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.

ZIP responds: Seven Facts about zoning

Patti Ashmore, the leader of the group opposing First Baptist Church's leasing space to SOS, has published an editoral on FerndaleOnline. As neither the Daily Tribune or Woodward Talk has seen fit to print it, I'm glad she was able to publish it.

After reading the article, please join the discussion.

Is God a socialist?

Today's Detroit News contained an interesting op-ed from Doug Bandow, author of the book, Beyond Good Intentions: A Biblical View of Politics. I haven't read the book so can not comment on it, but his op-end, Is God a Socialst?, contains an interesting perspective on people, religion, and politics--specifically Christians.

The version appearing in the Detroit News is an edited-down version of a longer piece published in The American Spectator on January 9, 2009.

Rather than dilute his commentary with mine, I'll simply quote my favorite sections below and encourage you to read either the short version or the long version for yourself. I've only written two related articles to his points below. They are; Thou shalt not covet or graduate your neighbors' taxes and Christ among the partisans.

To understand the context of his comments and why I like them it is important to know the sections below were preceded with examples of churches, church leaders, and religious people praying and demonstrating to influence public policy. The implication being that some people's faith creates a desire to model public policy after their interpretation of scripture. But more importantly that compassion must be connected to consequence. Good intention are not enough and we should remember where the path paved with good intentions leads.

"However, applying Christian principles requires more than a little humility. The Bible tells much about man's relationship to God and man, but very little about the role of government. That is, Christian principles yield no specific legislative agenda.

"For instance, one cannot read Scripture without a profound appreciation of our duty to help our neighbors. However, we are commanded to give, not to make others give.

"The welfare state is a matter of political prudence, not religious principle. That is one reason why the Apostle James encouraged us to ask God for wisdom. Christians are expected to be compassionate, but God does not detail how we are to give compassion practical effect. The point is, compassion is not enough. Consequences matter.

"Should the government further bail out the auto industry? Channeling scarce resources into failing industries will divert needed money from existing companies and potential new enterprises, destroying even more jobs.

"Attempting to freeze the housing market would merely prolong the agony of many people who borrowed too much. Artificially propping up housing prices also will penalize potential buyers -- especially low-income and new purchasers.

"A Christian's walk in the political world will never be easy. But Christians should never forget that their principal duties have nothing to do with politics."

Ferndale First Baptist should break agreement with SOS

Ferndale's First Baptist Church should break its agreement with The South Oakland Shelter (SOS) to lease an unused building for SOS to use as administrative offices.

The best argument citizens have in favor of SOS's relocation to First Baptist from its current Royal Oak address on Main Street, is that SOS does good work. Personally, I think the Murphy brothers did a great job on my kitchen but its unlikely the church would have offered a lease to them for that reason and I don't think that's what was meant by "good work."

Instead, what was meant by good work is that SOS has a charitable mission. As charitable as the Murphy brothers may be charity isn't the brothers' mission so the church is still unlikely to lease space to them.

But ultimately, niether SOS' or the Murphies' missions are the issue that should be debated. The real argument is that by becoming a landlord to SOS, First Baptist's mission suddenly changed from leases on the after-life to leases in general.

I have nothing against landlords or churches and am on good terms with several of both. But if I purchased a property near a church I expect the church to do church-like things. I do not expect them to turn the temple into a den of landlords and not expect me to toss a fit or two.

It seems the neighbors supporting SOS at the church feel the church is simply extending its charitable and religious mission to include SOS' mission to the newly homeless. SOS' is indeed a noble and virtuous mission, but the church can support that mission by donating money or volunteering time to the SOS. It doesn't have to lease space or upset its neighbors to do that.

The church could also donate the space to the SOS. That would be charitable, too, and it would successfully silence my argument about their becoming a landlord (I think). As long as the charity isn't bartering with the church or paying a share of the utility bills I might change my mind.

But I'm pretty confident that won't happen. A Christmas-day article in the Detroit News detailed how the bad economy and worries of job security have driven-down donations to all charitable organizations. GM recently cut-off funding to arts and cultural institutions (I don't think anyone wonders why). Those facts combined with the area's other demographics suggest Ferndale may not be able to support as many churches as it used to with either members or donations, just as it can't support as many schools or tool & die shops.

So if churches, like automakers, are reluctant to close or combine with other churches; what are they to do with all that empty, unused space? Why not supplement Sunday collections by going into the property management business?

The residents protesting the 25-year lease agreement aren't evil or uncharitable. Councilman T. Scott Galloway's recent city-council sermonizing stated his certainty that the Christian thing to do was to support SOS. So, before Christ did his big "den-of-thieves" thing in Jerusalem's temple he should have checked with Scott first.

The much over-quoted Ecclesiastes 3's "To every thing there is a season.." is worth paraphrasing as, "To every thing there is a place." And that's why Ceasar created zoning commissions and zoning plans, so the interests and quality of Ferndale's neighborhoods would be balanced against the interests and quality of Ferndale's commercial districts. For a building surrounded on three sides by homes to switch from friendly neighborhood church to a competitor for tax-paying landlords violates zoning rules.

If the church doesn't see fit to break its agreement for biblical reasons the zoning commission or city council should break it for secular reasons.