Schnell Packs It In As Community Development Director

Cheboygan County has employed a professional Community Development Director since June of 2007. Like Cheers, everyone knows his name. The Director’s on-line resume states he oversees the departments of Planning and Zoning, Building Safety, Soil Erosion, Address Enforcement, Geographic Information Systems, and Code Enforcement. He also serves as the County Housing Director, overseeing the program, which provides much needed homeowner rehabilitation loans for area households with income at or below 80 percent of area median income. His efficient customer service systems process permit applications in a timely manner. He also completed many successful planning processes that involved thorough public input. He guided the creation of a new County Master Plan including facilitation of over 40 public input sessions.

Cheboygan County Community Development Director Steve Schnell

What has gone wrong in Cheboygan County after more than ten years of efforts by a county economic development department led by an individual with this impressive resume? Ten years and seven months ago, when this qualified professional planner resigned from the position of Community Development Director in Mackinaw City, the Village Manager reorganized and the Village Council concurred. His former position was filled by a Planning/Zoning Administrator, and the Mackinaw Board called that “an apt description.”

Most of our competitors, surrounding counties and neighboring cities, have recognized that communities develop when government creates a welcoming environment that minimizes arbitrary zoning restrictions. Few if any employ a Development Director. Big dreams, a desire to succeed, and a work ethic drive the entrepreneurs who start small businesses that sometimes become the next Google or Amazon. These ambitious people do not need or desire direction from a community planner who has spent a bureaucrat’s life putting in desk time to earn his retirement benefits.

Looking back ten years, our current Cheboygan County Administrator Jeff Lawson was the Mackinaw Village Manager smart enough to see the Mackinaw Community Development Director had been ineffective. He created the simpler business model of a Planning/Zoning Administrator that serves most communities. Emmet County’s better practice is typical of many; a Planning/ Zoning Administrator for land use and a Building Official managing Building Safety. Two departments operating within their own areas of expertise and I suspect communicating much more effectively than our dysfunctional planning and zoning process.

Dysfunctional is a strong term, but it seems earned by a planning and zoning department that was unable to deal with a Griswold Mountain or Heritage Cove Farms. One application abandoned and the other still in Court. We might excuse controversial applications if those were the only fails. The much amended Planning and Zoning bible, Ordinance #200, affects our property rights and has had about 140 amendments. Seventy of those amendments made in the past ten years. Land uses are permissive only. If a business or land use is not defined and listed, too bad for Cheboygan County. Recent omissions notpermitted; beauty shops, fitness facilities, and the list goes on. If Google wanted to build a server farm or data center, the applicant would hear the same answer, no.

A successful dog-grooming business is attempting to relocate from Emmet County to Indian River. That is not high tech. It is a dog groomer. Cheboygan County’s Planning and Zoning Ordinance with 140 amendments does not permit a dog groomer in Indian River Village Center, the Village Center Overlay, a commercial district, an industrial district, a residential district or in fact anywhere in Cheboygan County. Our professional Community Development Director apparently never envisioned the need. The good news is he is now peddling off to greener pastures with well-groomed bike trails and we are on the cusp of a new era.

Our Cheboygan County Board of Commissioners need to be proactive, reorganize now, and work with County Administrator Jeff Lawson to assure our good employees in Planning and Building Safety can work to their full capabilities while providing a stable environment that encourages growth.

Who in Ohio Benefits From Another Sewer District?

Do the mailed surveys seeking support for another sewer district in Indian River really have have a return address in Ohio?

The proposed new Indian River Sewer District would encompass every house, cottage, building, and empty lot not served by the existing sewer from the Indian River south to the Sturgeon River and west to Burt Lake. Hundreds of properties, some small, some large, and everyone will pay whether you gain any benefit or not. At what cost? The Tuscarora Board discussed this and the consensus was definitely more, and probably much-much more than the $8,000 REU the existing system users were charged. The numerous streets, existing utilities, lack of alleyways, and other factors too numerous to list will mean far higher costs.

 Ask any of those homeowners on the east side of Juno Street or others how much they spent to pump out a working septic system, crush or backfill the tank, and how much it then cost to hire a contractor to hook-up to the sewer. Then add the initial $8,000 per residence (REU) buy-in and the monthly sewer fee. That monthly fee has already seen the first annual increase to $27.50 per month for O & M costs in an attempt to meet USDA budget recommendations. Everyone pays every month, whether you flush the toilet or not, effectively subsidizing the year round users.

