Please Attend St. James Township Annual Meeting March 28th
Moderator: Gillespie
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E. Naranjo
- Posts: 121
- Joined: Wed Oct 31, 2012 10:03 pm
Give it a rest?
Looks like they gave it a rest for at least 14 years. And now look at it!
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CoastieGuy
- Posts: 36
- Joined: Fri Jan 27, 2012 8:45 am
- Location: Traverse City/Beaver Island
Now I am wondering if there is a method to this Pirate's madness. He must have had some information that would have allowed him to skate property tax free by living on that island once it was traded back to the state.
However as long as this Ice holds he would be easy pickings for a good ole H.M.S. Navy Search Party that would be able to access the island via the Ice Pack to Roust Him out once and for all!
However as long as this Ice holds he would be easy pickings for a good ole H.M.S. Navy Search Party that would be able to access the island via the Ice Pack to Roust Him out once and for all!
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Campbell60tr34@aol.com
- Posts: 409
- Joined: Mon Jun 28, 2010 12:12 pm
Meeting
For as long as the weasel is allowed to remain in the hen house it will continue to kill the chickens.
Jim Campbell
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E. Naranjo
- Posts: 121
- Joined: Wed Oct 31, 2012 10:03 pm
A couple more questions.
When is the next election? Does a candidate for St. James township need to reside in St. James township? Who is willing to step into this arena? It is never too soon to begin planning for the future!
This would be a good place to start. First, however, as stated above some people are going to have to take responsibility and do the right thing, what that is couldn't be more obvious! The clock is ticking and the costs are rising. I don't want these people handling my documents or my money.
http://www.naco.org/newsroom/countynews ... grity.aspx
NACo series will examine integrity
By Stuart Brody
FOUNDER, INTEGRITYINTENSIVE​
NACo is offering a new webinar series called Managing Integrity and Civility in Public Life, a â??skills-basedâ? approach to tackling the complex ethical challenges of public office.
This five-part interactive webinar series beginning spring 2015 will revise participantsâ?? thinking about ethical decision-making and managing confrontation, transforming their experience as public leaders.
A preview of this new series will be featured in a presentation by series facilitator, Stu Brody, on Monday, Feb. 23 at NACoâ??s Legislative Conference. A look at Brodyâ??s framework follows.
I. What We Donâ??t Know about Integrity
Integrity is the most admired quality in a leader, assumedly because it is a rare one. How is it, then, that everyone believes he or she possesses it? Yet, everywhere around us we see evidence of integrity breaches: in business, sports, academia, certainly in our world of politics and government, even the clergy.
This belief that a person possesses integrity â?? and that its breaches are committed by others, not by us â?? is a common belief about integrity.
Consider these 10 other common beliefs about integrity:
integrity is the bold assertion of conviction
integrity is about right and wrong
integrity is built on a strong belief system
integrity is something you either have or you donâ??t
integrity is embodied in the Golden Rule
the right thing is obvious and something you just do
integrity is a matter of instinct and will, not practice and habit
breaches of integrity are usually the product of corrupt intent
a conflict of interest is synonymous with a breach of integrity
integrity is synonymous with ethics
These common beliefs are just that: beliefs and common. They are also largely distortions of what it means to â??practiceâ? integrity.
Integrity is â??practicedâ? in the same way someone practices law or medicine, or, for that matter, the way one gets to Carnegie Hall: by working on it over and over again until habit displaces instinct. Or, to put it another way: until devotion to careful deliberation overcomes the temptation for boisterous assertions of belief. It is created in the moment of decision-making. It is not a state of being or a permanent achievement of character.
II. What is the â??Practice of Integrityâ??
Here are three basic tenets of the practice:
the capacity to discern oneâ??s duty
the will to take risks to fulfill it, and
the ability to articulate it to others.
It sounds simple, but it is not. Many people have the discernment to perceive duty but lack the ability to weigh risks, and therefore donâ??t take any. Some have plenty of courage, but use it to serve intemperate beliefs. Articulate speech is a great gift, but a squandered one if deployed to disguise self-interest. Blending these skills â?? discernment, courage and credible expression â?? is hard.
Many people know through personal experience:
how hard it is to withstand the ridicule of disgruntled constituents at a crowded public meeting after countless hours of painstaking effort to craft a budget, or
how to refrain from resorting to negative advertising in a close election when a candidateâ??s advisors tell him or her it must be done in order to win, or
how to explain to an uncomprehending young son or daughter why his or her parent had to miss their big game or recital because of a public hearing that ran over.
Holding public office, according to a famous quip, is like being a javelin thrower who wins the coin toss and elects to receive. What is it, then, that enables a person to perform duty under such circumstances, to resist emotions pulling at him or her to flee, retaliate or lie? One thing: to understand duty as the exclusive foundation of action in oneâ??s life.
