Tuscarora Township DDA-Dumb, Dumber, and .....

I have questioned some failures of our local governments and their boards, committees, and appointees here in Cheboygan that are part of our local culture. Culture is a confusing word and a New Yorker op-ed piece a few years ago delved into Merriam-Webster’s 2014 Word of the Year “Culture”. As with many words, culture, cult, and cultivated all have their roots, appropriately, in Latin. Raymond Williams was quoted, “Each time we use the word “culture,” we incline toward one or another of its aspects: toward the “culture” that’s imbibed through osmosis or the “culture” that’s learned at museums, toward the “culture” that makes you a better a person or the “culture” that just inducts you into a group.”

What is the culture that causes a group of individuals to exercise the same behavior repeatedly?  Is it behavior absorbed by osmosis, learned, or a part of induction into the group? I ask this rhetorical question of the Tuscarora Downtown Development Authority. This DDA Board, with members chosen by Tuscarora Supervisor Mike Ridley, consists of eight appointees and himself.

If Mike Ridley, the ball player, were choosing a basketball team, some like-minded 6’5” players might serve him well.  Supervisor Mike Ridley should theoretically recommend as DDA appointees a diverse group of individuals representing differing viewpoints and opinions. Instead, the majority of his appointed DDA members mirror the mindset of their master. That is the worst-case definition of political appointees. Mindless zombies that march relentlessly forward while making faces and snarling at members of the public brave or foolish enough to attend a DDA meeting. Most of us would be less critical if that mindless march moved Indian River closer to a measureable goal. Can a group that after several years of discussion failed to find and set a decorative “rock” to display a DNR plaque be able to prioritize the spending of hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars?

 At a Special Meeting on May 29, 2014 with the “official” minutes only identifying a “quorum stands for DDA”, an apparent joint session of like-minded people, the DDA and the Marina Park Committee worked in cooperation to build the infamous back-in parking at the same time the Trailhead parking lot was completed. With nine-member board, a quorum would require at least five attendees. The DDA Board members identified as attendees by name, Cindy Poquette, Dan Nivelt, and Diana Mallory were part of the alleged “quorum” that approved spending $87,750 without the accountability of a roll call vote. Ignoring common knowledge that money spent cannot be used as a match prior a grant application approval; these three identified people foolishly wasted your tax dollars. We still drive by that failure every day.

TDA's Dumb, Dumber, and ... Failed Back-In Parking

On August 21, this past Monday, I asked the current DDA Chair Dawn Bodnar who had actually attended the May 29^th Special Meeting and voted “all in favor” to spend $87,750. Ms Bodnar and Diana Mallory made faces and Ms Bodnar said, “this is public comment; we do not answer questions”.  

Did the present DDA Board learn from that $87,750 mistake? Would the DDA throw out years of Streetscape design work with tens of thousands of dollars spent and start over from scratch? Supervisor Mike Ridley made his decision and the DDA Board followed. The DDA drafted an RFP, a request for bids that asked for “preliminary plans and drawings that will serve as a RFP for complete engineering and design plans”. “Price should include any revisions the DDA deems necessary in order to meet their approval”. 

This vague, open-ended request “any revisions the DDA deems necessary” wording resulted in inquiries from interested firms seeking clarification or declining to bid. Only one firm that employs Mike Ridley’s son responded with a very limited proposal; a conceptual design, public meeting, and schematic drawings at cost of $37,000 to $41,000. It was not what the RFP sought. With Mike Ridley offering only the one bid, he then recused himself and his DDA zombies attempted to approve that single bid on July 24^th without even reading the proposal.

Mike Ridley had kept some of the DDA members ignorant for more than a year of an offer addressed personally to him in June 2016 by the original design firm to revise the engineering plans already completed, eliminate the back-in parking, and meet the standards the Road Commission needs. That proposal to correct the completed design was only $11,650. The Road Commission Board publicly concurred it would be much smarter to tweak the existing design rather than to throw it all out.  

With this information now public, there is the appearance of deliberate acts by Mike Ridley to ignore his fiduciary responsibility and narrow the bidders to one firm that coincidentally employs his son.

