Park and wreck the bored

I believe the time has come to fire all but one of the members of the Barry County Parks and Recreation Commission.

The reasons are straightforward — Nine of these ten “public servants” have been astonishingly derelict in their duties over the past year, particularly in the last six months. They sat on their hands after the millage renewal proposal’s defeat Nov. 7, doing nothing but sulking and pointing the fickle finger of blame at the media, County Board Chairman Mike Callton and any other straw men they could find, but meanwhile failed to look into the mirror.

This incompetent commission also has done nothing since Dr. George W. Shannon resigned in December in the middle of much controversy as to who’s to blame for the fiasco that has become Charlton Park.

Perhaps the worst mistake this commission has made is never bothering to ask the public why so many voted down the renewal in both the August primary and November general elections. That move finally was suggested by their newest member, Keith Murphy, at that telltale joint meeting of the Parks and Rec Commission and the County Board of Commissioners Jan. 11. And this is why I propose Murphy be spared the ax, that and the fact he has not yet caught that “deer in the headlights” disease so widespread among his colleagues.

The joint meeting was telltale in that it exposed how really lame the Parks and Rec Commission members really are. With the notable exception of Murphy, none offered a single viable idea in a “brainstorming” session about how to deal with the growing crisis in which Charlton Park may cease to exist.

The word on the street, in bars, coffee houses and on the Internet has been that the public has needed somebody to be a sacrificial lamb for poor public relations management of Charlton Park, a pretty place with lots of history, but nobody seems to go there. The word between November and December was that Shannon had to put his head on the block, but now insiders wonder if he really was the problem all along. Or was it Shannon and 10 others who must all plead guilty for the mess Charlton Park is in? I suggest the latter.

The fatal vision Shannon and this group has laid out has promoted the park only as a historical treasure with its unique village, so they’ve let events such as the Civil War Re-enactments and Nothin’ But Truck slip away and go elsewhere. As former Chairman Tim Weingartz suggested at the joint meeting, they don’t want any “wear and tear” on the facilities. So what you get when you discourage festivals and public activities is a park that is often empty. And what taxpayer wants to pay for something like that?

Another fatal vision was spending money and time promoting the park to larger metropolitan areas such as Grand Rapids, Lansing, Battle Creek and Kalamazoo (who have other attractions closer to home that aren't doing so well- look at the recent demise of Kellogg's Cereal City U.S.A. as but one example) and taking the local neighborhood for granted. This vision ignored the fact the residents of Barry County pay for this park with a quarter of a mill levy annually. And without that millage, the ballgame is over.

The Parks and Rec Commission has bungled the whole affair, and even worse, it has failed to accept responsibility. Therefore, nine of its ten members deserve to be pink slipped, to get their walking papers, to be placed on waivers, to get the hook.

Oh, sure, there was a very feeble attempt to drum up support for the park right after the August primary millage defeats. Former County Board Chairmarm Clare Tripp headed up a “Friends of Charlton Park” campaign, got a silly picture taken of her in the Grand Rapids Press, in which her girded presence looked like Godzilla towering over the historic village. The “Friends” had a few meetings with lots of talk and no action... unless browbeating and guilt count. The result was an improved margin of defeat, but a defeat nonetheless.

We’re going to have a public hearing Feb. 8, a bitch session for the public to tell the County Board just why they didn’t vote for the millage renewal in the last two elections, a meeting long overdue. We’re going to hear horror stories about how the park mistreats volunteers, how the public doesn’t feel welcome any more, how there’s no reason to go there any more, how area school children need to coaxed into going to the historic village to be taken on tours. We’re going to hear the best vision is to make Charlton Park both a unique historical treasure and a tourist attraction, two very different but compatible visions.

Right after the public hearing, I hereby challenge the County Board of Commissioners to fire everybody on this Parks and Rec Commission except Murphy and appoint a replacement statutory group that will meet quarterly, four times a year, so it can’t do this kind of damage again. And then let’s have a new, special Charlton Park Board selected to deal with Charlton Park alone.

After a new vision and changes in policy are promised, then let’s go back to the voters and ask for less money and pledge some county money as a combined support effort. Then let’s insist Charlton Park raise some of that money itself by charging fees for festivals and tours and by hiring a director who has some public relations savvy.
The message to Tripp, Ken Neil, Weingartz, Catherine Deyo-Young (regrettably), Sharon Rich, Donald Willcutt, Clyde Morgan, Tom Doyle, Hoot Gibson and Jeff VanNortwick: You’re fired.

