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Ability Present
Occupation: Qualified Intermediary, Realtor, Business Advisor Developer. 1.What do you think the major role of the County Commissioner and County Commission is and or should be? And why is it important to the people particularly to those concerned and involved with Real Estate? In addition to the statutory requirements which include 1. Setting the tax rate and apportionment. 2. Approving an annual budget 3. Appointing statutory boards and commissions including ( Airport Advisory Board—Board of Public Works–Building Authority–Community Action Board–Community Corrections Advisory Board–Community Mental Health Board–EDC Board of Directors–Environmental Health Advisory Council–Friend of the Court Advisory Committee–Homeless Advisory Council–Kalamazoo County Family Independence Agency Board–Metropolitan County Planning Commission–Older Adult Services Advisory Council–Parks and Recreation Commission–Public Health Advisory Council–Retirement Investment Committee–Road Commission–Solid Waste Management Planning Committee–Substance Abuse Advisory Council–Transportation Advisory Council–Veterans Affairs Committee) 4. Co coordinator of cooperation of the five independently elected county officials and the judiciary 5. Establish administrative structure for services not under the supervision of the five elected county officials 6. Develop long term visioning for the future of the county The County Commission also needs to set the tone for the county. It needs to be the "Bully Pulpit" for pulling the best out of its citizens and businesses and it needs to set the stage for economic development and for PEOPLE DEVELOPMENT. And why is it important to particularly Realtors ? Just look at the commissions it appoints and its areas of concern I have highlighted some of particular interest to Realtors Including ( See bold print) 2.Why are you running for the office of County Commissioner and why should the people of the county vote for you? In the first place I am running because it is something I want to do. It is an area where I would enjoy working. I like committee meetings, I like to work with People and I believe I can and will bring much to the job and serve the County well. I believe that my background shows me to be a Forward Thinking, Experienced Leader Enthusiastic about Possibilities Determined Persistent COMMUNITY BUILDER. I bring a great deal of experience to the position. Experienced leader: 1. Past president of the state YMCA 2. Founder and first president of the first state chapter of the Real Estate Securities and Syndication Institute 3. Founder and first president of the Gratiot County Big Brothers Organization 4. President and Realtor of the year of the Gratiot/Isabella Association of Realtors 5. Served 8 years as the National Director of the National Association of Realtors 6. Served 3 years as the director of the Greater Kalamazoo Association of Realtors 7. Set up and helped develop between 50 — 100 businesses and enterprises. 8. Founder and developer of Internet Connections Services, an Internet Service Provider, recently sold at a profit. 9. Currently co-founder of QuatumCast Inc., a national long distance telephone company using the IP protocol. Also a calling card enterprise 10. Currently a partner and general manager/owner of Steinmart shopping plaza in Green Bay, Wisconsin Area 11. Developer and current operating manager of Qualified Intermediary Services L.L.C. a company which facilitates tax-deferred exchanges of real estate investments and business property. 12. Served as a Vice President of the Michigan Association of Realtors It is a very broad experience in business and in the community type organization I have demonstrated that I care about my community by all my involvements in the many non profit committees such as the Coalition for Youth Violence Prevention and Healthy Futures and Big Brothers, and KAAAP as a mentor and many more and my business experience is very broad particularly in the area of the Real Estate business and all its associated businesses. I have been a Realtor or back in the beginning a salesman associate Realtor since 1958. (42 years) 3. What are your thoughts on the direction of the proposed COG reorganization? We need to understand the POWER OF COLLABORATION" and use it COG in its proposed form is a great start. It is designed to be persuasive instead of coercive. It is designed to uncover mutual problems and opportunities. It is a platform upon which to examine the mutuality of Needs, Wants, Ideas, Conflicts, Problems and Mutual Opportunities available only when people work together and the overall opportunities to create a better quality of life for all of us. It does require patience and persistence to get anything done but it can be most effective when consensus is reached. 