Democracy in action or backroom deals and cronyism in action?

4/27/2011

On April 22 of 2009, just two weeks before the millage election to raise property taxes to
fund the $50 million Silver Line bus in Grand Rapids, the unelected board of the Interurban
Transit Partnership (The Rapid) suddenly changed the route. This is only vaguely
referenced in the minutes of that meeting.
Mr. Varga [CEO of The Rapid] noted . . . that staff has received some
suggestions for changes to the route alignment that has been reviewed
internally and by City staff. . . He reminded the board that by having already
submitted an LPA [Locally Preferred Alternative] to the FTA [Federal Transit
Administration], that was accepted by them, any significant changes in the
cost or scope of the program, could result in failure to get approval from the
FTA.

Mayor Heartwell commented that we have had discussion, involving many

entities, regarding alignment changes and noted that process is important
when dealing with this issue. He noted that a resolution was developed that
we will take to the PTT [Public Transportation Tomorrow Task Force] to
evaluate and bring back to the ITP Board regarding consideration of
alternate routes for the Silver Line.

A motion was made by Heartwell, supported by Holt, to adopt the resolution

regarding further evaluation of the Silver Line routing. Motion passed
unanimously.

The resolution itself is not in the minutes and not available on The Rapid’s web site
(unsurprisingly).

The Grand Rapids Press reported the next day on The Rapid’s sudden change in plans after
so much planning:

Now Rapid staffers are exploring the possibility of stops near Wealthy Street
and Division near Logan, and considering whether the current plan to use
Lafayette Avenue through Heritage Hill is the best way to access Michigan
Street NE.

The vote came after Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell introduced a
resolution that was not on the agenda. Among other things, the resolution
says the board is aware of alternative routes being studied by Rapid staff and
believes they warrant serious consideration and input from all
"constituents." Heartwell said he developed the resolution after talking with
residents from the Heritage Hill neighborhood and representatives from
Grand Valley State University.

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 "The interest here was in being fully transparent before the election,"
Heartwell said. "We didn't want to go into an important election, then
suddenly afterwards make a change."

What really happened behind the scenes? How “transparent” was this process?

A local resident who was concerned about this change filed a Freedom of Information Act
request with the City of Grand Rapids to get more detail on the process behind this sudden
change. Those emails were made available to Kent County Families for Fiscal Responsibility
this year.

We now understand that the Heritage Hill Homeowners Association (HHA) held the Silver
Line hostage through threats of opposing the millage and through a potential “veto” as part
of its historical status. The leadership of HHA claimed that they supported the Silver Line,
just not in their back yard. Mayor Heartwell went to bat to ensure that the HHA was
satisfied, despite, as City Commissioner Roslyn Bliss put it, “honking off” Grand Valley State
University because the Silver Line would no longer run to the new health sciences building
on Michigan Street. The route was subsequently changed, almost overnight, as a result of
these threats. The Silver Line route was moved from Lafayette Avenue to Ransom, just
outside the boundaries of Heritage Hill.

Not only did the Mayor go to bat to appease HHA, he later called it an exercise in
democracy. How this can possibly be considered an exercise in democracy is beyond us.
The Rapid’s board, itself an unelected body, was dictated to by a single neighborhood
association. Yet, just two weeks later the voters of the six cities sent a clear message to The
Rapid: “NO SILVER LINE.” What has been the Mayor’s response to this? The Rapid is trying
again this year for the same plan, while doubling the requested tax increase. Apparently,
voters saying “NO” isn’t important to The Rapid’s unelected board. At the millage
kickoff event this year Heartwell called those who oppose the millage “anti-
community.” Somehow, when Heritage Hill residents oppose the Silver Line in their
back yard, it’s “democracy in action.” When voters across the six cities say no to the
wasteful and redundant Silver Line, they are “anti-community.”

Voters should ask themselves: Taxpayers in six cities (Grand Rapids, East Grand Rapids,
Walker, Wyoming, Kentwood and Grandville) are being asked to pay for the Silver Line, but
who is really calling the shots here? Certainly not those who live outside Grand Rapids.

