More equal than others?

Just this AM on Facebook I read a friend's posting:

"Three Michigan Christian pastors sue to halt federal anti-hate crimes law. They demand the right to speak hate toward GLBT people. Sheesh...have they even checked their own religion? Last I checked, Jesus didnt speak hate against anybody."

From what I read online, the pastors weren't demanding, ".. the right to speak hate toward GLBT people." Instead they were suing to protect their First Amendment right to practice their religion and their Fifth Amendment right to due process.

They don't want to be prosecuted for thought crimes any more than I do.

One of the articles I found online summed up their complaint:

"Robert Muise, Senior Trial Counsel for TMLC (Thomas More Law Center) who is handling the case, observed, “This new federal law promotes two Orwellian concepts. It creates a special class of persons who are ‘more equal than others’ based on nothing more than deviant, sexual behavior. And it creates ‘thought crimes’ by criminalizing certain ideas, beliefs, and opinions, and the involvement of such ideas, beliefs, and opinions in a crime will make it deserving of federal prosecution. Consequently, government officials are claiming the power to decide which thoughts are criminal under federal law and which are not."

I resisted the temptation to edit-out, ".. based on nothing more than deviant, sexual behavior," for its obvious bias against gays, deciding instead to leave it as-is because it is not my responsibility to mask others' biases.

The actual complaint is available online at The Thomas More Law Center.

The challenge with constitutional rights is we must protect others' rights as jealously as we guard our own--even when we disagree them. As it's been said too often before, but is worth repeating, it is easier to protect someone elses speech when you agree with it than when we do not.

Or as Mark Twain wrote, "Tis a fine thing to fight for one's own freedom; tis a far sight finer to fight for another man's."

And so it is with freedom of speech and equal protection. I don't understand the Commerce Clause argument but will keep reading.

PS Christ's teachings and Christianity's position on homosexuality is orthogonal to this issue, and has already been exhaustively argued elsewhere. To debate the merits of the complaint based on either misses the point of the law and more often exposes our ignorance of New Testament scripture than anything else.

City of Ferndale Delays Municipal Building Project

I'm posting this here only because it's new and I can't find a link to it in a more respectable location.

SUBJECT: City of Ferndale Delays Municipal Building Project

Ferndale, Michigan (February 2, 2010) - In November the City received design-build proposals for the Municipal Building Project from Redstone Architects and Walbridge Aldinger; CDPA and JS Vig Construction; Wilkie & Zanley and Micco Construction; and French Associates & Neumann/Smith and The Daily Company. The Project Team reviewed the proposals in December and interviewed the design-build teams in January. The Project Team recommended the Council interview Wilkie & Zanley and Micco Construction; and French Associates & Neumann/Smith and The Daily Company in February.

The Council has spent three years carefully considering the City's facility needs and solutions to fulfill those needs. Now that the Council has arrived at the decision point regarding these design-build proposals, the City has arrived at a crossroads. Without significant cooperation from the unions, the Council will have to reduce the number of City employees by approximately 30 positions (20%) to balance the FYE 2011 Budget.

The design-build proposals are based on staffing levels the City may not be able to maintain. As a result, City Manager Robert Bruner has invited the top two design-build teams to present their proposals at the Mon 2/8/2010 Council meeting but has also asked them to extend their Guaranteed Maximum Prices (GMP) until Fri 5/7/2010, the deadline for the Council to adopt the FYE 2011 Budget. This will allow the Council to consider the FYE 2011 Budget and the Project simultaneously.

CONTACT:

Robert Bruner
City Manager, City of Ferndale
(248) 546-2360
rbruner@ferndale-mi.com

Alicia F. Washeleski
Senior Project Manager, Plante Moran CRESA
(248) 223-3811
Alicia.Washeleski@plantemoran.com

Bruner says council's not discussing police layoffs tonight

The rumors about city council discussing police department layoffs tonight are, according to Ferndale City Manager Bob Bruner, untrue.

It is not on the agenda. It is not in an attachment. He does not plan to discuss it in his comments to council. He's aware of no plans a council person will make a motion to add it to tonight's agenda.

Rumors may have started after the city manager met with members of the police officers union Friday night to update them on the city's current financial pinch. A $3 million hole needs to be filled. No plans have been made, draft or otherwise (according to Mr. Bruner) that recommend the laying-off of police officers or firemen.

