The Local Area Watch

CRYPTO-CARPETBAGGERS

Something interesting has occurred in this year's Grand Rapids City Commission races.  (What?  There's a city election this year?)  Two overtly partisan groups have publicly announced their backing of candidates in the First and Second Wards.  Because city elections are non-partisan under the city charter, not only has there been no formal identification of candidates with any political party, there usually hasn't even been an informal one since the McKay era to give voters a good idea of a candidate's general political outlook.

Over the past few election cycles, informal partisanship in City Commission races has perked up mostly in the form of making a candidate's party registration publicly known.  Also there have been the endorsements of the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce and the Friends of Labor.  Now a group of crypto-Republicans, the Mavericks, are stumping for Dave Shaffer, a candidate in the First Ward race to oust incumbent James Jendrasiak and a group of crypto-Democrats, the Progressive Women's Alliance of West Michigan, are doing the same for Rosalyn Bliss in the Second Ward race to replace retiring Lynn Rabaut.  So, voters now know how to pigeonhole at least a couple of this year's candidate.

I don't think this is a development to be lamented.  First all, partisanship is inevitable.  Even the Founding Fathers, with all their genius, were unable to stop the formation of "factions" -- i.e., political parties -- upon the ratification of the Constitution.  Second, there's nothing wrong with the oft-scorn "label" of liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican.  It is the most succinct way for a candidate to communicate to fellow travelers that he or she shares their political values.  Finally, non-partisanship has always been a fiction in the City Commission.  What official non-partisanship boils down to is public censorship of a candidate's political affiliation, which works to the benefit of those who are connected while leaving the voters in the dark.

This is not to say that the groups now filling the non-partisan vacuum don't bear scrutiny.  There is always the carpetbagger factor.  Few of the one hundred or so Mavericks actually live in the City of Grand Rapids.  However, most of the outsiders claim to have business interests within the City, thus making them City taxpayers.  Therefore, their participation in local elections is not necessarily suspect, though the wise voter will want to make sure that a Maverick candidate for the City Commission won't be a tool for greasing the skids for outside business interests to slide into City contracts or government subsidies.

After all, the leader of the Mavericks knows something about government subsidies for big redevelopment projects.  He is Chris Beckering who worked with his father Thomas Beckering (of Toxic Towers fame) on the Berkey & Gay building's conversion into offices and apartments and an American Seating factory's renovation into apartments.  He is now the spokesman for both projects, which have received millions in public subsidies including historic preservation tax credits, brownfield tax credits, and a suspicious low-ball tax assessment of one of the properties.

Exactly what the mostly-carpetbagger Mavericks want of candidate Shaffer in exchange for their $3,000 contribution to his campaign is a legitimate question for voters.  The same goes for Third Ward candidate Dan Tietema, if Beckering follows through on a Maverick plan to endorse him in an attempt to defeat incumbent Commissioner Jim White.  (And don't sneeze at that three thousand bucks, folks.  That's BIG money in city races.)

As for the Progressive Women's Alliance, one-third of their six hundred members live outside the City.  From their public statements to date, it's not clear what interest the non-resident members of the PWA have in backing candidate Bliss.  Strangely the rallying cry behind Bliss appears to be -- heaven help us! -- ABORTION.  Perhaps the pro-abortion PWA is trying to supplant the influence of the Friends of Labor, mentioned above, who are on the left end of the political spectrum but are pro-life.  Also being played up is that PWA candidate Bliss is pro-choice while her main opponent, Shaula Johnston, is pro-life.

No matter what anyone's position is, so long as Roe v. Wade is the law of the land, there is NOTHING a City Commissioner can do to outlaw, regulate, or protect "abortion-on-demand" in River City; the issue is a dead letter in local politics.  Therefore, only zealotry would seem to account for its injection into the Second Ward race.  Then again, maybe the abortion issue is a down-and-dirty way of communicating to voters Bliss's liberal credentials.  Whatever the case, it got Bliss a $5,000 check from the PWA.

The bottom line is that there's nothing wrong with crypto-Republicans and crypto-Democrats uncloaking themselves in City Commission races.  But let's just make sure that the carpetbaggers backing them are importing nothing more than good ol' fashioned partisanship into town.

BIO-TECH BATTLE

Complaints have been lodged against your executive director that I am anti-development.  Exhibit Number One for the prosecution is my opposition to River City becoming one of the hubs of the bio-tech revolution.  I am pleased to report to you, dear readers, that this is all nonsense.

As you know, what I have actually criticized are the proposals to let the government take your tax dollars to make investments in bio-tech companies, research, and infrastructure.  (I'm indifferent to how private investors may want to blow their money.)  I have objected to this use of your money on two levels.  First, the government's power to tax isn't a license to take your money for any reason the politicians and bureaucrats can come up with.  Taxes are to be used for those things that genuinely benefit the general public.  Pumping cash into the pockets of businessmen with the latest hot idea fails that standard miserably.  When the government engages in such projects, it is picking winners and losers in the distribution of your tax dollars -- the antithesis of a general public benefit.

Second, it's a bad idea.  Even if it were OK in principle for Guv Jen or the Republicans in the statehouse snare our hard-earned dollars to rain upon the entrepreneurs of the bio-tech revolution, it's not OK in practice.  The hard reality is that the big bucks in bio-tech will not be made in Michigan, let alone Grand Rapids.  Two bio-tech centers are already coalescing in Boston and San Francisco, with other big cities like Seattle and San Diego trying to get into the game.

Our state's biggest asset in the bid for bio-tech dominance is the University of Michigan; yet the sad fact is that the U-M is losing its bio-tech talent to the coasts.  Stanford University, part of the San Francisco bio-tech hub, just announced a few weeks ago that it recruited a top scientist away from U-M.  Furthermore, U-M President Mary Sue Coleman has complained that Michigan cannot hang onto its bio-tech and high-tech start-ups once they need a big injection of capital for their growth.  These companies pull up stakes and head to the East and West Coasts where the venture capitalists are.

River City's noisiest bio-tech booster, the Van Andel Institute, isn't going to change this equation.  After all, if it isn't clear that the Van Andel family is willing to invest any significant portion of their fortune into the VAI, then the VAI is just another organization out there competing for talent and capital against the likes of Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen (who is leading the charge to redevelop of chunk of downtown Seattle -- bigger than all of downtown G.R. -- into a bio-tech research and business center), and California's taxpayer-funded $3 billion embryonic stem-cell research program.  Indeed, the VAI's $150 million expansion is to be paid for entirely with other people's money.  So the Van Andel in the Van Andel Institute is no advantage at all in the rush for bio-tech gold.

Moreover, fellas like Peter Secchia will tell you that River City's bio-tech bid will go nowhere without a university medical research facility in town.  I don't doubt him, but does that justify spending tens of millions of dollars from donors and taxpayers to bring Michigan State University's lackluster College of Human Medicine to Grand Rapids?  East Lansing's attempt to steal some thunder from Ann Arbor's premier medical research center never panned out, so it's understandable that MSU now wants to unload its boondoggle.  But do we here in G.R. have to  play the role of the suckered hicks?

And even if I'm nothing but a naysayer, and the players can bring the big bio-tech bucks to River City, what does that get you and me in the end?  It's a fair question if the politicians are going to give the players our tax dollars to do this.  To answer that, let me share a snippet from a recent USA Today article on the brewing bio-tech battle:

"The [bio-tech] prize goes well beyond bragging rights.  Billions in government-research dollars are up for grabs.  Schools could earn millions in royalties paid by biotech start-ups licensing campus discoveries.  Those start-ups -- often launched in a university's backyard -- could create thousands of high-paying jobs for executives, attorneys, and other professionals churning out cancer drugs, pest-free crops, and other biotech goods."  [My emphasis.]

