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Bay County Community Needs Answers About Several Key Public Issues
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To paraphrase A Tale of Two Cities:
It was the best of times.
It was the worst of times.
Actually, it was the time when hardly anybody knew what was really going on!
Supposedly a secret memo exists that tells who really won the primary election.
That is before 48 percent of the partisan votes in Bay County were nullified because they split tickets.
Another issue of major public interest that no one has publicly explained is why a $6 million Pere Marquette Depot has been discontinued as a visitor center.
Rumor has it the hoteliers who control the Bay County Convention and Visitors Bureau board of directors were afraid promotion of the depot as a reception and banquet site might hurt their business.
Wasn't that the idea in the first place? Have an attractive spot to bring, and impress, visitors to our community?
Wouldn't a busy depot increase business for everybody across the board?
Wasn't the depot one of the most expensive community projects per square foot, something like $600, ever constructed here? The Great Lakes Center Foundation board leveraged every grant and financing device it could to provide a first-class welcome center.
It was supposed to be the answer to our lagging economy -- tourism replacing manufacturing. Doesn't seem like we've failed to give the promotional process time to work before we've walked away from this historical and architectural gem, at least in the facet of its use as a destination attraction.
Thankfully the Bay Area Community Foundation has utilitarian ideas to provide a community benefit from the unused portion of the building as a place to orient would-be college students.
As projected by former CVB Director Shirley Roberts, we can see hundreds of buses a year pulling up in front of Pere Marquette, but a crowded Water Street at the Delta College Planetarium will give an entirely different impression to tourists.
If the rationale behind discontinuing use of the depot was to reduce self competition, the public -- and the many other businesses that depend on the tourist trade -- deserve to known how tourism will be improved with this move.
And, what is the real story of the skyrocketing city water and sewer bills? The report that the bills were for 45 days rather than 30 days has not checked out as yet.
City staff was supposed to explain this phenomenon to residents, and presumably the press, but we haven't heard a peep from the city manager. His deputy Steve Black wrote his last memo and there has been none at all lately.
And now, as the election season heats up, we have a candidate for Congress whose district includes a big chunk of northern Bay County, saying that he will only accept three terms. That is before he has won the first one!
It's hard to fathom where Dr. Dan Benishek, Tea Party maestro from Iron River, is coming from. He gleefully tramples the Hippocratic Oath by pledging to repeal the new national health care bill that would help folks he pledged his life to defend.
When ideology trumps all, especially common sense, we are in a heap o' hurting. Sure, the health care bill is not perfect, but to abandon children and others who need care in the stinking tea--it defies imagination.
County Clerk Cindy Luczak maintains that 300 election workers were trained to reject so-called "crossover" ballots and ask voters to re-vote.
Apparently that did not happen consistently, or the voting machines were defective, and invalid votes went into the system -- more than 10,000 bad ballots out of about 20,000 cast. We really need to know why, and to make necessary changes.
The clerk, who is a dedicated public servant, is as baffled as anyone about the outcome. She referred MyBayCity.com to the Michigan Bureau of Elections. But the state had the problem in spades, but the total number spoiled ballots is still unresolved. In past primaries, there have been as many as 224,0000 ballots rejected for "crossovers."
One county commissioner, Democrat Patrick Beson, former chairman of the board, who lost in the primary to newcomer Brandon Krause is attempting to regain his seat as a write-in. Reportedly many voters in that district said they had voted for Beson and for Republican Rick Snyder for governor, thus splitting their ticket and causing their vote not to be counted.
The question is: did the Krause voters cast their ballot on the straight Democratic ticket, and did the Beson voters split their tickets? That is one possible scenario that would explain what happened. But let's look at the facts, and the evidence, and as soon as possible.
Years ago just the talk of a grand jury would usually bring the scoundrels out of the woodpile. Is there any public official with the guts to call for one today? The public needs evidence, answers, solutions, and now is the time.
A few years ago former Secretary of State Candice Miller called for an open primary and for the state to adopt a uniform voting system.
"A statewide uniform voting system would ensure the way we cast and count votes, the way we train election workers, and the way we design ballots would be exactly the same for every election," Secretary Miller said. "Until this change is made, we will continue to have problems in our voting and tabulating process."
Most distressing on all these issues is the lack of transparency, the failure to share with the public the reasons behind the outcomes and the important decisions. Otherwise people will do what people do -- think the worst.
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pbegick Says:
On October 03, 2010
at 11:48 PM
Dave,
Candice Miller has been a Congresswoman from southeastern Michigan for several years. Our current Michigan Secretary of State is Terri Lynn Land. She too has been in office for several years. Paul |
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Dave Rogers |
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