TRAVERSE CITY -- A public relations firm worked with Meijer officials to manipulate Acme voters and taxpayers in the run-up to a February recall, in part by flooding the Record-Eagle with ghost-written letters, columns and Web site content.
The public relations firm -- Grand Rapids-based Seyferth, Spaulding, Tennyson -- served as the clandestine voice for a property rights group that tried, but failed, to recall Acme Township's elected officials.
The firm's secretive efforts included flooding the Record-Eagle with letters to the editor and opinion page "Forums" that were written by the firm but attributed to local residents.
Additionally, Seyferth, Spaulding, Tennyson invoices show it conducted "research" on the Record-Eagle's publisher and editor.
Invoices obtained through subpoenas and depositions show Seyferth, Spaulding, Tennyson billed Meijer $30,000 to secretly manage the recall campaign and put Meijer's message on letters signed by others, including local residents.
Examples include:
-- Dan Rosa, treasurer of pro-recall Acme Taxpayers for Responsible Government, submitted a guest Forum column to the Record-Eagle that ran on July 7. Invoices from Seyferth, Spaulding, Tennyson show the firm wrote and edited a Forum article approved by Meijer officials submitted to the Record-Eagle just before Rosa submitted his Forum.
The Rosa Forum may have been the first such effort, but invoices show it wasn't the last. For the next eight months Seyferth, Spaulding, Tennyson regularly billed Meijer for writing letters to the editor and additional Forum pieces.
Record-Eagle policy requires those who submit letters to the editor sign and signify that they authored the letter.
"(But) if they are not truthful or mislead us, there's very little we can do about it," said Dave Miller, editor of the Record-Eagle's opinion pages.
-- January 2007 invoices show Seyferth, Spaulding, Tennyson crafted a response to a Record-Eagle Forum piece written by Bill Kurtz, then-Acme Township supervisor and a recall target.
-- Rob Roden, director of Acme Taxpayers for Responsible Government, submitted a Forum under his signature responding to Kurtz that ran Feb. 21.
Neither Roden nor Rosa returned several phone calls seeking comment.
-- The public relations firm also was paid to respond to a letter that former Gov. William Milliken wrote in support of the township board.
Meijer and Seyferth, Spaulding, Tennyson officials declined comment.
-- A pro-recall mailing to township voters, attributed to Acme resident Gene Veliquette, began "Dear Acme Township Neighbor." It too, was a product that showed up on invoices from Seyferth, Spaulding, Tennyson.
-- In an e-mail message, Steve Hayward, a planner who worked with Meijer on the Village of Grand Traverse project, encouraged Seyferth, Spaulding, Tennyson vice president Eileen McNeil to make regular use of a now-discontinued Record-Eagle Web site reader forum that allowed anonymous postings.
"Any clown can post messages," Hayward wrote to McNeil.
"Will do," responded McNeil.
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