Note, folks, not high-paying jobs for factory rats like you and me.  Jobs for attorneys!  Do we really need more of them in town?  Yet, the Republicans in the state legislature and Guv Jen justify both of their ten-figure spending proposals on the promise that investing tax dollars into bio-tech and high-tech will replace the manufacturing jobs Michigan is losing because of its rotten tax and regulatory policies.  Just how a machinist will get one of those bio-tech executive slots, none of the politicians make clear.  If the VAI is anything to go by, any new jobs government spending on bio-tech creates will go to outsiders.  Out-of-state ready-to-migrate credentialed professionals will be the winners, not the guy next-door whose lost his job to a plant closing.

And this brings us back to my first objection to spending our tax dollars on the vain hope that bio-tech will be the salvation of our local economy.  The winners in this government gambit will not be the general public, but the very few ready to pounce on the bio-tech boom before it goes bust.  The losers will be the taxpayers, the very ones who are supposed to benefit.  When the bubble bursts, and from tulips to dotcoms the bubble always bursts, they will be left with nothing but big bond payments to make.

TUESDAY'S TOPICAL TAKES

Some quick thoughts on this fine Tuesday -- well, OK -- this hot and muggy Tuesday ...

[1] The state legislature, toadying to the state's tourism interests, is going to consider passing a law that forces all public school districts to start the new school year after Labor Day.  State Representative Ed Gaffney, a Republican representing Grosse Pointe, complains that the summer break for kids is already too short and needs to be lengthened.  Well, then, let him argue that with his local school board.  What makes him think his preference is the one everyone in the state should have?  The statehouse has already meddled in this issue by requiring the Labor Day break to be a four-day weekend for public schools.  Let each district set its schedule to reflect local preferences.  Enough of Lansing dictating the minutia of school administration, especially ...

[2] ... when the state pols can't get the big stuff straight.  If the Education Trust, a Washington D.C.-based public interest group, is correct, then Michigan can't even figure out how many kids are graduating from high school in the state.  Michigan has been reporting to the federal government that fewer than one of six kids are dropping out.  According to the Education Trust study of graduation rates in each state, more than one out of four Michigan students are drop-outs.  Of course, letting the low-performance students drop out is surely one way of boosting those achievement scores and keeping the federal dough rolling into public school district payrolls.  Don't expect any improvement in the graduation rate soon.

[3] Mary T. Scott is the big whistleblower on Metropolitan Hospital's alleged Medicare fraud who was awarded $1.1 million out of $6.25 million settlement the hospital struck with the U.S. Justice Department two years ago.  Scott then followed up that victory with a wrongful discharge suit against the hospital claiming that she was fired because of her whistleblowing.  Well, Judge Enslen of the U.S. District Court in Kalamazoo chucked out Scott's case.  It seems that she falsified evidence, including minutes of a hospital board meeting, to support her allegations.

Although Enslen's dismissal of Scott's wrongful discharge lawsuit has no effect on the Medicare fraud case and the award she won from it, Metro's spokesman crowed that the hospital stands vindicated across the board.  If so, why did Metro cough up more than six million dollars to settle the Medicare fraud charges in the first place?  Metro says it did so to avoid bad publicity while trying to sell a $165 million bond for its new campus in Wyoming.  Yeah, that makes sense.  Copping a plea looks a whole lot better to the public than defending yourself against false accusations.

[4] Speaking of bonds, Goodwill Industries sold a $1.5 million one to raise capital to spruce up its retail operation here in town.  Goodwill's new retail outlet at 3270 29th Street S.E. is more like a department store now rather than a second-hand fleamarket.  This pricey upgrade in image is supposed to attract new customers.  Goodwill sells used goods donated by the public to raise money to educate, train, and employ the mentally, emotionally, and physically handicapped along with others who are down on their luck.  We hope the new venture works for Goodwill and doesn't turn out to be another glitzy non-profit bricks-and-mortar boondoggle.  (If Metropolitan's new nine-figure campus comes to mind, you thought of that all by yourself.)

[5] Dave Morren is quitting as chairman of the Kent County Commission while keeping his options open for higher office down the road.  Without regard to his record in public office, Morren is a contemptible man.  He once testified under oath that my mother, whose kind-heartedness hasn't rub off on her son like it should have, was a "liar".  No doubt Mom, the tolerant person she is, will take me to task for bringing the subject up.  Nevertheless, Morren has put himself out as a public person and so the public should know what sort of person he is.  Thus, I'm warning you, folks.  Now that he has assaulted motherhood, what's next?  He'll probably leave apple pie alone so as to not stir up the apple growers in the county, and everybody is already down on baseball.  So what does that leave in Morren's sights, dear readers?  Yes, that's right:  The American Way!

BUY AND DIE

Well, I suppose no one actually buys the Grand Rapids Press for its financial advice.  However, it would serve the public better if the Press printed no advice than the crummy stuff from syndicated columnists in its nearly non-existent financial section.  For example, on Saturday the Press ran a Motley Fool column touting the investment advice of billionaire Warren Buffett, owner of the Berkshire Hathaway financial empire.

One Buffett "gem" the Fool relayed was:  "At Berkshire, when I purchase a company, I intend it to be for life."  What Buffett is offering here is the dangerous but common "buy and hold" strategy of investment.  As my wise ol' dad often reminds me, what goes unsaid about the "buy and hold" strategy is that you do not make a single dime off such an investment until you SELL it.  If your investment strategy does not include a clear plan for when to sell, then "buy and hold" is "buy and die".  Either you or investment goes belly up, and either way you made zilch.

Of course, Buffett didn't get rich through "buy and hold".  He has sold time and again companies and commodities he says he intended to hold for a lifetime.  It was only by selling what he bought he made his billions.  Remember, folks, there are only two sensible reasons to buy stuff.  You buy something to use it (e.g., a house, groceries, the Press to line the birdcage), or buy to sell (e.g., stocks, bonds, gold, real estate).  If you're not using it and don't know when you'd sell it, then you're in "buy and die" mode.

If I can provide you with all this financial wisdom in the space of a few paragraphs, surely the Grand Rapids Press can do better than the syndicated swill that passes for expertise in its financial section.

THE HAPPY FUN NEWS REPORT

Reviewing this weekend's editions of the Grand Rapids Press, I am relieved to learn what a wonderful world it is.  On Friday the Press devoted half of the front page to Game 7 of the Pistons-Spurs NBA championship bout.  Most of that was a picture of Ben Wallace look pretty grumpy.  Oh sure, the Pistons blowing the championship in the last half of the last game of the season isn't happy news -- but it's still fun news, kids!

Worry not.  On Saturday the Press delivered the full measure of happy fun news.  Smack dab in the middle of the front page was a big color photograph of a little girl having a heckuva good time at one of the City's public pools on a hot summer day.  Now that was both happy AND fun, and the Press -- God bless 'em -- didn't even weigh us down with an actual story we had to read about this wonderful newsbreaking event in River City.

But it wasn't until Sunday that I learned just how much the Grand Rapids Press cares about me.  Taking up most of the front page was a big story warning me that if I don't shop around I might be paying too much for concert tickers on the internet.  You see how the Press wants to make sure I'm happy when I'm out having fun?

Next weekend's front-page headliner:  Hints from Heloise!

