LSJ Blogs: Derek Melot is Just Asking

That’s no way to run … anything

So, the Lansing City Council recessed its Monday night meeting this week at 5 a.m. Tuesday. I suppose you can spin such a marathon session as due diligence. To me, it seems more the stuff of wasted time. How often is anyone going to make good decisions about anything at 4 or 5 in the morning?

 

The problem Monday night was the debate over whether to take away Dave Sheets’ liquor license for his Cadillac Club operation. The council heard from lots of witnesses and the subsequent questioning and cross-examination turned a regular meeting into a marathon.

 

Of course, if

Michigan

’s liquor laws weren’t so ridiculous, the council wouldn’t be in the position of sitting as judge, jury and executioner. The liquor laws also artificially inflate the value of licenses. Would Sheets be fighting so vigorously if the issuance of liquor licenses was routine, as with other forms of business licensing?

Keep eye open for legislators at Ford Field

You can bet there will be some state legislators at Ford Field on Saturday for Final Four action. And that’s their business — as long as it is on their personal dime.

Michigan’s lobbying and gift rules for lawmakers are weak, but not weak enough to allow legislators to enter Ford Field on Saturday holding a ticket from a lobbyist.

Blog returns March 30

I will be on a company-ordered furlough until the morning of March 30.

Brainiacs at State Capitol strike again

The governor’s a likable person. She’s smart, too. But, sometimes, I just don’t know what she and others at the State Capitol are smoking.

Case in point: “Carbon monoxide detectors will be required in all new homes under a law signed Thursday by Gov. Jennifer Granholm. Advocates urged all families to install the detectors, which typically cost $30 to $50 and warn of the odorless, colorless and lethal gas,” reports the Detroit Free Press.

Key to better schools? Better parents

Superintendent T.C. Wallace and former mayor David Hollister have to be nice, politic even about the problems besetting Lansing schools. I don’t.

You want the schools to succeed by having more kids learn? Then go take a cattle prod to all the parents who are so obviously failing. In this free society, if the parents aren’t doing their work, schools have very little chance of changing the outcome.

2004 vote remains bad wager for Mich.

Having a casino on the Grand River would not transform Greater Lansing’s economy. Still, in light of where events have taken us, I wonder if any responsible public leader would step up and argue today that the voters were right in 2004 to approve Proposal 1.

MRG poll shows opportunity for Whitmer

Local PR firm MRG has some polling out about the state of the 2010 Michigan elections. I think there are some interesting results there for one Gretchen Whitmer, Democratic state senator from East Lansing.

Whitmer appears in the MRG polling in a hypothetical race for attorney general against Bill Schuette, a Republican. In the poll, Whitmer trails Schuette 33-28, with another 36 percent undecided. Bad news? Perhaps not.

Another MRG poll looked at the potential gubernatorial race. On the Democratic side, Lt. Gov. John Cherry was the leading, but with only 26 percent; undecided gets 57 percent.

And who was Cherry polled against? Daniel Mulhern (Mr. Granholm) got 10 percent. House Speaker Andy Dillon got 3 percent — and he was topped  by the 4 percent of MSU Trustee (and former Spartan football coach) George Perles.

Methinks there’s a big vacuum in the Dem field waiting for someone with the willingness to take on the Granholm establishment. If you are Whitmer why not go after the governorship? (FYI: I asked her about the poll. She said by e-mail that she had not seen it, so didn’t feel she could comment on it.)

Whitmer would have to raise piles of cash to increase her name recognition. But her father is a former CEO of Blue Cross. And she’s been in politics long enough to have made contact with plenty of deep pockets. She’s also energetic and has far more upside for TV purposes than Cherry.

If Cherry wins the nomination without much of a struggle, I doubt that will bode well for the Dems in November 2010.

Then, of course, there’s another mid-Michigan figure that didn’t appear at all in the MRG polling: Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero.

Like him or not, he’s earned some cred with labor and others with his angry mayor schtick on CNN. And I’m pretty sure he’s not content to have “mayor of Lansing” be the apex of his political career.

Stranger things have happened.

Numbers derail MEA retirement bid

It seems the reviews are in on MEA’s retirement incentive program. And they aren’t good. The union and its legislative allies said last week that they are going to revise the proposal “to address concerns it’s too expensive.”

Indeed, the numbers folks from the House and Senate came to what appeared to this eye the obvious conclusion: The retirement incentive would cost the state money, not save it. MEA had sold its plan as a way to save money and open up teaching jobs for new college graduates.

I don’t think MEA has caught on to the mood yet, though. The AP story says the revised plan would limit an increase in unfunded liability (debts owed with no money to pay for them) to $1.5 billion. Seriously, this is what passes for fiscal prudence these days?

I don’t begrudge the MEA for trying to grab a good deal for its members; that’s the union’s job. And I do appreciate that the Legislature appears to have quickly identified the fact that MEA’s interests and the state’s interests are not aligned in this matter.

But if Michigan is going to dig out of this mess, it’s going to need leaders who are looking for ways to solve the problem, not make special use of it.

Lansing firefighters doing well

If the city of Lansing wants to address payroll issues, maybe it’s time to turn to the fire stations Figures from the mayor’ office show local firefighters have received wage increases totaling more than 10 percent in recent years.

A chart sent over last week lists the firefighter bumps this way:

2006 -- 1.6 percent (January) and 1.8 percent (July).
2007 -- 2.1 percent
2008 -- 2.3 percent
2009 -- 2.5 percent (goes into effect in July).

The city adds this up as 10.3 percent for 2006-09. I don’t know if that’s based on the original 2006 figure or the increases were stepped on top of each year.

At any rate, the only city employees that come anywhere near those figures in the period are the police. They are listed at a total of 7.2 percent over the period.

I’ve heard that Lansing has an out-sized Fire Department. The city Web site lists 220 employees in “fire suppression” and another 35 to 40 doing other work. That’s 260.

By contrast, the Ann Arbor Fire Department says it’s budgeted for 94 positions. I have no idea of that’s an apple-to-apple comparison. Still, it seems an unusually large gap between two cities of similar size. Lansing has to cover state buildings, but Ann Arbor apparently responds to University of Michigan fires.

Anyone have any thoughts on why Lansing’s department is so large and why the raises differ so much from other city functions?

Will Air Azul last?

So, what’s the over/under on how long this Air Azul (cool name, very Flash Gordon-y) service lasts in Lansing?

Don’t get me wrong. I think Lansing will do its darnedest to support it. But watch for Delta/Northwest to start up competing service, undercut Air Azul on prices, drive the competitor out and then shut down the routes.

That was Northwest’s practice on other upstart airlines that came to Lansing. Remember Independence Air?

The sad thing is, the airport wants more service, but its biggest customer does not. That makes for a ticklish business relationship out on Grand River Avenue.