1. If Ms. Tripp spends most of her time at the Lakeside Drive address, then she wasn’t really telling the truth about her place of residence when she filed her affidavit. Bill Clinton got his fanny impeached for not being truthful under oath about a sexual peccadillo, so what would the penalty be for Ms. Tripp if indeed she is guilty of a similar transgression?
2. If Ms. Tripp and Mr. Tripp are essentially, but not legally, estranged, does this have an effect on whether David Tripp should receive health care benefits, courtesy the county taxpayer? I am not entirely certain whether he does get his health care insurance through Clare, but if he does, it raises serious ethical questions about making taxpayers foot the bill for such benefits when the two of them appear to be only going through the motions for their marriage. This is a strange way to demonstrate family values.

Some observers have asked me how is it that Clare is able to drive an SUV in the winter and a Corvette in the summer when her only source of income appears to be as a county commissioner. Is David still taking care of her financially, despite the fact they rarely spend time under the same roof? People for a long time speculated on the relationship between Bill and Hillary Clinton, but from where I sit they don’t seem to have any more troubles than Mr. Tripp and Ms. Tripp. A reader of this blog named “oldscrotum” not long ago asked about a police report in 1999, in which Ms. Tripp was found in a parked vehicle with a man other than her husband late at night. Now I’ve been hearing she has been seen at various places and events with another man in her company. If you add up the score, it certainly looks like the Tripps are splitsville, which indeed is a personal matter. But it becomes the public’s business if they insist on play acting as a couple and officially keeping their sham marriage legally intact for their benefit and at the public’s expense.

The public should demand an accounting of this arrangement. If the Tripps have gone their separate ways, don’t try to fool the public, be honest. And if Mr. Tripp is getting county-sponsored health care benefits, he should drop them immediately. If this whole affair is as my sources tell me, it’s yet another example of a politician peeing on our collective shoes while telling us that it’s raining.

It's time for Clare to come clean.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

Candidate forums for a long time around here have had a lousy track record in attempting to enlighten voters. We’ve seen it all, you know — the cattle calls, the boring speeches, the waxing about grandchildren and what a wonderful place Barry County is to live in, work in and raise a family. The only thing that seems to have been missing is thoughtful political discourse to help us poor shmucks decide on election day which one is the best man or woman for the job.

The First Friday series, virtually the only game in town (Hastings) for the last 17 years, has made a valiant attempt to bring these essential debates and information to the voters via the forums themselves and through coverage in the Hastings Banner. Yet, “at the end of the day,” there always has been a disturbing lack of critical information about who is more qualified, capable and deserving of being chosen to go to Lansing or Hastings and make decisions on our behalf.

However, there are whispers gradually growing louder that this year’s “meet the candidates” affairs will be more substantive, filled with pointed and sometimes somewhat embarassing questions. In other words, there is a promise of holding incumbents and challengers accountable in open public debates on important issues. My sources have told me the people responsible for the forums are working diligently on developing a list of prepared questions that matter, questions none of the candidates will see ahead of time. They have told me they have absolutely no intention of allowing candidates to drone on and on or dance while not adequately answering what is being asked.

The key is to have no-nonsense moderators who possess solid bullshit detectors and somebody handy with a stopwatch to limit candidates’ responses to say, three minutes or less. The key is having a referee who insists on straight talk about serious issues that enlighten attendees, viewers, readers and eventually the voters so they can make more informed choices on primary election day, Aug. 8.

What makes this even more interesting is that there is an indication Ionia plans to have a similar serious forum for state rep candidates there, one that puts the accent on what the candidates say about the issues rather than on how many children and grandchildren they’ve been able to have (as if this talent makes anyone qualified to serve in public office), what church they attend or how much they love living in beautiful, rural Barry County.

The goal this year, I have been told, is to avoid a comment like the one former County Commissioner Bob Wenger made at the Gary Newell-Jim Bailey debate in July 2000 that there wasn’t a dime’s worth of difference between the two and rather than waste an hour at the First Friday, “I should have stayed home and planted corn.” If we get two informative candidates forums for state rep. and one good one each for the county prosecutor’s race and County Board of Commissioners’ contests, I’ll finally believe we have served our Founding Fathers well, and it will be up to the voters to sort out the buckwheat from the bullshit.