S Straits After 18 Years of DDA Improvements

The DDA board, short a few heads, just approved that sole bid by a 4 to 1 vote. Can we allow Mr Ridley to start a complete re-do of the DDA Streetscape design process to employ a firm that he has already declared as a personal conflict of interest? 

S Straits After 18 Years of DDA Improvements

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Cheboygan County-A Culture of Government Failures

More than 30 years ago, President Reagan said he felt the nine most terrifying words in the English language were, “I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help”. Our Inverness Township/City of Cheboygan/Meijer water line issue has become a story worthy of Greek mythology.  The residents of Cheboygan County are now aware that our cults and rituals; multi-generational township boards, nepotism, cronyism, and inaction rooted in apathy; cannot serve the best interest of all.

None of us sitting on the public side of the Inverness Board table really knows the reason why that Board, and their legal counsel who seems to rule the roost, said no to every option on the table or demanded more money for doing nothing.

Many seem oblivious to the fact that special interest groups have created delays. Two is company, but three is a crowd. The Inverness DDA, a third party comprised of Inverness Board appointed volunteers, attempted to redraft agreements and influence negotiations. Many existing Inverness business owners spent thousands of dollars running ads trying to steer the rudderless Inverness Township Board to choose a 425 Agreement over a Utility Service Agreement. I understand their position and none of us want to see existing businesses, all enjoying the lower than City of Cheboygan township tax millages, impacted by the possibility of their taxes increased to subsidize utility services for Meijer. One of those lobbying businesses has enjoyed a 5-year property tax abatement, lowered property taxes agreed to by Inverness Township, when they rebuilt and enlarged their auto sales and service facility.

I am not aware that Meijer has sought any tax breaks. Inverness did not openly embrace, accommodate, or offer any tax breaks to a new Meijer store with a far larger investment and 250 jobs. Meijer were in fact more than willing to be a part of a 425 Agreement, paying taxes at the much higher city millage rate, while giving Inverness a share of property taxes for providing absolutely no services. The big box stores, Walmart in an existing 425 Agreement paying city tax rates, and Meijers willingness to do the same shows the sites were chosen for exposure, not merely for some lower property tax advantage.

Special interest groups, not the people and not the majority, rule government at all levels. If you organize your neighbors as an “association”, you have just leveraged your influence with local lawmakers. Special interest groups’ needs always run contrary to the best interest of the majority of the people.  If the majority shared their interests, there would be no need for a special interest group to exist. Special interest lobbying efforts often succeed because they convince the lawmakers they have more knowledge or represent the best position on a particular issue. Environmental groups, Chambers of Commerce, Lakeshore Owners Associations and other smaller groups of organized individuals disproportionately influence county, city, and township elected officials and policies because their adversaries; we, the majority; and the very officials they lobby are ignorant or uneducated on the facts, apathetic, stupid, or all of the above. Those special interest groups serve their own best interest because they work harder or are smarter than our local lawmakers are.

Another Reagan quote, “When you can't make them see the light, make them feel the heat” is an effective tool. The appointed volunteers of the Tuscarora DDA spent $90,000 to install the back-in parking pod in Indian River to show us how smart they were. The people protested the unsafe design. We gathered petitions, wrote letters, and the elected board members of the Cheboygan County Road Commission felt the heat. The CCRC with jurisdiction over the road scheduled a well-attended Public Hearing. 

The majority spoke; more than a hundred opposed to the back-in parking versus a handful of smart DDA supporters. That resulted in the Tuscarora DDA finally paying for an independent safety study. The study, costing only $4,900 dollars, identified multiple safety issues in the flawed design. The DDA had refused to do a safety study in the design stage. 

That foolish behavior seems to be a product of the culture, or should I say cult, that exists here in Cheboygan County. Local governments and their politically appointed DDA’s, boards, committees, and commissions often exist to serve a sometimes secretive, sometimes apparent, cult of cronyism, anti-growth, no-outsiders agenda, or the belief they are smarter than the outside world. The status quo often serves their masters well.