Joel On The Road | Words shot from a loose cannon

Vote for Susan!

Posted on July 23, 2010 by hro50ta1

By Joel Thurtell

She’s not running for office.

She’s trying to win five hundred bucks for a charity devoted to helping people with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

Susan is the personal finance columnist at the Detroit Free Press.

Once upon a time I was a reporter at the Free Press and sat across from Susan.

We became good friends, so when her e-mail came requesting that I vote for her, I responded that I’d vote for her — early and often.

I did cast an on-line ballot for Susan, who’s listed at the bottom of a column of Free Press personalities topped by Editor Paul Anger.

Now, the 13 Free Press people running in this election are all good people.

And the charities they’re representing all are worthy causes.

But Susan’s cause — Sheltering Arms — provides a service that really means something to me. Sheltering Arms provides day care for people with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s or other memory problems.

This is a good thing for people with Alzheimer’s, and it’s a good thing for family members who need respite from caring for their loved ones with Alzheimer’s.

I know something about this. My late father-in-law had Alzheimer’s, and my late mother-in-law, sorry to say, was not aware of services like Sheltering Arms. She could have used some respite.

My dad also had Alzheimer’s. My mother found a service like Sheltering Arms, and it meant a lot to her that before his death last year, my dad was getting day care along with some activity while she was free to run errands and do household chores that became more and more difficult for her as my dad’s memory loss got worse.

Susan told me that with help provided by Sheltering Arms, “People are able to stay longer in their homes and with their families. Spouses and children are able to keep working, instead of trying to stay home full time. Sheltering Arms has locations in Southfield and Auburn Hills.”

She added:

The contest is free; you can enter as many times as you can on a computer. Age 18 and older; U.S. citizens. Gannett employees cannot enter. See other contest rules.”
Prize: Lunch with Susan and a chance to go back-to-school shopping or any budget help…Lunch is free; shopping is not.
The real prize: If Susan wins, $500 goes to Sheltering Arms, which is part of Catholic Social Services.

So please cast a vote for Susan — early and often.

Posted in Joel's J School | 2 Comments

Parsley, sage, rosemary and journalism

Posted on July 22, 2010 by hro50ta1

By Joel Thurtell

There’s a lot of yackity-yack from traditional journalists about how bloggers don’t adhere to the same high standards as our morally superior print cousins.

In this exalted view, practitioners of the old format — for example, newspapers — don’t cut corners. They know how to properly source their stories. They don’t bend the rules.

Now comes the case of the law professor who’s been paid to shill for Detroit bridgemeister Manuel “Matty” Moroun.

Thanks to WDET-FM, we now know that Wayne State University law Professor Robert Sedler was paid by Matty’s lawyers to give “expert” testimony on Moroun’s Ambassador Bridge and a proposed government-sponsored second bridge to the Michigan Senate.

The professor went on a WDET talk show and claimed that the new bridge is “unconstitutional.” JOTR Copy Editor Spike Kopee has dismantled that claim, but my concern is with the fact that self-styled “experts” like Sedler all too often are quoted in the media as if they are knowledgeable and unbiased referees.

Well do I remember when I was a reporter at the Detroit Free Press being instructed by editors to call Prof. Sedler and other talking heads for comment. Whatever the story, there were profs like Sedler at various universities ready to spin quotable quotes for reporters.

Great for the university — gets it some free publicity.

Great for the prof — raises his or her profile.

Why would the prof want his or her profile raised?

One might surmise that it would help in, say, getting an academic article published, or maybe finding a publisher for a book, if the prof had a media presence.

But that media presence could up the ante in another way, by putting the prof on the map when it comes to hiring out to corporations needing a publicly visible spokesman who is seen as knowledgeable and unbiased and above all, possessing that aura of authority and intellectual invincibility that comes from being a university professor.

Oh yes, the connection to an academic institution really enhances that credibility.

But it’s a sham when the prof is on some private, intersted party’s payroll.

Hard to be unbiased when you’re cashing a check for spinning your tale.

The link to academia loses some of its sheen when we learn that the “expert” is being paid by some corporation or other institution with a built-in prejudice in favor of one side.

Seems like the link to lucre would tarnish the university’s reputation a little. Maybe somebody — a WSU trustee, say? — might want to look into whether there is an ethical issue here.

But media folk love these talking heads. On deadline, they need those quotes, and they need them now.

I don’t recall an editor ever suggesting I ask the professor, whomever it might be, from whatever college or university, if he was on the take for a particular side of the issue.

Get the quote!

You see, traditional journalism is about form. It is put together according to a recipe. There is a lead, which supposedly summarizes the story, usually picking the most dramatic aspect of the story even if it is not the most important.

There is a “nut graf,” a paragraph that re-spins the lead, broadening it and comparing it to the rest of the world. This is sometimes called the “cosmic graf.”

Then comes the explanation. This is where things could get real boring real fast.

So the journalist must try to spice up the story to keep readers reading. The idea for Page One stories is to entice readers to open the newspaper and “jump” in where the paying advertisements are nestled next to the journalism.

This is where a good spice rack comes in handy.

Spices can be quotes from real people saying things within quotation marks.

Quote marks signify life, realism, excitement in the minds of some editors and reporters.

Go out and get some quotes.

Here is where guys like Prof. Sedler come in handy. They are treasure troves of quotable quotes.

They have the gift of gab.

What about their credibility?

What about asking if they’ve taken any pay for holding their particular opinion?

Might want to add that to the reporter’s checklist.

I’m hoping that the Sedler case will tip off journalists that grabbing quick quotes should entail asking if the “expert” has a pony in the race.

Otherwise, the format drives the journalism, and it’s hard to tell whether the spices have been tainted.

Parsley, sage, rosemary and cite.

Drop me a line at joelthurtell@gmail.com

Posted in Joel's J School, Me & Matty | Tagged Ambassador Bridge, Detroit, expert testimony, Journalism ethics, Manuel Matty Moroun | 1 Comment

No free lunch

Posted on July 21, 2010 by hro50ta1

By Joel Thurtell

Free boat? Joel Thurtell photo

They say there’s no free lunch.

I’m a journalist, so I know that’s not true.

But one thing is sure — there is no such thing as a free boat.

This is a fact so evident, a principle so fundamental, that I always manage to forget it when someone offers me a freebie boat.

You’d think I could remember. At two different points in the distant past, I accepted the gift of a free wooden Lightning sailboat, only to awaken from my fantasy world, eyeballing with an increasingly jaded view, poking questionable wood with a jack-knife and finally — having salvaged what hardware was worth keeping — I’d make that final trip to the landfill.

The rule applies as well to boats that are almost free.

For instance, my first boat, a beat-up steel rowboat I paid ten bucks for, and the “brand-new” wooden Lightning sailboat hull I paid five hundred smackers for and…

But those are stories I’ve already written. No point giving them away! You can read about them in my book, Plug Nickel by purchasing it from amazon.com

But the siren call is stronger when more than one boat is being offered.

So it was when I bumped into Joe Shields at a party in what used to be Ferguson’s and later Turner’s general store and post office on Iroquois Island in McGregor Bay, Ontario. What used to be a focal point of Bay life, the store where we went to replenish gas tanks or supplies of fishing lures, where we could buy a head of lettuce for the salad or a six-pack of beer and at the same time harvest the latest Bay gossip, now is the McGregor Bay Lodge, a resort with cottages for rent.

The store is history.

Joe and John Shields are identical twins who bought the former Wood/Fonde island in the Outer Bay back in 2007. By now, they’ve torn down and replaced the two main cottages. In typical McGregor Bay fashion, the island was sold together with “chattels,” which included boats, outboard motors, a couple of sailboats, furniture, fishing gear and just about everything else that wasn’t screwed or nailed down.

It was those sailboats that Joe Shields was interested in when we were chatting at the McGregor Bay Lodge party. He was interested in, well, whether I was interested in them.

As in getting them off their island.

Pity Soom Joel Thurtell photo

Now, some might have looked at those two CL-11 boats and seen nothing but junk.

And I’ve taken some ribbing from friends, who think Joe Shields got the better part of the deal.

Not so.

Oh, no.

With me, sentiment prevails.

Why, these two little 11-foot sloops are the very boats we learned to sail in.

The island, TP 1071, was owned partly by the Woods, my wife’s aunt and uncle and cousins, and by the Fondes, my wife’s own family. Sometime back in the 1960s, the Woods and Fondes decided they should learn to sail. They went to the Detroit Boat Show and found a little Canadian-built sailing dinghy that looked just right: the CL-11 is a smaller version of the CL-16, a Canadian-built version of the famous English sailboat called “Wayfarer.”

Sloop du Jour Joel Thurtell photo

Each family bought a CL-11. The Woods called theirs “Sloop du Jour.”

In those days, my sister-in-law, then Anne Fonde and now Anne Potter, was very young and just learning to talk. The trip from Ann Arbor to Birch Island is a long one. Today, it’s at best a 10-hour drive. Back then, with rougher roads, it took longer. Anne would get tired of the ride and ask the age-old kids’ question: When are we gonna get there?

She would be told, “Pretty soon.”

She repeated: “Pity Soom.”

“PIty Soom” is the name of the Fonde’s sailboat.

Except that upon sale of the island, the sailboats were part of the chattels that were turned over to the new owners, the Shields.

And now here was Joe Shields offering not one, but both of the sailboats to me.