(To view the Silver Line's "new" route, just outside of Heritage Hill, please see a Google Map
by clicking here. The blue line is the Silver Line Route and the green box is Heritgage Hill's
boundaries.)

Below is a review of the timeline of events, with links to relevant emails (click on the date
to view the original email):

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 March 18, 2009. HHA president Michael J. Clark sent a letter to Peter Varga, CEO of
The Rapid, demanding a change in the Silver Line bus route. The letter says, in
bolded words, “While the concept of the BRT [Bus Rapid Transit/The Silver
Line] is greatly applauded, the proposed route to use Lafayette NE is strongly
opposed by this neighborhood and therefore, the board cannot support your
request as presented at this time.”
 April 2, 2009. HHA president Michael J. Clark sends another letter to Peter Varga,
stating: “With the alternative proposal presented to the Association Board
members on April 1, 2009, we are in full support of the project. The specific
route adjustment follows Jefferson to Ransom, Ransom to Crescent, Crescent to
Bostwick, and Bostwick to Michigan Street. This new alignment removes the buses
from the residential streets of Heritage Hill and instead uses the more appropriate
non-residential streets. This revision reflects the desires of the residents and
neighbors of the Historic District and we believe this new route will have no
significant negative impact on the Heritage Hill Historic District.” (Emphasis is
in original).
 April 17, 2009. HHA president Michael J. Clark sends another letter to the board of
directors of The Rapid complaining that they want assurance that the route of the
Silver Line will be changed, prior to the May 5 election. “The Heritage Hill
Association currently finds itself in the very unfortunate position of
potentially opposing the upcoming May 5th millage. . . At the subsequent
meeting of April 1st . . . [HHA] happily accepted a route change suggested by the
RAPID that would take the Silver Line off residential streets and specifically off
Lafayette Avenue NE. * * * We have now been informed that the PTT will not present
its findings until May 7th and that the route change(s) will not be voted on by the
RAPID Board of Directors until its May board meeting. * * * [HHA] recognizes that
as the millage vote is now less than two weeks away, action must be taken.”
(Emphasis added).
 April 17, 2009. Kent County Commissioner Jim Talen emails Rapid CEO Peter Varga
to complain about the Silver Line route: “I was disappointed to hear again, today,
that the issue of the Silver Line route running on a Heritage Hill residential street
will not be officially acted on until after May 5.” He later, in the same email, states:
“It is important to resolve this as soon as possible – near or after the election
is too late, in my opinion.” (Emphasis added).
 April 19, 2009. Grand Rapids City Commissioner Rosalyn Bliss asks Mayor Heartwell
to consider a resolution at the upcoming City Commission meeting to support the
Silver Line millage. Mayor Heartwell expresses concern that the vote would not be
unanimous and he specifically mentions the Lafayette controversy. Bliss then replies
to Mayor Heartwell: “It has gotten a little ugly. Peter [Varga] came up with an
amended alignment that satisfied the HHA Board but honked off GVSU (it comes up
Ransom rather than Lafayette, serving GRCC and Spectrum well but hitting two
blocks away from Cook DeVos Center). The HHA is threatening to oppose the
millage if the ITP Bd. doesn’t act in advance of 5/5. . . If HHA opposes, even if the
millage passed (and it might not with their opposition) the State Historic

