1751politics/220
words
May 16, 2018
My Career in Politics
Though in a monarchy the son and
heir to the throne may be a dofus, he should have grown up in a house where
management decisions were made. In a democracy, however, an essential fact is
that any ignoramus can be elected to office, whether to a county commission or
even the presidency.
I never took government or civics
in high school or college. My concentrations were in science and literature. A
few years after we moved to Houghton, Michigan
and a job at Michigan
technological University I had no knowledge of local government and had never
held any public office. I was totally ignorant.
Then at ten o’clock one night I got a call from the local Democratic
party. How would I like to be a county commissioner? What’s that?
I had no idea there was a county
commission or a township commission. Those local offices were unknown tome. I
asked, “What does a county commission do?”
What I was told was wrong. The
county commission did not control the road commission.
All I had to do was show up the
next noon at the court house a couple
of blocks away and sign a petition. I
was curious. Well, why not?
When I got to the court house I
found that the application to be put on the ballot required a few signatures,
but those five or six names had already been entered. I signed, and ta-dah! I
was on the ballot. Unopposed. The Republicans had failed to call anybody.
I was duly elected to a newly
formed fifteen man county board of commissioners for a two year term. My
education in government had begun.
One of the first issues that came
before the board was a recreation bond fund. The county was entitled to a five
percent cut of tax money to be used for parks and recreation. Ah, but we had no
parks and recreation commission. We
needed a Resolution.
I saw what a Resolution looked
like. Seemed pretty simple: “Whereas the state… etc. and Whereas, etc. until
Therefore we do establish…” As a
professor of English I volunteered to write one. Easy.
It was moved, seconded, and passed
unanimously. We now had a parks and recreation commission. Then, to my
surprise, because I had written the resolution and was therefore knowledgeable,
I was made chairman of it.
The same thing happened when we had
a chance to apply for public housing funds. We needed a housing commission and
a Resolution to establish it. I wrote that one, too. It also passed. Again I
was appointed chairman.
So now I was not only a county
board commissioner, but also the chairman of parks and recreation and public housing.
I knew nothing of those roles, either.
In Chicago
those appointments might be the ticket to significant income, bribes, payola,
and salaries. Not so in rural Houghton
County. The county board members
were not paid a salary. We got $40 a meeting plus mileage. Since I lived three
blocks from the court house, I needed no mileage allowance.
Ah, well, being chairman of two
commissions and a member of a third, my per meeting income was tripled.
For
Parks and Recreation I gathered a small committee of about five members. We
invited proposals for the funds. We got three proposals. One was for an indoor
ice hockey rink in Hancock. A second was for improvements to the Mount
Ripley ski hill, part of the
university.
Now I was faced with a conflict of
interest. If we gave the money to the ski hill, I, as a faculty member of the
university, could be accused of cronyism. If I gave the money to hockey rink, I
could be seen as disloyal to my employer.
The CFO of the university appeared
before our little parks and recreation commission to make the pitch. He was the
chief financial officer and I was a mere assistant professor at the university.
It didn’t take long to arrive at a solution. We approved all three proposals,
but gave priority to the hockey rink. Naturally, the rink was built.
Though I took no credit for the
hockey rink, when I visited it I felt the sense of accomplishment that comes
with the power of government. You can actually get things done.
We were not so lucky with our
public housing proposal. Houghton County
is in the Upper Peninsula, about six hundred miles from Detroit
where the HUD offices were. Though I did make a trip there, we were outgunned
by the heavy clout of down state politics and money. We might have had some support from our state
senator, but public housing also has enemies: landlords who see HUD as unfair
competition to private enterprise. Our application got “lost” in the files.
That, basically, was all my two
little commissions were able to do in the two years I was on the county board.
AH, but the count board also ran
the marina. The marina had cost the county nothing, for the land was used as an
in kind contribution. The board also did play the salary of the harbor master,
but the slip fees were income. There is also a launch ramp and this became a
conflict.
The sea scouts were permitted to park
their little sail boats next to the launch ramp, but they had to pay the $2.00
launch fee whenever they launched a boat. I asked that the scouts be given free
access to the ramp. It’s important to support teenagers in an activity that is
wholesome and rewarding. The board refused.
I suggested that the Marina
offer a ten dollar season ramp pass for
which was the equivalent of launching a boat one a week for the short Upper
Peninsula summer. The season pass was accepted.
Then the next meeting I asked that the sea scouts
be given a free season ten dollar pass for use of the ramp. For ten bucks, how
could they refuse? They accepted, but they knew they’d been outfoxed.
From then on I guess I was seen as
devious and dangerous.
When I two years were up I ran for
reelection, but I was beaten by twenty four absentee votes, an old trick. The
Republicans wanted a local person, not a university professor who might be
dangerous. I was replaced by a local man who worked for the university in the
maintenance shop and was related to half the town. He never did anything during
his two years in office but occasionally second a motion. He actually
apologized to me for having run.
I did not want to establish a fiefdom
on either of the commissions and though willing to remain on them did not want
to be chairman. They soon died for lack of interest.
As parks and recreation
commissioner I had made it a point to visit every park in the country, every
launch ramp, every beach. The exploration revealed there was choice property at
White City
near the Portage Entry of the waterway, close to Lake Superior,
but sheltered. It was ideal for fishing, boating, and a short walk to one of
the few sandy beaches in the Keweenaw. We were lucky to be able to buy a lot
when they became available and spent our happiest days camping there. Had I not
been on the parks and recreation commission I would never have known about it.
My income from service to the
county was about $1200 a year. I knew that $40 a month could easily be piddled
away, so saved it. The first summer, 1971, I spent the money on a trip to Europe
for the whole family. We had a VW camper delivered in London
and saved the cost of hotels and meals by living in it all summer. The second
summer I spent the $1200 on a small Shasta trailer.
Ah, but my political career was not
over. I was appointed to the library board. This was appropriate for a wannabe
author like myself. The librarian had been in the job for about twenty-five
years. The library was her life, her career. She used an old manual standard
typewriter and would not go near a computer.
One of the library board members
latched onto a pair of old IBN computers from the local Savings and Loan and installed
them in the library. The librarian quit and never returned to the library. Not
ever again.
The Portage Lake District Library
is now part of the state-wide library network, connected with computers, web
site, the whole technological bit. The old manual typewriter is probably gone.
My service to Houghton
County was like getting a Masters
degree in civics. It was a great education. The ignoramus had learned something
about politics.