Sloop du Jour and Pity Soom.

Free!

Wow!

No time was to be lost. A couple days later, I hopped into our Crestliner motorboat and tooled around shoals and islands for three miles or so to TP 1071. I tied my boat to the former Fonde dock and walked up the rocks, a way that is so familiar. I first came to TP 1071 in 1972 and until the place was sold, spent time there nearly every summer.

The deck is the old Fonde deck.

So familiar.

But the cottage is all new. The one my late father-in-law, Henry Fonde, built, was torn down and the lumber either re-used or burned.

Nobody home.

I left a note: “I’ll be back for the boats!”

Pity Soom at our dock Joel Thurtell photo

Next day, with help from Joe’s wife, Minnick, I began looking through old Wood and Fonde possessions — “chattels” — in one of the two small buildings the Shields didn’t tear down.

We located both masts, both booms, both mainsails, but didn’t find the jibs and one of the rudders is missing. Hey, I figured, it’ll turn up.

I towed the little CL-11s back to our island.

They looked great, bobbing beside our dock: A new home for Sloop du Jour and Pity Soom.

Mine!

Once I got them tied to our dock, I could have a closer look. Oops, the rudder mounts have spacers made, once upon a time, of plywood. Rotten.

Got on the Internet. C & L, the original maker, is still in business. But to replace the rudder mount spacers, you have to cut a hole in the stern air tank. To close it up after you make the repair, you need to install a 4-inch-diameter plastic inspection port. The port needs to be glued and riveted in place.

Cost of two sets of spacers, two inspection ports, sealant, bolts, rivets and Canada Post shipping: ninety-nine dollars and change.

This is why there is no such thing as a free boat.

Pity Soom centerboard. Not quite ready for action. Joel Thurtell photo

Now, let’s have a closer look at those centerboards. At TP 1071, standard procedure was to store mast, boom, sails and rudders inside. The boats were left outside, upside-down. The hulls are made of plastic and nearly indestructible.

But this treatment, it turns out, was not so good for the plywood centerboards. They were exposed for many years to rain, snow, ice, freeze and thaw.

One of the centerboards fell into two pieces when I removed it from the boat’s centerboard trunk.

The other centerboard, while thoroughly rotten, has retained its shape. It can be used as a template for cutting new centerboards out of something more durable, like mahogany.

And no more leaving centerboards outside to rot!

Went on the Internet and checked the price of new jibs, in case the old ones fail to surface. And the price of a new rudder.

We are talking hundreds of dollars to make these two “free” boats seaworthy.

Okay, repeat after me: There is no free boat, there is no free boat, there is no…

Got CL-11 parts, e.g., jibs and rudder? Drop me a line at joelthurtell@gmail.com

Posted in Bay, Boats, Lakes and streams | Tagged boat restoration, Boats, C & L Boatworks, CL-11, McGregor Bay | 2 Comments

‘Mud’ rules Michigan lakes

Posted on July 19, 2010 by hro50ta1

Here from my files is the uncut version of my Detroit Free Press lake names article that ran in shorter form on March 22, 2002:

By Joel Thurtell

Beverly Zeldes looked out at the 6.2-acre lake behind her West Bloomfield, Michigan house. She thinks developers changed the name to make it more attractive to home buyers.

“They call it Fox Lake,” said Zeldes, “But it’s still Mud Lake on the maps.”

One thing’s clear about the folks who named Michigan’s lakes.

They had mud in their eyes.

Statewide, the names of 264 lakes are Mud.

As for clarity, only 20 lakes are called Clear.

Oakland County alone has 15 Mud Lakes.

The names are in a 3-inch thick stack of 12-by-18-inch pages listing every known lake – 35,068 of them – in each of the state’s 83 counties.

The tome by Clifford Humphrys and Janet Colby is called “Michigan Lakes and Ponds.” Published by Michigan State University in 1965, it’s still the most comprehensive inventory of lakes in Michigan, said Jennifer Runyon of the Geographic Names Office at the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey in Washington, D.C.

Where the USGS website (geonames.usgs.gov) lists 346 lakes in Oakland County, the Humphrys-Colby book catalogs 1,857, ranking Oakland second in the state for number of lakes and ninth in lake surface area with 25,504 acres..

“Which are the lakes and which are the ponds?” Humphrys said in a phone interview Thursday from his Laingsburg home.

It’s in the name, the retired MSU professor says.

“I go to the map, and if it says there’s a 2,000-acre pond, that’s how we report it. There are lakes that are less than half an acre. I can’t tinker with the name.”

With 62 entries, Twin Lakes appears to rank fifth behind Bass (69).

Except, notes Humphrys, that “Twin Lakes is plural. These Twin Lakes actually include two bodies of water.”

Doubling the number for Twin Lakes ranks it second, easily beating third-place Long (77) Lake and fourth-place Bass Lake (69).

Often, the most popular names are common images people think of when they look at a lake, says Runyon. Think of a lake and you might think Fish (18) Lake. Maybe you have a special craving for Pike (20) or Pickerel (29).

Many lakes look like circles. Some people, striving for originality, rejected Round (58) and came up with Dollar Lake (28).

Does it look like a Horseshoe(32)? Or is it Crooked (30)?

Maybe a lake had Grass (46) on its banks or watered a grove of Cranberry (44) trees.

If a lake proved hard to find, it might be dubbed Lost (34).

In Oakland, there are two Cass and two Pontiac lakes. There are the better-known lakes with their popular state public boat ramps and parks, and there are tiny, obscure lakes called Cass and Pontiac.

Four counties – Berrien, Cass, Calhoun and Gladwin – had lakes named Nigger. A recent Michigan Department of Natural Resources county map book doesn’t show any of them. However, a Michigan United Conservation Clubs county map book from the 1980s shows a Nigger Lake in southern Berrien County.

Humphrys said he included those references because they were the lake names that existed when he compiled the book. “It’s offensive, but I had to take what was standing in the record,” Humphrys said.

Originality deserves some credit. Some, like Jim’s Lake, are named after people. But for every Houseman or Popendick Lake there are 10 Davis Lakes. And for each Dishpan, Delirium, Gold Mine, Gun Powder, Poor, Never Hunt, Old Man or Rug, there are 20 called Bullhead, 25 Cedar, 27 Duck, 27 Indian, 27 Loon and 23 Pine.

Humphrys said state troopers liked his inventory because when they got an emergency call to a Duck or Mud lake, they could look the lake up on his alphabetical list, find its unique number code, then look up that lake’s precise location.

A multitude of identical names causes less confusion now that police dispatchers can trace the address of telephone calls, but Caller ID still doesn’t work on cell phones. That’s when duplication can causes problems, said Capt. Mike McCabe of the Oakland County Sheriff’s Department.

“It wasn’t confusing for the early settlers, but their horizon was very small,” said Runyon. “They had their 160 acres and they farmed it and didn’t know that Farmer Smith a mile down the road had also named his lake Crystal (13).”

Beverly Zeldes was right about the unofficial renaming of Mud Lake.

Opposite Zeldes’ house is the 130-unit Cloister-on-the-Lake condominium development where Richard Coffey is the resident real estate broker.

“When people sell their property, they refer to it as Fox Lake and definitely not Mud Lake,” said Coffey. “It’s a lot more appealing.”

For more on names of lakes and other natural features, see the USGS Web

site at http://geonames.usgs.gov

TOP 10 MICHIGAN LAKE NAMES

1. MUD 264

2. TWIN 124*

3. LONG 77

4. BASS 69

5. ROUND 58

6. GRASS 46

7. CRANBERRY 44

8. LOST 34

9. HORSESHOE 32

10. BEAR, CROOKED 30

TOP OAKLAND COUNTY LAKE NAMES

1. Mud 15

2. Twin 8

3. Long 7

4. Spring 6

5. Grass, Round 5

6. Green 4

7. Dark, Dollar, Green’s, Loon, Mill, Pine 3

8. Cass, Clam, Crystal, Davis, Fish, Marl,

Pontiac, Square 2

* There are 62 references to Twin Lakes, each of which represents two bodies
of water, or 124 lakes.

Source: ”Michigan Lakes and Ponds,” by Clifford Humphrys and Janet Colby,
Michigan State University, 1965; study documented lakes and ponds as small as
1/10 acre.

Chart reprinted with permission of Detroit Free Press.

Posted in Bay, Lakes and streams | Tagged lake names, Lakes, place names | 2 Comments

The ‘rainmaker’ and the Senate

Posted on July 18, 2010 by hro50ta1

Here, followed by my introduction, is the 1992 Detroit Free Press article that set off the “Sewergate” scandal in Canton, Northville and Plymouth townships. I reprinted it on May 29, 2010, and now that one of the key actors is running for public office, it seems like a good time to run the intro and story again.

By Joel Thurtell

Abe Munfakh calls himself a “rainmaker.”

He’s running as a Republican for the 7th district state senate being vacated by the term-limited Bruce Patterson.

“Rainmaker.”

He means he got contracts for the Ann Arbor engineering firm he headed.

Nothing wrong with that, is there?

Depends on how the contracts were gotten.

In the following April 22, 1992 Detroit Free Press article, I outlined one way Munfakh made rain for his company, Ayres, Lewis, Norris & May.

He got them a $10 million sewer engineering contract.

He was in the right place, right time.