LOOTERVILLE

On Thursday last week the U.S. Supreme Court delivered an astonishing decision that eviscerates the Fifth Amendment's protection of homeowners' property rights.  In Kelo v. City of New London, the country's high court ruled, in effect, that a city government could invoke eminent domain to seize property for a private developer.  (The City of New London had condemned homes and businesses along the city's waterfront for a new Pfizer pharmaceutical plant.)  In other words, if a developer has set his sights on your neighborhood for an office tower or a shopping center and he has the right friends at city hall, the city can condemn your property, give you a few bucks for it, and transfer it to the developer.

The standard that used to prevent this sort of assault on property rights was the "public use" requirement for the exercise of eminent domain.  The government had to have a genuinely public purpose for your property such as a highway or a reservoir to legitimately condemn it.  Of course, local governments have abused that standard in the past, especially if the targeted property owners were politically weak.  But now the Supreme Court's Kelo decision has made what constitutes a "public use" so elastic -- essentially it is whatever the local government deems it -- that hardly any pretense needs to be maintained to allow the government to seize one citizen's property for use by another.  All that is needed to make this work is some sort of vaporous promise that the new use will increase jobs or tax revenues.

This ruling is an extraordinary increase in the power of local governments.  Most of our disputes with government are with city hall, and now the denizens of city hall can intimidate a disgruntled citizen with the threat of losing his home if he doesn't shut up.  This threat is even more acute for small businessowners, who are more likely to own storefronts, offices, and plants in areas targeted for redevelopment.

Even if this newfound power were not abused, what justice is there in letting city officials pick and choose who should own which private property?  We all know how small-time politicians and bureaucrats get starry-eyed and turn soft-headed when presented with glitzy plans for redevelopment of this neighborhood or that.  Think of nonsense like Guv Jen's "Cool Cities" or River City's wannabe bio-tech center "Medical Mile". When they come for your home to build that new office tower or shopping center, do you want the city to have the power to force you off with a check in the amount of your tax assessment?  Or do you want the power to say no to no matter how much that private developer is ready to pay?

Fortunately in Michigan, despite the Kelo decision, you still have that power to say no.  None of our local governments will be turning into Lootervilles yet.  In Kelo the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that even though the Fifth Amendment may no longer protect property owners, individual states can do so through their own constitutions and statutes.  Therefore, the decision last year by the Michigan Supreme Court that barred Wayne County from seizing a residential neighborhood for redevelopment into a private industrial park continues to protect Michigan property owners from politically-connected developers.

But don't take too much comfort from this, folks.  Keep in mind that the Michigan Supreme Court overturned its notorious Poletown decision of a quarter-century ago that okayed the razing of homes by the City of Detroit to clear the area for a new General Motors plant.  If Michigan courts can change the law from black to white in the span of twenty-five years under the same state constitution, there's nothing to stop them flipping again.

FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK: WHY WE NEED CATHERINE'S CARE CENTER AND THE OTHER COMMUNITY CLINICS

Bridget, our editor, conducted the survey of local community clinics that was the subject of an article earlier this week.  In the comments section of that article she shared some of the emotional impressions she had about the different clinics and the plight of Catherine's Care Center.  I thought her comments deserved more prominence, so I have posted them here as an article.  Please take the time to read the Editor's thoughts on this important matter.

Dear L.A.W. Readers...

I thought it might be helpful to let you all know some additional details about the clinic survey that we did recently to help round out the facts a little better. The quantitative elements of the survey can be identified easily whereas the more personal elements of what I experienced can't be, so I want to elaborate a little further for your benefit.

I was the surveyor.

I did call around town to find out what each clinic had to offer based upon:

1. health issue,
2. age,
3. home location,
4. my work status,
5. income,
6. lack of insurance.

My goal was to find out if they took the uninsured, the costs, what they offered and how quickly an appointment could be made. It was an eye opening project in many ways. I also stuck only with clinics that seemed to work with adults (could do children and the elderly too).

I am happy to report that every clinic treated me with complete respect. I was concerned that soon as they heard of my part time work status and lower income with no insurance that I might be treated poorly (I had some issues like this after college and know first hand how cold and distant the medical community can be in some areas if you don't meet their all important "who are you insured by" criteria).

Each clinic representative took time to ask me important questions and lead me into their network of how things are done and why. They all let me know that they could help and how. If they could not, almost all provided references so, I was not left out there alone. I was impressed at the courtesy they extended to me and expect it is the same to other callers and patients.

A few of the clinics (Catherine's Care Center, Sparta Health Center, Ferguson, The Salvation Army Health Clinic and The Westside Health Center) seemed to offer the most information, assistance and caring for the average patient. Many seemed to take my problem personal and do all they could to help. That was impressive and rewarding. I would have felt in good hands had my issue been real.

The most disappointing clinics were Belknap and Burton. These either had no openings at all or none for many weeks or months down the road (rather inconvient to those who have serious issues needing a real doctor or nurse now and yet can't afford the cost an emergency room would charge).

Wege turned out to be an unlikely choice for anyone needing lower income/uninsured care. The writing was on the wall as their voice mail system upon calling in states that they take all major insurance programs. Nice - except for the uninsured. You know right away things might not go well after this...and it didn't. I eventually spoke to one person who was nice but, once they heard my story and no insurance shipped me off to someone else for help. From there, they quoted high charges just to see the doctor, lab costs and future medicine would have to be paid for as well (no price given) and there was no openings until July sometime. So...Wege might certainly provide good care but, only to those who have time on their hands and some bucks in their pocket.

Catherine's stood alone as the only clinic that addressed if I did not have an income or insurance but, still needed help I would not be turned away. They would find a way to help anyway they could. This was heart warming to know that their mission to service everyone and anyone is not just on paper. St. Mary's may have taken the "MERCY" out of their care but, others clearly have not. Good for them.

The largest negative I felt throughout this half day process was how hard it must be for those who are low income and possibly uninsured to just FIND a clinic. I spent hours researching who to call, making contact and interviewing clinics for my options and choices. I had yet to even make the final appointment, find transportation there and get the care I had been seeking. I worry that may people don't even get as far as I did as it takes time to research clinics (via phone books, internet and references) and then the costs to call, drive there and more.

This process cemented in my mind that many of these clinics are needed throughout the region as they service diverse populations of people with different issues (health, age, income, work status, family issues and more). Each clinic is important also from a location stand point. Many patients can't drive long distances to find care -it needs to be local. Some of the clinics were close, others much farther out. I'm sure that makes a difference to those in need who have to walk, bike, take the bus, etc.

It was clear from the time of my call to setting an appointment that most of these clinics are VERY busy as often I would need to wait a few days to be seen (only two could see me within 48 hours max - the rest longer). Waiting times were reasonable considering my issue but, the number of patients being seen appeared to be sizable and eliminating even one would make a big impact in the local community that it services. Any clinic that is targeted for closer does not make sense to this Editor. Clearly...the need remains great and the services still slim. More assistance to these clinics is needed NOT less.

Those staffing and working these clinics deserve praise for all they do to those in need in the community. They appear to do a fine job from what I uncovered and from what I hear.

The solution....hopefully the funding partners and locals will continue to support these clinics as much as they can so, that good health care is available for everyone and not just the forunate among us.

Editor of The L.A.W.
Bridget Dupont-Tingley

THE MAKERS OF THINGS

In last week's article "Lost Cause" we described how the City of Grand Rapids and the players who had access to the machinery of government sold out Monroe North's industrial future for healthcare gold.  Well, the scheme didn't quite pan out, so Monroe North's something of a mixed bag of haphazard redevelopment these days.  Those who wrecked the promise of big manufacturing dollars being made right smack in the middle of River City can, and have, justified themselves by citing the big trends of the past few decades.