OK, from what I’ve been hearing, here in Barry County, there are three forums left before the August primary:
• Thursday, June 29, at 7 p.m. — Thomas Jefferson Hall, Hastings, for the two candidates for prosecutor, appointed interim Julie Nakfoor Pratt and challenger Thomas Evans.
• Thursday, July 6, at 7 p.m. — Thomas Jefferson Hall, for the 10 candidates in the GOP primary races in the Third, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Barry County Board districts.
• Thursday, July 27, at 7 p.m. — Thomas Jefferson Hall, for the six candidates in the GOP primary for 87th District State Representative. At the risk of being totally biased (it’s my blog, after all), I’ve already endorsed Brian Reynolds for state representative and I’ve seen absolutely no reason to change my opinion.

Do yourself a favor and either show up for any or all of these forums, read the Banner accounts or watch them on Local Cable Access Channel 12. To paraphrase what a friend of mine once said, the stakes are too high for you to stay home or look the other way.

Sign Wars

This Thursday will mark two months until the August 8th primary election. We are now hitting the real start of the election season as local lawns are sprouting political signs faster than dandelions.

I have learned from past mistakes that the amount of yard signs for a candidate aren't a true measure of the success or lack thereof of their campaign. I remember thinking Becca Lukasiewicz stood a chance against Gary "the health industry lobby's best friend" Newell because of the large number of yard signs supporting her in my neck of the woods. Obviously, I underestimated the fact that so many would blindly cast the vote for the "R" no matter what and the fact that no amount of campaign hustling can overcome that disadvantage for a Democrat on the ballot in many parts of West Michigan. But this fall we will have a couple instances where the "R" isn't a factor- in the 87th House race between a gaggle of Republicans seeking to replace the term-limited Lobbyist's Best Friend as well as the prosecutor's race featuring the appointed Julie Nakfoor-Pratt and challenger Tom Evans.

It seems the prosecutor's race has heated up early with both candidates spending a decent amount on yard signs and getting them out to supporters around Barry County- especially inside Hastings. It looks like Nakfoor-Pratt is willing to spend what it takes to keep her job as on some streets it looks like every other house has a sign for her. The signs, by the way, are almost unreadable from the street consisting of small letters against a white background so unless you know what they are for I'm not sure it's doing any good. I guess that's the drawback of a hyphenated name, but I would have suggested she make Julie in big letters or else just put the name on three lines so it could at least be legible from a distance. I guess Evans is lucky to have such a short name as his signs are clearly seen from a distance. I also think the bold white on red was a better color choice and attracts the eye. It also helps he went with a sans serif font that is plain and bold. Once again, I'm not sure if any of this makes any quantifiable distance come election day but we all know how important every vote can be when the ballots are counted so it surely cannot hurt to have a better looking sign than your opponent.

The 87th House District race hasn't seen the same type of action- at least not yet. The only candidate whose signs I've seen so far is Susan Vlietstra. I can't really compare the quality of the signs to any other candidates' since I have to see any from the rest of the pack including Brian Calley whose been running since he born, or so it seems. Vlietstra's also the only one I have yet to see a billboard for- though that was a tiny thing between Hastings and Middleville that could hardly be seen from anyone inside a car travelling 50-60 mph as most do along M-37. I expect in the next week or two we'll see a couple other candidates' names showing up in area yards.

Once again, the presence of signs or lack thereof bodes little for candidates' chances in August, but it does give us something to talk about as we wait for the campaign rhetoric to heat up and candidates to start slinging mud and trying to gather enough votes to push them over the goal line in August. And in a district where no polling data is available, yard signs are one of the few tools we have to measure the amount of support a candidate has before the results are announced. For political junkies and informed citizens like me and you, it's all we have until the debates...

19th Senate and 63rd House Updates

Editor's note: I'm having some trouble with Blogger the last few days. I've been trying to post a couple things I'd written earlier in the week and have revised and Blogger either wants to post the unedited version or nothing at all. So, I'm posting this again in the hope that the earlier version that should have appeared and hasn't won't magically show up once I post this.
And now back to our irregularly scheduled blog...

I tend to focus on my home turf of Barry County on this blog since it doesn't get covered elsewhere on-line and because I have little time to cover much else (save for griping about the Governor's race every now and then). But the filing deadline has left us with some interesting races in the other parts of West Michigan that I'd like to talk about:

In the 19th Senate District, incumbent Mark Schauer (D- Bedford Twp.) will be challenged by one of two Republicans. The August 8th primary will be between Elizabeth Fulton (Battle Creek) and Al Cavasin (Concord).