As a member of the Plymouth Township Board of Trustees, he knew the skinny on a hundred-million-dollar construction project known as the Western Townships Utilities Authority. He knew about WTUA’s plan to pipe sewage from three townships to Ypsilanti. Not only knew about it — he voted to establish the authority and to collect fees from residents.

No requests for proposals on this deal.

While Munfakh was a the township trustee, his firm, Ayres, Lewis, Norris & May, got the contract in a no-bid deal.

He makes no bones about it. His website boasts, “Abe was the rainmaker and jobs creator (for Ayres, Lewis, Norris & May) and under his leadership ALNM expanded and grew from 31 employees to 152 employees when he retired in 2004.”

Talk about well-connected.

The fix was in.

WTUA benefited other firms and individuals with connections to local politicians as well.

Every politician connected to the WTUA insider trading deal got bounced out of office in the August 1992 Republican primary election, including Abe Munfakh, who placed last in a field of seven running for a Plymouth Township board seat.

Eventually, Munfakh won back a seat on the Plymouth Township board.

Now he wants a seat in the state senate.

Rainmaker for the Legislature.

Wonder whose benefit he’ll be working for?

This story, reprinted with permission of the Detroit Free Press, shows how Munfakh made rain for himself and his company while he was an elected Plymouth Township trustee.

Is it accurate?

Well, local officials and a a slew of well-paid PR firms — mentioned in my story — went through my article with microscopes looking for ways to pick it apart. That they found only one inconsequential error is a testament to this article’s accuracy.

Now, 18 years later, this self-styled “rainmaker” wants a seat in the state senate.

Headline: SEWER COSTS SWAMP 3 TOWNSHIPS

Sub-Head:

Byline: JOEL THURTELL FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Pub-Date: 2/22/1992

Memo: DRAINING THE SUBURBS; SEE CHART IN MICROFILM

Correction: CORRECTION RAN MARCH 3, 1992

GETTING IT STRAIGHT

* A FEB. 22 FRONT-PAGE ARTICLE INCORRECTLY REPORTED WHAT THE

YPSILANTI COMMUNITY UTILITIES AUTHORITY AND WAYNE COUNTY CHARGE

FOR TREATING SEWAGE. YCUA CHARGES $10.59 IN OPERATION AND

MAINTENANCE COSTS PER 1,000 CUBIC FEET. WAYNE COUNTY CHARGES

CANTON TOWNSHIP $5.65 PER 1,000 CUBIC FEET, NORTHVILLE TOWNSHIP

$4.77 AND PLYMOUTH TOWNSHIP $5.23

Text: Six years ago, three Wayne County suburbs decided to save their residents

millions of dollars in sewer fees.

Wayne County wanted $25.5 million for the three to join its Super Sewer

project. But the supervisors of Plymouth, Canton and Northville Townships

said they could do it for $17 million and went their own way.

Their way is costing the 98,000 residents of the townships $94.5 million.

At least $30 million of that is being spent on non- construction costs.

And more than $11.5 million in contracts has been awarded to people with

connections with the township officials, a Free Press investigation shows.

What will the townships get for the extra money? Sewer rates at least twice

as high as those of the 12 communities tied into Super Sewer. A system with

only half as much additional capacity as Super Sewer would have given them —

and only if the Ypsilanti plant, which will treat the sewage, is expanded.

That cost hasn’t been calculated.

“Holy Toledo! That’s incredible!” exclaimed former Canton Township Clerk

Linda Chuhran, who now regrets casting one of the seven votes in 1986 that

established the Western Townships Utilities Authority, which oversees the

sewer system.

Canton Township supervisor and sewer authority chairman Thomas Yack defend the project, saying it’s better for the environment and provides all the

capacity the western townships will need for growth.

“The project is a lot different than the early project envisioned by Wayne

County,” Yack said. “Why it’s four or five fold, I really couldn’t respond.”

But a Free Press investigation shows that the three township supervisors,

who double as commissioners for the sewer authority, have done little to hold

down costs:

* Some $30 million is going to nonconstruction contracts that were awarded

without competitive bidding.

* The sewer board so far has paid out at least $5.5 million to people and

businesses with connections to the authority, according to records obtained by

the Free Press. Their contracts call for them to receive another $6 million.

Among work awarded without bids:

* Legal services and consulting contracts to firms connected to former WTUA

secretary Robert Law. His legal firm also represents the three townships. His

brother, Gerald Law, is now Plymouth Township supervisor and WTUA treasurer.

* Land acquisition, assigned to John Breen, brother of Maurice Breen,

authority cofounder and former Plymouth Township supervisor.

* Engineering, awarded to a firm headed by Abe Munfakh, a Plymouth Township

trustee who voted to establish WTUA.

Meanwhile, Super Sewer costs haven’t exceeded the original projection of $60

million and the federal government is paying 55 percent. The western

townships have received no federal money.

Because of the federal money, all contracts have been awarded on a

competitive basis, according to Tom Kampinnen of the state Department of

Natural Resources. Super Sewer will replace sewer lines between 12 communities

and the Detroit Wastewater Treatment Plant.

‘There will be no unknowns’

When officials of the townships decided to break away from Super Sewer in

1986, they were optimistic.

“You’re looking at a better project we’re buying into,” Maurice Breen

said at the time. “We’ll know what the dollars are. There will be no unknowns

in the project other than acts of nature.”

James Poole, then the Canton Township supervisor, warned that Super Sewer

might never receive federal funds.

The supervisors didn’t believe they would pay only $25.5 million for a

stake in the county system. They worried they would be taxed down the road if

Detroit were ordered to upgrade its sewage treatment plant.

Besides, the township officials said, instead of trusting Wayne County and

Detroit, they would have control over their sewer facilities.

Officials of the townships were able to form WTUA and issue bonds without

voter approval under a 1955 state law that allows them to sell bonds to

finance public utilities. The supervisors — Canton’s Poole, Plymouth’s

Breen and Northville’s Suzie Heintz — gathered the day after Christmas 1986

and formally organized the authority.

“We told them when they started that it was going to be very expensive,”

said Wayne County Department of Public Works Director Jim Murray, who was

Washtenaw County drain commissioner and chairman of the Michigan Water

Resources Commission in 1988 when the sewer authority sought a new water

discharge permit for the Ypsilanti plant.

Had the townships stayed with Super Sewer, they were promised about 52

million gallons a day of additional capacity, or six times the 8.7 million

gallons they will lease from the Ypsilanti Community Utilities Authority

beginning in fall 1993. If they want more, the townships will have to pay to

expand the Ypsilanti plant, said YCUA Director Bruce Jones. An expanded plant

would give them about half what Super Sewer promised, according to the

Ypsilanti sewer authority’s figures.

WTUA project engineer Phil Loud said he believes Super Sewer’s promised

capacity in 1986 was exaggerated. He said his firm is using sophisticated

methods of estimating capacity which may not have been used by engineers

planning Wayne County’s system.

In the early years of the authority, officials also were optimistic about

rates.

In 1988, Poole boasted, “eventually, our rates will be better than Detroit”

because the Ypsilanti plant “is a much more efficient operation.”

Today, Ypsilanti’s rate is $12.64 per 1,000 cubic feet a second, compared

to Wayne County’s $4.77, according to YCUA and the Wayne County Department of Public Works.

Some bills already higher

Some residents already are getting higher bills to pay for the new system;

they will get them for a generation or more as WTUA pays off its construction

bonds, plus $150 million in interest.

Plymouth Township residents are paying quarterly $15.69 installments

intended to collect more than $1,882 per household over the next 30 years.

Northville Township plans to cover its debt through hookup fees paid by

developers of new housing, according to the township finance director, Duane

Harrigan.

Canton Township plans to pay part of its share by gradually increasing

water and sewer rates, said finance director John Spencer.

“We don’t see it impacting rates significantly,” he said. Over the past 20

years, Canton has saved about $17 million from hookup fees, and part of that

could be used for the debt, he said.

Some of the debt comes from administrative costs the authority incurred in

getting the bond money.

A computer analysis of municipal bond transactions, done for the Free

Press by Securities Data Co. of Newark, N.J., shows that the fees WTUA paid to

issue its 1989 and 1991 bonds were more than 20 percent above average.

In all, the authority’s bonding fees cost $494,385 above average.

Among those costs was a $75,000 finder’s fee to Plymouth stockbroker Craig

Fleming, who said he learned of the deal from Ernie Essad, a partner in

WTUA’s law firm. Fleming said he acted as a liaison between the law firm and

his employers, Prescott, Ball and Turben Inc. of Chicago, the lead bond

underwriters.

No bidding policy

Sewer officials say much of the extra cost comes from unanticipated

construction needs, such as a larger interceptor and catch basin and a pump

station and pipes to move treated wastewater to the Rouge River.

But they could have tried to lower costs by requiring bidding for

professional services. The authority has no bidding policy, according to

Executive Director Deloris Newell.

Said Robert VanRavenswaay Jr., an authority attorney: “There’s really

nothing in the statutes that says or even suggests we get requests for

proposals for everything that is procured.”

But former Canton Township Clerk Chuhran, now an accountant for General

Motors, calls not seeking bids “against all the ethics and guidelines set up

for governments to run by.”

The Michigan Townships Association, to which the three townships belong,

recently drafted a policy recommending that its members solicit competitive

bids for goods and services.

Peter Letzmann, past president of the Michigan Association of Municipal

Attorneys who frequently speaks on ethics in government, said the sewer board

should have sought bids.