4. Jail overcrowding has been in the news lately and the County has recently commissioned a study of the Justice system in the whole county. What do you think the county should do about the problem and do you think it will result in new taxes to cover the costs? Jail overcrowding: this problem is a very important one and cannot be neglected or put off forever, but there are numerous approaches. The simplest and probably the least effective would be to simply build bigger jails with more beds. But I am very pleased that this was not the knee-jerk response of the Commission. Rather, the Commission commissioned a very exhaustive study for $236,000 by Dr. Alan Kalmanoff of the Institute of Law and Policy Planning The study was aimed at how we can improve our system. The study is decidedly a comprehensive look at all aspects of our criminal justice system, both county wide and within each of our jurisdictions, cities, townships and villages. Unfortunately, the commission study was aimed at how we can improve our system, not how we better reflect the beliefs and morals of our community in providing a more equitable and effective " Balanced and Restorative Justice and a Therapeutic Jurisprudence approach to crime. But the study does point to the need of our county citizens to better define what we want in our criminal jurisprudence system. It is not a matter of just how many beds we need in our jail, it is a question of how do we want to effectively run a system of justice, which will effectively protect our citizens and restore those who commit crimes into reasonable members of the community. I would invite your review of the Balanced and Restorative approach . A video will be shown on Community Access in the near future. Incidentally where it has been put into practice Recidivism has been reduced significantly leading to less need for beds and consequently a saving not requiring more taxes. 5. What is your opinion about and what role should the County Commission play with regard to: Proposed
Let us make it possible for the private sector to build the exciting parts of the Legacy of Flight Proposal while pulling all the schools colleges universities townships cities villages and county together to fund and possibly own the "Museum " educational aspect of the plan. Lets encourage the private sector to provide funding, innovation and good business horse sense to make the project financially feasible and sustainable. As we consider the project from a public point of view let us look at the big picture weighing the costs and benefits not only to our county but also to our region and our state. Legacy will not be built in a vacuum it will have far reaching effects and affects across many sectors of our lives in SW Michigan. We also need to build WITHOUT TRAMPOLING on what’ has gone before us.
1. Justice: Reorganizing the county’s justice programs will be one of the biggest tasks county officials will tackle in the coming years. What are your views on the re organization? Should more money be spent on punishment or prevention? Dr Kalmanoff’s $226,000.00 ILPP justice system assessment is comprehensive and useful It’s good he was contracted to help implement recommendations. I support suggested "Balanced and Restorative Justice" concept which holds "justice is achieved not when guilt has been determined and the offender punished, but when offenders accept responsibility for their actions and restores the well being of the victim". When applied, it has resulted in significant reductions in repeat offenders, saving both people and money. 2. What should the county’s role be in economic development? Should it assume the tasks that the Kalamazoo County Council of Government(s?) is being reorganized to work on ? How should the county use the $1 million it has set aside for economic development? The county’s role should be substantial in view of recent events. We should set the "tone " of the effort, work with COG not replace it, expand our support of Southwest Michigan First" concentrate attention on "building from within", support incubator center for biomedical entrepreneurial start ups, set up an Ombudsman for "One stop shopping" for all companies and people considering locating in Kalamazoo, better showcase our arts community and our outstanding quality of life. 3. Environment: What role, if any, should the county play in protecting the environment and human health? Should the county take a bigger role in ground water protection, seeking state and federal contamination clean up funds, or get involved in other projects like lead abatement? County must protect environment / citizens health, by setting tone, attitude & commitment to understanding, long range planning and continuously dealing with problems as ground water protection, surface water run off, clean air, safe food, lead abatement, mercury disposal, ozone monitoring, household hazardous wastes, land fills, carcinogens, river’s PCB’s, methanol and more. How? Get every federal, state & foundation grant available, spend county money when critical, work regionally with COG, SW Michigan counties, Western Michigan Clean Air Coalition. 4. What do you think is the most pressing issue facing the county, and how would you address it? Economic Development, Environment and Justice System Quantum Changes all discussed are key issues but there is no one most pressing issue. They are all interrelated and must continuously be dealt with. To do so effectively we must stimulate our tremendously qualified people to take part in solving these problems. No one of us has all the answers but together we do. As a broker of peoples conflicting ideas, I can and will meet the challenge of bringing us together. 5. Why are you seeking this position? What qualities do you think you could bring to the office? Serving in public office has been a lifetime goal. I have 19 years formal education, 42 years in business, 24 years living in Kalamazoo, and countless hours of community service. I am a big picture, creative, possibility thinker, never satisfied with the status quo, good broker of diverse and conflicting ideas. I will be able to work well with county’s leadership, and apply my experience and skill to representing you on the County Commission.