During the last election all the council candidates expressed their commitment to spare our public safety departments from personnel cuts. Housefires and violent crime in public parks and sweet-16 parties don't dip because a city's income dips. I know it was my promise during the campaign (but I'm the one with a bi-monthly column and Scott and Melanie are the votes on city council).

I encourage any resident that wishes to speak to council about the importance of any topic important to them to do so, especially regarding our police and fire departments. I believe it incumbent on citizens to voice their opinions more frequently than Novembers' first Tuesdays.

I also encourage them to attend city council meetings, especially when a topic near and dear to them is on the agenda.

However, I'm discouraged by attempts to manipulate the public with alarmist emails FB postings, and blogs. There's enough knee-jerking at the state and national level that we needn't imitate here in Ferndale.

Remember to check the facts before forwarding an email or trusting the guy asking you to send him money is a Nigerian prince seeking your aid to recover his family's lost $ millions.

My Consolation Column

[Note: This article originally appeared in the December 2009 edition of Ferndale Friends]

Welcome to my consolation column! Were I a presidential candidate I may have gotten a million dollar book deal and speaking engagements crisscrossing the country. All things being relative, after losing the Ferndale council race to incumbent T. Scott Galloway and new-comer Melanie Piana, I'm instead contributing an article to Ferndale Friends and my speaking engagements are limited to lecturing my kids.

On the plus-side of the ledger I won't have to balance a $15 million budget that's $3 million lighter than last year.

Losing does have its advantages.

This is probably the last opportunity comments on November's election can be indulged or at least forgiven. Please read-on with either one or both of those in mind.

Let me share a major difference I noticed between this year's campaign and 2007's. This year I limited the houses I visited personally to only those that voted in 2007's off-year election. When I ran in 2007 I used 2006’s gubernatorial voter list which had a couple thousand more voters. The difference between the two lists is the people I was lucky enough to speak with this year were generally more informed about local politics than the bigger list.

Believe it or not, in 2007 I had a conversation with a voter that went something like this.

"Hello, my name is Thomas Gagne. I'm running for mayor and would like to ask you a few questions."

"Mayor of what?" she said.

“Let me start with, do you have children?”

I also learned this year I can’t extrapolate election results based on the people I talk to going door-to-door. To be honest, I bet I spoke to fewer than 10% of the residents whose homes I visited. All were unanimously against spending any money on city hall and wanted council to immediately stop their Pay-Consults-For-Everything Economic Stimulus program ($65,000 and rising). Though most agreed Nine Mile and Woodward sparkles (Mayor Craig Covey’s word, not mine) many felt it was time the DDA stop baby-sitting our downtown businesses and agreed it was time to show Hilton some love.

If that’s how voters really felt and if those were my issues, then I should have been a shoe-in.

Well, there was certainly a shoe involved when the results were in, but not where I anticipated it.

It turns out the best predictor of 2009’s election was a gentleman I spoke to that told me he felt everything was OK. As long as he’s lived in the city taxes have always been high, council has always spent money on silly projects, and too much attention has always been paid downtown. But as none of that threatened him personally he wasn’t inclined to change anything.

Maybe that explains both the results and the low voter turnout (14%). Without pain, a mayoral contest, or a major issue on the ballot there just wasn’t much to get people to skip Desperate Housewives or Grey’s Anatomy.

A quick story.

At a meeting for the candidates held by the city clerk, Cherilynn Tallman, and city manager, Bob Bruner, we were discussing the lack of a current city map. Apparently the original map used to make copies from disappeared a couple years ago after Mayor Bob Porter left office. Greg PAW-lica suggested the map that hangs on the wall near the city council table could be used as a new original. We all went over to it to take a closer look.

While studying the map’s superior quality and imagining its potential to make dittos I couldn’t help but notice the little bit of real-estate cut-out of Ferndale’s northwest corner to make room for Pleasant Ridge.

“How many police officers does Pleasant Ridge have? Five? Six?”, I asked.

“Maybe six. Eight tops,” someone else replied.

“Hmm. And they don’t have their own fire department,” I said. “I bet if we took our 60+ police officers and fireman, along with a few allies from Oak Park we could easily invade on three fronts and take over the city. As liberal a city as it is there’s bound to be few armed residents. It should be easy.”

Melanie Piana’s mouth fell open and her face had that shocked you-can’t-possibly-be-serious look on it. Greg paw-LICA was LOL. Apparently, Melanie wasn’t familiar with my sense of humor. I mean really, who would want to annex Pleasant Ridge? Is the pool that nice?

