Friday, July 11, 2008

Jim Karsen

I learned, today, that Jim Karsen passed away from a stroke, on Wednesday.

Jim and his wife, Sue, were long-time residents of Heritage Hill, active leaders, and friends to many, including Pat and me. We just talked with Jim and Sue at a neighborhood party on Saturday and on Monday I received a contribution and endorsement from them for my campaign.

We will miss Jim. May God's peace be with Sue in this difficult time.

Jail Per Diem

Tonight's paper had a front page article about a press conference that was held, yesterday, by the mayors of the six cities in Kent County. Their cities are charged for each day ("per diem") that someone, who they arrested for violating one of their local ordinances, is housed in the Kent County Correctional Facility (jail). The mayors want the "per diem" fee eliminated. They say that the townships are not charged for housing people in the jail so the cities shouldn't be either. They say that the County is "double-dipping".

Kent County's position is that the cities do not have to jail violators of their local ordinances - they can simply cite them with an "appearance" ticket. (Costs for those who violate state laws are paid for by the State of Michigan.) The cities are the recipients of fines that are collected for violating their local laws but those fines are not passed through to the County to offset the costs of incarceration. The cities do not have to bear the expense of having their own jail, since they can use the county facility for a daily rate. The amount of the "per diem" is the total daily cost of housing a prisoner in the Correctional Facility, reduced by a formula that partially offsets the contributions of the cities to the Correctional Facility millage. The County contends that there is no "double-dipping".

I wonder who thinks that we will move closer to an agreement on this issue when we negotiate by press conference? Why are the sides not continuing to meet to negotiate a settlement that neither is extatic about but both can accept?

The Weekend Is Here!

Wow, this has been a busy week! Knocked on pretty much every good-voting door in two full precincts - that's a lot of calories burned! :-)

On Thursday I met with April Johnson of the Grand Rapids Press editorial board. We talked about my campaign, various County issues, and why I should be Commissioner instead of Paul Mayhue. The Press pretty much always endorses the incumbent, although they have endorsed Paul's opponents on numerous past occasions. I don't expect them to endorse me but I gave it my best shot.

Signs are going up this weekend. Some people have been asking why I waited so long to put them up. It's mostly because I think a lot of people really dislike the sign "litter" and because most people don't really pay attention to elections until the last week or so.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Last night, while campaigning door-to-door, I had extensive conversations with long-time Paris Avenue neighbors that I had not met before. They live on Paris but on the other side of Wealthy Street. It's interesting how a busy thoroughfare like Wealthy can create such a divide. When we moved to Heritage Hill 32 years ago, there was a similar effect that people talked about for Cherry Street. The "pioneers" lived "south of Cherry". Reminds me of the classic phrase about living "on the other side of the tracks". It's amazing how geographical features, or transportation routes, like streets, tracks and highways, can create social barriers!

Friday, July 4, 2008

Back to the Blog

Wow! Has it really been a month since I've posted here? It's been crazy busy trying to visit every good voting household in the district in only 8 weeks. This is at least my 9th election campaign and there have a been a number of "firsts" for me in the last month:

* Several long-time friends, who I assumed would stay out of the race on account of our years of friendship, are supporting my opponent. That hurts a lot.

* I've been endorsed by the G.R. Chamber of Commerce PAC - they rarely endorse Democrats and they've never endorsed me before.

* I met the most racist man I've ever encountered on the campaign trail. I didn't realize that there were still people like that out there and so open about it.

* I recently spent 7 hours knocking on doors in one day - the most I've ever done in one day. I was surprised at how many people were home in the morning and early afternoon. It was a very productive day!

I'll try to post a little more often, although I wonder if anyone is reading....

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

I attended the County Finance and Fiscal Resources Committee meeting this morning. I learned that Kent County lost over $4.6 million in tax revenues, in 2007, that were captured or abated by local units of government for things like DDAs, Brownfields, TIFAs, Enterprise Zones and Renaissance Zones. Grand Rapids captured the most - $1.7 million. Wyoming was next with $803,000.

Monday, June 2, 2008

Worked at the Arena tonight - Van Halen. Wow, those guys can rock! It was funny to see some people so conflicted by the Wings game. It was on one of the monitors on the mezzanine and gathered quite a crowd. What a choice - Redwings.....VanHalen, Redwings.....VanHalen. :-)
Started knocking on doors today, on E Fulton. Met a gentleman who, as he looked over a brochure, recognized First CRC as the church he often went to as a child (he said he lived on Henry St. 45 years ago) and learned "Onward Christian Soldiers" (not my favorite hymn but a fascinating connection). He remembered Pastor Beelen and was interested to hear that he is still around and his son is pastor at Madison Square CRC.

It's so interesting to meet people and be able to make connections while campaigning! Does this only happen in Grand Rapids?

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Website Up

Our campaign website is now up - www.jimtalen.com. Take a look! What else would you like to see there?

Live Interview on WJNZ

This afternoon I'll be at radio station WJNZ, having a frank conversation about county government with "The Pulse of the City" host Robert S. Rob was one of three Democrats running for the 16th County Commission seat in 2006 and decided not to run this year because of other pressing commitments in his life. You can listen in at 1140 on the AM dial at 4:45 pm.