Then let’s put VanNortwick and Murphy together with a new Charlton Park Board with some vision that has been so sorely lacking over the past couple of years. And then let’s hire a risk-taking carnival barker-style director who sets about the task of bringing people back to the park. Meanwhile, hire a history-minded individual to be a meticulous curator, a keeper of the artifacts that continue to be precious and the centerpiece of the uniqueness that is Charlton Park.

With the old Parks and Rec Commission retired unceremoniously, the old director gone and a fresh new approach, the public just might buy into the dream that many of share about preserving history and sharing it with future generations while offering a great way to attract tourist dollars and educate the public all at once.

Fear or freedom?

About 70 years ago the world was taught the lesson of what can happen when a charismatic figure skillfully manipulates ordinary people’s fears, ignorance, hatred and greed and creates a mob of willing accomplices to evil, murderous acts. But have we learned? There are far too many people in West Michigan who are willing to give up some of the most cherished (or so I thought) principles in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights in the U.S. Constitution.

One of the most well documented recent examples is the incident in which a woman of Muslim faith was denied a ride on a public transit bus because she was wearing a birka that covered her face. The driver and the transit authority have since recanted the decision, thanks to the tremendous sense of fairness exhibited by GR Mayor George Heartwell.

The woman apparently strongly felt she was wronged, and she was. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution clearly states that “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion,” nor no shall it exercise authority over “the free exercise thereof.” By not allowing the woman the same rights and privileges afforded all other U.S. citizens because she was following a customary practice of her religion, a public transit service was denying this woman her civil rights, which she is entitled to like the rest of us.

Afterward, the much-maligned ACLU caught wind of the incident and stepped in to force public transit officials to admit their error and now there has been talk of her getting some kind of monetary compensation in the wake of her “public humiliation.” I’m not particularly pleased about the financial compensation part of the issue although one wonders whether cmmunities would act responsibly without the threat of a financial penalty hanging over them, but I do believe a strong message must be sent to the public that religious bigotry and discrimination will not be tolerated in a free and
democratic society.

Many in the public apparently need to hear that message. The Grand Rapids Press has published a number of letters from local and area citizens who contend the transit driver was correct in denying her a ride, arguing something to the effect that “Have we forgotten what happened on Sept. 11, 2001?” Thus the disgusting specter of fear and ignorance has reared its ugly head. Apparently there are many paranoid bigots that seem to have forgotten Roosevelt's refrain that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

I can’t believe we are so afraid of any Muslim woman enough to deny her the rights and privileges the rest of us enjoy. While it is true she, or anyone else for that matter, could be carrying some kind of explosive device and blow up the bus, but the chances of that happening are no better than the likelihood the bus will be struck by lightning or crashed into by a meteorite. Unfortunately, the Bush administration has used the tragedy of 9/11 to win political battles and the media has been used by the administration and other sources time and again to whip the people into a state of frenzy to sell the war in Iraq and just about everything else. Hitler and his henchmen were successful in demonizing the Jews, communists, gays and any other kind who didn’t look and think just like the majority (or even a powerful minority). And they were able to whip the masses into a frenzy with tragic consequences.

I know it’s been said many times before, but it apparently needs to be said again. If we allow fear and ignorance to overpower our ability to reason, we will repeat mistakes that lead to tragic consequences that should never be forgotten. We must be smart and use common sense. We must measure the threat, if any, a woman in a birka might pose versus the damage it does our society to let fear and hatred rule of lives. And remember, there is risk in getting out of bed and living every day. If we live in constant fear and turn away from the principles that supposedly made this country different from all others... then the terrorists indeed will have won.

We’re often hearing that we go to war and that our soldiers risk their lives to preserve our freedoms, but we’ve got to make certain these freedoms actually exist and that the battles are worth fighting. If we don’t truly respect freedom of religion, freedom of speech and yes, the right to bear arms, then “freedom” will be just an empty buzzword and this country won’t be worth fighting for. True American patriots should rally around this Muslim woman and everyone else who is under attack for having beliefs, appearances or customs that put them in the minority. While I've made several references to the people of Germany being manipulated during the reign of the Nazis, let us not forget several dark chapters in American history that prove it can also happen here... now. The question is: fear or freedom?

The Invisible Michael Brown?

A more than plausible argument could be made that the most invisible man in Barry County government over the last dozen years has been Administrator Michael Brown.