Fulton is a middle school librarian. She doesn't seem to know where she or the voters stand and seems to be suggesting that the people will have to tell her which issues she should run on. This is a nice schtick- playing up her need to do "research" as a librarian but we sense it's a front. As co-owner of Southside Sportsman Club with her husband, it's clear to us she'll likely hammer the popular and moderate Schauer as too liberal and try to play to the militant gun crowd. I get the feeling Cavasin gets the support of the party since he owns a private security company in Jackson and is likely to be better financed than Fulton. Cavasin sounds like another Chamber of Commerce clone who will probably repeat the pre-recorded message of "need more tax cuts, need more tax cuts."

In the 63rd House District it looks like we'll get a rematch between Lorence Wenke (Richland Twp.) and Jerry Vander Roest (Galesburg). Wenke edged out Vander Roest by 90 votes two years ago. Look for a reprise of the "Values" theme as Wenke is known for his principled stance against gay bashing right before the last election which probably is what almost cost him his seat (you should read his speech about that vote). Wenke seems to be going on the offensive early with this gem of a quote:

"What issue will Jerry run on this time?" asked Wenke, a Richland Township resident. "Two years ago he ran on a values platform and then we all found out that he had a criminal record for soliciting a prostitute in Lansing while working as a state employee."

Ouch! This one is nasty and personal and the race has only begun...

The winner of the Republican primary squares off against Democrat Phyllis Smith of Vicksburg.

What's good for the gardener...

Let’s crack down on ALL welfare!

State Rep. Fulton Sheen’s (R-Plainwell) public relations machine is singing his praises for being on board with the Michigan House of Representatives’ latest “welfare reform” package of bills. It’s just another chapter in the GOP’s play book that should be called “Let’s Beat up on the Poor Again.” And the biggest reason they like to beat up on them is they don’t vote. Another is that a lot of frustrated voters want scapegoats, regardless of whether or not they’re the problem. The Republican press office had the gall to claim this new welfare package actually helps poor people on public assistance while practicing tough love for their own good. Sheen was quoted in the press release as saying, “We want to offer a hand up, not a handout. It is also our responsibility to make sure that tax money is being spent efficiently and proactively.” That’s interesting. I bet Sheen feels altogether differently about corporate welfare, in which public tax dollars are spent through abatements to help companies be more "competitive." A lot of time the companies take the tax breaks for a while and then leave, like Tyden in Hastings which pulled up stakes after raking in about $78,000 of public money in tax breaks, in order to move their company overseas to exploit the cheaper labor force while still expecting Americans to buy their products. Where is his concern about that process? Where is a law spelling out penalties for companies that benefit from tax breaks and then cut and run and give good-paying jobs to cheap overseas labor?

The Republican press corps reports these new welfare reforms “place an emphasis on education and job training, and limit welfare assistance to 48 months for able-bodied recipients, including a maximum of 24 consecutive months of assistance. Recipients will be given a range of services to prepare them for the work force and help them find work, while making sure taxpayer money is used wisely.

Amendments to the welfare reform package were added to:
• Prevent murders, rapists, other violent criminals and fugitives from justice from receiving state welfare checks;
• Include a 24-month suspension from state payments for violating work requirements three times;
• Create a pilot program for drug testing people who receive welfare if they are suspected of illegal drug use; and
• Require recipients to show proof of U.S. citizenship before receiving state welfare payments and demand that proper authorities be contacted if it is found that a person is in the United States illegally.

The package of bills also includes a tougher sanctions policy for those who "refuse" to work.

What would happen if state government insisted every CEO of a company getting tax abatement be tested for drugs or be required to show proof of citizenship? And what happens, if anything, when business violates environmental or workplace rules — do they get busted and cut off entirely like welfare cheats?

This is just another horrible example of politicians beating up on the poor, because they can, and meanwhile looking the other way when the more well to do commit similar crimes. When Rush Limbaugh and Gov. Jeb Bush’s daughter were busted for drug abuse, they got treatment, not incarceration. But Joe Homeless and Jane Street Walker wind up in jail or prison for the same offenses.

Where is the outrage?

Superintendent sacked. No suprise.

Yours truly wrote late last month before the school board elections:

“Lakewood is almost hopeless, a community that is clueless about exactly what has created its problems, a district long divided over decades. Some observers have called it ‘Bosnia,’ and not without good reason. Don’t be surprised if the new superintendent doesn’t last very long.”

On target — again. Forgive me for patting myself on the back like Rush Limbaugh.

According to an impeccable source, Lakewood Superintendent James Richardson was asked to leave the building Friday and not come back. I heard it was three school board members and the athletic director who escorted the man from Otisville, Ohio, out and sent him packing his bags after a stint that lasted less than nine months.