Feasibility studies often have no more accuracy than a fortuneteller looking into a crystal ball. In 2008, Fleis & Vandenbrink Engineering told Northport that it anticipated their new plant would be treating 110,000 gallons of sewage per day upon initial flow in 2008. Six years later, the average was 83,336 gpd in July 2014 and only 42,724 gpd in December of 2014.  Much like Tuscarora Township, the Northport/Leelanau Township Utilities Authority has increased fees to help offset mounting costs. Their fee went from $15,900 to $16,588 per REU in July 2014 with a 3 percent increase every year attempting to cover increasing costs and the optimistic forecasts for growth that were never realized.

Club Road Sewer Leak by Dan's Auto Repair

The Tuscarora Township Board, now dealing everyday with their ill-conceived and poorly planned sewer district wants to share the misery. The First Amendment protects our right to free speech and the right to petition our government.   Local government boards usually allow three minutes of free speech at a time unless an individual is brown-nosing some local officials and they are enjoying the public massage. Petitions work in the same way. One citizen-authored petition might garner a support of the majority of those directly benefiting and be killed by a board. 

A verbal massage of the right people, the Tuscarora Board, might gain board support for another petition seeking an unneeded and costly infrastructure project that once again benefits a select few including apparently Dave Diebel who owns the largest contiguous parcel in the proposed district. A Special Assessment District again approved and established by land area and billed by parcel.   

 Bob Kramer sucks up to the leaders

Listen as Bob Kramer, the nephew of Dave Diebel, attempts to schmooze the Tuscarora Township Board currying favor and gain support for the feasibility study with no out-of-pocket cost to the proponents. Does he ever mention new Sewer District??  

Is a Cheboygan Meijer a One in a Million Chance?

I attended a Tuscarora Township Board meeting on Tuesday night. Not my first and it will not be my last. Tuscarora has become my go-to first Tuesday of the month township meeting. There is no shortage of Tuesday night meetings with many of Cheboygan County’s 19 townships holding board meetings at the same time each month.  I attended years of Mullett Township Board meetings that included the monthly Tuesday meetings and numerous Special Meetings, some without legal notice, that were held virtually every night of the week including Saturday, Sunday, and even on a legal Holiday. You just never know when a real emergency might need immediate action and a decision by the board. The Mullett Board, despite some changes in office holders, will probably forever retain the local record for hasty and foolish decisions to spend taxpayer dollars made at Special Meetings.

There was a time when the Topinabee Development Association was dreaming large and chasing Federal TAP Grants to build the $2.8 million dollar “Green Corridor” Streetscape in Topinabee. The next year the TAP Grant application shrank to $1.2 million dollars with a “capped” local match of $200,000. Tom O’Hare, the always-present voice behind the TDA movement decided that the matching grant needed an increase over the previous Mullett Board approved amount. 

Mullett Clerk Rachel Osborn's "Pet" Project-Building the TDA's Vision

At a hastily called Special Meeting, Mr O’Hare pleaded, cajoled, and did everything except stamp his feet to get his way because his grant writer had already submitted an application for a $1.59 million dollar project. The Mullett Board uncorked the capped amount and hung the Mullett taxpayers out in the wind for a possible $259,000 match.  Like the majority of the TDA’s efforts seeking grants for porky projects, that second TAP Grant application also failed. The TDA has since scaled way back, limiting recent efforts to deforesting the village center and paving over parkland paid directly from Mullett Township funds.

The lesson learned is that nothing good ever comes from Special Meetings and that probably applies to the recent Inverness Township Special Meeting. Most of the decisions made by our township boards are recurring actions: set meeting schedules, collect property taxes, hold Board of Review meetings, brine the roads, pay the monthly bills and give themselves a raise when they think nobody is looking.

I have only attended two Inverness Township meetings. I observed enough to recognize what I know as the Dunning-Kruger effect. These social psychologists published a study in 1999:  Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments. In 2005, Dunning wrote, “If you're incompetent, you can't know you're incompetent ... The skills you need to produce a right answer are exactly the skills you need to recognize what a right answer is”. This observation is nothing new. Confucius said “Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance” and 2500 years later Darwin said, “Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge”.