Ever since Brown was hired as a sort of “Whiz Kid” in his mid-twenties during the mid-1990s, he’s been forced to take a back seat to the bloated egos of a bad string of chairpersons of the Barry County Board of Commissioners. He had to sit in the back of the government bus during the awful reigns of Jim Bailey (1995-2001), Jeff MacKenzie (2001-2005) and Clare Tripp (2005-2007) and may even have had to sit through some time during the brief, but equally unimpressive leadership of Orvin Moore (1993-1995).

All four of these chairs eventually were retired at the ballot box, and deservedly so. Moore was thrashed by Tim Burd in his re-election bid in the August 1994 GOP primary. Bailey got his comeuppance when he left the board to run for state representative, losing in Republican primaries to Gary Newell in 2000 and once again to Brian Calley in 2006. MacKenzie was sent packing in his re-election bid by Michael Callton in the 2004 GOP primary and Tripp’s reign was mercifully ended this past August by Mark Englerth.

So what we have here is a failure of leadership in this county over 14 years. What we have here actually is the history of hubris of elected public officials who have tried to micro-manage nearly every aspect of county government, all the while they should have turned to their professionally trained and well compensated expert, Michael Brown.

Word on the street is that the new Board of Commissioners that will be seated on Jan. 2 may finally adopt a very different philosophy of governance. It seems from what I'm told that the likely new chairman, Mike Callton, plans to lean on Brown’s expertise and experience, and that he will get plenty of support from newcomers Jeff VanNortwick, Mark Englerth and Keith Ferris, along with holdovers Hoot Gibson and Don Nevins.

What I’ve been hearing is that Callton and Company plan to use Brown the same way a city uses a city manager, the same way a school district uses a superintendent. That’s the way it always should have been. It’s incredible that Barry County citizens have allowed laypersons to make the important decisions about budget, property and personnel, all while lacking the necessary expertise (and in some cases basic common sense). A lot of the pre-decision work and eventual recommendations should be done by the hired professional.

Brown for too long has been paid good money to be a glorified office manager. It’s way past time to let him get down to the business of being the manager of day-to-day affairs of Barry County government. Commissioners, meanwhile, should spend far less time in committee meetings and much more time in setting policies, taking Brown’s expertise and recommendations and collectively being “the deciders.”

This shift in responsibility may be somewhat dangerous for "The Invisible Michael Brown," who has been able to survive nicely for more than a dozen years as this figure in the background who does all the research and then gets little if any credit, much less respect. Brown now may have to make recommendations and decisions that may be unpopular and he may have to take on much more serious work.

People tell me that he’s looking forward to the challenge and to being given a chance to see what he can do. I’m looking forward to a changeover that should result in more effective local government. I’m sure there will be some growing pains, but it certainly ought to be better than Barry County’s past 14 years of bad governance.

Tax abatement blues

I know I’ve penned this familiar phrase several times on the blog, but I’ll write it again for a reason: “Don’t piss on my shoes and then tell me it’s raining.” The latest example of this exercise, if not in lying, in bullshit, came to us courtesy of officials associated with two of the oldest industries in Hastings. The front page of the Nov. 30 Hastings Banner carried the story about the Hastings City Council approving Viking’s request of a transfer of the now defunct Tyden Seal’s tax abatement.

For those bereft of Civics 101, a tax abatement is a government unit giving a tax break of up to 50 percent for up to 12 years to a business that is expanding or being established if the move will create jobs. Some people refer to it simply as “corporate welfare.” It has become a way for corporations to pit communities against each other in a race to the bottom where the town willing to shift more of its tax burden to the people who will supposedly gain from the handful of jobs the company is dangling from a stick is rewarded with the extra jobs but sometimes only until the abatement lasts, and sometimes not even, and then it's off to India, China or Kentucky.

Tyden Seal back in 2002 was granted a tax break from the City of Hastings when it built a new plant across the street from Viking and 30 new jobs were promised. However, the Groos family, which owned Tyden and Viking, sold the former to Crimson Investments, an outside firm, in May 2005 and almost exactly a year later Tyden was shut down with its 40 jobs moved to China. Oh, the humanity!

Now comes Viking to the City Council asking to take up Tyden’s tax break, all while the city already is out nearly $78,000 in tax revenue because Tyden (Crimson) did not live up to its end of the bargain for the abatement.
It’s a pea and shell game foisted on the taxpayers of Hastings, who are stuck with a $78,000 bill that Tyden, Crimson or Viking should have paid. It’s deceitful.