III. The Invisibility of Self-Interest and the Illusion of Objectivity
There are two reasons why this is extraordinarily difficult. First, because self-interest is not only highly compelling, it is also highly imperceptible. People think they see things objectively but in reality they tend to view â??factsâ? through a distorted filter of self-interest; to view oneâ??s motives as always noble and oneself as â??moral, competent and deserving.â?
Polls consistently show how people tend to view themselves in inflated terms.
For instance, 98 percent of people polled believe they are above average judges of character. Stock brokers believe in their own competence when numerous studies have shown that success in the stock market is almost invariably a matter of pure luck. Political parties clamor to portray themselves as the exclusive guardians of virtue, right thinking and policy innovation.
A striking illustration of oneâ??s inability to acknowledge self-interest was on display a few years ago, when Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia went duck hunting with then-Vice President Cheney while Cheney had a case pending before the Court. When asked whether he thought this was a conflict of interest, Scalia said, â??I donâ??t see how my impartiality can reasonably be questioned.â?
Self-interest is so embedded in culture that peopleâ??s everyday parlance features scores of expressions to justify it. For instance:
everybody does that
Iâ??m just looking out for number 1
itâ??s just politics
you snooze, you lose
what difference does one person make?
itâ??s only a white lie
my family comes first
IV. The Difference between Ethics and Integrity
The other reason why integrity is so hard to practice is that it is seen solely as conformity with written rules. County officials are the subject of extensive and sometimes incomprehensible codes of ethics.
This proliferation of ethical rules compels them to focus on compliance and avoiding sanctions for technical breaches â?? like allowing a county contractor to buy oneâ??s lunch. This yields a mindset oriented toward compliance â?? essentially a disposition to stay out of trouble.
Integrity, on the other hand, is about managing conflicts in the absence of a written code: like accommodating loyalty to campaign contributors with the duty of trust to the public, balancing public duties with political ambitions, and public duties with family ones. There are no sanctions for oneâ??s decisions on these matters. Yet, reaching the right accommodation of these competing duties is the essence of integrity and the hallmark of leadership.
V. Integrity: A Mountain with No Summit
Why should one voluntarily undertake such a difficult path to constrain self-interest, to painstakingly balance multiple duties, to question oneâ??s deepest beliefs in the search for truth?
The decisive question for leaders is whether to acquire wisdom and serve their communities authentically, or to profess wisdom and serve their own goals selfishly.
Some of the time, this critical distinction is not even apparent, and some donâ??t even know how to ask the question. Those who can, may rightfully claim the true mantle of leadership; those who canâ??t, only the fleeting satisfactions of ego. Integrity is a mountain with no summit. But people can learn, slowly, through practice, how to situate themselves on the path upward.
http://www.naco.org/newsroom/countynews ... grity.aspx
NACo series will examine integrity
By Stuart Brody
FOUNDER, INTEGRITYINTENSIVE​
NACo is offering a new webinar series called Managing Integrity and Civility in Public Life, a â??skills-basedâ? approach to tackling the complex ethical challenges of public office.
This five-part interactive webinar series beginning spring 2015 will revise participantsâ?? thinking about ethical decision-making and managing confrontation, transforming their experience as public leaders.
A preview of this new series will be featured in a presentation by series facilitator, Stu Brody, on Monday, Feb. 23 at NACoâ??s Legislative Conference. A look at Brodyâ??s framework follows.
I. What We Donâ??t Know about Integrity
Integrity is the most admired quality in a leader, assumedly because it is a rare one. How is it, then, that everyone believes he or she possesses it? Yet, everywhere around us we see evidence of integrity breaches: in business, sports, academia, certainly in our world of politics and government, even the clergy.
This belief that a person possesses integrity â?? and that its breaches are committed by others, not by us â?? is a common belief about integrity.
Consider these 10 other common beliefs about integrity:
integrity is the bold assertion of conviction
integrity is about right and wrong
integrity is built on a strong belief system
integrity is something you either have or you donâ??t
integrity is embodied in the Golden Rule
the right thing is obvious and something you just do
integrity is a matter of instinct and will, not practice and habit
breaches of integrity are usually the product of corrupt intent
a conflict of interest is synonymous with a breach of integrity
integrity is synonymous with ethics
These common beliefs are just that: beliefs and common. They are also largely distortions of what it means to â??practiceâ? integrity.
Integrity is â??practicedâ? in the same way someone practices law or medicine, or, for that matter, the way one gets to Carnegie Hall: by working on it over and over again until habit displaces instinct. Or, to put it another way: until devotion to careful deliberation overcomes the temptation for boisterous assertions of belief. It is created in the moment of decision-making. It is not a state of being or a permanent achievement of character.
II. What is the â??Practice of Integrityâ??
Here are three basic tenets of the practice:
the capacity to discern oneâ??s duty
the will to take risks to fulfill it, and
the ability to articulate it to others.
