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March 14, 2004County playing politics with soil erosion dutiesFor months, Grand Traverse County commissioners were outraged - harrumph, harrumph - by suggestions that they were planning to pare the county drain commissioner's post down to intimidation size.Well, here's a surprise: It's on Tuesday's agenda. Those who need an example of why that's bad news for the environment and good news for developers need look no further than the comparative slap on the wrist developer Bill Clous received last week in a negotiated settlement of a county civil suit. Last year, Grand Traverse County Prosecutor Dennis LaBelle sued Clous for soil erosion violations on land Clous owns in East Bay Township. A second county civil suit against Clous is still pending, and he's still negotiating with the state Department of Environmental Quality. The DEQ has called the case one of the "most egregious" it has ever seen. It can be argued that no case at all would have been made without the persistence - born of her political independence as an elected official - of former drain commissioner Maureen Templeton. She harangued LaBelle for months to shut down Clous' operation and cite him. She took her campaign to the public and brought it up before the county board. Now, the board is ready to make sure that never happens again - at least not if they don't want it to. They're expected to consider a measure to strip soil erosion control duties from the drain commissioner's post and give them to a soil erosion officer hired by the county, all at the board's discretion. Templeton resigned the post last year, and voters will pick a new commissioner in November. Under the county board's proposal, soil erosion duties would remain with the drain commissioner, as they have been for the past 30 years. But only if the board is convinced that the drain commissioner is "qualified." In other words, if voters are dumb enough to elect someone who isn't "qualified" to do the job - by the board's standards, of course - the board will save the electorate from itself and name a county employee to fill the gap. That person, of course, will report to the county administrator, who in turn reports to the county board. The board has also added some financial punch to its plan. LaBelle, of all people, has estimated that the drain commissioner's job without soil erosion duties is worth only about $5,000. So if the board does split the work, $48,131 of the current salary will go to the county's employee, and just $5,000 to the elected drain commissioner. So much for an independent voice for the environment. It's slick. It's hypocritical. And it's good news for politically connected developers. In the Clous case, state Sen. Michelle McManus, R-Lake Leelanau, whose politically powerful family has long been friends with Clous, turned the screws in an effort to get Templeton, LaBelle and the DEQ to back off. In a letter to Templeton, McManus wrote that she was sure his work was "in compliance with state law." Templeton's translation was simple: "It's a way to tell a public official to back off." When Clous was to meet with the DEQ, McManus - chair of the senate subcommittee for appropriations for the DEQ - faxed the agency a list of "concerns." So who doesn't believe that a county employee, beholden to an all-Republican county board, wouldn't feel a little political heat in a similar situation? The settlement in the Clous case was also a disappointment to many observers, but there are still two cases to go. After pronouncements from LaBelle that Clous and his wife could face up to $1 million in fines, Clous will pay $25,000 to the county, make a charitable donation of $25,000 toward a nature center - which is tax deductible - and donate $25,000 in in-kind services from Eastwood Excavation LLC for the Civic Center South in Kingsley. Clous also made no admission of liability. It looks like a slap on the wrist, and if it turns out to be the only penalty, it will come across clearly as simply the cost of doing business. The county board's political agenda is clear, despite its protests to the contrary. "We want someone who is very professional in the soil erosion control job," county administrator Dennis Aloia said. So do voters. But they also want someone who is beholden to them, not to the county board.
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