1. Past president of the state YMCA 2. Founder and first president of the first state chapter of the Real Estate Securities and Syndication Institute 3. Founder and first president of the Gratiot County Big Brothers Organization 4. President and Realtor of the year of the Gratiot/Isabella Association of Realtors 5. Served 8 years as the National Director of the National Association of Realtors 6. Served 3 years as the director of the Greater Kalamazoo Association of Realtors 7. Set up and helped develop between 50 — 100 businesses and enterprises. 8. Founder and developer of Internet Connections Services, an Internet Service Provider, recently sold at a profit. 9. Currently co-founder of QuatumCast Inc., a national long distance telephone company using the IP protocol. Also a calling card enterprise. 10. Currently a partner and general manager/owner of Steinmart shopping plaza in Green Bay, Wisconsin Area. 11. Developer and current operating manager of Qualified Intermediary Services L.L.C. a company which facilitates tax-deferred exchanges of real estate investments and business property. (www.1031exchangeservices.com) I am committed to making things better: 1. Founded Vision Council Inc., a 501C3 non-profit corporation dedicated to facilitating better community communication on a continuos basis using the internet and email to draw out the best ideas from our entire community, and to share them with the shakers and movers. 2. Developed a voter registration program, now being adopted all over the state with the support and encouragement of Candice Miller, our Secretary of State. The program enables new home buyers to get registered to vote in the community where they are moving when they buy their new house. It calls for realtor offices also, to have and distribute voter registration forms which we are currently doing. 3. Helped to build the Rotary Ambassador program to schools and currently working to get Kalamazoo and Battle Creek businesses people of Rotary together with regular visits from the Kalamazoo club and the Battle Creek club to our towns. Towns and cities cannot cooperate. Only the people in it and if you learned to know who they are better, we can learn to cooperate and collaborate that much better. 4. Served as a member of both the Kalamazoo Coalitions for the Prevention of Youth Violence and the Crime and Violence Team of the Healthy Futures, which efforts were dedicated to preventing particularly youth violence in crime and the two organizations are now joined. 5. Spent one full week attending a seminar on Balance and Restorative Justice put on by the Michigan State Department of Juvenile Justice. This seminar examined and explored the alternative to jail and how to restore the victims, instead of using the more rigid court system. I also most recently attended a program on therapeutic jurisprudence, a new paradigm shift for judges. There are better alternatives than putting people in jail, into the college of crime, especially if we as a community are interested are stopping the criminals from getting out of jail with a masters degree in how to committee bigger and better crimes. I am excited about Balanced and Restorative Justice and believe that it is a concept that we can use much more completely than we currently are and I think it will result in a much lower recidivism rate. Currently 40 — 60% of jail occupants are there for a second or third time. This is something that can and will work for us if we work together to bring it about. I am determined to find ways to facilitate community communications with all our people in southwest Michigan, Battle Creek, St Joe, and Grand Rapids communities and all the small communities as well. This problem is a very important one and cannot be neglected or put off forever, but there are numerous approaches. The simplest and probably the least effective would be to simply build bigger jails with more beds. But I am very pleased that this was not the knee-jerk response of the Commission. Rather, the Commission commissioned a very exhaustive study for $226,000 by Dr. Alan Kalmanoff of the Institute of Law and Policy Planning The study was aimed at how we can improve our system. The study is decidedly a comprehensive look at all aspects of our criminal justice system, both countywide and within each of our jurisdictions, cities, townships and villages. Unfortunately, the commission study was aimed at how we can improve our system, not how do we better reflect the beliefs and morals of our community in providing a more equitable and effective balance and restorative justice and therapeutic jurisprudence. But the study does point to the need of our county citizens to better define what we want in our criminal jurisprudence system. It is not a matter of just how many beds we need in our jail, it is a question of how do we want to effectively run a system of justice, which will effectively protect our citizens and restore those who commit crimes into reasonable members of the community. Many who have witnessed the destruction which criminals can bring about, are pushed into a belief that we must lock them up and throw away the key, so they cannot do such awful things again. But it simply does not work that way. The criminals do get out of jail, after serving often only a portion of their sentence, and certainly after serving their whole sentence. So the question is, especially with respect to our younger people that commit crimes, do we want to send them to prison, where they learn how to commit crimes better without getting caught, or do we want to look for some alternatives. There are many alternatives to locking up the non-violent crime committers. But it takes a mind-set change on the part of our community and on the part of our judges elected by our community to view their jobs, not simply as the execution of a fair and just punishment for crimes committed, but their job to help solve the problems both for the victim and the juvenile crime committers. We need to consider such approaches as suggested in an approach called Balanced