Tom Groos, CEO of Viking, was quoted in the Banner as saying Viking didn’t have anything to do with Tyden folding its tent and not repaying the tax abatement, that was the responsibility of Crimson Investments. In the words of the Church Lady, “how convenient” for Viking to sell to an outsider to do its dirty work of shutting down and moving to China. Groos insisted in the Banner story they had no idea Tyden would be shut down. Bullshit.

A little history, please. Tyden was the original industry between it and Viking, founded by Emil Tyden, the inventor of the Tyden Seal cargo lock, in 1897. Tyden brought in other industries to Hastings at the turn of the 20th century and one that paired up with his business was Viking, a manufacturer of commercial and residential fire sprinklers. The two industries worked inside the same building for many years under Tyden, his daughter, Florence Tyden Groos, her son, Richard Groos, and finally Tom Groos. Viking and Tyden were not the same business, but they family and they were tightly connected for many years. The Tyden and Groos families have been famous in past years as philanthropists and community activists, the kind every community needs to thrive. However, the latest generation hasn’t continued that tradition. Tom Groos doesn’t even live in Hastings and his children attend wealthy suburban Forest Hills schools.

I submit that Viking and Tyden started an ambitious project for the latter to move into its own facility across the street four years ago, and when it became painfully apparent things weren’t working out, the decision was made to sell Tyden to a “hit man,” in this case, Crimson Investments, to act as “the bad guy” who shuts down the local plant and packs the jobs off to China. So the Groos family is spared the agony of doing a hatchet job to a 109-year-old business started by the patriarch, Tom Groos’ great-grandfather, and they’re given an opportunity to win back the opportunity to ask for the tax abatement lost by Tyden’s non-compliance. Crimson may be the bogeyman that doesn’t repay the abatemen, but the bottom line is that the citizens of Hastings are stuck with the $78,000 check.

It would have been nice if the Hastings City Council members would have shown its constituents a little spine before eventually caving in. They could have insisted there would be no abatement until the old tax break bill is picked up, regardless of whether it’s by Viking or Crimson. All they did was adopt a wimpy resolution to try to get back the money from Crimson, with no assurance the taxpayers’ money due will ever be collected.

Besides the pea and shell game, I get real tired of poor people getting saddled with taunts of being welfare cheats, charges for which some admittedly are guilty. I get real tired of it because when businesses and industries are welfare cheats the government doesn’t seem to put up much of a fuss, in fact they’ll let ’em back in the tax abatement game. Viking should hang its head in shame for spreading bullshit about its sorry deceit. The City of Hastings should hang its head in shame for not having the guts to insist on fair play.

And I have no proof, but I think somewhere Emil Tyden is not pleased with what has transpired. His business is gone, his family name tarnished and taxpayers have been snookered.

"A false Witness will not go unpunished" -Prov. 19:5,9

"lying lips are an abomination to the Lord" – Prov. 12:22

The editorial page of past Saturday’s edition of the Grand Rapids Press was littered with a sizable number of comments on former Mayor John Logie’s call for the impeachment of President George W. Bush. Yes, it looks like, for better or worse, Logie is the talk of the town. The former mayor apparently made his controversial remarks in a public address at Fountain Street Church, a place known in these parts as an island of progressive thought in a sea of members of the Flat Earth Society. Some of the letters to the editor supported Logie, others expressed shock and dismay that a respected local public official would make such an outrageous suggestion.

Logie essentially said that if Bush and his entourage misled the United States into an immoral pre-emptive war of choice against a country that had done no harm to us, then the blood of nearly 3,000 American people and untold numbers of Iraqis is on his hands. This is not to mention other crimes and misdemeanors such as illegal warrantless wiretapping, incompetence in handling the Hurricane Katrina crisis, having disturbing friendships and links with criminal figures such as Kenny Boy Lay at Enron, Congressman Tom DeLay and lobbyist Jack Abramoff, illegally detaining suspected enemies at Guantanamo Bay and overseeing and defending inhumane torture of prisoners of war.

The irony is that I suspect many of the letter writers angry with Logie supported sacking Bill Clinton about eight years ago for the horrible crime of getting a blow job in the White House from a woman other than his wife and then not fessing up to it.

