Kalkaska County board and pay-to-play committees

Let me say this about that. (0.00 / 0)

I certainly won't defend Kalkaska County government.  From my long experience with them, I can report the struggle to respond appropriately to each day's mail leaves them mentally exhausted.  It is frightening to imagine them attempting innovation.

But this seems like a mis-use, or at least an extension, of the term "pay to play".  That phrase normally refers to trading the performance of public duties for payment of money to private interests:  My zoning board grants you a variance, and you buy $5000 worth of tickets to my vaguely defined fundraising dinner.

In this case - at least as far as I can understand from the Wretched Eagle's coverage - the money raised would have  been used to advance a public project.  It's fairly common for quasi-public entities to "sell" board seats to raise cash for their operations.  Most regional planning commissions in Michigan, for example, use that approach.  (The price is designated a "membership", but I don't see a difference.)

In this case, I wouldn't be surprised if the folks in Kalkaska are acting without competent legal advice - that's their standard M.O.

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by: Grebner @ Wed Dec 23, 2009 at 07:00:04 AM UTC

You know what raises my eyebrows about this? (4.00 / 1)

It involves expansion of broadband coverage.  The Internet is a powerful tool for small-time entrepreneurs and small businesses.  Broadband Internet makes this site possible (without it, I'd probably just now be finishing the News Ticker for what was published in the state's newspapers four days ago).  The board you have providing recommendations for how to expand broadband coverage shouldn't be the usual bag of people who buy seats on economic planning committees, who are already mostly local people who made a lot of money without broadband.  There is also the danger of those already entrenched in writing rules and development plans to squeeze up-and-coming competitors out of the marketplace.

Among the Trees

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by: Eric B. @ Wed Dec 23, 2009 at 15:13:56 PM UTC

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I have no doubt Kalkaska County screwed it up. (0.00 / 0)

It sounds like a badly thought out idea which was almost designed to allow unscrupulous people to take advantage.  But it's the substance, not the form, that's appalling.  If the dues had been (say) $100, and used for routine expenses of the committee, it wouldn't have been obviously out of line.  Unusual, maybe, but not something that would draw the attention of the prosecutor.

Knowing Kalkaska County's officialdom as well as I do, I'm willing to believe that buried under all the stupidity was at least one would-be crook.

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by: Grebner @ Thu Dec 24, 2009 at 08:23:43 AM UTC

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