We have a somewhat foolish expectation that our elected officials are always going to make smart choices. Well-meaning people, like the Inverness Board, sometimes ignorant of their ignorance must still make tough choices and public decisions. Unable to prioritize or narrow the choices, they fall into a pattern of procrastination. The numerous options offered to Inverness for utility services to serve the Meijer site, the differing opinions offered from their legal counsel and input from others created the perfect storm. Two years lost forever if you are counting. It comes with a reality that Meijer’s business model may have materially changed. The big ship with 250 jobs was in port, ready to dock, and Mr Neuman and his fellow dockhands were unable to catch the tossed lines. That ship is now barely visible on the horizon. Thank God the Inverness Board were not preparing for a hurricane. Their township taxpayers would be bobbing in the water and halfway to the Atlantic Ocean by now.    

Has This Ship and 250 Jobs Sailed?

All of us are poor judges of our own competence or skills. What I observe occasionally with township boards, appointed boards and committees, and even some higher office holders are individuals who think their position sitting at a table means they are smarter. In plain language, scientific studies have determined that the stupidest among us think they are, like Yogi, smarter than the average bear. 

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.   

Fireworks Container Sign is OK and Meijer Sign is Illegal

In March 2017, Cheboygan County’s Community Development Department Director Steve Schnell issued a press release. No, he was not working toward the creation of new businesses, homes, jobs, or any type of economic growth. He was attempting to limit your rights to free speech on your own property. 

This Sign is OK in Indian River
One Part-Time Out of Town Employee

This Sign is Illegal in Cheboygan
250 Full and Part-Time Local Employees

He stated ”The recent Supreme Court case of Reed v Town of Gilbert clarified the extent to which signs must be content neutral. A content neutral sign regulation is one that does not regulate the content of a sign to determine compliance with the ordinance. In other words, a sign can say basically (sic) anything that the owner would like to express on that sign without any local laws regulating whether it is or is not legal. A regulation can only determine where that sign can be placed, how big the sign is, how many signs can be on each property, and similar non-content regulations.”

Mr Schnell’s treatise seemed ignorant of the fact the 2015 Supreme Court case Reed v Town of Gilbert was a court decision based on the content, or message conveyed, on signs placed on public property. Clyde Reed was the pastor of Good News Community Church; described as a small, cash-strapped entity that held services in elementary schools and other buildings in Gilbert, Arizona. Pastor Clyde’s church would place 15 to 20 temporary signs on street corners on a Saturday advertising the location of the Sunday worship services and remove them on Sunday. The Town of Gilbert, an Arizona boomtown that grew by more than 200,000 people from 1980 to 2010, was legitimately attempting to limit the clutter created by hundreds of temporary signs placed on the streets. The Town of Gilbert discriminated against the Good News Community Church by regulating event-based signs differently than commercial businesses.

Unlike Cheboygan County’s Community Development Department, Gilbert had zoning jurisdiction over their public streets and roads. MDOT and the Cheboygan County Road Commission control our public road right of ways outside of incorporated Villages and the City of Cheboygan. The Supreme Court decision clarified Cheboygan County could not discriminate against signs based on the content or the message printed on the sign.

A prior Supreme Court sign decision, City of Ladue et al v Gilleo, back in 1994 when Mr Schnell was studying for his 2-year Masters degree in community planning, had defended the free speech rights of Margaret Gilleo.  Ms Gilleo had placed on her front lawn a 24- by 36 inch sign printed with the words, "Say No to War in the Persian Gulf, Call Congress Now." This case defended the right to express free speech with a written message on your own property. The City of Ladue, Missouri, like Mr Schnell, wanted to regulate the “clutter” of temporary signs on private property.