One interesting trend is the shift in jobs since 1970 from manufacturing to healthcare, as noted in today's Wall Street Journal.  Thirty-five years ago, one in four Americans was employed in manufacturing.  Today only one in ten.  Meanwhile, the healthcare sector went from employing one in twenty Americans to one in ten.  Thus, the two trend lines have crossed.

The mistake in interpreting these trend lines is that manufacturing is a losing bet and healthcare is a winner.  Not so.  What is not grasped is that manufacturing has made tremendous leaps in productivity and so is going the same way as agricultural in this country.  Making things is here to stay just like farming.  However, the hard fact is that fewer people are needed to put out more and more goods.  Nevertheless, we still need some people to make all those things -- i.e., create wealth -- if we want to pay for all those people who don't -- e.g., lawyers, nurses, teachers, actors, bloggers ;).  (Click here for more on this point.)

And just like some parts of the country remain large centers of agricultural, other parts of the country will be concentrated centers of manufacturing.  Grand Rapids is ideally suited as such a center.  Just because manufacturing invokes the image of old-fashioned smokestacks in some minds, that's not a reason to run from it to embrace all that vaporous bio-tech blather that is vague enough to include everything from bio-molecular scientists to bedpan attendants.  After all, a dollar made from manufacturing spends the same as one made from bio-tech.  And another hard fact is that the manufacturing dollars are here right now whereas so many of the bio-tech dollars remain nothing but a hope -- or hype.

Of course, the doomsayers of manufacturing can support the bio-tech hype by showing how many local jobs are tied to healthcare.  That's true, but why do we want anymore healthcare jobs than required to take care of local needs?  They don't pay as well as manufacturing jobs and their employers don't contribute to the local taxbase as much as manufacturing does by most measures.  Indeed, many healthcare employers are non-profits adding little or nothing to the taxbase.

So what do we need:  More consumers of the taxbase, or more contributors?  Fortunately, the choice isn't either/or.  Make River City friendly to the makers of things, and we'll have the wealth to pay for all the healthcare jobs our community wants or needs.

SPEAKING OF THE BROOM ...

Refering to the previous story, maybe the City Attorney's office wouldn't need a brooming if we had city manager demanding performance out of the city staff.  For more than twenty years Kurt Kimball has ruled the roost as city manager in Grand Rapids.  (Well, OK, there were those twelve years of servility as toadie-in-chief under the Boss Logie regime.)  Anyway, the city is now in worse shape than it has ever been.  Kimball can't figure out how to carve out the fat in a pork-laden budget during the City's worst fiscal crisis, ensured us a second fiscal crisis when he bought us long-term pension liabilities for short-term peace with the City employee unions, presided over scandal in the assessor's office, and is sitting atop a new one in the city attorney's office.  At what point does the City Commission get around to holding their top dog responsible for these messes?

CITY ATTORNEY PUNTS; TAXPAYERS TO COUGH UP $800K

Once again the City Attorney's office recommended settling a lawsuit instead of taking it to trial.  The City Commission agreed yesterday.  City taxpayers are out $800,000.

The sad story behind all this is that of Joseph Valenciano, a local resident who was driving home from his nursing job at Metropolitan Hospital five years ago when he pulled in front of an oncoming City snowplow driven by Kenneth Kibby.  Mr. Valenciano was severely injured in the accident.  He suffers permanent brain injuries, must live in a group home, and can no longer hold down his nursing job.

It appears that Kibby, a City employee, had a driving record littered with violations, including two at-fault accidents within the five years leading up to the Valenciano accident.  However, the police neither cited Kibby nor found him at fault in this accident.  Yes, it looks like Kibby was a reckless driver, and the incompetent City let have a job driving a City vehicle.  But, he didn't cause the accident.  So why have the City Attorney's office and the City Commission agreed to shell out $800,000 taxpayer dollars to Mr. Valenciano?

We can certainly feel sorry for Mr. Valenciano, but justice is not served if City taxpayers are made responsible for the accident he caused.  For eight hundred K in the middle of budget crisis, I think we can get a little more fight than this out of the slugs in the City Attorney's office.  I also think we can get our elected representatives in the City Commission kicking some ass to get a decent performance out these staffers.  Maybe if the staff of the City Attorney's office spent less time writing briefs for long-shot appeals to the Supreme Court, inventing ways to block FOIA requests, and pursuing pointless vendettas, they could concentrate on defending taxpayers in cases like Mr. Valenciano instead of giving up.

But then the surrender monkeys at the City Attorney's office may be too wedded to their ways to change.  If so, time for the broom.

LOCAL CLINICS NOT AVAILABLE TO CATHERINE'S CARE PATIENTS

Last month Saint Mary's hospital announced that it will no longer support Catherine's Care Center.  The reason for this decision has not been made clear; however Saint Mary's assured everyone that this present no problem for the Care Center's 2,500 patients (mostly indigent or uninsured), because other nearby clinics can pick up the slack.  The Wege and Belknap Commons Health Centers were prominently mentioned in this regard.  A survey of community healthcare clinics in the area by L.A.W. does not support Saint Mary's contentions.

L.A.W. contacted nine clinics in the Grand Rapids area which are identified as healthcare facilities available to the general public and the underserved in particular.  Our survey excluded those clinics which have a narrowly targeted clientele, such as Clinica Santa Maria serving Hispanics or the McAuley Center treating HIV/AIDS patients.  The survey group consisted of Catherine's Care Center at 224 Carrier Street, N.E., in Grand Rapids; Belknap Commons Health Center at 751 Lafayette Avenue, N.E.; Wege Health Center at Saint Mary's Hospital at 300 Lafayette Avenue, S.E.; Cherry Street Health Center at 550 Cherry Street, S.E.; Ferguson Adult Health Center at 75 Sheldon Avenue, S.E.; Burton Health Center at 2133 Buchanan Avenue, S.W.; Salvation Army Booth Clinic at 1215 E. Fulton Street; Westside Health Center at 669 Stocking Avenue, N.W.; and Sparta Health Center at 475 S. State Street in Sparta.

We asked each clinic if an appointment was available within the week to see a doctor about a "female" infection.  Each clinic was informed that the patient was uninsured and had little or no means to pay for any care.  The results were as follows:

[1] Catherine's Care Center could see the patient within 48 hours.  Payment, if any, would be on a sliding scale based upon income.  The same for lab work, some of which is done in-house.  Financial assistance could also be provided for prescription medicines, including distribution of free samples.

[2] Belknap Commons Health Center was not taking any new patients.  The soonest that might change is in August.  They refered the patient to Cherry Street Health Center.

[3] Wege Health Center was welcoming until the receptionist learned our patient was uninsured and passed her off to another person.  Wege had no immediate appointments available but could see the patient in July.  However, the patient would have to pay for the visit ($79) and lab work (extra) with insurance or cash.  No financial help was available for prescription medicines.

[4] Cherry Street Health Center (which is affiliated with Belknap Commons) had appointments available within the week.  The clinic required a $15 payment to see either a doctor or nurse, which included lab work if done in-house.  If the patient met the income requirements, Cherry Street might also be able to help with free samples of prescription medicines if available.

[5] Ferguson Adult Health Center had appointments available within the week if the patient was willing to see a male doctor.  A female doctor would be available during the following week.  Payment for the office visit would be determined on sliding scale of fees based upon income.  No specific cost was given.  The same sliding scale applied to lab work also.  Prescription medicines were not included in this, but Ferguson would try to help the patient get into a PAP plan if long-term medication were needed.