“It seems to me that any public officials would take great steps to be

squeaky clean or scrupulous within the letter of the law so there would be no

conflict of interest or no appearance of conflict of interest,” said Letzmann.

“Those people who do not take that step are doing a disservice to their

municipality or governmental agency because today we have a crying need for

ethics, honesty and integrity in government.”

No-bid contracts for engineering, lobbying and legal services went to

people with connections to township officials.

The engineering contract went to the Ann Arbor firm of Ayres, Lewis,

Norris & May, whose president is Plymouth Township Trustee Munfakh.

Munfakh voted in November 1986 to establish the authority. In 1991, he voted

to increase sewer rates so the township could pay its share of the bonds. His

company had billed the authority $3,225,901 by mid-December and is budgeted

to earn $9.8 million on the sewer job.

According to Newell, the townships were worried about a conflict of

interest when they chose an engineering firm. They ruled out a Taylor

engineering firm because it already was working for Wayne County on Super

Sewer.

The authority “wanted an engineering firm in Washtenaw County because

there was quite a bit of negotiating to do with YCUA,” she said. Another Ann

Arbor firm was ineligible because it was working for Ypsilanti, Newell said.

Munfakh’s firm “was highly recommended and did not represent YCUA or Wayne

County,” said Newell.

“They beat us to get our fee down,” Munfakh said.

Munfakh said Breen convinced him to accept a 4.5-percent profit, half its

usual margin. The sewer project will account for 15 percent of his firm’s

income this year, said Munfakh.

Munfakh meets regularly with the sewer board and in the absence of chief

engineer Loud gives reports to the board.

He said he voted for the Plymouth Township sewer rate increase because he

felt a responsibility to make sure the township pays its debt.

Also without seeking bids, the authority awarded its contract for land

acquisition legal work to Breen’s brother, John Breen. They share an office

in Plymouth Township.

Although now a Wayne County commissioner, Maurice Breen still takes an

active part in authority affairs.

He defended the choice of his brother, saying that John Breen had

experience in acquiring land when he was legal director for Wayne County’s

Department of Public Works.

“John had retired from Wayne County and was just kind of looking for

something to do. We wanted somebody doing acquisition who would treat our

people in a kind manner . . . and did not charge us $250 an hour for legal

services.”

By mid-December, John Breen had billed the authority $51,005.

Former state Rep. Gerald Law took Maurice Breen’s place as Plymouth

Township supervisor and sewer commissioner last year after Breen became a

county commissioner.

Law’s brother, Robert Law, was secretary to the sewer board during its

first meeting in 1986. His legal firm represents all three townships.

Without seeking bids, the sewer board during that first meeting in 1986

named Robert Law’s firm to represent it and named him its lead attorney. Since

then, without bids, the board has awarded lobbying and public relations

contracts to firms connected to Law or his firm, Law, Hemming, Essad &

Polaczyk.

By mid-December, the legal firm had made more than $1.5 million from the

project, including a one-half-percent fee on both bond transactions, totaling

more than $900,000. The other firms took in more than $150,000. “We were

hired because of our background in this project and because of our working

relationship with the communities,” said Robert Law.

The board pays a $3,000 monthly retainer to Government Affairs Consulting

Group. Robert Law is the president of the firm, which also has offices in the

same building as Law, Hemming. By mid-December, Government Affairs had billed the authority $50,587 for lobbying services.

In 1988, when the sewer board needed to have proposals and news releases

written, the board, without seeking bids, awarded the contract to Power

Associates of Plymouth Township. Law said Power Associates was an affiliate of

the legal firm and has offices in the same building as Law, Hemming.

According to state records, Power Associates’ president is Michael Brice and

its director is Robert Law. By mid-December, Power Associates had billed the

sewer authority $20,000.

Another firm affiliated with Law, Hemming is Communications Management

Co., which had billed $61,624 for public relations work by mid-December,

Robert Law said. Communications Management is the new name for Power

Associates, whose name was not popular with clients, said the attorney. Yet

another public relations firm which he acknowledged was, until recently, a

Law, Hemming affiliate, is Strategies Plus, which had billed $27,371 by

mid-December. He said Strategies Plus is no longer an affiliate of the law

firm.

Michael Brice is president of Strategies Plus.

Law, Hemming partner Ernie Essad said he sees no problem with Robert Law

serving as general counsel of WTUA while his brother, Gerald Law, is its

treasurer.

“It’s nothing hidden, and everybody knows who everybody is,” said Essad.

“There are bar opinions which indicate that you are not automatically

disqualified as a result of that relationship.”

$611,876 lobbying bill

The biggest single consulting bill — $611,876 — has come from the

Washington, D.C., lobbying firm of Cassidy & Associates. The authority did

not advertise for bids for the work.

Cassidy bills WTUA $20,000 a month to lobby Michigan’s congressional

delegation to help get a $19 million federal grant. The money would pay for

pipes and a pumping system to carry treated wastewater to the Rouge.

The authority says that part of the project, recommended by the DNR, is a

unique national environmental demonstration.

Officials are hoping for a grant from the Army Corps of Engineers.

Maurice Breen said he’s “absolutely convinced” the project eventually will

receive federal money.

The authority has stressed environmental benefits of the sewer system. Its

plan to eventually pump 58 million gallons a day of treated wastewater from

Ypsilanti back to Canton for discharge into the lower Rouge has been termed a

“win-win situation” by Paul Zugger, director of the surface water quality

division of the DNR.

The authority proposes by November 1994 to send all of the Ypsilanti

plant’s treated wastewater to the Rouge. According to Newell, the water would

be cleaner than water now in the Rouge, and would stabilize streamflows.

But in October, U.S. Rep. John Dingell asked the corps to study the

effect of the project on residents of his 16th Congressional District, which

covers Monroe County and parts of Lenawee and Wayne counties, downriver from

the discharge.

Maurice Breen remains confident the townships did the right thing in going

it alone.

“We were willing to go into a system not so much for sanitary sewer needs,

but as an environmental project, even though it may cost more.”

To Edward Hustoles, director of planning at the Southeastern Michigan

Council of Governments, it’s no surprise the system is costing more.

“The idea of independence is a seductive one. That always sounds good, to

be our own bosses. They’re paying a price for independence.”

Caption: A worker surveys a sewer construction site at Joy and

Haggerty roads in Canton Township. The sewer project,

conceived as a money-saver for Plymouth, Canton and Northville

townships, will cost $94.5 million. Wayne County had asked for

$25.5 million for its Super Sewer.

Illustration: PHOTO DAYMON J. HARTLEY; MAP HANK SZERLAG

CHART

Edition: METRO FINAL

Section: NWS

Page: 1A

Keywords: ; SEWER; MAJOR STORY; SUBURB; WAYNE COUNTY

Disclaimer:

Sub-Head:Byline: JOEL THURTELL FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERPub-Date: 2/22/1992Memo: DRAINING THE SUBURBS; SEE CHART IN MICROFILMCorrection: CORRECTION RAN MARCH 3, 1992GETTING IT STRAIGHT* A FEB. 22 FRONT-PAGE ARTICLE INCORRECTLY REPORTED WHAT THEYPSILANTI COMMUNITY UTILITIES AUTHORITY AND WAYNE COUNTY CHARGEFOR TREATING SEWAGE. YCUA CHARGES $10.59 IN OPERATION ANDMAINTENANCE COSTS PER 1,000 CUBIC FEET. WAYNE COUNTY CHARGESCANTON TOWNSHIP $5.65 PER 1,000 CUBIC FEET, NORTHVILLE TOWNSHIP$4.77 AND PLYMOUTH TOWNSHIP $5.23millions of dollars in sewer fees.Wayne County wanted $25.5 million for the three to join its Super Sewerproject. But the supervisors of Plymouth, Canton and Northville Townshipssaid they could do it for $17 million and went their own way.Their way is costing the 98,000 residents of the townships $94.5 million.At least $30 million of that is being spent on non- construction costs.And more than $11.5 million in contracts has been awarded to people withconnections with the township officials, a Free Press investigation shows.What will the townships get for the extra money? Sewer rates at least twiceas high as those of the 12 communities tied into Super Sewer. A system withonly half as much additional capacity as Super Sewer would have given them –and only if the Ypsilanti plant, which will treat the sewage, is expanded.That cost hasn’t been calculated.”Holy Toledo! That’s incredible!” exclaimed former Canton Township ClerkLinda Chuhran, who now regrets casting one of the seven votes in 1986 thatestablished the Western Townships Utilities Authority, which oversees thesewer system.Canton Township supervisor and sewer authority chairman Thomas Yack defend the project, saying it’s better for the environment and provides all thecapacity the western townships will need for growth.”The project is a lot different than the early project envisioned by WayneCounty,” Yack said. “Why it’s four or five fold, I really couldn’t respond.”But a Free Press investigation shows that the three township supervisors,who double as commissioners for the sewer authority, have done little to holddown costs:* Some $30 million is going to nonconstruction contracts that were awardedwithout competitive bidding.* The sewer board so far has paid out at least $5.5 million to people andbusinesses with connections to the authority, according to records obtained bythe Free Press. Their contracts call for them to receive another $6 million.Among work awarded without bids:* Legal services and consulting contracts to firms connected to former WTUAsecretary Robert Law. His legal firm also represents the three townships. Hisbrother, Gerald Law, is now Plymouth Township supervisor and WTUA treasurer.* Land acquisition, assigned to John Breen, brother of Maurice Breen,authority cofounder and former Plymouth Township supervisor.* Engineering, awarded to a firm headed by Abe Munfakh, a Plymouth Townshiptrustee who voted to establish WTUA.Meanwhile, Super Sewer costs haven’t exceeded the original projection of $60million and the federal government is paying 55 percent. The westerntownships have received no federal money.Because of the federal money, all contracts have been awarded on acompetitive basis, according to Tom Kampinnen of the state Department ofNatural Resources. Super Sewer will replace sewer lines between 12 communitiesand the Detroit Wastewater Treatment Plant.‘There will be no unknowns’When officials of the townships decided to break away from Super Sewer in1986, they were optimistic.”You’re looking at a better project we’re buying into,” Maurice Breensaid at the time. “We’ll know what the dollars are. There will be no unknownsin the project other than acts of nature.”James Poole, then the Canton Township supervisor, warned that Super Sewermight never receive federal funds.The supervisors didn’t believe they would pay only $25.5 million for astake in the county system. They worried they would be taxed down the road ifDetroit were ordered to upgrade its sewage treatment plant.Besides, the township officials said, instead of trusting Wayne County andDetroit, they would have control over their sewer facilities.Officials of the townships were able to form WTUA and issue bonds withoutvoter approval under a 1955 state law that allows them to sell bonds tofinance public utilities. The supervisors — Canton’s Poole, Plymouth’sBreen and Northville’s Suzie Heintz — gathered the day after Christmas 1986and formally organized the authority.”We told them when they started that it was going to be very expensive,”said Wayne County Department of Public Works Director Jim Murray, who wasWashtenaw County drain commissioner and chairman of the Michigan WaterResources Commission in 1988 when the sewer authority sought a new waterdischarge permit for the Ypsilanti plant.Had the townships stayed with Super Sewer, they were promised about 52million gallons a day of additional capacity, or six times the 8.7 milliongallons they will lease from the Ypsilanti Community Utilities Authoritybeginning in fall 1993. If they want more, the townships will have to pay toexpand the Ypsilanti plant, said YCUA Director Bruce Jones. An expanded plantwould give them about half what Super Sewer promised, according to theYpsilanti sewer authority’s figures.WTUA project engineer Phil Loud said he believes Super Sewer’s promisedcapacity in 1986 was exaggerated. He said his firm is using sophisticatedmethods of estimating capacity which may not have been used by engineersplanning Wayne County’s system.In the early years of the authority, officials also were optimistic aboutrates.In 1988, Poole boasted, “eventually, our rates will be better than Detroit”because the Ypsilanti plant “is a much more efficient operation.”Today, Ypsilanti’s rate is $12.64 per 1,000 cubic feet a second, comparedto Wayne County’s $4.77, according to YCUA and the Wayne County Department of Public Works.Some bills already higherSome residents already are getting higher bills to pay for the new system;they will get them for a generation or more as WTUA pays off its constructionbonds, plus $150 million in interest.Plymouth Township residents are paying quarterly $15.69 installmentsintended to collect more than $1,882 per household over the next 30 years.Northville Township plans to cover its debt through hookup fees paid bydevelopers of new housing, according to the township finance director, DuaneHarrigan.Canton Township plans to pay part of its share by gradually increasingwater and sewer rates, said finance director John Spencer.”We don’t see it impacting rates significantly,” he said. Over the past 20years, Canton has saved about $17 million from hookup fees, and part of thatcould be used for the debt, he said.Some of the debt comes from administrative costs the authority incurred ingetting the bond money.A computer analysis of municipal bond transactions, done for the FreePress by Securities Data Co. of Newark, N.J., shows that the fees WTUA paid toissue its 1989 and 1991 bonds were more than 20 percent above average.In all, the authority’s bonding fees cost $494,385 above average.Among those costs was a $75,000 finder’s fee to Plymouth stockbroker CraigFleming, who said he learned of the deal from Ernie Essad, a partner inWTUA’s law firm. Fleming said he acted as a liaison between the law firm andhis employers, Prescott, Ball and Turben Inc. of Chicago, the lead bondunderwriters.No bidding policySewer officials say much of the extra cost comes from unanticipatedconstruction needs, such as a larger interceptor and catch basin and a pumpstation and pipes to move treated wastewater to the Rouge River.But they could have tried to lower costs by requiring bidding forprofessional services. The authority has no bidding policy, according toExecutive Director Deloris Newell.Said Robert VanRavenswaay Jr., an authority attorney: “There’s reallynothing in the statutes that says or even suggests we get requests forproposals for everything that is procured.”But former Canton Township Clerk Chuhran, now an accountant for GeneralMotors, calls not seeking bids “against all the ethics and guidelines set upfor governments to run by.”The Michigan Townships Association, to which the three townships belong,recently drafted a policy recommending that its members solicit competitivebids for goods and services.Peter Letzmann, past president of the Michigan Association of MunicipalAttorneys who frequently speaks on ethics in government, said the sewer boardshould have sought bids.”It seems to me that any public officials would take great steps to besqueaky clean or scrupulous within the letter of the law so there would be noconflict of interest or no appearance of conflict of interest,” said Letzmann.”Those people who do not take that step are doing a disservice to theirmunicipality or governmental agency because today we have a crying need forethics, honesty and integrity in government.”No-bid contracts for engineering, lobbying and legal services went topeople with connections to township officials.The engineering contract went to the Ann Arbor firm of Ayres, Lewis,Norris & May, whose president is Plymouth Township Trustee Munfakh.Munfakh voted in November 1986 to establish the authority. In 1991, he votedto increase sewer rates so the township could pay its share of the bonds. Hiscompany had billed the authority $3,225,901 by mid-December and is budgetedto earn $9.8 million on the sewer job.According to Newell, the townships were worried about a conflict ofinterest when they chose an engineering firm. They ruled out a Taylorengineering firm because it already was working for Wayne County on SuperSewer.The authority “wanted an engineering firm in Washtenaw County becausethere was quite a bit of negotiating to do with YCUA,” she said. Another AnnArbor firm was ineligible because it was working for Ypsilanti, Newell said.Munfakh’s firm “was highly recommended and did not represent YCUA or WayneCounty,” said Newell.”They beat us to get our fee down,” Munfakh said.Munfakh said Breen convinced him to accept a 4.5-percent profit, half itsusual margin. The sewer project will account for 15 percent of his firm’sincome this year, said Munfakh.Munfakh meets regularly with the sewer board and in the absence of chiefengineer Loud gives reports to the board.He said he voted for the Plymouth Township sewer rate increase because hefelt a responsibility to make sure the township pays its debt.Also without seeking bids, the authority awarded its contract for landacquisition legal work to Breen’s brother, John Breen. They share an officein Plymouth Township.Although now a Wayne County commissioner, Maurice Breen still takes anactive part in authority affairs.He defended the choice of his brother, saying that John Breen hadexperience in acquiring land when he was legal director for Wayne County’sDepartment of Public Works.”John had retired from Wayne County and was just kind of looking forsomething to do. We wanted somebody doing acquisition who would treat ourpeople in a kind manner . . . and did not charge us $250 an hour for legalservices.”By mid-December, John Breen had billed the authority $51,005.Former state Rep. Gerald Law took Maurice Breen’s place as PlymouthTownship supervisor and sewer commissioner last year after Breen became acounty commissioner.Law’s brother, Robert Law, was secretary to the sewer board during itsfirst meeting in 1986. His legal firm represents all three townships.Without seeking bids, the sewer board during that first meeting in 1986named Robert Law’s firm to represent it and named him its lead attorney. Sincethen, without bids, the board has awarded lobbying and public relationscontracts to firms connected to Law or his firm, Law, Hemming, Essad &Polaczyk.By mid-December, the legal firm had made more than $1.5 million from theproject, including a one-half-percent fee on both bond transactions, totalingmore than $900,000. The other firms took in more than $150,000. “We werehired because of our background in this project and because of our workingrelationship with the communities,” said Robert Law.The board pays a $3,000 monthly retainer to Government Affairs ConsultingGroup. Robert Law is the president of the firm, which also has offices in thesame building as Law, Hemming. By mid-December, Government Affairs had billed the authority $50,587 for lobbying services.In 1988, when the sewer board needed to have proposals and news releaseswritten, the board, without seeking bids, awarded the contract to PowerAssociates of Plymouth Township. Law said Power Associates was an affiliate ofthe legal firm and has offices in the same building as Law, Hemming.According to state records, Power Associates’ president is Michael Brice andits director is Robert Law. By mid-December, Power Associates had billed thesewer authority $20,000.Another firm affiliated with Law, Hemming is Communications ManagementCo., which had billed $61,624 for public relations work by mid-December,Robert Law said. Communications Management is the new name for PowerAssociates, whose name was not popular with clients, said the attorney. Yetanother public relations firm which he acknowledged was, until recently, aLaw, Hemming affiliate, is Strategies Plus, which had billed $27,371 bymid-December. He said Strategies Plus is no longer an affiliate of the lawfirm.Michael Brice is president of Strategies Plus.Law, Hemming partner Ernie Essad said he sees no problem with Robert Lawserving as general counsel of WTUA while his brother, Gerald Law, is itstreasurer.”It’s nothing hidden, and everybody knows who everybody is,” said Essad.”There are bar opinions which indicate that you are not automaticallydisqualified as a result of that relationship.”$611,876 lobbying billThe biggest single consulting bill — $611,876 — has come from theWashington, D.C., lobbying firm of Cassidy & Associates. The authority didnot advertise for bids for the work.Cassidy bills WTUA $20,000 a month to lobby Michigan’s congressionaldelegation to help get a $19 million federal grant. The money would pay forpipes and a pumping system to carry treated wastewater to the Rouge.The authority says that part of the project, recommended by the DNR, is aunique national environmental demonstration.Officials are hoping for a grant from the Army Corps of Engineers.Maurice Breen said he’s “absolutely convinced” the project eventually willreceive federal money.The authority has stressed environmental benefits of the sewer system. Itsplan to eventually pump 58 million gallons a day of treated wastewater fromYpsilanti back to Canton for discharge into the lower Rouge has been termed a”win-win situation” by Paul Zugger, director of the surface water qualitydivision of the DNR.The authority proposes by November 1994 to send all of the Ypsilantiplant’s treated wastewater to the Rouge. According to Newell, the water wouldbe cleaner than water now in the Rouge, and would stabilize streamflows.But in October, U.S. Rep. John Dingell asked the corps to study theeffect of the project on residents of his 16th Congressional District, whichcovers Monroe County and parts of Lenawee and Wayne counties, downriver fromthe discharge.Maurice Breen remains confident the townships did the right thing in goingit alone.”We were willing to go into a system not so much for sanitary sewer needs,but as an environmental project, even though it may cost more.”To Edward Hustoles, director of planning at the Southeastern MichiganCouncil of Governments, it’s no surprise the system is costing more.”The idea of independence is a seductive one. That always sounds good, tobe our own bosses. They’re paying a price for independence.”Haggerty roads in Canton Township. The sewer project,conceived as a money-saver for Plymouth, Canton and Northvilletownships, will cost $94.5 million. Wayne County had asked for$25.5 million for its Super Sewer.Illustration: PHOTO DAYMON J. HARTLEY; MAP HANK SZERLAGCHARTEdition: METRO FINALSection: NWSPage: 1AKeywords: ; SEWER; MAJOR STORY; SUBURB; WAYNE COUNTYDisclaimer:

Posted in Bad government, Muni bonds | Tagged Abe Munfakh, conflict of interest, sewergate, Western Townships Utilities AQuthority | Leave a comment

Rainmaker

Posted on July 17, 2010 by hro50ta1

By Joel Thurtell

Well, well. So Abe Munfakh, the “self-made man,” is running for state senate.

Seems just yesterday that his $10 million inside deal — the no-bid contract his engineering firm received from the Western Townships Utilities Authority while he was a member of the Plymouth Township board — got him run out of office.

Munfakh, an incumbent on the Plymouth Township board in 1992, placed last in a field of seven candidates.

The voters smelled the deal a crowd of cronies cooked up to enrich lawyers, engineers and public relations hucksters in the scandal that came to be known as Sewergate.

On a website, Munfakh’s profile describes the retired chief of the Ann Arbor engineering firm of Ayres, Lewis, Norris and May as a “rainmaker.”

Rainmaker, indeed.

Eighteen years ago, plus a couple months, the Detroit Free Press published my articles about the back-room dealing that created WTUA. It was an arrangement, now in the ground and operating, that called for piping sewage from Canton, Northville and Plymouth townships across watersheds to the Ypsilanti Community Utilities Authority near the Huron River for processing, then pumping a like amount of fluid back to the Lower Rouge in Canton.

While the insider-trading stories brought down such politicians as Munfakh, Maurice Breen and Georgina Goss, they also looked like opportunity to a Livonia lawyer few had heard of. Sewergate opened a career in politics to a greenhorn candidate named Thaddeus McCotter, who won Breen’s seat on the Wayne County Board of Commissioners and now is a Republican congressman from Livonia.

Abe Munfakh waited a while, then got himself elected back on the Plymouth Township board.

Guess memories are short.

Here’s the story I wrote on election day, August 5, 1992, about the trouncing of the WTUA gang. It ran on August 6, 1992. On May 29, 2010, I posted my main sewer story that ran in the Detroit Free Press on Saturday, February 22, 1992.

Published with permission of the Detroit Free Press.

Headline: ANGER OVER SEWER DEAL SWEEPS OUT INCUMBENTS

Sub-Head:

Byline: JOEL THURTELL FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Pub-Date: 8/6/1992

Memo: ; MICHIGAN PRIMARIES; CAMPAIGN ’92

Text: “This is a clear message,” said Plymouth Township resident Mike Stankov.

“Business as usual will not be tolerated anymore. . . . “

Stankov was among the voters who contributed Tuesday to sweeping political changes in western Wayne County linked to fallout from a $94.5-million sewer project.

The Free Press detailed the project on Feb. 22, including how millions of dollars in contracts were awarded without bids to people or firms connected to WTUA — the Western Townships Utilities Authority.

One local newspaper subsequently dubbed it “sewergate,” and the area saw a bumper crop of candidates run for local offices, using the sewer project as an issue against incumbents.

In Tuesday’s primary:

* Veteran local politician Maurice Breen, a former Plymouth Township supervisor who was a founder of WTUA, lost in the Republican primary for the Wayne County Commission to Thaddeus McCotter, a Livonia lawyer. McCotter said the Free Press report prompted him to run.

“The discontent was obvious. Now, the hardest part is to . . . channel it into constructive change.”

* State Rep. Georgina Goss, R-Plymouth, a former WTUA board member, was defeated by Plymouth City Commissioner Jerry Vorva. With no Democrat running, Vorva’s primary victory assures him a seat in Lansing.

* Northville Township Supervisor Betty Lennox, a WTUA member by virtue of her elective office, was defeated by Karen Baja, chairwoman of the township’s board of zoning appeals. No Democrat ran there, either.

* Plymouth Township Trustee Abe Munfakh, whose engineering firm received $10 million for sewer design work without submitting bids, finished last in a field of seven candidates.

Also in Plymouth Township, Supervisor Gerald Law did not file to run.

Headline: ANGER OVER SEWER DEAL SWEEPS OUT INCUMBENTSSub-Head: Byline: JOEL THURTELL FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERPub-Date: 8/6/1992Memo: ; MICHIGAN PRIMARIES; CAMPAIGN ’92Text: “This is a clear message,” said Plymouth Township resident Mike Stankov.”Business as usual will not be tolerated anymore. . . . “

Posted in Bad government, Muni bonds | Tagged Abe Munfaakh, conflict of interest, Western Townships Sewer Authority | Leave a comment

Unconstitutional = whatever bugs Matty

Posted on July 15, 2010 by hro50ta1

By Spike Kopee

JOTR Copy Editor

Normally, we copy editors like to stay anonymous. We glower under our green eye shades, slash the copy of hireling writers and toss insults at those reporters brave enough to object to the lavish censorship we bring to the field of journalism.

As I say, anonymous is our normal mode.

But now and then something will draw us — or at least me — away from our hunt for misplaced commas and misappropriated apostrophes.

Such is the case with a recent Detroit public radio station’s report about Wayne State University law Professor Robert Sedler.

The good professor himself must be glowering about WDET-FM’s confusion about legal matters.

I can hardly believe that the professor would have mixed up the concepts of “constitution” and “statute.”

Only a reporter could be expected to goof up something as fundamental as this.

Certainly not a professor.

Maybe he meant to say “illegal,” not “unconstitutional”?

Apparently not.

According to the radio station, Sedler, “a Wayne State University law expert,” told a talk show host that “the plan to build a new bridge south of the Ambassador Bridge is unconstitutional.”

At this point, a copy editor such as myself expects to read references to the U.S. Constitution, or maybe — since the proposed new bridge would be built partly in Michigan — a citation from that state’s Constitution.

What I would not expect is to hear in one breath a claim that something is unconstitutional and in the next breath, a reference to laws.

As any first-year law student can tell you, laws, sometimes known as statutes, are not the same thing as constitutions. A constitution is fundamental and very hard to change. Constitutions create legislatures, and legislatures create laws. Legislatures do not create constitutions. Legislatures and courts are the creative product of constitutions. Constitutions are hard to change. Laws get changed every day. Courts interpret them. Legislatures enact, amend and repeal them.

And yet, according to the radio station, the professor based his claim that this proposed bridge is “unconstitutional” on mere statutes. He did not cite a constitutional argument.

According to WDET, “Professor Robert Sedler says his opinion is based on several laws related to ownership and rights of the Ambassador Bridge. He says a 1921 Congressional act spelling out the building of the bridge also gave the owners an exclusive right to such a crossing over the Detroit River.”

See what I mean?

“Laws.”

“Act.”

This is the kind of conceptual mess that drives a copy editor bananas.

Something is wrong here. Either the radio station misquoted the professor, or…

Could it be he’s not a professor at all?

Professors don’t commit doozies like this, do they?

According to the professor, the bridge company, under the law, has an exclusive right to have a bridge over the Detroit River.

“It’s exclusive,” the professor said, “Because under the law there’s only one company that’s authorized to do that and now that’s the Detroit International Bridge Company. It is perpetual simply because Congress did not provide that it would expire after a period of time.”

How is any of this an argument that building a second bridge is unconstitutional?

It is not an argument that a professor would make.

There’s more gobbledygook: According to the radio, the professor “also says the State of Michigan cannot enter into negotiations to build a new bridge with Canada… only the Federal government can do so under U.S. law.”

