Support Assembled for Yes Vote, While Financial Relationship Disclosures Vary

Image: Screenshot from new electronic mailer.

East Lansing Park District Committee, the political organization of DTN—the developer that stands to benefit from a “yes” vote on the parking lot sale question—has put out a new electronic mailer highlighting former East Lansing mayors Doug Jester and Sam Singh as supporters of a “yes” vote. This double endorsement comes on the heels of Thursday’s denouncement of the group’s last mailer by two other former mayors, Mark Meadows and Vic Loomis. In the new e-mail message, Jester and Singh urge a “yes” vote to “allow the process to move forward.”

According to Jester, on Friday, DTN’s Public Relations firm asked him to participate in the latest mailing, and according to Mayor Nathan Triplett, Triplett asked Singh to participate. Triplett told me, “I think all of us believed strongly that voters were entitled to the facts so that they could make an informed decision.”

A new paper mailer is also out from East Lansing Park District Committee, naming supporters Kevin Beard, Ingham County Democratic Party, and Bob Trezise of the Lansing Economic Area Partnership. While the "vote yes" paper mailers, including the one containing the letter from four Councilmembers that Triplett organized, have consistently not disclosed that East Lansing Park District Committee (ELPDC) is funded entirely by DTN, the email message does.

I asked Jester if he was aware why ELPDC/DTN disclosed the relationship between ELPDC and DTN in the email message citing him as a supporter. He responded, “I do not know why, as I did not specifically request that disclosure. I am glad that it was disclosed.” Colin Cronin of DTN told me he did not have time to answer my question about why DTN has disclosed electronically but not on paper mailings.

When I interviewed Joe Manzella, DTN’s public relations representative, a month ago about “vote yes” mailers that did not clearly disclose DTN’s relationship to the “vote yes” mailers, he told me, “for the rest of our mailers we will try to make sure that people know Colin [Cronin, principal of DTN] and DTN are behind it.” I have asked him and Cronin why newer mailers and paid advertisements have not been stating plainly that DTN funds them, as Manzella told me would happen. They have not answered.

Jester, who is a current member of the Downtown Development Authority and a Downtown resident, told me he didn’t see a problem with the ELPDC funding a support letter from four Councilmembers, as happened last week: “By virtue of election to Council, Councilmembers do not lose the right to speak to public issues as individual citizens nor as Councilmembers. Nor do they lose the right of association in exercising their right to speak out.” That, he suggests, includes the right to associate with developers who may benefit from the ballot question.

“I don’t see why co-signing a letter expressing their support for an action they had already taken in their official capacity violates any norms,” said Jester.

Meadows strongly disagrees, saying the collaboration between a developer who stands to benefit from the vote and sitting Council members “makes the queasy meter explode.” He believes the mailer putting forth Council's opinion cost DTN (and so saved the four Councilmembers) about $10,000-12,0000. Meadows has been pushing for a “no” vote.

Proponents of a “no” vote have strongly objected to DTN’s prior failure to disclose, on their political mailers, that ELPDC is a political organization of DTN.

Councilmember Susan Woods told me she did not know, when she agreed to sign the letter embedded in a ELPDC mailer, that DTN was paying for the mailer. But Jester told me “I always assumed that DTN was the principal, if not only, contributor to the ELPDC campaign. I would be surprised if anyone seriously thought otherwise.”

Meanwhile, Triplett has told me that, in fact, the three Councilmembers he asked to co-sign the letter, including Woods, “were aware that the letter was for the ballot question committee,” i.e., for ELPDC. Councilmember Kathy Boyle has confirmed she knew. Mayor Pro Tem Diane Goddeeris has not answered the question about whether she knew.

I have asked Woods whether she would have agreed to sign the letter if she had known its distribution would be funded by DTN. She has not answered the question.

In conjunction with her public support of the "yes" vote, Woods has not disclosed that she accepted a $500 donation from Colin Cronin, the principal of DTN Management who is also running the ELPDC “vote yes” campaign. Cronin’s donation came on November 4, 2013, a day before Woods was elected, meaning that his donation did not become public until after Woods’ election.

Woods told me, “I accept all campaign contributions as a sign of support for me being on the City Council. In absolutely no terms do the contributions influence any of my decisions made as a City Councilmember."