[6] Burton Health Center did not have any openings for adult patients at this time; perhaps later this year.  They recommended the patient to Cherry Street Health Center.

[7] Salvation Army Booth Clinic was able to see the patient within the week, although that would not always be the case because of varying patient load.  They refered the patient to Planned Parenthood for her problem if she could not wait.  The Booth Clinic, like Ferguson, charged on a sliding scale based upon income for office visits.  No information on financial assistance for lab work and prescription medicines.

[8] Westside Health Center could probably see the patient within the week.  Payment similar to Ferguson; a sliding scale fee for office visits and lab work, and help with a PAP plan for prescription medications.

[9] Sparta Health Center might be able to the see the patient the same day.  Payment for office visits and lab work on a sliding scale based upon income, plus they would assist the patient with enrolling in the Kent County Health Insurance Program.  No information regarding financial assistance for prescription medicines.

In summary, three of the eight alternatives to Catherine's Care Center were not taking new patients (Belknap Commons, Wege, Burton).  Of the remainder, only Sparta Health Center could see the patient as soon as Catherine's Care Center.  As for payment, only the Sparta Health Center was as accommodating as Catherine's Care Center to our uninsured patient, although Saint Mary's Wege Health Center was the only one unwilling to provide any financial assistance.

In our assessment the Sparta Health Center compared well with Catherine's Care Center.  However, Sparta's primary mission is caring for migrant farmers and is located more than twenty minutes (by car) from downtown.  If a patient has some ability to pay, the nearby Cherry Street Health Center, Booth Clinic, and Ferguson Adult Health Center provide an alternative to Catherine's Care Center.  But, it looks doubtful that these clinics could absorb the Care Center's unique clientele of 2,500 mostly uninsured patients -- not to mention the few thousand other people in Northeast G.R. that Catherine's Care assists through its outreach programs.

The bottom line of our survey is that all of these clinics have their place in the local healthcare system, and none of them are poised to replicate the role Catherine's Care Center plays in our community.

THE BLACKBALLED REQUEST

Below is the text of the Freedom of Information Act request L.A.W.'s office manager Mary Hines, my brother Brian Tingley, and I separately made to the City of Grand Rapids.  I invite our readers to send in the same request to see if the City will also refuse to release the documents to you on the basis of some tenuous connection with me.  If prominent developers in River City made false statement to City officials to improperly reduce their tax assessment, we are entitled to know that information.  It's time for the City to stop blackballing the following request:

[your name & return address]

[date]

Grand Rapids City Attorney’s Office

Office of FOIA Coordinator

300 Monroe Avenue, N.W.

Grand Rapids, Michigan 49503

Re: Freedom of Information Act request

Dear Sirs:

I request a copy of certain public records pertaining to the property located at the 900-1100 block of Monroe Avenue N.W., commonly known as “The Boardwalk” including:

1. The building permit submitted by Pioneer Inc. for the main building representing the cost of improvements as “$150,000,000” [sic] and for the parking ramp representing the cost of improvements as “$5,000,000”;

2. A letter and all attachments from Thomas E. Beckering to the City of Grand Rapids, dated about February 2001, representing the actual cost of the Boardwalk project as $31.5 million;

3. A letter and all attachments from the developer of the Boardwalk to the City of Grand Rapids representing the actual cost of the project as $20 million (this is the letter City Assessor Glen Beekman identified in an e-mail message to City Manager Kurt Kimball on April 28, 2005, at 4:28 p.m.);

4. All other records that the developers or contractors of the Boardwalk project submitted to the City of Grand Rapids as proof of the project’s cost.

I make this request under Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act, Public Act 442 of 1976. I do not wish to inspect these records first, so please send copies to my mailing address at the top of this letter. For purposes of determining the applicability of any fees, you should know that I am not seeking information for a commercial use. Specifically I am asking for these records for the purpose of making them public, therefore under City policy no fee would be appropriate. If you conclude that a fee is applicable, please inform me first.

Sincerely,

[your name]

Good luck!

CITY REFUSES TO DISCLOSE BOARDWALK DOCUMENTS

About an hour ago the Grand Rapids City FOIA appeals committee rubberstamped "Shredder" Ophoff's denial of our requests for public records related to the valuation and subsequent tax assessment of the Boardwalk property located north of downtown on Monroe Avenue.  So those records, for now, remain under lock and key (assuming the Shredder hasn't come up with a pretext for destroying them yet).

From our readers we learned of the existence of a letter from the Boardwalk developers to the City stating that they had invested only $20 million in the property.  Apparently this figure was used to justify a low tax assessment of the Boardwalk.  However, that figure contradicts the $30-35 million the Boardwalk developers had told its lenders they had invested in order to support a $26.5 million in loans against the property.  On the one hand the Boardwalk developers gave the City a low-ball figure to get a cheap assessment and on the other they gave the banks a big figure to maximize the amount they could borrow.

If the Boardwalk developers lied to the City, then they cheated to get a 50% reduction in their tax assessment.  If they lied to the banks, then that would appear to be bank fraud.  If, if, if ... we needed the facts.  So we made requests of the City to get the relevant public records.  On behalf of the City, "Shredder" Ophoff refused.  We made appeals to the City Commission.  Today the City Commission subcommittee in charge of FOIA appeals met and told us to take a hike.

General George, a.k.a. Mayor Heartwell, took command of the situation even though Commissioner Jendrasiak was nominally the committee chairman.  The General gave voice only to the Shredder's arguments for denial and invited him to speak to that end.  Of course, the Shredder made all the necessary noises, and I, as one of the appellants, was not permitted to address the committee to counter his nonsense.  The General then struck a deliberative pose and declared, by gosh, we need to deny the release of these documents.  Jendrasiak and Commissioner Dean, the third member of the committee, fell into line and agreed.  In short, the City's FOIA appeals process is a joke.

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly and completely our elected officials forget that they do not represent the City, they represent us.  Even if Heartwell, Jendrasiak, and Dean sincerely thought Ophoff had the legal basis to deny disclosure of the requested documents, they had the authority to release in the name of the public good.  But no.  They closed ranks to protect the City staff and the stink emanating from the conflicting values placed upon the Boardwalk property by its owners.

So the herd instinct of the Grand Rapids City Commission is alive and well, which explains the mooing you thought you heard at City Hall.

MONDAY MUSINGS

This and that on a Monday ...

[1] The Pistons are in the NBA championship series.  That's certainly front-page news -- in the sports section!  However, in its relentless quest to make the news marshmallow soft, the Grand Rapids Press has taken to reporting each blow-by-blow of the Pistons tussle with the Spurs on Page One.  Let's consider this for a moment.  What must the Press think of us when it headlines huggable news instead of hard news on its front page?

[2] Guv Jen, statehouse Republicans, the Grand Rapids Press, Dr. Luis Tomatis, Peter Secchia, and all the players downtown have drilled into us that bio-tech is our future.  Who can argue?  Bio-tech is hardcore science and technology, and there the path to progress always lies.  (Yes, that's a none-too-subtle pun.)  Leading the bandwagon is River City's premier hi-tech organization, the Van Andel Institute.  A curious thing about that.  This paean to science was the late Amway-founder Jay Van Andel's favorite project.  But how soon we forget Jay's second favorite fancy -- a creationism center in Arizona.  To think the foundation for River City's bright and shiny bio-tech hi-tech future was laid by a fella who wanted to prove the Earth was created in 4004 B.C. and men walked with dinosaurs.

