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August 19, 2003GT County: LaBelle assails McManus role in Clous caseSenator says interpretation 'unfortunate'ByRecord-Eagle staff writer Last in a three-part series TRAVERSE CITY - Grand Traverse County Prosecutor Dennis LaBelle is criticizing state Sen. Michelle McManus over her attempted intervention in county and state environmental cases against developer Bill Clous. LaBelle last week suggested McManus seek a legislative solution if she doesn't care for local laws governing soil erosion and other violations the developer allegedly committed on 360 acres he owns in East Bay Township. "I don't know if Michelle understands the law or if she doesn't care, but I do know that she hasn't read it," LaBelle said. "She's starting to bump up against the line as far as I'm concerned. I'm not going to say it's unethical, but it's getting pretty close to it." "If she thinks I am wrong, put it in writing, tell me how I'm wrong," LaBelle said. LaBelle's comments are the latest chapter in a flap involving Clous, accused by state and county officials of wetlands and soil erosion violations. McManus, R-Lake Leelanau, whose district does not cover Grand Traverse County, waded into the fray this spring at the behest of family friend Clous. McManus insists she has not tried to influence the Clous investigations, but merely has acted as an intermediary between Clous and officials. "It's unfortunate that some may interpret my actions as more than what they are," McManus said. She and Clous contend the developer is attempting to farm the land, and that he is protected from some local and state regulations by "right to farm" laws. Others scoff at the farming claim and say Clous is clearing trees and grooming the land in preparation for a high density housing development. State authorities ordered Clous to cease site work last year, but Clous ignored those commands, he said in a March letter to McManus. "The work of removing stumps has continued through the winter," Clous wrote to McManus. "My plan is to disk and plant the newly prepared fields this spring and summer." McManus said she did not believe the letter was an admission from Clous that he was willfully violating the law. "My job is not to be judge and jury, my job is to ask the (Department of Environmental Quality) what's going on and they'll tell me; that's my role," she said. McManus chairs a committee that funds the state DEQ, one of the agencies that accused Clous of environmental violations. A meeting last week at the Cadillac office of the DEQ offered signs of McManus' intense interest in the Clous case - as well as hints that she may be beginning to shy from him as details of her intervention efforts unfold in the local media. LaBelle said a member of the state Attorney General's office asked if he would mind if a McManus representative attended settlement negotiations with the DEQ. "My response was, if she sends a representative to the meeting, I am not attending the meeting," LaBelle said. McManus ultimately did not send a staffer to the meeting, and denied she wanted someone there to represent her. "I'm not sure the meeting's even taking place, I haven't gotten word from anybody on it," McManus said days prior to the meeting. "There's no way I plan to be, will be, want to be, none of that." But a letter written in June from Clous' attorney, Matthew Vermetten, to an assistant attorney general, indicates McManus or an aide wanted to be involved. "My client has received a telephone call from Steve Williams (assistant to Michelle McManus). The Senator has asked that Mr. Williams attend the next meeting. I appreciate that this is a highly unusual occurrence, but the Senator is extremely concerned with this matter," Vermetten wrote. Last week, Vermetten denied that McManus had expressed an interest in the settlement meeting. When shown a copy of the his letter, Vermetten didn't offer an explanation. "I don't know what it was; I candidly can't recall," Vermetten he said. "I know that (Clous) talked to Steve Williams in her office a great deal. They're both farmers." McManus later said Williams should not have offered her office's support to Clous, that he would be reprimanded, and that Williams no longer works with DEQ-related matters. "I did not do that and if my staff implied that I wanted him there, that was wrong," she said.
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