There is yet another irony here, but it occurred a little more than 32 years ago. Not long after Gerald Ford was elevated to the presidency because of the resignation of Richard Nixon, Ford decided to pardon Nixon in a pre-emptive strike against putting a former president on trial for any crimes he may have committed. Much of the country was outraged as a result, and many historians still consider it the biggest reason why Ford was defeated by Jimmy Carter in his bid to be elected president in 1976. Yet, almost immediately after Ford did the controversial deed, he received words of support from a totally unexpected source. The Rev. Duncan Littlefair of Grand Rapids, less than a week after the pardon was announced, preached that the true spirit of Christianity is in its ability to forgive. He essentially argued, “To err is human, to forgive divine.” This sermon backing Ford was reported in national news media, particularly in Time magazine.

Littlefair had been a thorn in the side of Nixon for a long time, openly criticizing his conduct of the presidency and the War in Vietnam. The reverend was regarded by Ford and the Republican Party as a bit of a left-wing crazy who did not share mainstream views of most of West Michigan citizens. Littlefair, at age 89, not long before he died, confessed in writing in the GR Press that he had once helped a terminally ill good friend commit suicide, much like Jack Kevorkian. And guess where Littlefair was pastor? That’s right — Fountain Street Church.

My message to John Logie, if he ever gets a chance to read this blog some day, and for what it’s worth, the ex-mayor’s actions were worthy of the kind of tales John F. Kennedy told in “Profiles in Courage.” John Logie, whom I have regarded as a moderate Republican all these years, is a great American, a true patriot who has shown me the courage to do the right thing in the face of massive criticism. Perhaps there truly is a hero among us, and like Rev. Littlefair, he can come from unexpected places.

Those who don’t learn from history...

As the new and old Barry County Boards of Commissioners examine what to do about the Charlton Park mess in the wake of two millage defeats, the immortal words of Spanish philosopher George Santayana seem appropriate:

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

On an international scale, our current president’s greatest fault, besides his incompetence and arrogance, is his failure to understand history, what has gone before. He and his cronies have ignored the many painful lessons of futile, far away and colonial wars fought by us in Vietnam, by the French in Indochina, by the Soviets in Afghanistan, by the French in Algeria, even by the British in the U.S. colonies and by so many other conflicts in which the ultimate losers were the people who did not live where the wars were being fought.

On a local scale, the current County Board of Commissioners absorbed a shocking 59 to 41 percent defeat of a millage renewal proposal in the August primary and hastily put together another request for the November general election, only to see that one go down by slightly friendlier numbers, 55 to 45%.

The response of too many Charlton Park supporters immediately after the Aug. 8 results was something like, “Don’t you wanna keep the park open? We’re gonna give you another chance in November, but this time you better say yes, or we’ll hafta shut it down.” With the exception of Mike Callton, nobody on the County Board seemed interested in researching some history to learn just what had happened here and why. It was a lot like the Bush Administration’s refusal to try to understand logically what really caused the Sept. 11 attacks (“Because they hate freedom” is not an adequate explanation). Furthermore, the board didn’t bother to ask a lot of people who voted against the renewal just what their problem was and what it would take to turn around the poll results.

Callton actually learned and explained that the Charlton Park millage renewal didn’t pass by an overwhelming mandate in 1986 or in 1996. Such slim margins should have been warnings long ago to the Parks and Recreation Commission and County Board that the public hasn’t been entirely sold on what some call Barry County’s greatest tourist attraction. He also pointed out that Barry County had exactly zero earmarked millages twenty years ago, but now has five. This is more important than what too many local public officials believe. Please note that all millage requests on the ballot Nov. 7 were defeated.

The commissioners in August were set to go back to the voters in November with exactly the same renewal proposal that went down 59-41 Aug. 8. All that would have done was enable the public to respond with the simple, but effective, “What part of ‘no’ don’t you understand?” At least they had the slightly good sense to roll back the levy from .25 to .2275 mill and reduce the number of years from ten to five. But that, and the larger numbers showing up at the polls in November, just wasn’t enough to make up the difference. There is something fundamentally wrong here, folks, and doing another top-down style campaign on Charlton Park’s behalf is almost certain to doom it. All you have to do is look at history.

There are rumblings that the new board, when it convenes in January, will call for a public hearing or maybe a series of public hearings very simply to ask voters why they’ve said “no” twice, and what it will take to get them to change their minds. Then the board is rumored to be set to make massive changes, if necessary, in the governing of Charlton Park. One more special millage to salvage Charlton Park is a good possibility in August or November of 2007. But before that happens, a lot of changes will be made and some heads may roll.