It sounds simple, but it is not. Many people have the discernment to perceive duty but lack the ability to weigh risks, and therefore donâ??t take any. Some have plenty of courage, but use it to serve intemperate beliefs. Articulate speech is a great gift, but a squandered one if deployed to disguise self-interest. Blending these skills â?? discernment, courage and credible expression â?? is hard.
Many people know through personal experience:
how hard it is to withstand the ridicule of disgruntled constituents at a crowded public meeting after countless hours of painstaking effort to craft a budget, or
how to refrain from resorting to negative advertising in a close election when a candidateâ??s advisors tell him or her it must be done in order to win, or
how to explain to an uncomprehending young son or daughter why his or her parent had to miss their big game or recital because of a public hearing that ran over.
Holding public office, according to a famous quip, is like being a javelin thrower who wins the coin toss and elects to receive. What is it, then, that enables a person to perform duty under such circumstances, to resist emotions pulling at him or her to flee, retaliate or lie? One thing: to understand duty as the exclusive foundation of action in oneâ??s life.
III. The Invisibility of Self-Interest and the Illusion of Objectivity
There are two reasons why this is extraordinarily difficult. First, because self-interest is not only highly compelling, it is also highly imperceptible. People think they see things objectively but in reality they tend to view â??factsâ? through a distorted filter of self-interest; to view oneâ??s motives as always noble and oneself as â??moral, competent and deserving.â?
Polls consistently show how people tend to view themselves in inflated terms.
For instance, 98 percent of people polled believe they are above average judges of character. Stock brokers believe in their own competence when numerous studies have shown that success in the stock market is almost invariably a matter of pure luck. Political parties clamor to portray themselves as the exclusive guardians of virtue, right thinking and policy innovation.
A striking illustration of oneâ??s inability to acknowledge self-interest was on display a few years ago, when Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia went duck hunting with then-Vice President Cheney while Cheney had a case pending before the Court. When asked whether he thought this was a conflict of interest, Scalia said, â??I donâ??t see how my impartiality can reasonably be questioned.â?
Self-interest is so embedded in culture that peopleâ??s everyday parlance features scores of expressions to justify it. For instance:
everybody does that
Iâ??m just looking out for number 1
itâ??s just politics
you snooze, you lose
what difference does one person make?
itâ??s only a white lie
my family comes first
IV. The Difference between Ethics and Integrity
The other reason why integrity is so hard to practice is that it is seen solely as conformity with written rules. County officials are the subject of extensive and sometimes incomprehensible codes of ethics.
This proliferation of ethical rules compels them to focus on compliance and avoiding sanctions for technical breaches â?? like allowing a county contractor to buy oneâ??s lunch. This yields a mindset oriented toward compliance â?? essentially a disposition to stay out of trouble.
Integrity, on the other hand, is about managing conflicts in the absence of a written code: like accommodating loyalty to campaign contributors with the duty of trust to the public, balancing public duties with political ambitions, and public duties with family ones. There are no sanctions for oneâ??s decisions on these matters. Yet, reaching the right accommodation of these competing duties is the essence of integrity and the hallmark of leadership.
V. Integrity: A Mountain with No Summit
Why should one voluntarily undertake such a difficult path to constrain self-interest, to painstakingly balance multiple duties, to question oneâ??s deepest beliefs in the search for truth?
The decisive question for leaders is whether to acquire wisdom and serve their communities authentically, or to profess wisdom and serve their own goals selfishly.
Some of the time, this critical distinction is not even apparent, and some donâ??t even know how to ask the question. Those who can, may rightfully claim the true mantle of leadership; those who canâ??t, only the fleeting satisfactions of ego. Integrity is a mountain with no summit. But people can learn, slowly, through practice, how to situate themselves on the path upward.
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E. Naranjo
- Posts: 121
- Joined: Wed Oct 31, 2012 10:03 pm
integrity
By the looks of it we all need to do some SERIOUS praying!! 
It is time for the Township Supervisor to request an external investigation by an entity that specializes in forensic accounting and governmental law. I am glad to see the few brave honest members of the board standing up and doing what is right but enough is enough. There needs to be a full accounting of more than a decade of some board members activities.
When you have emails from Gary Vooght dated 18 Aug 2014 addressed to two of the board members in question telling them,
"Please, do not answer by email. Talk to each other, gather up what you can, and come and see me. Cell phone 616 8...-..... My goal is to help you and see that no one gets hurt."
it is clearly the time to get this investigated by someone who has no dog in the fight.
There is nothing more traitorous and repugnant to the American citizen than corrupt government officials. Hopefully this is not the case in St James so to clear the air the facts must come forth.
PS: I also would like to see information on all no bid work contracts awarded to board members.