Now this is approaching the constitutional level. However, I’d like the professor to re-write this brief after reviewing a good Constitutional Law textbook.

Right now, I’d have to give the prof a big fat F.

Wait a minute. Now I get it.

“Sedler recently gave his opinion before the State Senate which is weighing the bridge issue,” according to WDET.

“Sedler says he was hired by the Detroit International Bridge Company’s attorneys to give his professional opinion on the matter.”

Jeez. What a dummie am I. This prof is a hired gun for Manuel “Matty” Moroun, the Grosse Pointe billionaire who owns the Ambassador Bridge and wants to keep his monopoly.

Hmmm. Hired gun for Matty. Where have I heard that before?

Oh yes, right here on JOTR: “shotgun-totin’ goon.”

Can a university prof be a lawbook-totin’ goof?

That radio story was a bit misleading. Gotta correct that.

Okay, here’s what we do: Send this story over to Ned Deadloin in Re-write and have him put a new lead on it:

Thanks, Ned. Wish they’d put your lead on their story:

A legal mouthpiece paid by Matty Moroun says the plan to build a new span south of Matty’s Ambassador Bridge is unconstitutional because it would compete with Matty’s god-given, fundamental right to make big money and tell people who don’t like it to go to hell.

Posted in Joel's J School, Me & Matty | Tagged constitution, law, Manuel "Matrty" Moroun, Robert Sedler, statute, Wayne State University | 7 Comments

Naming names — lake names, that is

Posted on July 14, 2010 by hro50ta1

By Joel Thurtell

How did Low Lake get its name? Lily pads seen from kayak. Joel Thurtell photo.

How do places get their names?

Some place names seem self-explanatory.

If it’s the name of some person, like Lafayette or Washington, it’s easy.

Some are a mystery until you learn the secret. There’s a stop on the London Underground called “Elephant and Castle.” What? It’s a corruption of “Infanta de Castile,” a Spanish noblewoman who endeared herself maybe only a little to the English.

Other names, you can guess at.

Grand Rapids? Maybe someone noticed a rapids on a river called Grand. It was named “Grand” because, presumably, it was known as the longest stream in Michigan.

Detroit. French detroit, meaning straits.

Lowell, my home town in western Michigan, was first called Dansville after Daniel Marsac, a French fur trader. But the Frenchman was soon outnumbered by New Englanders who dragged a new place monicker from their home town and dumped Dan’s name.

Betsy Frank paddling her kayak on Low Lake in Ontario's Killarney Provincial Park. Joel Thurtell photo.

Last week, while kayaking on Low Lake in Ontario’s Killarney Provincial Park, I got into a conversation about lakes with Betsy Frank. Like my wife and I, Betsy and her family own a cottage in McGregor Bay, Ontario. The Bay is tucked into the northwest corner of Georgian Bay, which is almost big enough to be called a Great Lake adjacent and attached to Lake Huron.

Low Lake, by the way, is a pristine lake with plenty of pike and large mouth bass. It is bounded on one side by steep rocks towering, I guess, well over a hundred feet. The rocks slant inward as they descend to the water, making a cave-like area along one shore where you can paddle a kayak or canoe and be underneath the rock.

Lily pad on Low Lake. Joel Thurtell photo

You can’t get to Low Lake in a motorboat. Members of the McGregor Bay Kayak Club met at the St. Christopher’s Church docks on Iroquois Island, where we loaded our kayaks into motorboats and headed around McGregor Island for a bay where we anchored the motorboats and launched, then portaged, the kayaks toward Low Lake. To become a member, you have to show up at 10 a.m. on Friday with or without a kayak. The first time Karen and I went, we brought our 13-foot wooden canoe. After watching how easily the kayaks slid through even wind-swept water, I vowed never to kayak with a canoe again. Karen and I drove to Kagawong on Manitoulin Island and bought a pair of kayaks.

It was a bright day, and the water was so clear you could see the rocky bottom 20 feet below. We had to portage our kayaks twice to get to Low Lake, and we ate lunch on the rise that leads to Lake Helen, which leads to Ishmael Lake, whose waters tumble over a steep cliff into Iroquois Bay, the northernmost arm of McGregor Bay.

Kayak floats under hanging rock in Low Lake. Joel Thurtell photo.

As we paddled side-by-side, Betsy was telling me about another cottage her family has. It’s on Long Lake near Hale in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula.

Long Lake.

It rang a bell.

In fact, it rang many bells.

Not because I have a place on Long Lake. To my knowledge, I’ve never been near Long Lake.

But wait — which Long Lake would it be that I haven’t been near?

I chuckled as I paddled on Low Lake (named that, I assume, because it’s lower than its neighbors, Lakes Helen and Ishmael) and remarked that there are an awful lot of Long Lakes in Michigan

I don’t know how Lake Ishmael got its name; Most of these McGregor Bay names were given to places by Thaddeus Patten, who conducted the Canadian government survey around 1916. Patten named Lake Helen after Helen Bridges Heintz, a friend. He named Lake Marjorie on Iroquois Island after his daughter, and Lake Josephine, also on Iroquois Island, after a friend, Josephine Currie of Little Current.

Betsy, an elementary teacher in Florida, is originally from Michigan. She got interested in my lake tale. How many Long Lakes did I think there are in Michigan?

Well, I couldn’t recall the exact number, but I knew there are more than a handful.

And I knew right where to go for the exact number.

Before I retired as a reporter with the Detroit Free Press, I took it upon myself to cover the lakes beat in Oakland County, Michigan. Never mind that there was no such thing as a “lakes beat,” I just started writing stories about lakes and pretty soon it was established fact at the Free Press that I was the lakes reporter.

At the time, I was sailing my wooden Lightning-class sailboat on Cass Lake, a 1,280-acre lake in Oakland County that is part of the Clinton River. Nearby and on the drive to Cass Lake are Orchard (so named by 19th-century pioneers for the blossoming apple trees that were cultivated by Indians) Lake, Pine ( seemingly self-evident — there must have been a few pines around it) Lake and various iterations of Straits (maybe because they are long and narrow) Lake — Upper, Middle and Lower. There are a lot of lakes in Oakland County.

How many? How would you answer that question?

Hah! Count them! There are 1,857 lakes and ponds in Oakland County. More about that in my next column.

I discovered that there was another Cass Lake in Oakland County.

Next to Cass Lake in Keego Harbor is Dollar Lake. I had a hint that there was another buck or two lying around Oakland County. Sure enough, it has three Dollar Lakes.

At times when there were algae blooms or other unpleasant things happening with lakes, I’d call Wally Fusilier, a limnologist, meaning that he studies the condition of lakes. Wally has a PhD in public health from the University of Michigan and spends his time between ice-in and ice-out sampling water and surveying Michigan lakes. Often, I’d call Wally for advice on a lake story, and one day while talking to him, he showed me an inventory of lakes that was done by a professor at Michigan State University and old friend of Wally, the late Clifford Humphrys.

Wally gave me a copy of the “Michigan Lakes Inventory,” and I assigned myself to analyze the names of lakes in Michigan.

Lucky for me, I still have a copy of the story I wrote for the Free Press, and after referring to it, I can tell Betsy Frank exactly how many Long Lakes there are in Michigan.

Here you go, Betsy: Seventy-seven Long Lakes.

Sounds like a lot, but Long Lake is in third place for number of lakes with that name.

Number Two is Twin Lake at 124.

Number One is Mud Lake.

There are, amazingly, 264 Mud Lakes in Michigan.

What does this tell us about the originality of our pioneer Michiganders?

Guess name-giving was not as important as just surviving in those days.

Coming soon: I delved into my files and found not only my original Free Press article from March 22, 2002, but variants of a longer version that didn’t run. In that unpublished article, the late Michigan State University Prof. Clifford Humphrys discusses judgments he made in compiling the 1965 lakes inventory. I’ll publish that article along with a list of most-used Michigan lake names.

Posted in Bay, Lakes and streams | Tagged Georgian Bay, Lake Huron, lake names, Lakes, McGregor oBay, place names | Leave a comment

Turning rain into smoke

Posted on July 12, 2010 by hro50ta1

By Joel Thurtell

Mostly, I let people post comments on JOTR without adding my two cents. Now and then, though, a comment will contain some quality that seems to cry out for my reaction. It may be very interesting, very insightful, or it may be so ill-conceived or deceptive that some counter-comment seems needed.

I have no idea who nosleepatnite@yahoo.com is, but I found this person’s comment posted in response to my posting some time ago of the articles I wrote in 1992 about the creation of the Western Townships Utilities Authority by the townships of Canton, Northville and Plymouth. I posted the 18-year-old articles after learning that a key actor in that seemingly ancient drama, Abe Munfakh, is running as a Republican for the state Senate.

My reporting for the Detroit Free Press in 1992 revealed how Munfakh, then a trustee on the Plymouth Township Board, was involved in government transactions that netted the engineering firm he headed millions in fees. Since Munfakh today is boasting of his prowess at “rainmaking” for his firm, Ayres, Lewis, Norris & May of Ann Arbor, it seemed relevant to show how Munfakh made rain for ALNM back in the day. Maybe voters prefer to have Munfakh as their senator, but at least they have a right to understand how his rainmaking skills hugely profited his company once upon a time when he was an elected official involved in creating the engineering project that helped his company to the government gravy train.

