Open Letter to Leelanau County GOP and Democrat County Chairs

I wish to express my thanks to the Leelanau Enterprise for a fair and accurate story about America’s Independent Party, published in the October 15th edition.

However, I take exception to statements made by “the chairmen of the local Democratic and Republican parties [who] say there’s plenty of room for a group of this type in politics.”

In the typical “politic-speak” fashion, what these chairmen don’t say, is that there is room for a third party as long as it is opposite of their political persuasion. No less than three members of the local GOP contacted me with this message, but none from the Democrat side.

According to the highest-ranking GOP county official that contacted me, third party candidates (conservatives) siphon votes from the GOP, allowing a Democrat to win. To prove the point, he asked me to recall Ross Perot. After successfully countering his argument, a second tack taken. “Wouldn’t you vote for a candidate that supported, say, four-out-of-five of your principles?”

The counter-argument to the first question asserts that in a plurality race containing a leftist Republican and a leftist Democrat, most races can be won by a conservative independent candidate. Today, many GOP candidates, including the Party’s 2008 Presidential nominee, are left of center, if not true leftists. Need I comment on the Democrats?

Addressing the second question, voters who blindly, compromise their core principles to vote for the “best of the worst,” is a major factor in the GOP’s drift to the left. This slow but inexorable drift is the major cause, in my opinion, for the recent widely-publicized mass defection from the GOP’s base.

Unbelievably at a second meeting, another of the county’s GOP tried unsuccessfully to tie America’s Independent Party to George Wallace’s presidential party of 1968! Great try. Who once said, freeze it, polarize it, ridicule it?

Today, the GOP is no longer the party of the right. It is merely a party more right than the Democrat Party. The GOP’s recent attempts to cast the widest net for votes has resulted in candidates’ campaign strategies to do and say what they think will garner the most votes, while ignoring the party’s (a.k.a. the People’s) platform. The strategy has resulted in a catastrophic disconnect between professed party principles and party candidates, hence driving away truly conservative Republicans.

Polls show that most American voters are right-leaning. So why does the GOP leadership have trouble convincing these right-leaning people to vote for GOP candidates? I answered that question earlier. GOP leaders, you haven’t been paying attention to your base; have you been paying attention to me?

Come on GOP, and Democrats too, if you dare. Develop and encourage candidates who oppose erosion of our rights and liberties; who will work to truly shrink bloated, unresponsive government; who believe in strength thru preparedness; who foster free market capitalism; who embrace Reagan economics; and most importantly, who take seriously their oath to defend and support the Constitution of the United States.

America’s Independent Party will give its endorsement to all such candidates, regardless of party or level in government.

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Note: This letter was printed in the Readers' Forum column of The Leelanau Enterprise on November 5, 2009

Leelanau County Sheriff Deputies May Have Violated Constitution

One of my tipsters let me know about this article by TV 7&4. I look forward to the official response from Sheriff Oltersdorf, upon his return to town.

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore – Experience The Homestead's Sewage

by Tom Van Zoeren, guest contributor

I hope you got a chance to enjoy some of the Ken Burns series, “Our National Parks: America’s Best Idea” on television this week. It was inspiring seeing the Parks themselves; and also hearing the stories of how Americans have fiercely defended them over the years. You may be interested to know that our own National Park, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, is presently considering how, or whether, to effectively protect National Park lands from sewage spray from The Homestead Resort. Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is primarily located in Leelanau County, Michigan, and accounts for a vast amount of the total tourism business in the county.

For those who are interested, a short history, summarizing how we got here, follows below. I expect you’ll find it a rather unbelievable tale.


A SHORT HISTORY OF THE HOMESTEAD RESORT’S SEWAGE

• How it began: At the time of the beginning of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, the vacant acreage next to The Homestead Resort was essentially owned by the same people who owned The Homestead Resort. Like all other undeveloped land within the National Park boundaries, this land was subject to purchase by the National Park Service. However, the owner sold an easement to The Homestead Resort (essentially himself) for $1, allowing for a seepage area on 13 acres of the property. So when the government bought the property, it came encumbered with that easement, thereby skirting the law, and granting The Homestead Resort continued use of the property.

• What the easement said: The Homestead Resort may have a “seepage area” for its sewage system within the 13-acre easement area. At that time, this was, of course, understood to mean an underground system of drain pipes. The above-ground land was to be left as natural as possible.

• What the easement did not say: It did not say that the National Park is obligated to provide for all of The Homestead Resort’s sewage needs—just to provide a place for a seepage area on those 13 acres.

• The early years: For some years, the land was used as intended—Seepage system below ground; trails through the woods and meadows above ground. Because much of the area was not needed for seepage, that area remained covered with forest.

• Problems: Over the years, The Homestead Resort grew, and outgrew its sewage system. Sewage oozed from surrounding ground; there were numerous Michigan Department of Natural Resource permit violations; the groundwater became polluted; citizens complained; lawsuits were filed. Everyone was desperate to resolve the situation.