Rumor has it Richardson was using the infamous “N’ word around other professionals. Also not endearing him was his bungling of the issue to privatize the bus drivers and custodians. The man walked in the door with just a 4-3 vote to have him hired, which should have been his clue to stay away. A 4-3 split likely is as good as it gets, so the loss of just one of the four spelled certain doom.

Among the six school districts in Barry County and environs, there have been three messy divorces between school boards and their top hired administrator in the last six months. Besides Richardson and Lakewood, we’ve had to watch that awful train wreck in Caledonia with Wes VanDenburg and we’ve seen Ron Archer being forced out at Delton.

There is so much unhappiness in public schools these days, much of it because so many are struggling to make ends meet financially and massive cutbacks have been the rule, not the exception. Most seem to want to point to the man in charge, the superintendent, as the scapegoat for the problems, but we ought to look at ourselves.

We parents and citizens have gleefully enjoyed all those tax cuts that put money back in our pockets over the last 20 years while public education has been slowly starved to death. With tax cuts there is less and less money for state government to adequately fund education, so local districts have to cut expenditures for athletics, classroom instruction, educational trips, the arts and a host of other things. Remember when pay to play was just a temporary money saver? It’s been brought into the realm of the commonplace. Now we holler when our local custodians and bus drivers lose their jobs and are replaced by private companies. And we holler when a local elementary school is threatened with closing. Yet we keep electing the bozos who cut taxes, promote privatizing and come up with destructive and stupid laws like “No Child Left Behind,” which does nothing to help public schools but instead sets them up to fail.

What do we expect the schools to do with declining revenue? We haven’t been paying attention. If we want quality education, we have to pay for it.

Barry County Board campaign contests set

Five races for the Barry County Board of Commissioners in the Aug. 8 Republican primary. This calls for a brief analysis of each one, district by district:

• Districts #1, 2 and 4, nothin’ happenin’ here in August. Don Nevins in #1 and Jim French in #2 are home free with a bye all the way through. Hoot Gibson in #4 is unopposed in the primary and will get token resistance in November from Democrat John Loftus, the Harold Stassen of Barry County politics. I can almost see old John with his name on the ballot even after he’s dead.

• District #3 — A pretty good one here, with Republicans Keith Ferris and Ken DeMott vying in the primary and the winner to meet Democrat Mike Lewis in the general. Beware of Ferris, my sources tell me he is good buddies with Sandy James and decided to run at her urging. If Ferris wins the seat, will it be back to more of the same old game of Clare and Sandy’s protégé running the show? It’s too bad Lewis is a Democrat. Judging by his commentary at the Unicameral forum and by a letter he wrote to the Banner, he shows a rarity in local politics these days — the ability to think for himself and the promise of intelligence.

• District #5 — The capable and engaging Mike Callton will get another challenge from Mark Noteboom, the Third Man in the famous race two years ago that brought down former Chairman Jeff MacKenzie. Callton won handily in 2004 in a three-way race and he shouldn’t have much trouble here again. Noteboom didn’t even bother to show for the First Friday forum in July 2004.

• District #6 — The most interesting race of the bunch. Board Chairwoman Clare Tripp will get a primary challenge from street fightin’ Mark Englerth, the former chairman of the Barry County GOP, before it got taken over by the incompetent absentee Orvin Moore. If she survives what promises to be a real battle in August, she’ll have to do it all over again in November against Democrat David Brinkert. Word on the street is that Clare has managed to piss off a lot of people and her private and personal conduct has been the subject of much rumor and scuttlebutt. This one will be fun.

• District #7 — A rematch between Republicans Tom Wing, the reigning incumbent, and challenger Jeff VanNortwick. The latter, according to my sources, plans to hammer Wing’s simply awful attendance record and habit of being tardy. Why, he was even late for that infamous secret meeting of five commissioners in April 2004 in Baltimore Township. For those who haven’t paid attention, Wing had egg on his face on the front page of the Banner last October for missing or being late for 32 percent of County Board meetings, a fact brought up again by Farm Bureau member George Hubka is a nasty letter to the editor this week in the Banner.

• District #8 — Incumbent Wayne Adams will meet Serafin “Chuck” Nieves in a battle that just might be the latter’s attempt to settle a score in which he was removed from the Planning and Zoning Commission without adequate public explanation. Nieves got a raw deal with laughable excuses from the County Board on his non-reappointment. Adams was in on it, and he just might pay for it.

With the 87th District state rep race, the prosecutor’s race and the parks and rec millage, this promises to be a wild ride between now and Aug. 8.