Nosleepatnite would like to re-write history and have us believe that this sewer construction project, which cost hundreds of millions in principal and interest, was some kind of gigantic environmental cleanup. WTUA was indeed a cleanup project: It took ratepayers in those three townships to the cleaners.

Here is what nosleepatnite had to say:

Yep, I remember that like it was yesterday.

So Joel, have you delved further into the story to determine if it was beneficial to the three communities? Have they saved the money as planned? Has this project contributed to a cleaner Rouge?

From what I’ve read, the Rouge is much cleaner based on the various types of flora & fauna that have been found in & near the watershed.

When this story erupted, I lived in Livonia, near the intersection of Hines Drive & Ann Arbor Trail. You seriously dreaded being caught by the red light if you were eastbound; it literally smelled like an unflushed toilet. I had reason to go past there the other day and it was a much changed atmosphere.

So Joel, I challenge you to check it out – now that WTUA is up & running are the cost savings living up to the promises? Is sewage disposal to WTUA cheaper than if Plymouth / Canton / Northville Townships had stayed with Detroit Water & Sewer? PLEASE let us know!!!

I did check it out, nosleepatnite. I checked it out five years ago.

In June of 2005, Detroit Free Press photographer Patricia Beck and I paddled a canoe 27 miles up the Rouge River from Zug Island to Nine Mile and Beech. You can read about our experience in our book: UP THE ROUGE! PADDLING DETROIT’S HIDDEN RIVER, published in March 2009 by Wayne State University Press.

You mention that bad Rouge River smell as if it were history. I can tell you from firsthand experience that parts of the Rouge still stink where sewage is dumped in from municipal outfalls.

No, the Rouge was not swimmable in 2005, based on comprenensive sampling and analysis done that year. Given the failure of environmental agencies to continue systematically monitoring water quality today, we can’t say what the condition of the Rouge is. If you ask environmental officials about swimming, though, you’ll likely be told what I was told five years ago: The river’s condition is improved, but it is still not safe to swim in. And that was the goal of a big effort to improve the Rouge that began in the 1980s.

WTUA was very expensive at the time, and it was impossible to justify it as being cost-effective. That is why all those elected officials connected to the project were trounced in the 1992 GOP primary.

A local newspaper called it “sewergate.”

It was a project born in secrecy. Well do I remember the efforts by WTUA stewards to prevent me from seeing public records of the authority’s creation. I had a tough time getting public records from the Plymouth Township clerk, and the executive director of WTUA refused even to let me see copies of the bond and other documents in her custody.

If this project was so beneficial, why was it so hush-hush at the time? Because the officials knew that if voters got a whiff of all the insider trading, some elected officials would be massacred in the election.

This story was — and still is — about honesty, fair dealing and openness in government. It is about how a clique of government officials helped themselves and their relatives or companies to no-bid work that cost ratepayers millions in excess payments.

Nosleepatnite pretends that environmental benefits of the WTUA project should justify the expenditure. This is one of those “end justifies the means” arguments: Because the project supposedly helped the Rouge, we should approve of it.

One of the aims of WTUA was to make the three townships at least quasi-independent from the Wayne County-controlled sewer system. It just happened that the plan called for pumping Wayne County sewage from the Rouge watershed into the Huron watershed for processing at Ypsilanti. Then it’s sent back to the Lower Rouge along Michigan Avenue. Supposedly “clean” water from the Ypsitanti treatment plant steadies the volume of water in the Lower Rouge and improves the overall quality of water, because the Ypsi water has been treated, hopefully.

The water is, nonetheless, treated wastewater.

But the environmental argument was secondary to the main pitch — independence form Wayne County.

Privately, there was this other reason for creating WTUA — all those lucrative contracts for lawyers, engineers and PR outfits connected to the project.

By the way, UP THE ROUGE! is available at bookstores, at uptherouge.com, the Wayne State University website, or at amazon.

Drop me a line at joelthurtell@gmail.com

Posted in Adventures in history, Adventures on the Rouge, Bad government, Lakes and streams, Muni bonds, Politics | Tagged Abe Munfakh, Adventures on the Rouge, Plymouth Township, sewer, sewer authority | Leave a comment

Warm praise for prevaricator

Posted on July 6, 2010 by hro50ta1

By Luke Warm

Professor of Mendacity

University of Munchausen

Students! We are halfway through the coursework in this class, Deceptive Prevarication 101, and I would like to interrupt my lecture today so that we can reflect upon and admire one of the finest examples of public duplicity I have seen in lo these many years.

First, though, as always here at good ol’ U of M, we must define our terms in such a way as best to obfuscate, mislead and generally muddy the waters.

Therefore, I will define “public duplicity” as that process by which private individuals seeking their own unenlightened self-interest insert grand lies into the schemata of reality.

By “schemata of reality,” I choose to mean the entire skein of public perception, i.e., e.g. viz., ad infinitum, the very fabric of popular consciousness.

By “popular consciousness,” I select this definition: What people think is true whether it be so or not.

It is into this very network of cognition that we public prevaricators insert our shards of nonsense.

By “public prevaricator,” I mean those of us who consciously seek to alter the general mental state of a city, region, state, nation and the entire globe or maybe universe, hopefully, by our devious fulminations of pseudo-facts and outright lies.

By “shards of nonsense,” I simply mean those fragments of merde supreme in which we grands bullshitteurs of the dark side are wont to delve.

By “dark side,” I mean quite frankly that we, pure and simple, promulgate our lies in hopes of having our own profitable way in the public discourse.

By “public discourse” — but enough of definition!

On with the praise.

Today’s prize goes to one Matt Moroun, son of trucking and bridge tycoon Manuel “Matty” Moroun, himself one of the finest blowers of smoke the universe has seen.

The Morouns get plenty of help from mainstream media outlets which, ostensibly in the interest of fairness, aid and abet us mendacious types by publishing as credible fact the sheerest crapola that we reel up from the depths of our creepy imaginations.

“Fairness” and “balance” are the two most basic tools we disseminators of hype and journalistic flatus have.

With “fairness” and “balance,” concepts that have been pumped into the brains of journalists by professors like me but with different portfolios, we can let the professional journalists do our heavy lifting.

A wonderful example of such leverage was presented by CNN in its report on the Morouns’ bridge monopoly. Of course, to be fair, following fundamental journalistic protocol, the reporters had to speak to the Morouns. And then, of course, having listened to the bridge moguls’ endless line of tripe — indeed, the Moroun bridge monopolists have developed their style of mudslinging bunk to the absolute highest level and are for that fact to be highly admired — CNN simply dumps the Moroun load into their text as if the listener should accept at face value this monument to apocrypha.

Listen carefully, as I slowly read the CNN line that has sparked my unqualified admiration:

“We’re doing our best to fight a government takeover of a private business that wants to spend private dollars in Detroit,” says Matt Moroun.

The key words are “government takeover of a private business.”

A little background: In Detroit, there is a big debate going on about whether the governments of Canada and the United States, Michigan and Ontario, should construct a new bridge to replace a dilapidated and antiquated span known as the “Ambassador Bridge” and owned by Matt Moroun’s dad, the billionaire bridge monopolist, Manuel “Matty” Moroun.

What Moroun fils is trying to make the public believe is that the government wants to own his dad’s bridge.

But truth to tell, and I must tell it now and then when it suits my purpose, no government would want to possess a piece of junk that has not been maintained in many years and that is incapable of handling the current flow of traffic without horrendous backups.

The Ambassador Bridge would be a liability to any public entity that took it over. It would be a financial quagmire with a constant and growing list of costly repairs.

Matt Moroun’s comment about a government takeover is thus sheer, wondrous baloney. The fantasy of a government takeover of the Ambassador Bridge has been entertained in only one place: Here on JOTR.

That is correct. Yes, once in a while we professors of mendacity say true things. It is true that the proprietor of this site has from time to time called for governments to send bulldozers to reclaim city of Detroit-owned property illegally seized by Matty Moroun, and the proprietor of JOTR has actually called for government to condemn and seize the Ambassador Bridge itself.

No government has jumped at that opportunity.

But amazingly, Matt Moroun seems to think JOTR had a worthy idea and that there is some danger that his family’s bridge monopoly will be seized.

Students, en garde! We are drifting into a sea of fiction contrived by the Morouns. Ship oars! Steer straight, eyes dead ahead, lest we be deceived like the general public into believing that the Morouns think the government wants to own their ramshackle bridge.

As we speceialists in art of media manipulation are well aware, they are simply inserting flim-flam into the public debate.

But they have done it so deftly, and CNN bit on it so hard and promulgated it far and wide, that people may be excused for forming the idea that a takeover is a legitimate possibility.

Now, it may well be that the Morouns have an unperceived dual purpose here. Perhaps their intent is to float into reality the notion that government might seize the bridge, pay them a huge price and remove this rundown piece of property from their inventory.

Either way, they have scored true success as measured by my patented formula Mf = cM x Gp, where Mf is the force of Mendacity, cM is media credibility and Gp is public gullibility.

Hats off to the Morouns! Wonderful job of pulling the wool over the media’s eyes.

With a little luck, readers and viewers will swallow this whopper whole, and the Morouns will have succeeded once again in blurring our perception of them.

Posted in Joel's J School, Me & Matty | Tagged Ambassador Bridge, Detroit, journalism, Manuel Matty Moroun, mendacity | 2 Comments

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