• Hello, sewage: In 1992 The Homestead Resort announced a plan to clear-cut the remaining forest and utilize the entire area. Anxious to resolve the many problems, but also wanting to preserve the remaining forest, the then-Park-Superintendent unfortunately agreed to a plan to allow for the partially-treated sewage to be irrigated above ground, so the trees could remain.

• More Problems: The National Park Service and the Department of Environmental Quality documented many problems during following years: the system was not maintained properly; sewage was sprayed beyond the boundaries of the easement area; the ground water was again polluted.

• Goodbye, trees: In 2005 The Homestead Resort announced that it had again exceeded its sewage system capacity, and now needed to cut all the trees, replace them with a grass-alfalfa mix, and spray their sewage over the whole area. Park Management now questioned the legality of above-ground irrigation under the easement for a “seepage area”, but was advised by its solicitor (legal advisor) that because “the camel already has its nose in the tent” (meaning the previous superintendent had allowed for above-ground irrigation), it could no longer be prevented.

Anxious to prevent drifting of pathogenic sewage spray into the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, the National Park Service, various environmental organizations, and private citizens requested The Homestead Resort to explore options such as root-zone seepage, drip irrigation, low-profile low-pressure sprinklers, and better pretreatment. The Homestead rejected these options and prepared to install a high-pressure spray system.

• Buffers?: It is universally accepted in the field that, when using high-pressure sprayers, aerosol drift is inevitable. Additionally, winds can blow even the non-aerosolized spray over significant distances. For that reason, a buffer zone of at least 100’ from all property lines is required by state law. The National Park Service requested the Homestead Resort to abide by this safety measure. The Homestead Resort instead made the legal case that easement boundaries are not technically “property lines”. They declined to include the buffers.

• Here it is: In 2006 the remaining forest was clear-cut and a high-pressure spray system was installed to spray sewage up to within a few feet of the easement boundaries. (In the process, the bull-dozers illegally denuded hundreds of feet of National Park land, created wash-outs and silt deposits, etc.)

• But-- Although the solicitor had said that above-ground irrigation could not be prevented per se, he emphasized that any drifting, including aerosol drift, of effluent beyond the easement boundaries would be clearly illegal. This is also stipulated in the DEQ permit for the system.

• Our Sewage: The Homestead Resort’s filtration/disinfection system is considered to be only a “partial” treatment process; the effluent can contain viable pathogens, viral and bacterial, even when the system is working properly. Studies have definitively shown that these pathogens are carried for considerable distances (hundreds of feet in some cases) in aerosol spray. Humans and animals exposed to this aerosol drift are subject to infection (not to mention those who eat the berries and mushrooms in the area). (National Park Service safety guidelines require Park Rangers to wear Tyvek coveralls and full-mask respirators when approaching the area for observation.)

Further, there have been numerous past instances of failure of The Homestead Resort’s disinfection system. One DEQ report stated, “Monitoring reports show that fecal coliform counts have been reported in excess of 6,000 counts per hundred ml (600 times the allowable limit)…bacteria in the spray on land to which the public has access is a public health hazard.”

• To Sum Things Up:
o The easement began as a questionable way to allow for underground disposal on13 acres in the National Park. The land above was to be left as natural as possible—available for trails, etc..
o Above-ground irrigation was later permitted in order to save the remaining forest. (The trails were then abandoned.)
o 12 years later, the forest was razed and replaced with sewage-sprayed rasses and alfalfa. The Homestead Resort effectively assumed all use of the property; the public now cannot enter the property we bought.
o By not providing the buffers needed for sewage spray, The Homestead Resort has also effectively taken control of many additional acres surrounding the easement area (partly in or around the Port Oneida Historic District). The Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore has installed red & white warning signs advising the public against approaching within 25’ of the area. They should include at least 75’ more.

• What Now? Before installing this system, The Homestead Resort was advised by the National Park Service and numerous environmental organizations & individuals that, although we may not be able to say what type of system they can build, we can and will ensure that the law and the public’s rights are upheld: none of their sewage, including aerosolized spray, is allowed in our National Park. Whether they can somehow achieve this with their present spray system, or whether the system needs to be modified, or whether it needs to be replaced—that is up to them. What we and the National Park Service can do is take a stand to ensure that, one way or another, our surrounding Park is not violated.

Thus far, only rough, hit-or-miss monitoring has been done. If you feel that accurate, scientific monitoring is needed as a first step to ensure that Sleeping Bear is again free of The Homestead Resort’s sewage and safe to enjoy, now is the time to let it be known.


The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore needs to know if you feel that it should be a priority to draw a firm line to protect the National Park from The Homestead Resort’s illegal, pathogenic sewage spray. The first step would be to devise a good, scientific system to sensitively monitor for it. That will take some effort and resources, and it may offend certain interests—so it may not happen if the public doesn’t make it a priority. Now is the time when the direction will be determined. You can contact the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore's Park Superintendent at 231/326-5134.