I wonder. Maybe that could be an issue for 2011?

Ferndale council acts predictably--and that's no compliment

Monday night's hearing on South Oakland Shelters' (SOS) request to move their administrative offices to unused space at The First Baptist Church (FBC) in a north-west Ferndale neighborhood brought few surprises. After going through the mechanics a hearing requires the council voted as expected; four-to-one in favor of letting the FBC rent to SOS. After the vote, two council-persons did surprise me, in a disappointed-surprise kind-of-way.

Freshmen councilwomen Kate Baker demonstrated how personal bias can muddle a person's ability to understand what people say. Ms. Baker sounded exasperated as she defended the commitment and professionalism of the many volunteers that serve on the Planning Commission and Board of Zoning Appeals, and lamented how she was unprepared to defend them against accusations to the contrary.

I never said the volunteers (who serve without pay and too little gratitude) weren't dedicated or professional. What I said was that on the issue of allowing SOS to move into the church neither body supported their decisions by publishing their findings of fact or communicating to the community (and especially ZIP) their interpretation of how SOS' business is an accessory use. But I can see how a personal bias for SOS and FBC, a weak interpretation of the zoning ordinance, and the knowledge of having dismissed the concerns of nearby residents would make the councilwoman a little touchy.

If someone is going to vote on a matter that affects my family, neighbors, and community I believe residents and businesses deserve as unambiguous an explanation as those voting members are able to provide--especially an issue as controversial as the FBC/SOS zoning ruling became.

Councilman Mike Lennon also surprised me, but his lone "no" vote wasn't the surprise. Mike Lennon often casts the only dissenting vote against the majority. Also not surprising was Mr. Lennon's not advocating the sentiments of the myriad of phone calls and emails from residents he claimed were the reason for his vote.

What was disappointing was his blasting ZIP for being disorganized and redundant, and wasting the city manager's time countering their false claims.

Where to begin?

First, why was our city manager handling SOS' public relations (PR) in the first place? If they had enough money to hire two attorneys they surely didn't need Bob Bruner to volunteer his (city-paid) time to act as their press secretary.

And when did council defer to the city manager permission to speak for the city or give him permission advocate for-or-against political issues that may come before the council? I thought "speaking for the city" was the Mayor's job, and Mayor Covey is more than up to the challenge.

Maybe council hasn't given the city manager carte blanche but is complacent letting him practice his politics on the city's dime rather than making sure FBC is following ordinances already on the books--or even the lower standard councilwoman Baker suggested at a commission meeting: that FBC would only need to be, "close to compliance."

Nice.

SOS' attorney asked that SOS be treated just like any other business. I bet every Ferndale business wishes they only needed to be "close to compliance."

But disorganized and redundant? I'm uncertain what standard councilman Lennon is comparing ZIP against, but I'm confident that if ZIP were given the same considerations the applicant was given they could have been more organized and less redundant.

Because ZIP wasn't the applicant for the zoning ruling they were not allowed to sit with the grown-ups. ZIP's concerns had to be posited in three-minute monologues--even during hearings. Being excluded from conversations, having questions ignored or repeated in patronizing tones does not inspire feelings of fair representation.

ZIP was certainly no more redundant than the FBC's or SOS' supporters were during the long parades of three-minute comments. Perhaps if citizens living near FBC (or any church) thought anyone on the council held their interests before FBC's they wouldn't have felt the need to line up for their three-minutes of if-a-resident-speaks-in-the-middle-of-the-forest time.

Perhaps if one of the councilpersons hadn't delivered a "true Christian" sermon during a council meeting, or if another of the councilpersons didn't suggest lower standards of compliance for the applicants or state (and restate--redundantly) what long-time SOS supporters their family has been, ZIP wouldn't have felt the need to organize.

Perhaps if the city manager hadn't acted contemptuously in meetings and press interviews ZIP may not have thought the entirety of the city's administration was against them, and wouldn't have had to publish their own literature.

But maybe I'm being redundant (perhaps), so I'll try something different.

In the motion read by Councilman Galloway, five criteria were identified that the Planning Commission supposedly used to grant SOS' request. One of them was that the commission didn't feel SOS' operating their business at the Church would negatively impact the immediate area's economic value (or words similar to that). For the sake of argument let's suppose it doesn't. We could ask, "does SOS's operating their business at the church improve the area's economic value?"