[3] Conflict of interest alert:  The other Amway founder, Rich DeVos, has partnered up with old friends to build a series of medical towers across the street from Spectrum Health's main campus.  Spectrum will be an anchor tenant in these new buildings, yet Spectrum CEO Richard Breon told us a couple of weeks ago that the hospital needs to jack up rates by 8% next month to help purchase new buildings.  So if we all have to pay more because Spectrum needs to buy buildings, why does Spectrum also need to plan on renting buildings from DeVos?  No doubt Spectrum's board has approved all of this with good reason.  After all, the board is fortunate enough to have DeVos as a member who can give them all the good reasons they need to rubberstamp these plans.

[4] The City Attorney's office is batting for the Boardwalk polluters again.  Last week Assistant City Attorneys Daniel Ophoff and Catherine Mish filed an appeal with the Michigan Supreme Court asking it to dismiss the Toxic Towers hazardous waste complaint against the City and the Boardwalk developers.  It's a "Hail Mary" pass that none of the other defendants in the case could justify spending any money to make.  However, the City Attorney's office has you the taxpayers to cover the cost, so Ophoff and Mish are making this snowball's-chance-in-hell appeal, which, if on the slight chance it succeeds, benefits all of the defendants.  Shamelessly the City continues to use your tax dollars to help protect these polluters.

LOST CAUSE

At the June 10th annual meeting of the Monroe North Business Association, developer Jack Buchanan of Blue Bridge Ventures pitched a plan to demolish the Western American Mailer and GR Spring industrial facilities for a "mixed-use" development of those properties.  Lunch buckets are out and suits & ties are in, as he announced that the Monroe North district is no longer suitable for an industrial park.  What a shame.

Monroe North was ideally suited for redevelopment as a city center industrial park in the wake of Autodie's collapse into bankruptcy twelve years ago.  In the heart of River City it had all the infrastructure modern manufacturing required including a railroad spur right through the middle of it, yet it had the unique quality of being surrounded by buffers to keep it separate from the residential and business districts around it:  To the west was the Grand River, to the east Lookout Hill, to south the I-196 freeway, and to the north Leonard Street.

Monroe North was an opportunity for Grand Rapids to show how a rust-belt city could successfully integrate manufacturing into its very core on the brink of the 21st century.  Regardless of the century and the promises of this or that neat idea for the future, a city needs a strong job and tax base to prosper.  That is what manufacturing provides.

Instead Grand Rapids city planners continued their blinkered campaign to drive manufacturing out of the city and into the suburban greenspaces surrounding it.  They became enamored with the idea that Monroe North should be converted into a mixed-use zone in which offices, apartments, and factories would happily jostle up against one another.  Of course, that sounds like precisely the opposite of zoning, which is intended to keep incompatible uses apart from each other.  However, even if a mixed-use zone abandons the very rationale for zoning, it does allow city planners to control the plan for the zone.

That control was important, because then-mayor Boss Logie and his business clients had plans for Monroe North as early as 1992 for a new satellite campus for Butterworth Hospital (now Spectrum Health), educational and research facilities along the lines of the Van Andel Institute, and all the latte-sipping amenities and loft apartments that appeal to the non-profit crowd.  To that end the City wrangled millions of state and federal tax dollars to prettify the district on the false promise that there was nearly $300 million in private investment ready to be poured into Monroe North.  To help justify that figure, the City initially booked the Boardwalk project as a $150 million investment.  (That's now down to $20 million and the subject of the current FOIA fight with the City.)

However, Logie's agenda collided with a development plan promoted by Proto-CAM Inc., a manufacturing company (owned by my family) located in the heart of Monroe North.  Proto-CAM put together a plan backed by venture capital from Chicago and elsewhere to redevelop the district as an industrial park based upon its Datafacturing® technology which creates good-paying jobs for low- or no-skill core city residents.  The plan also called for a charter vocational high school to be located in the district.  To kickstart its plan, Proto-CAM filed a request with the City Planning Department in 1996 to convene a hearing before the Grand Rapids Planning Commission to clean up the industrial zoning of Monroe North that had been sliced and diced to accommodate Logie's agenda.

And that's where the industrial resurrection of River City got strangled in the cradle.  Proto-CAM's re-zoning application simply disappeared into the bowels of City Hall, exposing the company's utter lack of political clout.  Unsurprisingly the venture capital behind the plan then also disappeared because Proto-CAM's owners were unwilling to launch a Datafacturing industrial park elsewhere.  However, the conflict did expose the machinations by Boss Logie's camp and so their big vision for Monroe North didn't come to pass either.

Now neither fish nor fowl the redevelopment of Monroe North drifted.  Because River City had made itself unattractive to manufacturing, by default Monroe North fell towards commercial and residential redevelopment to the point where, as Buchanan announced, an industrial park is no longer in the cards.  But worry not, folks!  The politicians, the bureaucrats, and the Van Andel panhandlers will make good on this lost opportunity for Grand Rapids with the bright shiny future of bio-tech -- if we agree to fork over to them a billion bucks or two.

SHREDDER OPHOFF TO DEFEND FOIA DENIALS

Assistant City Attorney Daniel Ophoff, the City's FOIA coordinator who notoriously destroyed the minutes of closed sessions of the Grand Rapids City Commission to prevent them from being disclosed, will appear before the City's Committee on Freedom of Information Act Appeals on Tuesday, June 21st.  "Shredder" Ophoff is being called by the committee to defend his decision to deny three separate FOIA requests for the disclosure of documents concerning the value of the Boardwalk apartment-office complex, a.k.a. Toxic Towers, located at 940 Monroe Avenue N.W.  (Click here for the background on this issue.)

The three FOIA appeals were filed by me, your executive director; Mary Hines, L.A.W.'s office manager; and Brian Tingley, a person we are associated with for reasons beyond our control.  Ms. Hines and I will also be appearing before the committee to state our reasons for appeal and answer questions.  Sitting on the FOIA appeals committee are Mayor Heartwell and City Commissioners Dean and Jendrasiak.  The hearing is at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday and open to the public in Room 601 of City Hall.

TSUNAMI RISING

Grand Rapids Community College is raiding its piggy bank to cover a huge increase in health insurance and retirement benefits for its employees.  They are expected to jump by fifteen percent or more next year.  Robert Partridge, GRCC's CFO announced that the college will be looting three separate funds to cover these employee benefits.  He expect to withdraw $734,000 from savings, $500,000 from the reserve fund, and $234,000 from a fringe benefit stabilization fund.

That's a hoot.  Interesting how what were long ago termed "fringe" benefits has transmogrified into a financial tsunami of health and retirement liabilities that could wash away the college and other government institutions in the grip of public employee unions demanding 100% subsidized healthcare and defined benefit pension plans.  Indeed, Partridge forecasts that GRCC will be underwater by $15.7 million come 2010 if the trend continues.

I wonder what River Rat Gary Schenk, a member of GRCC's board, thinks about this mess.  I doubt the same tricks he has used to get his client Dykema Excavators off the hook with the Department of Environmental Quality will work to spare the college of the folly of its antiquated budget-busting employee benefit policy.  Too many people will be watching.  Then again maybe he won't be around when the tsunami crashes over GRCC.  After all, who are the first to leave a sinking ship?

SPEED CRATERS REDUX

We had thought all those gaping holes in our streets were "speed craters", a clever plan by the City to slow down speeding traffic.  We now learn from a report put out by The Road Information Program, or TRIP, that those holes are in fact evidence of deteriorated streets in immediate need of repair.  According to the TRIP report, nearly one-third of Grand Rapids streets are in poor condition and another quarter in mediocre condition.

