My career in politics

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.