When you have emails from Gary Vooght dated 18 Aug 2014 addressed to two of the board members in question telling them,
"Please, do not answer by email. Talk to each other, gather up what you can, and come and see me. Cell phone 616 8...-..... My goal is to help you and see that no one gets hurt."
it is clearly the time to get this investigated by someone who has no dog in the fight.
There is nothing more traitorous and repugnant to the American citizen than corrupt government officials. Hopefully this is not the case in St James so to clear the air the facts must come forth.
PS: I also would like to see information on all no bid work contracts awarded to board members.
AE Wirth
Hey Doc & Coastie, You are right that life is good on whiskey, also good on Whiskey Island. Got no taxes, got no government, no corrupt politicians, no hassles and nothing but lots of rum & fun. Got to give a "thank yous" shout out to St James for giving my island to the state in trade for the DNR house. My only regret is they scre@#d my good mate Buddy in the process and now they want to spend more of your money for a public park located between his two barge docks. That's got to be another mosquito park make work project in the making. 
Skull&CrossBones
This is what the State Law says.
"3. Reports on Findings of Suspected Fraud and/or Embezzlement--If the possibility of any fiscal irregularities, defalcation, misfeasance, nonfeasance or malfeasance comes to the auditor's attention; an "oral report" should be immediately made to the Local Audit and Finance Division of the Michigan Department of Treasury. The oral report should be promptly followed by a written report to the Local Audit and Finance Division of the Michigan Department of Treasury. "
http://michigan.gov/documents/treasury/ ... 3593_7.pdf
This must be reported to the State. There is no choice.
"3. Reports on Findings of Suspected Fraud and/or Embezzlement--If the possibility of any fiscal irregularities, defalcation, misfeasance, nonfeasance or malfeasance comes to the auditor's attention; an "oral report" should be immediately made to the Local Audit and Finance Division of the Michigan Department of Treasury. The oral report should be promptly followed by a written report to the Local Audit and Finance Division of the Michigan Department of Treasury. "
http://michigan.gov/documents/treasury/ ... 3593_7.pdf
This must be reported to the State. There is no choice.
AE Wirth
Hey Pirate,
That dock thing is kinda nuts if you ask me too. Lets get this straight, the state trades a bit of land on Beaver crammed up next to Buddy, where a dock can be built and a fishing pier, for a whole island.
But wait, we are trying to get the state (DNR) to do something to help get more fish in the harbor and they say they gotta study it...... and it probably won't work..... So it is no wonder I said this was a bad idea in the beginning. Because what use is a fishing pier with no fish.....
But who am I to say, wasn't born here, can't possibly know whats best
That dock thing is kinda nuts if you ask me too. Lets get this straight, the state trades a bit of land on Beaver crammed up next to Buddy, where a dock can be built and a fishing pier, for a whole island.
But wait, we are trying to get the state (DNR) to do something to help get more fish in the harbor and they say they gotta study it...... and it probably won't work..... So it is no wonder I said this was a bad idea in the beginning. Because what use is a fishing pier with no fish.....
But who am I to say, wasn't born here, can't possibly know whats best
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nancyls35@hotmail.com
- Posts: 45
- Joined: Tue Mar 09, 2010 7:52 am
- Location: Beaver Island
I am totally disgusted with this thread. These people you are out to hang without a trial are our friends and neighbors. People who have been in the front line when there was a need for help on the island. Richie, you above all people have no right talking about integrity and honesty in business dealings. Maybe Ken, Kirk, Adam, and the other
members of the mob ought to publish some of your fiascos. I absolutely do not believe Jean and Jim are guilty of deliberate misuse of funds. I believe the truth will come out when all the facts are gathered and reported in a responsible way. I applaud the board members for not stooping so low as to responding on this forum. Another name for this forum should be the B.I. Enquirer. I am convinced that that is why there are so many views here - people can't wait to hear what's going to come out of your mouths next. Its like an addicting soap opera. I'm hoping that is the case and most people are just waiting to hear the facts from a reliable source before making judgments and accusations against our elected officials, our family, our friends. You may post a response to this post if you wish, but you will be talking amongst yourselves because I am breaking free from this addiction and will not be viewing the forum again.
members of the mob ought to publish some of your fiascos. I absolutely do not believe Jean and Jim are guilty of deliberate misuse of funds. I believe the truth will come out when all the facts are gathered and reported in a responsible way. I applaud the board members for not stooping so low as to responding on this forum. Another name for this forum should be the B.I. Enquirer. I am convinced that that is why there are so many views here - people can't wait to hear what's going to come out of your mouths next. Its like an addicting soap opera. I'm hoping that is the case and most people are just waiting to hear the facts from a reliable source before making judgments and accusations against our elected officials, our family, our friends. You may post a response to this post if you wish, but you will be talking amongst yourselves because I am breaking free from this addiction and will not be viewing the forum again.
Nancy Sommer