Only the streets of perennial basketcase Detroit were in worse shape among Michigan cities.  The TRIP report calculates that bad streets in Grand Rapids nick the average motorist nearly $400 a year in extra repair, fuel, and tire costs.  So not only are your tax dollars not buying you the basic infrastructure you expect from the City, the City's misfeasance depletes your wallet even further.

This is what happens when the City officials forget why we have a city in the first place.  We don't need a bloated City Manager's staff with fat salaries; we need streets in decent repair.  For more information on the TRIP report, go to www.tripnet.org.

RECTIFYING THE RECORD RE RICK

Second Ward Commissioner Rick Tormala complained to me this weekend that L.A.W. has mischaracterized his record with the Grand Rapids City Commission in the article I wrote last week concerning Third Ward Commissioner James White's hue and cry on the City government's impending financial meltdown.  Tormala states that he has been a fiscal hawk and doesn't deserve blame for the current crisis.

Is the good commissioner's complaint valid?  If I didn't make my point clear enough in the original article on White's warning, let me do so now.  The problem was that Tormala's response to White's charge that the receivership is immiment for the City gave the appearance of complacency in the face of the worst financial crisis this town has ever encountered.  Tough action is needed, and it is not enough to point the blame at the end of revenue-sharing -- i.e., the City government getting a share of state and federal tax dollars -- which Tormala is adamant about.

While that was the subtext of my criticism of Tormala (and First Ward Commissioner James Jendrasiak) in the original article, it was not clear even when reading between the lines.  Furthermore, there is now a question as to the sincerity of White's dire public pronouncement that the sky is falling:  Is he trying to get his fellow commissioners to buy his silence in exchange for re-directing tax dollars to the Third Ward?  Finally, Tormala has been critical of City spending priorities and fat management salaries and has voted against the budget.  That's good.  Let's hope he starts targeting the City employee pension tsunami ready to engulf us.

So, all in all, we think Tormala's complaint has merit.

However, it's good to keep in mind that we're not only critical of Tormala.  We have also given him credit where credit is due.  For example, we've noted Tormala for criticizing the charade City Manager Kurt Kimball put together to solicit public comment on spending priorities; denouncing Mayor Heartwell's new subcommittees that do an end-run around the Open Meetings Act; taking the City Attorney's office to task for being quick to settle instead of trying frivolous lawsuits; and most recently intervening to end Assistant City Attorney Daniel Ophoff's leadership of the defense of the Toxic Towers developers.

And we'll also give Tormala a thumb's up for not accepting as final Ophoff's half-assed investigation of financial improprieties involving the Grand Rapids public museum (f.k.a., the Van Andel Museum Center).

Now let's see if Commissioner Tormala will get serious about getting the City Attorney's Office to quit its suicide pact with the Toxic Towers developers in the hazardous waste complaint currently pending in Kent County Circuit Court.  If the City gets tagged with helping the developers to deliberately violate Michigan environmental law and expose hundreds of people to poisonous concentrations of toxic chemicals, the potential fines could bankrupt it.

TOOLS OF THE TRADE

A recent survey shows that Michigan public school teachers spend on average $466 a year from their own personal funds on books and supplies they need in the classroom.  Reaction to this fact from the usual suspects suggests that this is a bad thing.  It's not.

Margaret Trimer-Hartley, spokesman for the Michigan Education Association, the state's largest teachers union, complains, "Professionals ought to be given the tools to do their jobs and not be expected to dip into their own pockets for such basics."  Rhetorically she asked, "Are we asking lawyers and accountants and other professionals to provide their own paper and pencils and typewriters?"

Well, yes, Margaret, we do expect these professionals to provide for themselves those things.  Just like we expect carpenters to own their hammers, machinists their micrometers, and plumbers their wrenches.  The taxpayers of Michigan are not stingy in the salaries and benefits they pay public school teachers.  So it's not unreasonable for them to do the same as the rest of us and pay for at least some of the tools of their trade.

CATHERINE'S CARE CARRYING ON

As I have collected information about the recent decision of Saint Mary's hospital to terminate its funding of Catherine's Care Center -- a community clinic located on the northeast side of town open to all regardless of ability to pay -- I encountered the persistent rumor that it will now be closing its doors.  Let me reassure you, folks:  Catherine's Care Center is open and will remain open.

Although the loss of Saint Mary's support will be a hardship for the clinic, the people behind it are dedicated to keeping it open as they look for new sponsors.  The mission of Catherine's Care Center is a worthy one because it helps those patients who fall through cracks and have no other medical facility to turn to.  If you'd like to help, even a small amount makes a difference, you can send a check or money order to Catherine's Care Center at 205 Carrier Street N.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49505.  The clinic is program of the Creston Neighborhood Association, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and so your contributions will be tax deductible.

FRIDAY FUN STUFF II

A few loose thoughts as we wrap up the week ...

[1] I'm sure the relationships that Grand Rapids Press publisher Danny Gaydou has with potential beneficiaries of any government bio-tech largesse has nothing to do with this, but it's clear that River City's daily is in the grip of bio-tech mania.  Wherever there's an angle, a story now gets connected to "life sciences" or "bio-tech".  The latest example is a short article on the 90th anniversary of Grand Rapids Community College buried on page B4 of last night's edition.  The headline reads:  "What began as a U-M feeder school now trains for life sciences".  [My emphasis.]

The bio-tech bandwagon is a-rolling, folks.  If you have to get on it, just make sure you jump off before it goes over the edge of the cliff.  How will you know?  It's when the Van Andel Institute changes its mission for the fourth time and becomes a weight-loss clinic.  Or else, you can keep reading here. ;)

[2] Van Andel's panhandle:  This week David Van Andel, chairman and CEO of the Van Andel Institue, graciously announced that he'll accept either the state senate Republicans' one-billion-dollar bio-tech bond hand-out or Guv Jen's two-billion-dollar high-tech bond giveaway.  All that he demands for his neutrality is that he has a say in how that taxpayer funds get spent.  Meanwhile, no further news regarding what if any commitment the Van Andels are making from their Amway fortune to their namesake institute.  As I warned you, folks, the VAI is a Van Andel family operation set up to run on other people's money.  Watch your wallets!

[3] Guv Jen says we should support her $2 billion high-tech bond proposal because it will create 72,000 jobs that "could not be outsourced".  Short of repealing the Thirteenth Amendment and re-introducing chattel slavery, I am not exactly sure how the good governor plans to make good on that promise.  Well, the whole thing is rather silly anyway.  How does Granholm have the slightest clue how many, if any, jobs would result from the State of Michigan picking the winners and losers in the high-tech bond lottery?  How does a lawyer-turned-politician, whose knowledge of making a profit comes not from private enterprise but instead the McNamara machine, think she knows the ups and downs of venture capital investment well enough to make such a promise of success?

By the way, dear readers, that's her plan.  Granholm wants to use the funds raised from her two-billion-dollar bond to buy for the State of Michigan stakes in high-tech businesses and start-ups.  You'd think with all the casinos around the state, Guv Jen would have plenty of other opportunities for rolling the dice other than this boondoggle with taxpayer dollars.

[4] At least Dick DeVos Jr. in his bid to unseat Granholm as governor next year went on the record here in town on Wednesday that he disapproves Guv Jen's bond proposal because the state shouldn't be in the business of picking winners and losers -- just like we said here a couple of months ago.  On the one hand we're flattered that Dick Jr. thinks well enough our pontifications on these matters to incorporate them into his campaign rhetoric.  On the other hand we're disappointed that he didn't credit us with his insight into the matter.  Perhaps he remains a bit miffed at us for our comments regarding his stewardship of Amway and Windquest. ;)

[5] And speaking of Dick Jr., a final thought crosses my mind.  Remember the "Young Turks" of River City that the Grand Rapids Business Journal lauded about ten-fifteen years ago?  The movers and shakers of the rising generation who were going to remake Grand Rapids included Dick Jr., Steve Van Andel, David Wagner, and John Kennedy.  Their paths to glory were Amway, Old Kent, and Autodie.  Throw in Butterworth and Blodgett hospitals (Dick was president of the Butterworth Foundation and Wagner the chairman of Blodgett) and we can see how these "Young Turks" unmade our town.  None of those institutions that had defined River City exist today.  This will merit further thought.