Re-focusing the Mission of the Born Again Citizen

Today begins a new focus for this blog. The primary purpose has now changed to focus on the political entities of Leelanau County, Michigan -- namely the County Board of Commissioners and, to a lesser degree, the townships and villages of the county.

The first effort was my attendance today at a "budget sub-committee" meeting of the County Board.

I was first surprised that such an important topic had the attention of only four of the seven Commissioners: Watkowski, Schmuckal, Tonneburger, and Marshall. The remaining three absent Commissioners: Lautner, Shifflet, and Schaubwere noted as "excused". Hmmmm. Commissioners are compensated for being Commissioners. On such an important issue, the 2010 budget, I would hope all of the Commissioners would make an effort to be as informed as possible.

Wondering about the definition of "excused", I consulted the "2009 Rules of Order and Procedure of the Leelanau County Board of Commissioners." No where in that document, do we find a definition of what is "excused" and what is unexcused.

I then wondered if those absent Commissioneers were being compensated in some way, even though they did not attend. A quick call to the County Accounting department produced no answer, since the person who could answer "was not available". Stay tuned for an update.

Please note, at this point in time, the County 2010 Budget is still about $250,000 out of balance. So I expected that there would be some significant discussion at this meeting to find a quarter of a million bucks.

The county officials that appeared to testify were Judge Phil Rodgers, Prosecutor Joe Hubbell, Emergency Management Director Tom Skowronski. Later on, County Clerk Michelle Crocker and County Treasurer Chelly Roush shared the microphone to answer some specific questions the Commissioner had.

All in all, the amounts of money at stake in the discussions by Rodgers, Hubbell, and Skowronski were minimal.

Judge Rodgers discussion primarily centered around the budget of the Probate Court. With the recent death of Probate Court Judge Joseph Degan, the County Courts have been waiting the naming of a replacement by Governor Granholm. So far there has been no indication of when Judge Degan's replacement will be named. Judge Rodgers was "hopeful" that a replacement would be on board by January 1, 2010. The consensus of the Judge and Commissioners was that the budget should be discussed with the appointed replacement. Oh well, no money found there to balance the budget.

Prosecutor Hubbell was there only to discuss a $15,000 line item that had been removed from his budget. He explained that this item was there for when the County needed legal services of a "civil" nature from the Prosecutor's Office. These services are "charged for" at the rate of $75/hour, far less than what is charged by the County's Corporate Counsel. This year to date, less than $4000 has been charged to that account. Again lots of discussion about chump change.

Lastly, Emergency Management Director Skowronski appeared to discuss the practice of "buying back" unused sick leave days from non-contractual dispatchers in his department. He made that case that by buying back unused leave days, money is actually saved. The implication was that if employees were not compensated for unused days, they would take all of their sick days, resulting in over twice the expenditure -- once for paying for the employee's absence, and again at time-and-one-half for overtime for another dispatcher to cover for the absence. Although there were no specific numbers discussed, it seems a no-brainer to see that elimination of the buy-back would cost the County additional overtime at time-and-one-half. This, of course, assumes that Skowronski's assertion that all employees will use all of their sick days (whether they are sick or not).

The Commissioners and County Administrator Eric Cline seemed to indicate that the buy back policy should be studied, and Cline remarked he already had some ideas in this area. But for now, it looks like there is no saving there. Do you suppose a new policy could be formulated, discussed and implemented before the budget needs finalization? And, this can only be applied to non-union employees, as union employees are covered by existing, contractual obligations.

The remaining discussion time came from Clerk Crocker and Treasurer Roush. The major take-away from their comments is that "fund balance" could be used to balance the budget. If you are not familiar with the concept of "fund balance", that's a term used by governments and non-profits to refer to what a profit-making group calls "retained earnings". So, if a government spends less in a given year than than they receive in taxes, there is a profit, but let's not be clear with taxpayers, let's call it "fund balance" and not use that excess to reduce next year's taxes.

To be fair, however, a fund balance can be a good thing. It's a way governments can save for a rainy day (something the State of Michigan has tried and failed miserably at). The danger of "fund balance" is that what it really is, is an over-levy of taxes, and if the balance grows too large, shouldn't the County consider a reduction in the tax rate?

So, stay tuned for the next installment. In my view, today, September 28, 2009, the County Board of Commissioners is still far from a balanced budget. The question is, how is the gap to be closed -- cutbacks in services/staff, raising the County Tax Millage, or using fund balance?

As post script, Commissioner Schmuckal devoted about 10 minutes of the Commission's, the audience's, and some of the paid County officials/staff's time to hear of a presumably recent trip to some of the formerly Soviet republics. I kept wondering when and how he was going to tie his story into the County's budget. Perhaps next meeting?