and Restorative Justice and Therapeutic jurisprudence. Some aspects of which we are already practicing to some degree in our justice system in this area such as the KPEP, the Kalamazoo Enhancement Probation Program. I attended a one week seminar recently, put on by the Michigan Department of Juvenile Justice, and I do firmly believe that the principles expressed by the approach are sound and can, if put fully into affect, result in significant reduction in recidivism. It can lead to a better treatment for the victims of crimes, who, except for the often under-funded efforts of victim advocacy groups often go left out of the system, and most of their needs are never met. The Balanced and Restorative approach to justice brings the victim resolution from the perpetrator of the crimes against them. And sometimes, when the victim is willing, it brings the crimes committer and the victim together, making the crime committer painfully aware of the result of his activities on the person and brings him to realize his responsibility to redress the wrongs that he has done, and it enables the victim to have better closure on the crime and often releases the victim from fear that the crime committer will attack them again. The Balanced and Restorative approach is an alternative to using the court system with its understandable rather rigid rules and offers an alternative to prison, which is often more difficult for the crime commiter than a short stay in prison would be. But it is a punishment which fits the crime and which can lead the crime commiter out of a cycle of crime and away from the university called jail. With the $236,000 study complete the county is poised to look at changes, now is the ideal time to consider a paradigm change, which will solve many of our overcrowding problems and provide us with a more effective system of justice in our county, and will cost less money in the long run! As citizens, we want to be protected against crime commiters and we believe there should be punishment for the crime against our persons and our community, and above all, we do not like criminals getting out of prison and committing the same crimes over again. The approach suggested by Balance and Restorative Justice and Therapeutic Jurisprudence addresses these issues and can lead to a better system of justice for our entire county. Information a bout Balanced and Restorative Justice can be found from the Internet as well as on the cable access, which is showing a film on Balance and Restorative Justice periodically. You can call Cable access for a list of the times it will be shown. Few people on either side of the so-called gun control issue have a thorough knowledge of where the right of the people to keep and bear arms comes from. Nor do they quote the total sentence of the Second Amendment of the Constitution, often referred to as the Bill of Rights. The Second Amendment to the Constitution is one sentence, which states "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed" This sentence has triggered a tremendous debate among scholars and historians who come down firmly on both sides of the issue. Do we have a right to bear arms only so we can have a well regulated Militia, (such as the National Guard), or is it that in order to have a well regulated Militia we have to individually have the right to bear and keep arms. One can ask the question " Does the right to keep and bear arms have any relevancy outside the context of a well regulated Militia?" Well, grammatics and semantics aside, the issue has polarized many in our community. And here again is an area in which there is a middle ground. The contrasting views were both presented to the County Commission on Tuesday, May 16, when the proclamation which had not been endorsed by the County Commission, from the Million Moms March, called for various limitations on the manner in which fire arms can be owned and used in order to protect particularly children. On the other side of the issue, a very impassioned veteran expresses his support for the commission’s reluctance to endorse the proclamation. His speech indicated he had fought in world wars precisely to protect such freedoms from the possible tyranny of such governmental leaders, as a Hitler or a Stalin, and others in history who, as part of their campaign to rule sought to relieve all the people of their means to fight such tyranny by taking their guns and other weapons away from them. The limitations on guns as proposed on the Million Moms March is seen by some as the proverbial "camels nose in the tent" situation. With the piling up of gun limitations, eventually leading to government confiscation of all arms in the name of citizen protection, which situation could lead to tyranny and absolute power on the part of the government. Where then, is the middle ground on this seemingly all or nothing situation. Ideally, we should better define what the Second Amendment to the Constitution means and what is was trying to accomplish and assure. With that being rather impractical in the short run, both sides want safety and both sides want people to understand how to properly use, keep and bear arms, so as to avoid many accidents in the future. Both sides want to avoid a potentially tyrannical government confiscation of all guns. So we need to define a limit on gun limitation and perhaps putting these limitations on limitations into law, and then the public ardent forces on both sides of this issue could work together to prevent the misuse of firearms and help to limit the access to such arms by criminals while protecting the ability of law abiding citizens, well trained citizens, to keep and bear arms for their own protection, and for the protection of their freedoms in their country. I believe there are limitations which the ardent gun rights people would endorse if they were confident that such limitations would not lead to the unacceptable limitations and possible government confiscation of all guns and weapons. Striking the middle ground would not be easy but it may well be worth the effort. |