Mr Schnell like some HOA zealot wants to regulate your protected free speech on private property. In 2016, he spent your tax dollars to randomly survey properties for the number and size of campaign signs along M-33, M-27, M-68, and Riggsville Rd. He claims the zoning enforcement officer took no note if you were a Trump or Hillary supporter. Over 90% of parcels with political signs had up to five signs. From this unscientific survey, his department proposed allowing up to 32 sq/ft of signage per parcel. One hundred twenty feet or 200 acres, he would allow you 32 sq/ft of free speech. His first proposal allowed you to post a “Vote for Bob” sign for 30 days and he eventually acquiesced to allow a General Election cycle of 60 days if you remove the offensive sign from your front lawn 2 days after the polls close. His proposed “content neutral” sign ordinance ignored the 1984 Attorney General’s Opinion #6258 that stated “Political campaign signs are a form of speech protected by US Const, Am I and Const 1963, Article 1, Sec. 5. The posting of political campaign signs on private property may not be limited by a municipality to a specified number of days preceding an election.”

Mr Schnell had promised, “The County Planning Commission is reviewing the sign regulations and removing content-based regulations to provide signage that promotes everyone’s freedom of speech.” After more than a year of work, the County Planning Commission had a public tasting and found this an unpalatable sign ordinance amendment. Our thanks to them; they have temporarily halted Mr Schnell’s attempt to limit your First Amendment right to free speech. 

County Taxpayers Fund Tear Down of City of Cheboygan

It seems a person only needs to say the word “government” nowadays to incite outrage among many. I wonder why. With the ongoing fight between Inverness Township and the City of Cheboygan thwarting a needed water service to the proposed Meijer site, we should all have proof that our local townships, 19 in number with 95 elected officials, serve their own interests. Do not interpret that as serving their township ratepayers. Interpret it as what it is. Ninety-five elected officials preserving part-time jobs that often pay as much as average full-time Cheboygan jobs. There is often little or no measurable benefit to anyone beyond his or her own board table. As Inverness Supervisor Mike Neuman publicly stated to frustrated residents waiting for Meijer, “we are just part-time elected officials”. Our 19 townships are stuck back in an 1846 Twilight Zone of horse and buggies. Will the State of Michigan eventually grow a pair and stand up to the powerful lobbying group, the Michigan Townships Association, and say we do not need hundreds of these small ineffective government units wasting Michigan tax dollars while providing little or no services.  

County government, just as old, has undergone some change from those earlier days. Cheboygan has at least reduced the number on the board from nineteen supervisors to seven district Commissioners. Cheboygan County has a well-documented failed Development Department and anti-growth Planning Ordinance, but still exists in most part to extend the outreach of state government and serve state interests. Counties are partners with the state in public health, mental health, courts, vital records, land and property records, disaster preparedness, solid waste management, highway and road administration and maintenance (the Road Commission in Cheboygan), property tax administration, law enforcement, elections administration, and incarceration of convicts.

If Inverness Township is a worst-case example of a township unable or unwilling to facilitate or accommodate business growth, Cheboygan County and its administrative staff is working hard to chase new enterprises down the road. The subsidized Cheboygan County Marina competes with private enterprise. That Marina, our only county owned recreational parkland, serves a handful of county residents who own a yacht. It has operated for years on a break-even basis by repeatedly ignoring capital infusion needed for maintenance and repair. 

The County Commissioners, and they admit the yacht harbor business in the Straits area is already over served, now choose to throw more money into this watery grave. They are fast approaching the point of no return by committing to spend over $800,000 in tax dollars on replacing fuel tanks and a new fuel dock. Did they say replace? The proposed replacement fuel tanks are more than 60% larger than the existing tanks. Government never thinks smaller when our tax dollars are a never-ending source of easy money.

With several more longtime City of Cheboygan main street businesses closing, a committed group of “Bring It Cheboygan” volunteers is employing desperate measures including decorating more than 20 empty storefronts attempting to slow the slide. In this do or die scenario, the County plans to spend more tax dollars tearing down the historic Gold Front building.  

The Gold Front Ballroom has a storied past. It was not hard to find a picture of the celebration at the Gold Front in 1944 when the US Coast Guard first stationed the USS Mackinaw at Cheboygan.  The building fell on hard times and went to a County tax sale. Cheboygan County sold it years ago in an ill-conceived land-contract sale. That sale failed this year and with more years of neglect, the County is hurriedly seeking the easy way out. They are seeking a $200,000 grant with a $42,000 match of local tax-dollars to demolish the Gold Front. 

There was apparently no investigation of possible grants to preserve this historical building. Bring It Cheboygan and those involved volunteers are trying to slow the downhill slide of Main Street while Cheboygan County is using our taxes to push the sled down the hill faster.