I can think of multiple, better-suited and properly-zoned areas in Ferndale where SOS' arrival would improve the economic prospects of the immediate area, the economic prospects of the property owner, and the economic prospects to the city as the property owner would be better able to pay his property taxes, participate in city events, or sponsor a softball-team or scrapbooking club.

I don't have statistics or numbers handy, so I'll make some up and tell a story that can't be verified (which seems to suffice for some councilpersons' pet causes--like the PSD tax).

When you purchased your home or looked for a neighborhood to move to was its proximity to an SOS administrative office on your list of desirable neighborhood traits?

When cities work to increase property value do they focus on schools, recreation, police, fire, and other essential services or does SEMCOG, the Michigan Municipal League, or the Michigan Suburbs Alliance recommend deferring to churches' need to offset lower collections to really bring-in the house hunters?

I sincerely hope SOS is successful in all they do, just as I do that churches thrive. Their missions are important. But I am as sincere in my belief that zoning laws protect neighborhoods as much as they do churches and businesses. In this case, at least, there was no need for the three to be in conflict. There is space enough in Ferndale for all three without all three being in the same space.

A DDA Presentation I'd Like to Hear

I have a friend in the commercial finance business that has an interesting business goal. His goal is for his clients to become financially stable enough to no longer need his services. His list of successes are his former clients, not his current ones.

I wish Ferndale's DDA had a similar goal.

Monday night, the DDA made a presentation to city council I'm sure anyone who's seen a couple of their presvious dog-and-ponies before could have narrated--without notes. The DDA helps stores with facade improvements, the DDA decorates downtown, the DDA hangs flowers, and this spring the DDA pimped pots.

According to their presentations, they're a $300,000/year arts and crafts committee.

To liven up their next visit to council and throw the city for a loop, here's a message I'd love to hear at a future DDA presentation:

Good evening mayor and council members.

After nearly 20 years of attacking blight in our downtown we're proud to announce our mission is accomplished. Our downtown sparkles. Its largest and most successful events are produced and promoted by downtown business owners, and surveys show residents and visitors alike feel both welcomed and safe on our streets, day or night.

Therefor we are resigning our commission, disbanding the DDA, and returning our TIF monies to the county where it may be used for parks, public safety, or even Treasurer Andy Meisner's Land Bank.

Or perhaps the money may be used for our next adventure, securing a Central Business District designation for Hilton between Eight and Ten Mile roads to stimulate another of Ferndale's assets which has, for too long, been ignored.

It's time the DDA decides whether it's accomplished its mission or not. I think it has, and the DDA and our downtown businesses should be congratulated. They've crossed the goal line, they've moon-walked in the end-zone, and now its time to give the ball to another team.

I think the next game should be kicked-off on Hilton.

I want to be the first to say it: Newspapers are killing themselves

I just read The Ann Arbor News is closing its doors in July. They will join the Rocky Mountain News, The Seattle Inteligencier, and numerous other daily newspapers that will close their doors and blame it, in part, on the Internet.

I want to be the first to say Newspapers, especially journalists and editorial page editors, have done this to themselves. Under their watch the federal government has grown progressively bigger without their objection. In fact, the federal government's growth has been applauded and encouraged by many journalists whose liberal bias supports the notion that government can and should do more, and the more the government provides the better.

We're quickly arriving at a point where our federal government does so much and our state and local government relatively little, that most of the news fit to print comes out of a single location: Washington DC. Exactly how many newspapers and TV news shows does it take to cover a single city in America?

In the Detroit area there's only one locally-produced news program in the morning on Fox affiliate, WJBK. NBC, ABC, and CBS all produce their morning shows out of NY (one city) covering their favorite two topics, Hollywood and Washington DC. On those local channels the only local content is weather and traffic, and a brief three minute news interruption.

The blogosphere is hardly to blame. Most bloggers are covering the same national stories everyone else covers coming from the same locations--Hollywood and DC. Journalists like to follow the money trail, and since most the money is in those two locations it makes sense there's less interesting news everywhere else.

In a subsequent article I'll see if I can substantiate my hypothesis by looking at the growth in federal budgets, the growth in programs, and the decline in newspaper readership.

This quick article is just so I can go on record as having thought of this first. Actually, I thought of it a few days ago, but posted some comments on other blogs today and was finally inspired by the news story above to post here.

Stay tuned.