Don’t forget there still are a lot of people who believe the park should be privatized, even though Irving Charlton deeded the property to the county as a public facility and history shows us that privatizing public services or facilities isn’t always the best option. Private ownership, to my mind, doesn’t have a lot of respect for offering history to children at no cost, rather it would be more interested in making big bucks with little regard to the public's best interests.

My vision for Charlton Park is similar to what Fred Jacobs has advocated in his editorials in the Hastings Banner. I’d like to see a steady stream of school children visiting and touring the park and village on weekdays during the academic year and then use virtually every weekend from April through October for tourist-oriented events such as Civil War re-enactments, bluegrass festivals, car shows or any other money-making adventure that can be imagined. Solid management and some slick promotion might be able to put Charlton Park in the black enough so it wouldn’t have to depend on an earmarked millage. It at least deserves a shot lest this unique attraction fall into the wrong hands and fail to serve as the educational and recreational tool it could be.

The possibilities are great, saving this park is doable. But let’s not live out the warning from Santayana and keep making the same mistakes.

Campaign post mortem Part 1

I've been putting this off mostly because there's so much to say about the past couple of days. So, this is mostly random thoughts as I try to hit as many observations as possible of what has taken place and not delay this any further. I will also be breaking this up into sections since I rambled on a bit and felt it was too long for one post (I'll post my comments on the statewide contests and the local Congressional races in a little while).

Charlton Park millage defeat– It was fairly obvious this one was going down again. The "Friends" of the park didn't mount much of a campaign other than fear tactics about shutting the park and telling voters how stupid we are for not "getting it." To anyone paying attention, it seems pretty obvious that the old gang reaped what they sewed when they ousted the park director and anyone else that wasn't a team player. They drove out several large events that gave the public a reason to use and visit the park and be reminded of its charm — something which might have prompted a few more "yes" votes.

What is needed now is input from the "no" crowd, some sensible reforms, new faces & ideas and a charm offensive that reminds voters of why it's important to Barry County to maintain this great educational tool, link to our past and potentially valuable part of a tourist economy. The new board must enact reforms, reinstill confidence among the voters and put on a charm offensive that restores the understanding among voters about why they chose to help support this resource in the past.

County Board of Commissioners– It's pretty amazing to see the change that has taken over the board over the past two years and I'm pretty confident that we've got a better group of commissioners than we've had for a while. I hope they ask questions, seek input and restore confidence that government can work for its citizens.

I had hoped we could have ended up with at least one Democrat on the board just for the simple fact that having a more relevant Democratic Party in Barry County politics can only help the people achieve better results from their government. Results were encouraging for local Democrats, yet there were only three candidates, none of which were able to crack the 40% threshold due to various dynamics in each of those races. This was an opportunity that somehow slipped away. The Dems must make a commitment to contest every single race and even have a minimum of one contested primary. If they can offer quality candidates at the county level they might even leverage those results in building a party that challenges at higher levels. Otherwise, the Barry County Democratic Party teeters on the brink of continued irrelevancy, a pattern for almost 25 years. This party needs new, more energetic and younger faces.

One of the important things to watch in the county board to be sworn in in January is whether this group can work together effectively. Mike Callton, or whoever ends up as chairman (and how sad this is the first time in over a decade there has not been one woman on the county board), is bound to have their hands full herding the feral cats who may resent Callton's perceived aspirations for higher office. We have a few board members willing to follow but we also have a few that might wander off the reservation and make life rough for the person who needs to show some leadership and a track record when future elections come ‘round. We also have the threat that the “good ole boys” will surely have some new and maybe even some old faces run in two years and try to claw their way back into power. If this board fails to meet its responsibilities to the people who voted for change they may not occupy their chairs for long.


State Rep. & Senate– Suzzette Royston's campaign was able to throw a scare into Pincushion Patty in Eaton County, but it was the same old story in Barry and Allegan. Why didn't she hit Birkholz hard on the casino in Allegan County? One problem is that in a one- party region it's hard to find qualified people from the opposition party willing to take on a quixotic campaign and as long as the long shot odds of winning deter qualified candidates, we will continue to see failure to get positive results, which only creates a perpetual cycle of more defeats.

Doug Kalnbach eclipsed 40 percent in Barry County, which perhaps shows the way for local Democrats — by offering voters a blue collar working class candidate with appeal to constituencies that are typically Republican or don't vote in large numbers (hunters and bikers) while offering enough red meat on economic issues to maintain Democratic support, Democrats could continue to make gains and in another cycle or two compete at the state rep level. Calley performed below the "baseline" number of Republican voters, which showed that some people wished to have a better alternative.