Leave it to the Grand Traverse County Board of Commissioners to dream up a new way to stumble over laws designed to ensure good government.
The board continually struggles to comprehend -- and sometimes fails to comply with -- the backbone acronyms of honest and transparent government: the OMA (Open Meetings Act) and FOIA (Freedom of Information Act). Examples are numerous, and include the board's angry and illegal 2007 effort to stymie fellow Commissioner Christine Maxbauer's legal right to videotape board meetings.
But county board members aren't ones to rest on their ragged laurels. They recently veered into state campaign finance violations.
It seems Commissioner Larry Inman planned to boost Commissioner Wayne Schmidt's run for state representative with a fundraiser at Inman's house. The guest list included the rest of the county board, sans Maxbauer, and somewhere in the back of his mind Inman apparently sensed potential conflict: OMA? FOIA? Some other pesky acronym?
Try SNAFU.
Inman worried that a house full of board members might constitute a quorum, so he asked county employees to create and post a notice that a meeting would be held at his house, and might include a board majority there to "support" Schmidt.
Alas, state campaign finance laws ban the use of government money, equipment, employees, etc. to support a candidate.
So Inman's would-be cautionary steps flopped, in part because of his wariness over previous board bungles.
"Good grief," Inman said. "I thought I might have five commissioners coming into my house and I wanted to make sure we were covered."
Inman's Charlie Brown act might be humorous if not for the board's lousy track record at such things. Like the gang that couldn't shoot straight, board members just can't hit the target, despite plenty of public dollars spent on seminars and attorney lectures.
Rich Robinson, executive director of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, managed a chuckle over the Schmidt support group's gaffe.
"(J)ust when you think you've heard it all, there's another new wrinkle," Robinson said. "To support a political candidate is not a function of a public body."
Schmidt's challenger in the 104th District race plans to file a complaint with the Michigan Secretary of State. Schmidt, meanwhile, contends state officials gave their okey-dokey.
"There was an error in posting, no violation," Schmidt said.
Not so fast, commissioner. A Secretary of State spokeswoman said her office does not "render decisions over the phone," as Schmidt implied.
A Michigan Press Association attorney called the fundraiser a "blatant" violation of campaign finance law.
It's also another example of the board's cluelessness. And it's a mindset all state residents can look forward to, if Schmidt graduates to Lansing.
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