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 Commission could deny the approval killing the ENTIRE project.” (Emphasis
added).
 April 19, 2009. Kent County Commissioner Jim Talen again emails Peter Varga: “A
group of folks met, today, to discuss the Lafayette Avenue route situation. I agreed to
try to convey to you, Heritage Hill’s interest in getting a commitment from the ITP
board, this week, to avoiding residential streets in Heritage Hill and on the Silver
Line route.”(Emphasis added).
 April 21, 2009. Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell emails Peter Varga with
proposed resolution language, to be voted on at The Rapid’s board meeting the next
day. The resolution clearly misrepresents the situation. Heartwell admits that the
resolution may “be more than the ITP Board will be willing to say. * * *
Resolution – The ITP Board of Directors is aware of the staff recommendation of an
alternative route to the current proposal and believes it may have merit for both
environmental and ridership reasons. Further, the Board strongly believes in the
process of route evaluation established through the Public Transportation
Tomorrow Task Force. Therefore, the ITP Board directs staff to explore other route
options in keeping with this established procedure.” (Emphasis added).
Why would the ITP Board be unwilling to discuss what is going on behind the
scenes?
 April 21, 2009. Kent County Commissioner Jim Talen emails Grand Rapids Mayor
George Heartwell: “I’m not really sure what Heritage Hill will approve but I know
there are some who want to find a compromise. I’m willing to argue for your
proposed language at the HH meeting tonight (7pm).”
 April 21, 2009. Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell emails the president of The
Rapid’s board, Don Lawless: “I received, last evening, a proposed resolution
from the HHA. I have redrafted it and shown the draft to Peter and Jim Talen.”
(Emphasis added).
Now apparently the Heritgage Hill Association is dictating resolution language to
The Rapid’s board.
 April 21, 2009. That evening, Kent County Commissioner Jim Talen again emails
Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell announcing that the Heritage Hill Association
has OK’d The Rapid’s board resolution. The final resolution reads: “Resolution – The
ITP Board of Directors is aware of staff proposals for alternate routes for the Silver
Line to the current proposal and believes these proposals warrant serious
consideration and input from all constituents including potential environmental,
historic preservation, and ridership interests. Further, the Board strongly believes
the process of route evaluation established through Public Transportation
Tomorrow Task Force. Therefore, The ITP Board directs staff to explore other route
options in keeping with established procedure.” (Emphasis added).
It's a slap in the face to voters to say to them that the process is open to their input,
yet one neighborhood association is dictating policy to a government body – and
that government body is bending so quickly and easily. One could say that The
Rapid's board is even cowering. Two weeks later, constituents said NO to the Silver
Line bus tax increase. Clearly that didn't matter much.

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  April 22, 2009. Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell emails Rapid CEO Peter Varga
and Rapid Board President Don Lawless: “I responded to Jim Talen’s email
expressing appreciation (you were copied) but I wanted to ‘converse’ with the
two of you off-line.” (Emphasis added).
 April 22, 2009. Rapid Board President Don Lawless emails Mayor George Heartwell,
Rapid CEO Peter Varga, and Kent County Commissioner Jim Talen: “Thank you for all
your hard work and support for the SilverLine. I will rely on George to present the
resolution language and will ask for support from the board.”
 April 23, 2009. Rapid CEO Peter Varga emails Jan Earl of the Heritage Hill
Association and Mayor George Heartwell: “I thank you all for listening and
participating in a positive way towards a more reasonable solution. A very healthy
exercise in democratic behavior.” (Emphasis added).
Just how democratic is it that a single neighborhood association overrides months of
work and dictates to a government body how to word a board resolution – under
the threat of “vetoing” the entire Silver Line project?
 April 28, 2009. Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell also emails Jan Earl of the
Heritage Hill Association: “The efforts in the last few days before the ITP
meeting are truly an illustration of democracy in action." (Emphasis added).

So now we see how “transparent” this process was. Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell,
along with Kent County Commissioner Jim Talen, worked very hard to ensure that the
wishes of one powerful neighborhood association were followed - and the details kept as
vague as possible for public consumption. This was to the point that the neighborhood
association dictated to The Rapid’s board of directors how it would word a resolution and
that it would vote on the resolution before the election... or else HHA would veto the entire
project. This was also despite the fact that this last minute route change “honked off” Grand
Valley State University. Democracy indeed!

Voters should understand that their will isn’t very important. Voters said no to the
Silver Line in 2009, yet The Rapid didn’t get the message. Apparently voting isn’t
much of an important exercise in democracy – unless you live in a special interest
neighborhood and have influential friends!

All of the original emails (many more than quoted above) are available by clicking here. All
of the emails have also been uploaded to a third party web site, available here.

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