SPECTRUM TO BOOST PRICES AND PROFITS

Last night Spectrum Health Corporation held its annual public meeting to announce financial information and solicit comment on expenditure of its "Healthier Communities" community outreach fund.  The meeting was hosted by Spectrum CEO Richard Breon, and about a hundred people attended including Spectrum boardmember and Amway-founder Rich DeVos.  The highlights of the meeting were:

Price increases.  Spectrum has two primary sources of revenue:  Healthcare services and healthcare insurance premiums (through Priority Health, of which Spectrum owns just under 80%).  Effective July 1st it is increasing prices for healthcare services by 8% and insurance premiums by 6-7%.  It is important to understand that not all patients will bear this burden equally.  The price increase will fall disproportionately upon patients without insurance or who belong to small insurance groups -- e.g., coverage provided through employment with a small business.  Spectrum will continue to accommodate large groups -- i.e., Medicare, Medicaid, and the biggest employers insured by Priority Health -- with discounted pricing.

Profit increase.  Spectrum is a non-profit organization, so it technically does not turn a profit, though at the end of the year it has a figure representing revenues in excess of expenses -- i.e., profit.  So that's what we'll call it to keep it simple.  This fiscal year, which ends June 30th, Spectrum will have a profit margin of 3.13% on about $1.9 billion in revenues.  Spectrum is increasing its prices to increase its profit next year by 18% to 3.68% on a targeted $2.3 billion in revenues.  Because of the cost-shifting from large groups (noted above) to small groups and individual patients, that means a disporportionate amount of that increased profit will come from the little guys.  CEO Breon announced that Spectrum's profits will go to capital expenditures -- e.g., buildings and equipment.

Executive salaries.  Yesterday Spectrum's board increased Breon's annual base salary to $700,000, which Breon confirmed in response to a question from the public.  In addition to his base salary, Breon is also eligible for incentive bonuses if the hospital meets certain performance goals set by the board.  In response to this issue, DeVos got up to address the meeting to say that the $700,000 was necessary to keep Breon from leaving River City for greener pastures elsewhere.

"Healthier Communities" program.  In 1997 the U.S. District Court approved the merger of Butterworth and Blodgett hospitals under the Spectrum umbrella on the condition that Spectrum honor a consent decree.  The decree had several conditions including a requirement to spend $6 million annually on community outreach.  To this end, Spectrum created the "Healthier Communities" program under the direction of Mary Kay Klempker, R.N., to distribute these millions to various clinics and healthcare programs in the Grand Rapids area.  Breon announced that it will maintain this annual commitment despite the expiration of the consent decree.

At the meeting Spectrum received a great deal of praise from some recipients of "Healthier Communities", in particular for the health screening and vocational programs at Grand Rapids Central High School.  There was also some dissent.  There was vocal disagreement about the effectiveness of the "Strong Beginnings" program which targets pregnant women in the city's black community.  Also, Lody Zwarensteyn of the Alliance for Health noted that an increasingly large portion of the $6 million fund was going to administrative costs, which are in effect reimbursements to Spectrum and its affiliates such as the Grand Rapids Medical Education & Research Center.  This past year that cost reached 14.2%, or about $829,000 that went to Spectrum etc. rather than community healthcare organizations.  Breon was non-committal as to even reviewing these issues.

After receiving some further praise for the "Healthier Communities" program, Breon closed the meeting.

OCCASIONALLY GETTING IT RIGHT

The Grand Rapids Press occasionally gets it right.  Especially when they follow my lead.  I note that Thursday's lead editorial repeated what I already had to say last week about Guv Jen's somewhat fetid fiat against Nestle distributing bottled water from its wells in Evart up north.  If nothing else, it's good to see the Press trying to keep up with events here at L.A.W. ;)

BIO-TECH BLATHER

Guv Jen was in town yesterday to make the case for her $2 billion bond proposal to boost the fortunes of high-tech industry in Michigan.  She also promoted her plans for reforming the state's dysfunctional single business tax.  Let's start with what the governor got right.

The single business tax is excessive and convoluted, penalizes capital investment and growth, and has little relationship to a company's means to pay.  Governor Granholm wants to reduce the rate of the SBT by about a quarter.  That's a step in the right direction, but well short of the best solution:  Its elimination.

The governor also wants to lessen the tax penalty manufacturers bear by not getting a sufficient offset from the SBT on the property taxes they must pay on the capital equipment they own.  It's good that the governor recognizes that manufacturing is and will remain one of the foundations of the state's economy.  However, what's good for one sector of the economy is good for all when it comes to tax reduction.  Her proposed property tax offset should apply to all businesses.  No more picking winners and losers.

However, Guv Jen's two-billion-dollar bond proposal is all about picking winners and losers -- and like most politicians eager to hand out taxpayer dollars to businessmen, she's picked the losers to win.  The governor's idea is that the state will know how to invest taxpayer dollars, either directly or indirectly, in high-tech business opportunities that at the end of the day will produce 72,000 top-notch jobs for Michiganders.  If this notion were not wrongheaded enough, Guv Jen devoted most of her blather to the promise of making River City a center of bio-tech prosperity.

Well, the cynical among us might ask what else could the good governor do when the Republicans in the state legislature are about to pass a competing one-billion-dollar bond proposal tightly focused on funding the formation of bio-tech businesses in Michigan?  Get on the bandwagon, right?  Wrong.  What is it about this buzzword, "bio-tech", that has encouraged all of us to lose all touch with reality?  Michigan, let alone Grand Rapids, is not and will not be a center of the bio-tech industry in this country -- and even if that did happen, it is not the engine for job creation all of bio-tech's boosters say it is.  Whether Republican legislators dump a billion taxpayer dollars on bio-tech or Guv Jen double that, its promise will remain a false one.

The reason why is simple:  The competition is fierce and already well ahead of us.  Boston, San Diego, and San Francisco are great metropolitan centers presently as loggerheads in pursuit of the bio-tech brass ring.  Recently Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen (whose $20 billion fortune is an entire magnitude larger than the estate of local bio-tech wannabes, the Van Andels) unveiled a redevelopment plan to turn a huge section of downtown Seattle into a bio-tech park anchored by a world-renowned cancer research center and a medical research campus of a major university.  (Sound familiar?  Good.  Does it also sound like our planned "medical mile" along Michigan Street has been out-classed?  Not so good.)

The fact is that there are several dozen U.S. cities with a plan in some stage of development or another to become the country's bio-tech center.  While one will surely become the Silicon Valley or the Motor City of bio-tech and a few more will blossom as satellites to that center, all the rest will go down the drain.  If private investors want to bet that River City will be one of those very winners, I wish them luck because that would be a plus for us.

But the bets on bio-tech that the Republicans and Guv Jen want to make are both losers for the taxpayers.  That's because all the odds are against Michigan winning the bio-tech battle, and even if it did, the jobs that ordinary taxpayers were promised in exchange for their tax dollars will not be there.  The few good ones will go to outsiders with diplomas and the working stiff ones will go overseas.