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Heartwell v. Rinck

snoogit

By snoogit
in Grand Rapids Coffee House

The great mayoral debate  

65 members have voted

  1. 1. Who gets your vote?

    • George Heartwell
      29
    • Jim Rinck
      17
    • Other Candidate
      19

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Rizzo City

Rizzo

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Posted
Rinck proposes a 5 minute rule for every city owned vehicle. Meaning no city vehicle may sit with the engine running for more than five minutes unless it is on an active emergency call. This is a policy to protect the environment and the city budget. We will no longer see city vehicles running, wasting fuel at the taxpayers expense if Rinck is elected.

Rinck has other solid ideas to protect and preserve our environment. As an Eagle Scout, Rinck has a deep respect for our environment and our Green Space.

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ModSquad Hamlet

ModSquad

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No one disputes that Rinck was a rock thrower during his Congressional race. However, he was not in the race to win against Ehlers. Rinck ran for Congress because of his frustration with the Bush administration and used the race as a soap box to speak out against Bush and to point out that Ehlers has been a solid supporter of Bush policies. In reality, Rinck is very level headed and has been a solid leader on both the School Board and the Downtown Development Authority.

In reality, Rinck has not been combative on the School Board. He has been a fiscal hawk, he was very vocal in opposition to the Dean Transportation privatization of the School bussing. Now, schools and School Board members wished that they had listened to him. Tormala is just Tormala.

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Veloise City

Veloise

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Just read this post and have to make one comment. I will not speak for all the School Board members, but this one would cast the same vote today to privatize our school bus system. We are on track to save $18,000,000 dollars over 5 years due to our contract with Dean Transportation. Although it was very hard for the employees that lost their high paying, great benefit jobs as public employees, it is just one part of a broken bureaucratic system that needed to be changed. When benefits, days off, personal days, and retirement were added to the hourly rate for bus drivers, GRPS's bus drivers cost the system on average $29 per hour. Unfortunately in Michigan's current economy this was not feasible or sustainable.
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foo_gr Unincorporated Area

foo_gr

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Posted

The Mayoral Candidates are:

Rick Tormala - www.ricktormala.com

George Heartwell - www.heartwellformayor.org

Jim Rinck - www.jimrinck.com

Jackie Miller - (no website that I can find)

All of the websites are pretty decent. If you have any questions, email the candidates. Both Rick Tormala and Jim Rinck will respond. I'm not sure about George Heartwell - I've never been able to have a meaningful email exchange with him.

Disclosure: I'm running Rick's website for him. If you're interested in why, read on.

I was highly involved with the effort to save Garfield Park, and again with the effort to save Indian Trails. In both cases, Rick Tormala was the only commissioner trying to put the brakes on the runaway foolishness.

George was really instrumental in the Garfield Park fiasco. George knew about the potential of getting a Kroc Center in September, 2004. In June, 2005, Garfield Park was chosen as a potential site in a confidential report. In November, 2005, the Garfield Park neighborhood association was informed in secret (to get them to buy in), on the day before the sale of Garfield Park was revealed to the neighborhood and the citizens of Grand Rapids. Apparently (according to the GR Press), meetings were held that violated the open meetings act, and some commissioners were not informed that Garfield Park would be the Kroc Center site until the last minute (Rick being one of them) (and hopefully JJ and Roy didn't know, but who knows).

At this point, we were told it was "too late" to put the Kroc Center anywhere else. We would "lose" 30 million dollars (that weren't coming to "us" anyways). The gym and pool were represented as decrepit (the gym is not; if the pool is, it is only because the city has demolished it through neglect). The Garfields' wishes (legally expressed in the deed) weren't worth a cent to George & Co.

Rather than listening to citizens, the city staff was directed to support a "pro-sale" website, and spent staff time meeting with the guy who was running it, and putting together a list of talking points for him to use.

In February, 2006, when it really was almost "too late," the City staff discovered that Garfield Park was protected by a grant administered by the National Park Service which would have required permission from the NPS to sell the park, and also remediation of the sale by acquiring recreationally equivalent land in the area at equal or greater market value (converting existing land already owned would not have been allowed) - an impossibility. It is hard to believe this could go on for a year without anyone talking to the Parks and Recreation Department!

Through the heroic actions of a local realtor, the land deal currently in place (to replace a decrepit city owned cement bagging facility along Plaster Creek) was created. The City staff backed it up, but didn't initiate it. With appropriate leadership from Heartwell, they wouldn't have gone after Garfield Park, but would have done (over more than a year) what it took a single citizen a month to set up. In the end, we ended up with a huge win-win for the Garfield Park neighborhood - Garfield Park is safe and there is new economic development on South Division. No thanks to George.

I admire and support Rick Tormala because he was the only one of the commissioners to stand against this foolishness. He was the only one who took an interest in the deed of gift and the wishes of the Garfield family. He was the only one to consider the effects of the proposed Kroc Center facility on the neighborhood (traffic, light, noise). He was the only one to advocate using city staff to find a different location. And, he was the only one who consistently replied to emails and engaged in dialog with the citizens who were opposed to the sale of Garfield Park.

Rick may sometimes be the squeeky wheel on the city commission, but that is only because everyone else is falling all over themselves to agree with George (or how else to explain Indian Trails). It is tough to go out and stand up time after time, against all likely hood of winning, for what you believe is right. Rick is interested in serving his constituents. He is interested in healthy vital neighborhoods. And, he will read and respond to your messages and take your calls (unlike George, who will respond once. Ever.) Rick is the only one of the candidates that I know to be effective.

George (with Jim White) was also responsible for the Indian Trails fiasco, the "mystery" development or 201 market. Both involved secret meetings with developers and a deliberate flaunting of the rules that govern our city government. While it is great that the downtown is being developed/redeveloped/restored (and I really couldn't be more thrilled with that), the neighborhoods still are suffering. In my opinion, George only pays attention to the neighborhoods when the people there don't want him to sell their parks and recreation areas.

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Veloise City

Veloise

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Wow - this is my first visit to this forum. I am going to enjoy viewing the election through here.

I am definitely rooting for Tormala because he is the only one who seems to be the biggest supporter of property rights.

Anti-smoking laws are fascist policies.

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snoogit Town

snoogit

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Wow - this is my first visit to this forum. I am going to enjoy viewing the election through here.

I am definitely rooting for Tormala because he is the only one who seems to be the biggest supporter of property rights.

Anti-smoking laws are fascist policies.

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foo_gr Unincorporated Area

foo_gr

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Posted

Whether you agree or disagree with the idea, it wasn't another secret deal.

http://www.thirdcoastdev.com/Articles/parking1.html

Developers want to buy city lots, shuttles, Editorial, The Grand Rapids Press, Grand Rapids, Michigan, March 27, 2007

GRAND RAPIDS -- A local developer is offering to buy most of the city's publicly owned downtown parking ramps and its DASH lots and shuttle service.

Bradley Rosely and David Levitt say their company, Third Coast Development Partners, can pay the city handsomely for the facilities, make a profit for themselves and generate new tax revenue for the city's cash-strapped budget.

...

Tormala, who criticized Mayor George Heartwell for signing a confidentiality agreement with developers eyeing city property last year, said he and White hope to begin a "transparent" process to find out how much the parking facilities are worth. They speculate the deal could bring the city from $35 million to $45 million.

"I'm not going to sell them anything unless we get top dollar," said Tormala, who said he was approached by Rosely and Levitt because of his skepticism about past development offers.

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